"but they're simpletons who don't understand the Internet"
Sorry if I made it seem that way. I don't mean to call them simpletons. They're very intelligent, thorough, but optimizing very different constraints than people think. In the situation they're in, decision makers become extremely risk averse, and in this context, their actions make complete sense.
"the CEO has to answer awkward questions from other simpletons if he doesn't insist upon the right to 'unpublish' a book"
The questions about "un-publishing" aren't awkward - they're perfectly natural from the "minimizing risk" perspective. What smaller risk is there than being able to undo all sales?
Publisher relations are a B2B sale with professional career sales-people. A sale from a big copyright owner is negotiation with hours of meetings, decks of power point slides, loads of cost/benefit analysis, and various value propositions (depending on whom in the organization you're talking to). Being able to say "if you change your mind, there's an undo button" is a big deal for someone trying to minimize risk.
the whole point of being a publisher is to publish books
By the same logic as the point of a record label is to sell records with their label on them, or by some other?
Sorry if I made it seem that way. I don't mean to call them simpletons. They're very intelligent, thorough, but optimizing very different constraints than people think. In the situation they're in, decision makers become extremely risk averse, and in this context, their actions make complete sense.
"the CEO has to answer awkward questions from other simpletons if he doesn't insist upon the right to 'unpublish' a book"
The questions about "un-publishing" aren't awkward - they're perfectly natural from the "minimizing risk" perspective. What smaller risk is there than being able to undo all sales?
Publisher relations are a B2B sale with professional career sales-people. A sale from a big copyright owner is negotiation with hours of meetings, decks of power point slides, loads of cost/benefit analysis, and various value propositions (depending on whom in the organization you're talking to). Being able to say "if you change your mind, there's an undo button" is a big deal for someone trying to minimize risk.
the whole point of being a publisher is to publish books
By the same logic as the point of a record label is to sell records with their label on them, or by some other?