Please, get your GW out of my BL - or - New White Scars eSeries from BL

[AnEnemy]

Didn't see this posted yet. So BL has released the first installment of a new Horus Heresy series by Chris Wraight covering the White Scars.

Here's the link:
Scars by Chris Wraight (http://www.blacklibrary.com/horus-heresy/scars-episode-i-ebook.html)

It's a 12 part series with each part costing $2.99. Yes, about $35 for an eBook.

It's not all bad new though. People took to the Facebooks to express their impotent rage.(much as I did before editing this post) BL ran damage control and released this news.

From BL's Facebook:
Hardcover edition is coming in Feb 2014
Trade Paperback in May 2014
Legacy Edition in November 2014

[eldargal]

Don't buy it, problem solved.

[caseymoose1]

Would you have a business give their products away? If you dont like it, DONT BUY IT! I can barely read anything put in this forum because of all of the crying about stuff you can never change. Me telling you that you are whining could never replace the visceral joy of slapping you to pieces.

Good day

[AnEnemy]

I love when people see a warning to not read, ignore the warning, and then act pissy about it.

[AnEnemy]

Would you have a business give their products away?

Are you for real? Umm, no I wouldn't. I also wouldn't have them charge $35 for something that was going for $8 less than three years ago.

[AnEnemy]

Perhaps you should inform the police then.

"Hello officer, some chap in the colonies made a threat that he was going to murder thousands of people with his wallet...yes I'll hold."

I'm still holding out for the hope that you'll someday realize that you can disagree with someone without calling them a poo poo head. It doesn't help your case. It hurts it. Especially when the person you're arguing with manages to do so without returning the favor.

[Bigred]

+++calm it down folks+++

[AnEnemy]

Well that was an amusing way to kill an hour before bed time...with her posts gone I imagine I appear even more schizophrenic.

[eldargal]

*begrudgingly obeys Mr Red*

If you don't think something is worth the money, you do not buy it. The basis of our economy is subjective values, to quote someone or other "Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it". No one has any right to censure or bully any group of people into not buying something just because they do not think it is worth it. The fact that others do indicates it is. If in fact enough people do not buy it because of the price then it isn't. If that happens then Black Library would have to revisit their pricing structure.
But the fact that someone felt the need to publically denounce people who would buy it implies that he knows that enough people will buy it to justify the price, which undermines the basic premise of his argument that it is overpriced.

[AnEnemy]

Screw it.

[AnEnemy]

If you searching for a way to shut down my argument entirely by the way...the way to do it is to point out that it'll probably be printed in paperback at 8.99 in twelve months. People who buy these releases are paying an early adopter tax. Electronics consumers are well aware of it.

You could have done that without calling me a moron.

[eldargal]

a) It is a serialised novel, not a standard short story eBook
b) It will be £18 pounds when finished compared to £12 for a paperback or £20 for a hardback
c) You assume sales will decline
d) You assume it will be printed in the future as opposed to remaining digital exclusive
e) You assume people won't pay the early adopter tax. But having something before other people is a powerful incentive to many people

Hyperbolic threats of violence and death against people buying something you don't want to buy is moronic.

[AnEnemy]

a) This is the first time they've done a serialized novel. We don't know it's page count/word count. When it's all finished up, you can bet your *** it'll be collected into an eBook or in print. See D.
b) This is cool. I didn't even bring up the stealth price increase BL's put on all of their eBooks this last month. Thanks for doing it for me. In fact, no one's really mentioning this are they? I buy eBooks because I already have four boxes filled with BL novels. That and they're cheaper. Not by much though. It's mainly to save space. I'd really like to buy Vulkan Lives, but my principles have held out so far. I'll probably cave in when I've finished reading Priests of Mars.
c) True, only time will tell. Angel Exterminatus and Betrayer made the NY Times Best seller lists at inflated prices. Both great books by the way if anyone hasn't read them yet.
d) BL immediately got heat on their facebook for this release and they posted that there will be two more editions of this book. A Legacy edition and...hmm...can't recall the other grandiose name they gave the third edition at the moment.
e) I did nothing of the sort. Plenty of people are fine with paying an early adopter tax. Thats why I provided the Consumer Electronics example. What I said, I believe, is that I wasn't one of those people. I'm sorry that this offended you. -EDIT- I see what you mean now I expressed myself insufficiently. The case I was making in the other post was the it was a "This could happen" type situation. A snowball scenario. Regardless, can you really make an argument that a 35 USD book will sell more than a 15 (stealth increase!) USD book? BL can get away with it because they know they're going to release both versions and they'll probably snag quite a few people that will buy multiple versions.

BEWARE THE GREAT WALLET GENOCIDE OF 2014! IT WILL COME FOR THE CHILDREN FIRST!

[eldargal]

a) Right, and you assume the worst. but again if people think it isn't worth it they don't have to buy it, those that do, will. I won't but if it were an eldar book I would.
b) Prices rises are never popular, but BL are a business and we don't know what legitimate reasons they may have had for raising prices beyond wanting more money (which is legitimate for a business)
c) Right and if sales decline then BL will hopefully realise they made an error re: pricing. If it doesn't, then they didn't.
d) Fair enough, but people complain at the drop of a hat, it's teh sales that will tell and sadly we won't ever know them (though if prices drop in future it would be a fair indication it didn't ell)
e) That didn't offend me, asking for the right to legally kill people who disagree with you on a one pound fifty price tag offended me.

See, if you had discussed it like this in the first place we wouldn't have had a problem. Hyperbolic threats does no one any good. Especially at a time when they are being used in a deliberate campaign to silence women from voicing their opinions online, which is not what happened here obviously, it's just an emotive issue at present.

[MajorWesJanson]

a) This is the first time they've done a serialized novel. We don't know it's page count/word count. When it's all finished up, you can bet your *** it'll be collected into an eBook or in print. See D.


Phalanx?

[AnEnemy]

Phalanx?

I thought Phalanx was in Hammer and Bolter? I should have said serialized eNovel then.

[RGilbert26]

What's early adopter tax?

Also books in UK don't have tax, unless eBooks do?

[Wolfshade]

It is to say that people who get things when they are first out pay more than people who wait.
It is more of an abstraction in this instance as the price of GW/FW/BL does not decrease with time, but to get it "first" you have to buy all the individual serials, which is allegedly more than a hardback (the usual "adopter tax") or softback.

Consider Portal 2 when it first came out, it was in the region of £25, several years later you could have picked it up on steam sale for £2.17 so those who got it first paid more.

The idea is that initially it is exclusive, like the first biros (~£10) compared with now when they are common place so that they are individually worth a couple of pence at most.

[Wildeybeast]

If you don't think something is worth the money, you do not buy it. The basis of our economy is subjective values, to quote someone or other "Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it".

I believe it was first attributed to some Roman chappy (I forget his name) but it was probably made most famous by Adam Smith.

[Cap'nSmurfs]

Smith got most of his ideas from Islamic thought, for what it's worth. No, really.

It seems clear to me that BL are trying out new strategies for a lot of things at the moment. They're seeing if serialisation is something people will go for. If it's the sort of thing you'd like, great! If not, they'll do it another way. Given the book will be available as a full collection eventually, that's probably what I'll wait for.

[Malogharst]

Don't worry, some good person will buy all the pieces, compile them into normal ebook and share via torrent. GW & BL - who do you trying to screw up? =)

[Wolfshade]

Don't forget a lot of our books that are considered to be classics were originally published as serials (such as The Count of Monte Cristo)

[Mr Mystery]

Don't worry, some good person will buy all the pieces, compile them into normal ebook and share via torrent. GW & BL - who do you trying to screw up? =)

Yes. Because the vast majority of the populace are thieves, and don't believe in paying for goods at all.

Also Wolfie, Sherlock Holmes was serialised.

And one could say Conan Doyle sold out by ressurecting a clearly dead character due to public pressure.

[Wolfshade]

I know I am, I am stealing a paper clip a week, soon I'll have enough to take over the world