Friday, March 19, 2010

Cashing in on John Grisham

John Grisham made this announcement on March 16 (from the Washington Post):
Popular legal thriller author John Grisham has broken his holdout against selling his books in an electronic format and will sell all of his 23 titles as e-books, his publisher said on Tuesday.

The former lawyer, whose best sellers include "The Firm" and "A Time To Kill", had previously held off selling his books electronically, expressing concern that e-books would wipe out traditional book stores and make it harder for new writers to succeed.

But beginning Tuesday, all Grisham's fiction and non-fiction books will be available through e-book retailers, publisher Random House said.
[...]
Popular legal thriller author John Grisham has broken his holdout against selling his books in an electronic format and will sell all of his 23 titles as e-books, his publisher said on Tuesday.

The former lawyer, whose best sellers include "The Firm" and "A Time To Kill", had previously held off selling his books electronically, expressing concern that e-books would wipe out traditional book stores and make it harder for new writers to succeed.

But beginning Tuesday, all Grisham's fiction and non-fiction books will be available through e-book retailers, publisher Random House said.
Proving, I suppose, Mr. Grisham, that one should never say never.

As of Tuesday the new e-books were already being featured on websites for Barnes & Noble, Amazon and Sony. And today I received a targeted email from my friends at Barnes & Noble trying to sell me a Grisham e-book...marketing at the speed of light. That's what it takes to beat the competition in today's market.

6 comments:

  1. Did you read that he has started a young-adult series? I think the first book will be released this spring.

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  2. I don't know where they're geting the information, but what they're telling us is that, according to studies, people who buy e-books are more likely to buy real books too. They actually buy more books (combined) with an e-reader than they did before.

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  3. He must have gotten in on the backroom deals being smirkily cut in Washington this weekend! LOL Principles thrown to the wind.

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  4. I saw that, JoAnn, and I'm going to keep my eyes open to see what he produces...interesting change of pace for the guy.

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  5. Annie, I've heard the same thing. Publishers, though, are concerned that low e-book pricing will cheapen the value of all kinds of books in the minds of consumers. I don't buy many e-books despite having owned a Sony Reader for several years...use it primarily for e-book review copies and the non-copywrited stuff that's available for free download.

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  6. Mike, we live in a dirty old world, I have to agree. We are finding out that most people are willing to prostitute themselves for the right price...enough to make you cry.

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