公版書出版策略之分析-以《小王子》為例

Abstract

公版書因為喪失了智慧財產權的保護，任何出版社都可以自由利用，同時網路書店的崛起，大大降低了消費者的搜尋成本，市場環境漸趨於完全競爭。本文透過博客來網站上《小王子》市場的研究，運用實證方法佐以樣本分析，觀察書籍的各種特性如何影響公版書的上榜能力、了解現有廠商如何運用策略；同時，透過比較各出版社的銷售表現，觀察出版社在出版時間選擇上是否有任何偏好。最後經實證回歸結果發現，針對市面上的《小王子》，書籍的「出版日期」、「裝禎」對於上榜比例具顯著的影響，提早的出版日期、特殊的裝禎與書籍的高上榜比例具正向關係；此外，以實務的角度出發，歸納並發現市面上的《小王子》多以提早的出版日期、具獨特性的內容如收錄作者手稿、邀請名作家導讀等以及硬殼精緻的包裝贏得書籍上榜的機會。最後，透過上榜量比、上榜次數比等暢銷指標與出版時間的關係，發現在公版書賽局中，銷售表現原本就領先的出版社有較競爭對手提早出版書籍、進入賽局的意願，銷售成績較差的則通常較晚進入市場、成為跟風者。

Because of losing the protection of property right, public domain books can be used and published by any publisher；meanwhile, the internet reduces searching cost of customers and changes the market of public domain books towards perfect competition. This paper use statistics regression method and analysis of samples in the market of The Little Prince on books.com.tw, in order to understand how the characteristics of a public domain book influence its ability to become a bestseller and to observe what strategies the publishers adopted in practical way. Besides, this paper would like to know is there any tendency of publishing time through the comparison of publisher’s performance on sales board. Based on the regression models, ‘earlier publishing date’ and ‘special book design’ can significantly increase the percentage of a public domain book to become a bestseller. Moreover, by the induction of all the samples of The Little Prince, earlier publishing date, unique content like recording author’s handwriting and special book design like hardcover are common used by publishers to gain the chance to become a bestseller. Finally, under a fair standard to measure how good a publisher is, a ‘better’ publisher is found has a tendency to publish a book earlier than opponents in the game of public domain books; on the other hand, a ‘worse’ publisher is usually a follower in the game.