Now every major publisher is either planning to publish something or has a high-level task force looking into it. Stein's biggest frustration is the lack of a retail channel for electronic books. Most of Voyager's sales come through the firm's mail-order catalog. Clearly, however, the distribution aspects is picking up. It is not uncommon to see a rack of Voyager Expanded Books in a bookstore.
Book publishing has a reputation for being conservative when it comes to new technology.
They're all royalty deals, so if they're successful, everyone shares in the success. The royalties that Voyager pays, he says, are standard for the book industry. They've been fragmenting their rights for a long time. I also think the publishing industry believes that, at some point, electronic publishing is going to be real. Expanded Books give them an interesting way to explore that market.