WOWIO Sold

[David]

From The Beat:

WOWIO, the ebook distribution site, has gone offline and word is going around that the company has been sold. Wowio offered FREE digital distribution of various comics publishers including Lone Star Press, Steve Rude, Digital Webbing and many others. We’d been hearing rumbles that the company was behind slow on its payments to creators, and as of yesterday the site was offline for 2-4 weeks while the acquisition was complete.

Developing.

[Papercut]

Well, that was nearly a 2 year run...not bad for site dedicated to free [and legal] comic downloads. I remember the minor splash they made when they appeared -- though I don't think it caught on as much as you'd think it would. Not without the help of larger publishers that didn't want anything to do with them -- which only made sense if you think about it.

Oh well -- maybe they'll retool and take another run at it.

[David]

Tying slightly in to the recent episode (since the company was brought up), "Platinum Studios Announces It Is in Negotiations to Acquire WOWIO, LLC"

[citizenDave]

From that, they aren't technically sold yet. Just in negotiations.

But if it goes this way...

[David]

From that, they aren't technically sold yet. Just in negotiations.

Yes.  The original post was just reiterating what The Beat reported, complete with the 'sold' tag.

[David]

UPDATE: Not so free anymore....

From Sean Kleefeld:

The free books that were being subsidized by advertising? Not quite so free any more. You still have the option to read it for free online, but this calls up a Wowio-specific in-browser reader that, while it behaves somewhat like Adobe Acrobat, prevents users from looking at the comics without being logged in. If you want a copy of the comic in question saved to your hard drive -- where you might transfer it from one device to another, or try printing a copy -- it will cost you. Issues that I'd already downloaded for free and have sitting on my computer now cost as much as $3.95 an issue.

Public domain material, like Dick Briefer's Frankenstein and Joe Kubert's Out of This World Adventures, now run $.99 a piece. (These books and many others, I might add, are not only freely available here, but I believe is where Wowio is getting their copies from!) A number of other books I've seen are priced at $1.50, and I've seen a few at $3.95, not all of which are longer graphic novels. Obviously, this leads to some questions about pricing.

Click here for the rest of this entry.

[Alec B.]

UPDATE: Not so free anymore....

From Sean Kleefeld:

The free books that were being subsidized by advertising? Not quite so free any more. You still have the option to read it for free online, but this calls up a Wowio-specific in-browser reader that, while it behaves somewhat like Adobe Acrobat, prevents users from looking at the comics without being logged in. If you want a copy of the comic in question saved to your hard drive -- where you might transfer it from one device to another, or try printing a copy -- it will cost you. Issues that I'd already downloaded for free and have sitting on my computer now cost as much as $3.95 an issue.

Public domain material, like Dick Briefer's Frankenstein and Joe Kubert's Out of This World Adventures, now run $.99 a piece. (These books and many others, I might add, are not only freely available here, but I believe is where Wowio is getting their copies from!) A number of other books I've seen are priced at $1.50, and I've seen a few at $3.95, not all of which are longer graphic novels. Obviously, this leads to some questions about pricing.

Click here for the rest of this entry.

Distributors will manipulate their product to thrive off of it as much as they possibly can.

It'll be the same as CDs were/are. Something that took $0.11 to make cost $20 for a consumer. We will be charged much more for digital comics than it takes to actually produce them. 

Alec

[David]

It'll be the same as CDs were/are. Something that took $0.11 to make cost $20 for a consumer. We will be charged much more for digital comics than it takes to actually produce them. 

Nothing really wrong with that, everyone deserves to be compensated for their efforts.  However, where a program used to exist that let readers obtain comics and books for free (in .PDF form) with a small advert attached (with the creators were getting paid), now the end user pays for it, but there seems to be no rhyme or reason of the pricing structure.

[Alec B.]

Nothing really wrong with that, everyone deserves to be compensated for their efforts.  However, where a program used to exist that let readers obtain comics and books for free (in .PDF form) with a small advert attached (with the creators were getting paid), now the end user pays for it, but there seems to be no rhyme or reason of the pricing structure.

I'd be happy if a majority of that profit were to go to the creators. They deserve it because they are the ones providing the artwork and story. Does it? Or, does most of the profit make its way into the pockets of the software guys?

I just don't think we should be paying nearly $4 for a book that does not have to worry about printing costs, ink, staples, etc. I'm not saying we should be paying like $0.50, but $4? Even if it is an Indie work, like I said, no printing costs.

Alec

[Papercut]

It'll be the same as CDs were/are. Something that took $0.11 to make cost $20 for a consumer. We will be charged much more for digital comics than it takes to actually produce them. 

You've used the stat before...are you citing actual costs or just using these numbers to emphasis a point?  

[Alec B.]

You've used the stat before...are you citing actual costs or just using these numbers to emphasis a point?  

I've heard that number many times before, actually, but I am not fully sure if it is a correct statistic. I do know that for a fact CDs are produced at a pretty cheap rate compared to what consumers pay for them.

Alec

[Papercut]

I've heard that number many times before, actually, but I am not fully sure if it is a correct statistic. I do know that for a fact CDs are produced at a pretty cheap rate compared to what consumers pay for them.

Alec

Gotcha, just curious.  I've read a few stories that break down the costs of a CD, but nothing recently so it got me thinking.

If interested, here's some info from a few years ago:

From ROLLING STONE back in 2004:

This breakdown of the cost of a typical major-label release by the independent market-research firm Almighty Institute of Music Retail shows where the money goes for a new album with a list price of $15.99.

$0.17 Musicians' unions
$0.80 Packaging/manufacturing
$0.82 Publishing royalties
$0.80 Retail profit
$0.90 Distribution
$1.60 Artists' royalties
$1.70 Label profit
$2.40 Marketing/promotion
$2.91 Label overhead
$3.89 Retail overhead

But again, take that for what it's worth. And the artists are still taking it in the rear.