BLACK MAGIC SANCTION, electronic style

Kim Harrison's new Hollows adventure, BLACK MAGIC SANCTION, goes on-sale next Tuesday, 2/23.  In addition to the hardcover, we are thrilled to announce an enhanced e-book will also go on-sale 2/23.

Available via iTunes for the iPhone and iTouch, this enhanced e-book features videos and audio commentary from the author, plus the audiobook synched with the e-book, and more.

The regular e-book for all formats (Kindle, Nook, Sony E-reader, etc.) will be on-sale 4/6.

As you know, the e-book world is changing rapidly, as shown by Amazon v. Macmillan a couple of weeks ago. I'm not going to go into that in detail, but yes, it's about determining the course of e-books in the future.

Many people argue that e-books don't cost anything to produce, and thus the price should be lower. Often, these same people then complain when the e-book is not well formatted, has errors, etc.  Or, sometimes, argue that publishers don't do anything to promote the book, and/or are actively trying to ruin the author's career, and authors would be better self-publishing. 

None of these are true, but to fully answer would take several posts on their own (you can, however, check out posts by John Scalzi, Making Light, Charles Stross and many more. Just poke around for a couple of minutes online).

I'll just say that like anything, it is always easier to armchair-quarterback, that it is much easier to strike out on your own once you have a following/backing/audience/credentials/experience, and then ask why any business would not be trying to make money in this economy. 

We're doing this because we're looking at the long-term future of publishing--hardcover books, electronic, etc.--to figure out the best way to keep publishing and growing our authors. Things are changing literally every day, and we all wish there was a way to fast-forward so that we knew the best possible way to make this work on all fronts, from author to publisher to retailer to consumer.

Kim Harrison discusses the e-books on her blog.  Her agent, Richard Curtis, runs e-book publisher E-Reads--check out his blog for more analysis of the market, etc.

Back to business, next Tuesday you can get the enhanced e-book of BLACK MAGIC SANCTION via iTunes on Tuesday, including videos, audio, etc., for more money. And then the regular e-book will be available 4/6, at a lower price.

In the meantime, you can read the first seven chapters of BLACK MAGIC SANCTION.

-- Diana

Comments

[Tamera]

I do all my reading on Kindle these days, and was disappointed about the release date of BMS, because I can't wait to read it! Already had on my pre-order list for Kindle when I saw the book is released on 2/23, so I just requested from the library. Will probably still want it on Kindle at some point, but probably much later (PB prices)

[V.S.J]

This just reminds me of the DVD problem when they divided the world into zones(1 for north-America, 2 for Europe, 3 for Asia, etc)with different release dates for each. And the same for music. The result? No one wanted to wait and pirated it instead. I reallly don't see how trying to force the digital readers to wait for months will help the profit making..

[Paul B. Allen]

The push back on this was because of apple and its stupid ipad. Apple went to various publishers and said that they would sell various ebooks for a higher price than what was agreed upon by Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as well as other various ebook retailers.

The result? People will be pirating books much more often, or they will just buy the hardback.

Why would any of us want to buy an ebook, when we could get the hardback for the exact same price?

Clearly, as is usual, nobody has any idea what the consumer actually wants...and because of it, they will lose money.

Go pirating!

[Avid Reader]

Ah, the stupidity of the industry leaders, wichever field they are in, will never change. Their greed, as usualy, will turn against them and will hurt they sells. Will they learn? probably not, since to be where they are, they had to focus on how to steal and backstab their fellows. I just hope the industry as a whole really loses money and gets a slap in the face for this.

[tatere]

"Many people argue that e-books don't cost anything to produce, and thus the price should be lower. Often, these same people then complain when the e-book is not well formatted, has errors, etc."

These two things have nothing to do with each other - IF you state the first observation fully and honestly, which is that *each additional copy* of an ebook costs nothing to produce. No one has ever said that therefore the *entire book process* costs nothing. Obviously many many people work very hard producing and managing each title.

The argument is simply that hardcover prices are as high as they are to cover not only the cost of the book-as-process, but of *each actual physical book itself* - printing, binding, shipping, display space, returns, and so on. The profit margin on each physical book is really pretty modest. It would be quite easy to sell ebooks for *much* less than hardcover *and still make more profit on each sale*.

[Kindle]

Reading books makes me feel like I am in another world different then our own and the best part is that I get to learn new stuff while doing it.

[Jinx]

Still, why do you release the ebook so much later???? I've written an email to the publisher, but apparently I'm not important enough to answer. I don't want an audio book....

[Joan]

I wanted to read this on my Kindle even had a pre-order in But, guess what, it was pull on the day it was to be loaded to my Kindle. I will NEVER pre-order a book again NOT a Happy Kindle reader - Love the Kindle but NOT happy with the publisher(s) and AmAzon

[diaphoresis]

Kim Harrison has very good projects and this is one of them.

[Rudi]

I can't wait to read it!

[samrx]

The plot sounds pretty interesting. I will give it the opportunity to check it out. I will go for the kindle version.