Tor/Forge Books Announces DRM-Free E-book Store

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

I will point out, for the thousandth time, that Amazon users are not the only ones effected by this. (or is it affected?) Nook, Sony, Kobo and every other e-reader out there will be effected. While Amazon holds a strong position in the US, there are still a large number of Nook users, something like 20% if the guesstimates I have seen are correct, and 10% t0 20% of Kobo, Sony, Apple, and other users who will be effected.

The only way that Amazon is the only one effected is if the BPH say they will only sell in EPUB and I am not sure that type of a move is in their best interest because that would isolate 60-70% of the market and that strikes me as a bad, bad idea.

Agreed. My guess is that publishers bookstores will serve up ebooks in both formats, if they go that route. They don't want to piss off end users unnecessarily.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

I will point out, for the thousandth time, that Amazon users are not the only ones effected by this. (or is it affected?) Nook, Sony, Kobo and every other e-reader out there will be effected. While Amazon holds a strong position in the US, there are still a large number of Nook users, something like 20% if the guesstimates I have seen are correct, and 10% t0 20% of Kobo, Sony, Apple, and other users who will be effected.

The only way that Amazon is the only one effected is if the BPH say they will only sell in EPUB and I am not sure that type of a move is in their best interest because that would isolate 60-70% of the market and that strikes me as a bad, bad idea.

If the BPH said only ePub, then Amazon would have to adapt or die. If Amazon left the eBook market, it would mean sales for other readers would skyrocket and life would continue.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by stonetools

The publishers could not have foreseen the explosive rise of ebooks-largely because the rise was engineered, not by publishers but by tech companies.

Horsepoop. Betting against the explosive rise of ebooks and losing that bet, is not the same thing as being blind-sided by them.

If they (publishers) had engineered ebooks, there wouldn't have been any need to "foresee" them, now would there? More often times than not, foresight in business involves keeping an eye on what others might be planning.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

I will point out, for the thousandth time, that Amazon users are not the only ones effected by this. (or is it affected?) Nook, Sony, Kobo and every other e-reader out there will be effected. While Amazon holds a strong position in the US, there are still a large number of Nook users, something like 20% if the guesstimates I have seen are correct, and 10% t0 20% of Kobo, Sony, Apple, and other users who will be effected.
The only way that Amazon is the only one effected is if the BPH say they will only sell in EPUB and I am not sure that type of a move is in their best interest because that would isolate 60-70% of the market and that strikes me as a bad, bad idea.

(Affected. A change is effected. You are affected by it.)

The difference is that any company can produce ebooks with DRM that are usable on Nooks, Kobos, Sonys, and iOS/Android devices with suitable apps.
Only Amazon can produce DRM'd books that work on Kindle devices.
That means that in order to reach customers with Kindles, the publishers have to either sell though Amazon or forgo DRM.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

Really? It isn't said by B&N customers as well? Or by Apple customers?



But is exactly like owning a Nook and deciding you like the new Sony better, and your eBooks can't go with you.

With a nook, you don't have to buy from B&N. You could buy from Kobo or Sony or BooksOnBoard so if you do decide to switch sometime down the line, your books will be able to go with you. If you have a Kindle, you have no choice for eBooks with DRM.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If the BPH said only ePub, then Amazon would have to adapt or die. If Amazon left the eBook market, it would mean sales for other readers would skyrocket and life would continue.

If the BPH house said only Mobi, because hey they sell more books at Amazon then elsewhere, then other places would have to adapt or die, it would mean sales of Kindle's would increase and life would continue.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

With a nook, you don't have to buy from B&N. You could buy from Kobo or Sony or BooksOnBoard so if you do decide to switch sometime down the line, your books will be able to go with you. If you have a Kindle, you have no choice for eBooks with DRM.

IF you bought from those other places. IF you bought from B&N, which I would guess the majority of Nook owners usually do your books can't go with you anymore than Kindle books can.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by stonetools

Life can be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. (Can you id that quote?)

Søren Kierkegaard

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If the BPH said only ePub, then Amazon would have to adapt or die.

Who would die first, the PBHs or Amazon?
Ultimately the PBH control the content, and if they all made the decision to go ePub only (which they can't do, or they would all be right back in court again), they could maybe make it stick.
But if any one PBH unilaterally withdraws its books from Amazon, they will feel the wrath of Kindle owners, and I suspect more Kindle owners will buy books from other publishers instead. than will buy a whole new device.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

If the BPH house said only Mobi, because hey they sell more books at Amazon then elsewhere, then other places would have to adapt or die, it would mean sales of Kindle's would increase and life would continue.

But the BPH have a beef with Amazon. So there is no way they would go Mobi only. They would sooner go ePub and the Amazon customers would have to adapt. Now if DRM was removed, then we would see a lot of Kindle owners learning how to convert and they would just buy ePub and convert. That's more likely the scenario if the BPH went with only one format.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

IF you bought from those other places. IF you bought from B&N, which I would guess the majority of Nook owners usually do your books can't go with you anymore than Kindle books can.

True, B&N's DRM is not compatible.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

Who would die first, the PBHs or Amazon?
Ultimately the PBH control the content, and if they all made the decision to go ePub only (which they can't do, or they would all be right back in court again), they could maybe make it stick.
But if any one PBH unilaterally withdraws its books from Amazon, they will feel the wrath of Kindle owners, and I suspect more Kindle owners will buy books from other publishers instead. than will buy a whole new device.

But, they could do it in a way that was legal. One BPH goes all ePub and then the others follow because they like the idea.

Now that I think about it, Amazon would not die. They'd have to adopt ePub.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But, they could do it in a way that was legal. One BPH goes all ePub and then the others follow because they like the idea.

Now that I think about it, Amazon would not die. They'd have to adopt ePub.

AFAIK most of the BPH's are ePub only already. They let Amazon handle the conversions to Mobi. DRM isn't going away anytime soon for most BPH stuff so trying to force Amazon to use ePub (which they'd use a form of Mobi DRM on anyway) would be somewhat pointless.

I'm all for a single unified format, preferably with no DRM but otherwise with a unified DRM (but who would control it?), but with the various flavors of DRM ePub might as well be 3 or 4 different formats in and of itself.

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Horsepoop. Betting against the explosive rise of ebooks and losing that bet, is not the same thing as being blind-sided by them.

If they (publishers) had engineered ebooks, there wouldn't have been any need to "foresee" them, now would there? More often times than not, foresight in business involves keeping an eye on what others might be planning.

Publishers aren't tech companies. That isn't their job. Its tech companies that "engineer" device platforms (the clue is in the word "engineer?").

The publishers job is to find, develop, and bring to market authors. That's a whole another game from creating ereading devices.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But, they could do it in a way that was legal. One BPH goes all ePub and then the others follow because they like the idea.

Why would they like it?
What is the advantage to them that would compensate for losing the ability to sell to Kindle users? Why wouldn't they go out of their way to advertise that their books were available on the Kindle, and steal customers from the BPH that went first? That is how competitors behave.