There's a better way to beat the ebook pirates

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guardian.co.uk/media
24 April 2011

[Ea]

Well, it's summing it up nicely.

[TenaciousBadger]

The link above didn't work for me. Here's another one: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011...threat-comment

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Curious

[CommonReader]

You can break up a music album into single titles and charge 99 Cents for each title. Many people will only search for single titles and 99 Cents is such a small amount that convenience trumps price.
However, you can't do the same with a novel. You can't sell the book in single chapter for 99Cents each and have a marketable product. How low would the price have to be to keep people away from piracy?
I also fail to see what attractive "additional services" the publisher could offer. The attraction of the book tends to be the written word.
Not every author can be a Rowling who would earn shedloads of money via merchandising stuff even if she handed out her books for free.

[sabredog]

This is all very deja vu.

The publishers have done pretty much nothing to change their marketing and distribution model, preferring not to learn from the bumbling mess made by the music and entertainment companies.

Actually they have learned something. How to annoy their customers even more.

[CommonReader]

That's true, but what do exactly want them to do? It's not as if public readings by authors are an alternative source of income as concerts are for the music industry.

[Ron.]

They need to lower prices 20.99 for an ebook is nuts, they need to drop the DRM, they need to improve quality ( a ebook full of scan errors should be an embarrassment to them) The darknet copy's are often better quality then the ones they sell. They need to do something about the georestrictions. In another thread a kindle user wanted a book, it's avaliable in the US kindle store, but not the UK kindle store. He had to buy the book from a different store in epub format and has to now remove the DRM and convert it.

They need to make it easier to buy books then to pirate them and they are doing the exact opposite. They will learn just like the music industry did, They will lose business trying to control the market rather then adapting to and catering to it and they will use piracy as the excuse for there failed business model. Give them a decade they will figure it out...

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by CommonReader

That's true, but what do exactly want them to do? It's not as if public readings by authors are an alternative source of income as concerts are for the music industry.

I think a revision of their distribution model is in order for starters.

Remove geographic restrictions

Remove DRM

Remove agency pricing

Those would go a long way forward to remove most casual privacy and you will never stop all piracy.

[Quexos]

Originally Posted by Ron.

They need to lower prices 20.99 for an ebook is nuts, they need to drop the DRM, they need to improve quality ( a ebook full of scan errors should be an embarrassment to them) The darknet copy's are often better quality then the ones they sell. They need to do something about the georestrictions. In another thread a kindle user wanted a book, it's avaliable in the US kindle store, but not the UK kindle store. He had to buy the book from a different store in epub format and has to now remove the DRM and convert it.

They need to make it easier to buy books then to pirate them and they are doing the exact opposite. They will learn just like the music industry did, They will lose business trying to control the market rather then adapting to and catering to it and they will use piracy as the excuse for there failed business model. Give them a decade they will figure it out...

For god's sake it's THAN not "then" when you want to make a comparison ...

Anyways the reason why I got them on the darknet is exactly because of the annoying restrictions and geographical unavailability to which you add the errors that litter most ebooks. The first time I tried to buy an ebook, the "sorry this product is available in the USA and Canada only" was a shock and that was the moment I began looking around the darknet ... (is torrent part of the darknet ?)
The worst is to know that officially most ebooks I want to have I cannot buy. For example, The Lord of the Rings ebook is unavailable in English where I live. I am simply not legally allowed to buy it (and thus to read it), can you believe that ? Who the hell do they think they are to tell me I cannot read a certain book in English. Actually it's not even available in my language though I'm sure it will be eventually but I cannot read it in English, they tell ME I cannot read it in English. Well ladies and gentlemen of the publishing industry, guess what ? you don't control my life at least not to that extent.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by sabredog

This is all very deja vu.

The publishers have done pretty much nothing to change their marketing and distribution model, preferring not to learn from the bumbling mess made by the music and entertainment companies.

Actually they have learned something. How to annoy their customers even more.

This!

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by CommonReader

That's true, but what do exactly want them to do? It's not as if public readings by authors are an alternative source of income as concerts are for the music industry.

They lower their expectations, start serving the consumer and not the boardroom and rebuild the industry.

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by CommonReader

That's true, but what do exactly want them to do? It's not as if public readings by authors are an alternative source of income as concerts are for the music industry.

Most people will, given the option, be honest. People who want their money should be looking to make it not just possible but easy for them to be honest. When someone has a choice of two books -- one is high-quality, DRM-free, available in their language, available in their country, and oh, yes, free, and the other is full of errors, DRM-locked, not even available legitimately, and costs more than a pbook, that's not making it easy to be honest -- it's making it not only hard but harmful to be honest. There are a lot of people who look at that situation and ask "why am I hurting myself?"

The people who are not going to pay you no matter what you do aren't your customers. They weren't your customers for pbooks either. If they can't get a "free" ebook, their alternative isn't paying for an ebook -- it's finding some other entertainment that doesn't involve you. If they're not your customers in any event, ignore 'em. If you can turn them into customers (offer them good books at a good price) so much the better, but if you can't, it doesn't matter what they do, you were never going to have their money anyway, and nothing you do will get you their money. Smart businesses do not harm their customers in order to try (and fail) to inconvenience non-customers.

The situation we have now, where even if ebooks were all free, pirating them would still be a better alternative because it provides a superior product (and in some cases, the only product -- see georestrictions) -- is not beneficial to the publishers. It's not beneficial to the customers. It's damn good for the pirates, though. Is that really what the publishers want?

[queentess]

Originally Posted by Ron.

They need to make it easier to buy books then to pirate them and they are doing the exact opposite. They will learn just like the music industry did, They will lose business trying to control the market rather then adapting to and catering to it and they will use piracy as the excuse for there failed business model.

Exactly

[CommonReader]

Originally Posted by kennyc

They lower their expectations, start serving the consumer and not the boardroom and rebuild the industry.

Sounds nice but gets more difficult when you have to get more specific. Unlike the oil industry book publishing isn't exactly a business that generates tsunamis of cash.

I have written before in other threads about the problems I see with lifting geo-restrictions. What is the right price for a book published in "global" languages like English and Spanish? A price that is appropiate for India and the US, for Spain and for Guatemala? What will happen when shifts in exchange rates suddenly make sellers in countries with devaluing currencies much more competitive?