Digressions

There is a critical, and I mean critical question for writers in this century, and I have yet to hear a single person even mention it:

"What is the price elasticity of a short story in an electronic version? With and without DRM?"

Why haven't we been beating ourselves over the head with this one? We need to figure out how to make a living if the print presses continue declining, the on-line ones need funding drives to stay open, and works become readily available (read: Free) through the Internet.

How much should one pay for a story by Asimov? Or Ford? Or Nestvold? Or me? A Nebula nominee, or a Hugo winner?

This seems somehow to be very important. Does anybody have sales and pricing figures from Fictionwise.com? Or any similar on-line service? Do we know if (like iTunes) $1 is the key price point, and that a story sells 10% more copies at $0.99 and 10% less at $1.25?

This seems to be something incredibly important. But then, Lidia and I shared a bottle of wine this evening.