Massive wave of ebook piracy?

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

The only buggy thing I found with the Sony software was with the synch feature, so I simply don't use that part. Everything else works without a hitch. Both last years update & this years update.

But if the customer is a computer illiterate, then yeah there just might be a problem. In which case, either learn how to use a pc or stick with paper.

Or buy a Kindle, which just works without having to install any software or use a PC.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

You guys have fun with your DRM. Sure. it works fine now. Just wait. itunes worked fine for the first couple of years for the wife too, until she went past her limit of devices (hardware crash required system re-install / repair). itunes would not let us access her library, no matter what. I warned her not to buy DRM'd music!

Log on to iTunes, click the dropdown next to your email address, choose Your Account. Click the button to deregister all your devices and start again. No need to redownload anything. (This option only appears once you have authorised 5 PCs.) I did this recently, it worked fine.

[NVash]

Originally Posted by Tattncat

However, what I would like to see (In a perfect world, of course) is eBooks available for purchase (not rent) at a reasonable price. I would like to see all books old and new (ie all back lists - currently out of print) made available for purchase.

You have to look pretty hard for it. I occasionally stumble across a few and snatch them up immediately. But right here in this very thread we have J. Strnad advertising her book 'Risen' for $3 in her sig and MrPLD advertising 'Tree Of Life' in his sig for $4. Theres two right there. And for the record, I just bought one of them, Ill snatch the other one up shortly. Those, my friends, are the kind of prices we need to see.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by NVash

You have to look pretty hard for it. I occasionally stumble across a few and snatch them up immediately. But right here in this very thread we have J. Strnad advertising her book 'Risen' for $3 in her sig and MrPLD advertising 'Tree Of Life' in his sig for $4. Theres two right there. And for the record, I just bought one of them, Ill snatch the other one up shortly. Those, my friends, are the kind of prices we need to see.

Those are both published by the writers, and not all writers seem to be confident enough to do that. Once you add on agents, editors, designers, publishers, etc, you add extra mouths to feed. Not all of them will add anything of value to the reader, but they will still all want their cut.

[sunnysmiles]

I have had a lot of problems transferring books to my sony and Iriver after buying them or borrowing from my library and using the Digital editions it has not been easy at all. I much prefer the Kindle no problems at all and Ebooks have become a lot cheaper in the UK since kindle arrived.
In Fact I would say the Kindle easily beats the Sony touch. The battery life is superb compared to Sony and the fonts are much clearer to read.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm not sure what you mean by that. Paper publishing is geographically restricted in just the same way that eBook distribution is. Authors sign contracts for paper publishing restricted to (for example) the USA or UK just as they do for eBooks. Indeed, it's normally the same contract.

I can buy virtually any dead tree book published. This is especially true for Amazon. There are no questions asked, no restrictions due to where I live.

I have been purchasing such books via mail order well before estores became a reality.

Geo restrictions makes DRM irrelevant and fosters the darknet alternative IMHO

[Blue Tyson]

King Canute would have used DRM.

[MrPLD]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Those are both published by the writers, and not all writers seem to be confident enough to do that. Once you add on agents, editors, designers, publishers, etc, you add extra mouths to feed. Not all of them will add anything of value to the reader, but they will still all want their cut.

Of all the things a traditional publisher can add beyond the original manuscript, I think that publicity is the one that is very hard to recreate without copious amounts of either time or money (often both) by the author.

We were lucky (I think) in that Elita and I formed a team, she does the writing, we contract out the editing/proofing, I do the formatting, publishing and artwork (sometimes we contract out the artwork too)... but the one that's proven to be the hardest is pushing out of the noise floor in marketing. Everything we try is already well and truly tried by others in our position. We don't have the upfront capital to drop $10,000 (a small amount really) into a marketing campaign even if it does hold a potential promise for equal returns or better.

For now, we'll just have to accept that this is very much a long term project and are not anticipating moving into the 'profit' zone for at least another 2~3 years.

For us, the biggest marketing gain will be through producing more books, thankfully we have two more coming in the short term (< 9 months).

Relating to the OP topic, piracy is the last thing we're concerned about for now, any legitimate loss of sales through piracy would be cheaper than the marketing dollars required to have impressed that person in the first place.

Paul.

[speakingtohe]

I would like to see an alternate form of payment for self published authors.
Instead of the usual warning in the front of the book something like

The author would like to thank you for purchasing this book.
The purchase price enables the author to continue writing.
If you have enjoyed this book without purchasing it and would like to thank the author you can do so here


(link to paypal etc.)

[johnnyb]

I can only speak for myself:
If tomorrow (or in the near future) there would be a platform that supplied me with more than 90% of all the books I want to read, is cross-device like Amazon's but not limited to one vendor and still allows me to integrate my own files like PDF articles (not necessarily in the cloud), its books are approved for citeability, especially the PD stuff, books were generally below 10 Euros and it had devices that were as user-friendly as Sony's (bring proper PDF support and good annotation across all formats, readable in the cloud AND are exportable) then they had me as a super-customer in no time.
Until that time, eBook reading will be a fragmented experience and (for me) limited to the occasional eBook bought and borrowed to supplement my reading of physical books that are generally not available as eBooks...
I like my PRS for PDF support though and prefer it over an iPad (because the export function makes for a real surplus value over traditional annotation)...

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by MrPLD

Of all the things a traditional publisher can add beyond the original manuscript, I think that publicity is the one that is very hard to recreate without copious amounts of either time or money (often both) by the author.

Paul.

Do they still do that though? I haven't seen any publicity for any of the writers I follow in the last 5 years or so, other than what the writers do themselves. The only ones that seem to get publicised are the "celebrity" (ghost) written books.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I would like to see an alternate form of payment for self published authors.
Instead of the usual warning in the front of the book something like

The author would like to thank you for purchasing this book.
The purchase price enables the author to continue writing.
If you have enjoyed this book without purchasing it and would like to thank the author you can do so here


(link to paypal etc.)

That's the sort of thing I've been thinking of, but probably at the end rather than the beginning. The only real danger would be that it would let people who didn't already know they could get them for free that they could have saved themselves a bit of money.

I think the real solution is to price ebooks at 2nd hand paperback levels. Anyone who will spend time looking for a free copy just to save that much was never going to buy it anyway. Or if you can attract advertisers, make your money that way.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Do they still do that though? I haven't seen any publicity for any of the writers I follow in the last 5 years or so, other than what the writers do themselves. The only ones that seem to get publicised are the "celebrity" (ghost) written books.

Minimally-- New release press announcements to trade rags etc. etc. No specific advertising on a per-book basis I don't think.

It is mostly up to the Author to do a lot of leg work and pushing the book....

[MrPLD]

Originally Posted by kennyc

It is mostly up to the Author to do a lot of leg work and pushing the book....

In which case one may as well just go max out their credit-cards, buy some advertising and start doing legwork... lots of it. With POD and eBook distribution the way they are now there's little room for existing publishing corps.

Paul

[kennyc]

Agreed......I hope we get through this soon, but I don't see it being very likely...