dorchester moving to ebook/print on demand

[walkitout]

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/44085-dorchester-drops-mass-market-publishing-for-e-book-pod-model.html

Dorchester is, IIRC, a paperback only house that does a bunch of genre fiction. The print on demand stuff will be listed with Ingram (which makes sense). Apparently, 2009 was bad for them, and 2010 wasn't any better. Ebooks were growing, but still a small component, so there were layoffs, too. Not being able to get shelf space was listed as a factor as well.

I've bought Dorchester stuff before, which I noticed when I was analyzing the last year or so worth of book purchases by imprint.

This is a little weird. It's like things like Ellora's Cave (started e-only, now does some print) and things like Dorchester (started print-only, then did some ebooks, and now is right where EC is). The model has some interesting attributes: fewer employees (you don't need anyone to get your books out on shelves), lower returns, more predictable revenue. But overall sales will drop in the transition, and may or may not ever recover to the previous level. I had not expected to see any paper house do the transition this quickly.

Comments

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I just read about that in another context on a friend's blog: http://www.jackiebarbosa.com/2010/08/06/told-you-so-why-digital-royalty-rates-matter-more-than-ever/