MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - "The book industry is gonna get Napstered..."

Elfwreck · 07-16-2009, 05:59 PM

I'm trying to figure out how to get a copy of the ebook. Can't visit Scribd from work (they seem to think it's a content storage & download site, fancy that), and a couple of the reviews online seem to say it can't be downloaded from Scribd. I have a Sony, but the Library software isn't working for me; I can't get it to connect properly. (I suspect it has something to do with dialup. Too slow; the pages crash before they finish.)

I don't think the product itself will be valueless, but money will be based on presentation, not contents. We may see a return to the pay-per-chapter cliffhanger; when the author gets enough money, the next chapter is released. Or we may see subscriptions to publishers or authors--$15/month or $120/year gets you two ebooks per month, with heavy social DRM (your name and address in the headers, maybe your CC#... editable, but that'd take some work).

One of the worries about digital content dropping in price, is we may see a return to exclusive, tiny print runs, for authors who would rather get $50 from each of 200 readers, than the maybe-chance for $2 from each of 5000 readers.

07-16-2009, 05:59 PM	#14
Elfwreck Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,185 Karma: 25133758 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: SF Bay Area, California, USA Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3 (Past: Kobo Mini, PEZ, PRS-505, Clié)	I'm trying to figure out how to get a copy of the ebook. Can't visit Scribd from work (they seem to think it's a content storage & download site, fancy that), and a couple of the reviews online seem to say it can't be downloaded from Scribd. I have a Sony, but the Library software isn't working for me; I can't get it to connect properly. (I suspect it has something to do with dialup. Too slow; the pages crash before they finish.) I don't think the product itself will be valueless, but money will be based on presentation, not contents. We may see a return to the pay-per-chapter cliffhanger; when the author gets enough money, the next chapter is released. Or we may see subscriptions to publishers or authors--$15/month or $120/year gets you two ebooks per month, with heavy social DRM (your name and address in the headers, maybe your CC#... editable, but that'd take some work). One of the worries about digital content dropping in price, is we may see a return to exclusive, tiny print runs, for authors who would rather get $50 from each of 200 readers, than the maybe-chance for $2 from each of 5000 readers.