Tricky Question of the Day: I want a book... where should I buy it? - Page 3

Lemurion · 09-12-2007, 10:30 AM

I'm very much in favor of Baen's model, but the company that's likely to provide the best argument is Fictionwise. I've spent quite a bit of money there, all on Non-DRM books, what they call multi-format. I've never spent a cent on their DRM books. If Fictionwise can get enough data (and present it to publishers) that people spend more money on non-DRM books than on DRM books, both in number of books bought and total sales, they may be able to convince publishers that removing DRM will make more money.

Hard to argue with that.

The bottom line is where the battle has to be won.

Münchener · 09-13-2007, 10:45 AM

I think that this digital trend will force a dramatic change in the way business is conducted and the concept of property rights of "things". I believe that the most important thing being bought in a book is not the paper and the ink, but the content. If the technology used now allows selling the content unattached to the phisical media, its time to do a fair cost reduction. I'd accept buying the content of a book for, say, 2 dollars, and being granted a couple of months to read it. After that period has passed, I loose the access to that content, and if I want to read it again, I re-rent it. We are now living in an access age, not a owning age. I bet many of you would accept that kind of reading. But the problems seems to be greed. Publishers do not let us really keep the e-books for the same lenght of time we could have kept the paper ones, but at the same time they charges us like they were giving us the dead-tree edition. That's greed to me. I don't have a problem in paying 1 dollar for a newspaper I will read and throw away, the same way I don't mind to pay a couple of dollars to read a book, even if I don't get to keep it. Now, 20 dollars for a DRMed bag of bytes that nobody can assure me will work in 10 years...

grimo1re · 09-13-2007, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Russell

Problem solved. But what a nightmare for the average first time prospective e-book purchaser! I think that they will just accept whatever way they discover first.

Exactly! My Mum was very interested in buying an ebook reader after she saw my Sony Reader. I told her to wait until the whole process was easier. A shame really.

Steven Lyle Jordan · 09-14-2007, 06:48 PM

There are certainly some advantages to the "rental" concept... particularly if you know that

A. You have enough time to read the book before the rental is over, and
B. You know (in advance) that you won't want to keep the book.

Personally, I'd rather keep the file, to reread at my leisure next year, or next decade. And if you're going to rent, the price damn well better be cheaper than buying.

Sebastiano · 09-17-2007, 03:30 PM

It looks as if buying DRM-ed ebooks is more like going to a library: You get the books you want for some time and then you have to bring them back. -- But why should someone use a library, when taking a book in the library is almost the same prize as buying it all new.

It's a miracle to me that editors don't seem to understand this.

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09-12-2007, 10:30 AM	#31
Lemurion eReader Posts: 2,750 Karma: 4968470 Join Date: Aug 2007 Device: Note 5; PW3; Nook HD+; ChuWi Hi12; iPad	I'm very much in favor of Baen's model, but the company that's likely to provide the best argument is Fictionwise. I've spent quite a bit of money there, all on Non-DRM books, what they call multi-format. I've never spent a cent on their DRM books. If Fictionwise can get enough data (and present it to publishers) that people spend more money on non-DRM books than on DRM books, both in number of books bought and total sales, they may be able to convince publishers that removing DRM will make more money. Hard to argue with that. The bottom line is where the battle has to be won.

09-13-2007, 10:45 AM	#32
Münchener Searching for e-Gutemberg Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Argentina Device: PRS500	I think that this digital trend will force a dramatic change in the way business is conducted and the concept of property rights of "things". I believe that the most important thing being bought in a book is not the paper and the ink, but the content. If the technology used now allows selling the content unattached to the phisical media, its time to do a fair cost reduction. I'd accept buying the content of a book for, say, 2 dollars, and being granted a couple of months to read it. After that period has passed, I loose the access to that content, and if I want to read it again, I re-rent it. We are now living in an access age, not a owning age. I bet many of you would accept that kind of reading. But the problems seems to be greed. Publishers do not let us really keep the e-books for the same lenght of time we could have kept the paper ones, but at the same time they charges us like they were giving us the dead-tree edition. That's greed to me. I don't have a problem in paying 1 dollar for a newspaper I will read and throw away, the same way I don't mind to pay a couple of dollars to read a book, even if I don't get to keep it. Now, 20 dollars for a DRMed bag of bytes that nobody can assure me will work in 10 years...

09-14-2007, 06:48 PM	#34
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	There are certainly some advantages to the "rental" concept... particularly if you know that A. You have enough time to read the book before the rental is over, and B. You know (in advance) that you won't want to keep the book. Personally, I'd rather keep the file, to reread at my leisure next year, or next decade. And if you're going to rent, the price damn well better be cheaper than buying.

09-17-2007, 03:30 PM	#35
Sebastiano Member Posts: 19 Karma: 64 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Hannover Device: Cybook Gen3, Palm Zire21	It looks as if buying DRM-ed ebooks is more like going to a library: You get the books you want for some time and then you have to bring them back. -- But why should someone use a library, when taking a book in the library is almost the same prize as buying it all new. It's a miracle to me that editors don't seem to understand this.

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