Random Dumb Thought

The standard line on the business success of the wonderfully gory EC horror comic books from the fifties was that a lot of G.I.s enjoyed comic books as cheap, disposable, and entertaining junk reading in the trenches and later retained the habit when they were demobilized and returned to civilian life.

My renewed interest in science fiction is much more prosaic than that of a G.I. who just wanted something quick to read in between dodging sniper fire and grenades, but disposable, cheap, and entertaining is an accurate description of some of the science fiction short stories and novellas that publishers TOR and 40k have made available on the Kindle.

I wonder what impact the sales from these eBook titles have on their bottom line, and how successful they have been at winning back older readers who have gafiated from the genre since their youth?