So do you think they're getting the idea?
I see Macmillan - or specifically TOR as part of it are taking aim at a blog/community type website if I understand this right. https://www.ultirecruit.com/hol1002/JobBoard/JobDetails.aspx?__ID=*8367B3E3C10183FC
Now for many years the industry's reaction to Baen seems to have been to say "oh, that is working for them! Whatever we do we mustn't do THAT." And instead of taking what Baen have done with tiny resources and multiplying it by financial muscle, done the opposite. Baen (almost entirely because of Baen's Bar) is probably the ONLY publish house out there with a PUBLISHING HOUSE LOYALTY from readers (authors have a sort of obligatory loyalty, at least in public. A great many, I suspect, feel less than fond in private. If that's OK with you as a publisher... well, don't expect loyalty one day when you really need it).
The oncoming e-books saga continueth, with shots from Random House and Harper Collins http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/453656-Authors_Guild_Warns_Again_on_e_Book_Royalties.php
seeking to lock in rates approximately equal to paper versions. (Sigh) With authors with substantial followings and publishers (as in a reader going in and buying a book because it is by XYZ publishers, not XYZ author) with almost none... maybe they're realising just what popular writers are likely to do to them, offered those terms. Ergo, try to lock them in forever, and maybe begin to see that Brand loyalty has an actual value.
Of course establishing brand loyalty requires understanding that loyalty is a two way street.
Now for many years the industry's reaction to Baen seems to have been to say "oh, that is working for them! Whatever we do we mustn't do THAT." And instead of taking what Baen have done with tiny resources and multiplying it by financial muscle, done the opposite. Baen (almost entirely because of Baen's Bar) is probably the ONLY publish house out there with a PUBLISHING HOUSE LOYALTY from readers (authors have a sort of obligatory loyalty, at least in public. A great many, I suspect, feel less than fond in private. If that's OK with you as a publisher... well, don't expect loyalty one day when you really need it).
The oncoming e-books saga continueth, with shots from Random House and Harper Collins http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/453656-Authors_Guild_Warns_Again_on_e_Book_Royalties.php
seeking to lock in rates approximately equal to paper versions. (Sigh) With authors with substantial followings and publishers (as in a reader going in and buying a book because it is by XYZ publishers, not XYZ author) with almost none... maybe they're realising just what popular writers are likely to do to them, offered those terms. Ergo, try to lock them in forever, and maybe begin to see that Brand loyalty has an actual value.
Of course establishing brand loyalty requires understanding that loyalty is a two way street.