For anyone who's not signed into the bar, here's the deal from someone who appears to be a company representative for Tor. I believe this is Fair Use of Mr. Bailey's post... -Max Wilson ================================================================== Subject: RE: How do I buy one Author: Arnold Bailey Date: 11 Mar 2006 08:49 AM Originally Posted: 11 Mar 2006 10:06 AM I think this is the way it's falling out. 1. New HC would be sold only as an eARC. $25 book at $19. Seems to me the only advantage we have here is early release before the paper HC. No bundle. 2. New MM (paperback) as individual eARCs more of the normal $15 price since they are cheaper. 3. We can bundle MM, but the bundle will be expensive. 5 books times $6 = $30. Effectively there is no advantage to the bundle if we release individuals other than early release as the individual price would be the same as the bundle price. Individuals wouldn't be released until the paper release. 4. As the MM version of a previously released HC eARC comes around about a year later the price drops to the ~$6 price like an MM. In the meantime it will be releases of Backlist. Now it seems to me that they've forgone many of the advantages of the Baen scheme. Bundles were good because they got the customer to read books they may not have purchased individually because the price was right. This introduced them to new authors they might not try otherwise. With this pricing restriction they don't get their new Hardcovers into bundles and bundles have minimal advantage over individual books. Just early release. I have the suspicion that bundles won't sell worth diddly. I also have questions as to why Amazon et al can sell a new Hardcover at $17 dollar when we have to sell the ebook at $19. Except for early release we have real disadvantage. So it seems to me what will really end up selling are eARCs of established authors whose fans will go for it, and individual books after they go MM. But at least we're getting ebooks out in a format people like, no DRM and establishing a track record. We can always change their minds.