A petition to Rich: to extend OOTS books into the ebook realm.

[Adama]

I vaguely recall something to the effect that this has come up before, and that Rich says he prefers to sell paper books. However, I'd like to present a case for him to reconsider.

There's several strong advantages of offering the OOTS books in digital form. For one, those will never go out of print. You'll never be unable to sell more because you don't have them. I'm willing to bet the profit margin is better, even selling much cheaper than paper, since you only have labor costs plus minimal bandwidth, compared to actually having to print, stock, and handle books.

It's also a nice gesture to the readership. Those of us who are currently too poor to drop $40 on a book plus shipping would have a lot less qualms about dropping, say, $10 on a book with no shipping cost. At that price, I'd get the full set of the regular run OOTS books, something that right now I couldn't possibly hope to afford even if they were all available.

Lastly, I very much doubt that the availability of ebooks would put a serious crimp in sales of paperbacks. I know if I had unlimited money, I'd get both, not to mention some people will always prefer paper.

Anyway, that's my spiel. If anyone else wants to chime in in support, this is your cue.

[Xapi]

InB4 the thread is locked because this question has been answered by the giant countless times and the answer was always the same and it's not like you invented gunpowder with this idea.

[Kish]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=10753359#post10753359

[zimmerwald1915]

Isn't it in the forum rules somewhere that discussion of the Giant's or Ookoodook's business models is off-limits?

[Flame of Anor]

If anyone else wants to chime in in support, this is your cue.

I will...chime out? I just think this is a bad idea.

[factotum]

I will...chime out? I just think this is a bad idea.

So does the Giant, as the link posted by Kish points out...

[Porthos]

In fact, the whole point of this Kickstarter drive is to print a bunch of books. Which, in Rich's mind at least, would be radically undercut if he had e-book versions available.

Doesn't really matter whether I agree with him or not, as it's his business plan.

And one, if said current Kickstarter project is any indication, seems to be working. But Rich could very well be sitting on all of said books he's about to print if he suddenly turned around and sold e-versions of them.

So, when it comes right down to it, Rich Burlew just doesn't want to do it, even though he knows that there is an audience for it. And as such, I guess you'll just have to wait to see if he ever changes his mind on the subject.

[ThePhantasm]

If anyone else wants to chime in in support, this is your cue.

Every single one of your points has been brought to Rich's attention before, multiple times. He's already weighed them and made a decision. Kish beat me to the punch with the quote, which is representative of several other instances where this sort of topic has come up.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff: Thread locked.