Comments on: NPR Talks to Bob About Blockbuster Book Deals

By: Mike Reed

Mike Reed — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 01:07:09 +0000

Good point Ryan. Well, Bob spill the beans.

By: Ryan G

Ryan G — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 01:08:58 +0000

I find this very funny. Bob says that e-books should be about the same as non -ebooks because of the overhead and so on, yet the new book that he has just published ‘Who Is Mark Twain?’ goes for a little over 7 bucks in the Kindle edition on Amazon.com.

Well, Bob if you feel so strongly that e and non e books should be the same price, why is there such a disparity between the hardcover and ebook for ‘Who Is Mark Twain?’

We would all love to know.

By: Derek

Derek — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:39:33 +0000

A couple of questions for Bob:

I’ve heard that the hit-miss ratio for novels generally is about 30-70. You mentioned here a ratio of 5-95. Are big-advance titles not only more expensive to acquire but also riskier than run-of-the-mill titles?

Also, at the risk of stirring up a hornet’s nest, I’ve heard that sales reps are better than editors at spotting hits. Comments?