WotC Should WotC buy a Fantasy Novel Publisher like Tor next?

[teitan]

Not.

Publishers are struggling to compete with Amazon Kindle and self publishing at the moment, any business would be stupid to aquire one.

And it's authors who make novels, not publishers.

this is no longer true. Ebook sales are down and Book store sales are up.

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[Paul Farquhar]

this is no longer true. Ebook sales are down and Book store sales are up.

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That's because books have bottomed out of the nosedive.

It doesn't mean they are anything like what they where 10 years ago, or ever likely to go back there.

 

[teitan]

That's because books have bottomed out of the nosedive.

It doesn't mean they are anything like what they where 10 years ago, or ever likely to go back there.

Declining eBook Sales. What's an Indie Publisher to Do? - 1106 Design

Indie and self-publishers should study the ways of traditional publishers and apply their learning to producing their eBooks. Here are some ideas.

www.1106design.com

 

[teitan]

Ebooks are on the decline. Just because gamers prefer or mostly purchase PDFs doesn’t mean the general public does. The growth of the book market does not imply that they are coming out of a nose dive but that sales are starting to climb. Kindles and Nooks are increasingly less used in favor of tablets which are not satisfactory for reading consumption.

 

[gyor]

Has it not worked for WotC purposes?

No it hasn't, what happened with War of the Spark books was a disaster, the only books being published are Drizzt D&D side, the book side is worse then even the 4e era.

 

[gyor]

Why? What would be the point? Buying a computer game studio provides people with skills that WotC didn't have. WotC have all the skills they need to produce and distribute novels - that they don't indicates they don't want to, not that they can't. It makes more sense to let some other company carry the risk.


Buying a TV (e.g. animation) production company - that might make some sense, but I suspect it would be way too expensive.

Except that they don't have all the skills, they got rid of those folks that had that skill set for novels.

 

[Parmandur]

No it hasn't, what happened with War of the Spark books was a disaster, the only books being published are Drizzt D&D side, the book side is worse then even the 4e era.

War of the Spark was a real cheesefest, but note that I said "for WotC purposes," i.e. making money. The Eldraine book is supposed to be quite good, I gather.

 

[gyor]

War of the Spark was a real cheesefest, but note that I said "for WotC purposes," i.e. making money. The Eldraine book is supposed to be quite good, I gather.

Eldraine is good, I loved it, but it does get WotC were it needs to be.

And War of the Spark is more then just the Ravnica battle porn novel, its the mess with the prequel, its the the bad reviews thar undoubtedly cost War of the Spark sales, but worst will likely cost its sequel a ton of sales, its the head aches thar came with dealing with outside companies.

Do honestly think the current situation is where WotC wanted to be, how much money do you think WotC is actually making off the novels like this?

Its time to bring it all back inside one way or another.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Except that they don't have all the skills, they got rid of those folks that had that skill set for novels.

They publish books. The only thing you need to make the book a novel is someone who can write the stories - an author.

Sure, they got rid of the people on the novel side because the novels where unprofitable. And they where unprofitable back then before Kindle took off, they would be far more unprofitable now.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

how much money do you think WotC is actually making off the novels like this?

I'm sure they aren't making any money off novels, but at least it is someone else losing the money, not WotC.