I don’t know about the ebook to pub thing, but presumably there’d be something that to indicate that it was published before in ebook form.

A book going from ebook to print isn’t considered a reprint (since it’s never been in print before). Traditionally, from an epublisher, the book gets an ebook release first and then goes to print several months later.

I think for readers, the advantage is clear, and I imagine publishers will be as clear as they are with print books when it’s a reprint. (IOW, check the copyright and or the blurb)

For authors, the deal will be as good as their understanding of industry contract norms, thier understanding of the print distributon process, their understanding of the original deal, and their ability to negotiate a contract (the life blood of an author’s career) , because these marriages do open a can of worms in that they add another layer of contracts to the process.

For example, when a house sets up a subsidiary sale, but then wants a new contract rather than just selling the rights under the subsidiary clause already in the contract, an author should immediately see a red flag. Not that there is necessarily something wrong, but there must be a reason and that reason should be investigated, determined and evaluated. The reason could be because the house doesn’t want to pay the standard 50 percent subsidiary royalty because that percentages works out to be higher than the percentage they’re suggesting in the new contract per print book. There is also the possibility the house is looking out for the author and because the deal would work out to be less than the standard print percentage the author would get, the house decides to sacrifice their bottom line so the author does not lose out. Iow, the house decides to protect the author to their own detriment. It’s a possibility and shouldn’t be ruled out. It also should not automatically be assumed.

The catch is the author won’t know which situation they’re looking at unless they have the foresight ask to see the pertintent clauses of the deal the Epub house has with the NY pub. It will be on the author to avoid assumption and be proactive in making sure they are actually getting a good deal and not being misled through assumption or false assurances. Everything in the publishing world is controlled by contracts which means everything is in writing. Which means authors should see everything in writing before they make decisions.

None of which makes a bit of difference to the reader. Nor should it. Readers should just get to enjoy the product without all the background noise, but authors don’t have that luxury. Authors have to understand what’s good for the house is not always good for the author, that all opportunities are not worth the cost, and the devil is in the details. And the details in these marriages are not just in their contracts but in the contracts between their pub and the NY house. And that means more legalese, more research, more negotiating–things many authors wish they could just ignore as they are more comfortable creating than running the business side of their careers, but which if overlooked could seriously hurt them financially and/or restrict them in the future.

So are these marriages good? For the readers yes. For the houses, probably. For the author, it completely depends.

On the Mysteria/Bewitched, Bewhatever, there was no mention on the copyright page of its previous print history. Here is the link to the graphic.

The Mysteria book is not the only ebook to print that this has happened to but I can’t, off the top of my head, recall the others.

As I said in the initial post last year, “I don’t think these authors don’t intentionally want to mislead the reader about the freshness of their content” but it happens. and it can lead to unhappy readers.

That’s the point I was trying to make in the Susan Grant example. Readers don’t know that it is a charity anthology or that purchasing one book is really a charitable donation and to get a bigger, fuller story, you have to buy a second anthology. There’s no mark on the inside cover to let you know that this was previously published in “e”.

As the “e” market grows bigger, I see this as an increasing problem. Readers should have the choice whether to purchase a rewritten novel or not. Some readers, TP e.g., might like it. Other may not. I don’t necessarily blame the authors but a book is inextricably connected to the author. like it or not. To the reader, the buck stops with the author. For reprints not clearly marked, to early novels being put forth as “new” books, etc.

But when I love an author, I want everything off their back list, so we have 2 scenarios A) I stalk eBay, Half.com and my local UBS stores looking for all the back list or I can B) Buy them brand new when they are re-issued and the author gets their cut. Just MHO.

Many many books that are consider classics Tolkien or CS Lewis were expanded and re-written reprinted updated again and again by their authors and some even by others.

To think that once a book is written it remains stagnant is to ignore what has always gone on in publishing.

Until I visited the website, from what I’ve gleaned from the talk of reviewers, I assumed Samhain was an erotic romance e-publisher.

I think this is because most review sites seem to focus on erotic romance. Sadly, we don’t have any power over what the review sites choose to place their emphasis on. We make all of our books available to them for review and actively seek review sites that will take the non-erotic and especially non-romance books, but those are very difficult to find in the online community and those that aren’t online sometimes require a print copy, so sometimes reviews have to wait until the book goes to print.

Is Samhain now going to earnestly solicit non-erotic titles?

We’ve always earnestly acquired all genres. I think I can safely say that when you read interviews with me, you don’t see me asking for erotic romance. I’m asking for sci-fi, for multiculturals, for inspirationals, and westerns, etc.

What about “multicultural� titles–how are they going to deal with those?

Exactly the same way we always have. Just like every other book.