I chose to "boycott" Amazon (international DRM problem)

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by crashed

Now I know this has to do with publishers as well as Amazon, but IF Amazon is the number 1 ebook retailer in the US (world?), then they should help spur ebook adoption faster by helping to push these book prices down considerably.

Currently, any books published by the Agency 6 can't be discounted by Amazon or anyone else - they sell at the price the publisher sets.

Amazon used to regularly discount e-books, until agency pricing was introduced (at Apple's behest, I believe). There's been a lot of discussion about it in these forums. They still do seem to discount non-agency e-books.

[TheSFReader]

Originally Posted by crashed

My main issue with Amazon is real simple, while I don't care for the closed environment, there is one area that boggles and annoys me to no end - ebook pricing.

Now I know this has to do with publishers as well as Amazon, but IF Amazon is the number 1 ebook retailer in the US (world?), then they should help spur ebook adoption faster by helping to push these book prices down considerably.

I'm sorry, but while I like ereading, I just know it's incredibly cheap to produce over a physical book, so why am I paying close if not the exact same pricing of a hard copy?

This is one area at least Apple had the balls to stand up for when it came to the music industry, it helped them by making them lower their pricing to an acceptable level where anyone doesn't mind paying the price for said music, and entering Apple's ecosystem.

Why Amazon doesn't leverage this, is likely the reason why people prefer other devices where maybe they can find or use other stores to hopefully save some cash, ect.

Someone has to get prices down if anyone in the future wants to get ahead in the ebook business.

God do I hate having to write that (especially on this topic), but Amazon is effectively putting a lot of pressure on publishers, by actively "courting" Indie Writers, selecting the $2.99->$9.99 price range for the 70% royalties etc.

HarryT is quite right in objecting that production is only a small part of the DTBook's price. However, where I don't agree with him is that production is the only economy done on such books. EBooks means also : no returns, no transport, sometimes no distributor, no warehousing... and no staff for all these. Where it hurts Publishers the most is that they NEED to keep these costs since they sell BOTH forms of books : ebooks and DTB.

[howyoudoin]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Since you say "you just know", I assume that you have personal experience of the publishing industry? Almost all the costs of producing a book apply equally to a paper and an eBook. The only thing you don't get with an eBook is the cost of printing, which is a very minor component indeed of the overall cost of producing a book.

What about warehousing and multiple stages of transport?

[svenlind]

Originally Posted by emellaich

Also, how does the marking scheme work? If each book must be customized (property of John Doe), then I agree that it is an interesting alternative to traditional DRM, but lack of support for such a program could easily be due to technical reasons (inability to publish custom books for each buyer) and not due to any business stance/strategy.

Well I don't know how the marking scheme is done. But here in Denmark it IS used by some dealers. I have bought a few Danish epubs and converted them to my Kindle, without doing the you know what.

[TheSFReader]

Originally Posted by emellaich

Also, how does the marking scheme work? If each book must be customized (property of John Doe), then I agree that it is an interesting alternative to traditional DRM, but lack of support for such a program could easily be due to technical reasons (inability to publish custom books for each buyer) and not due to any business stance/strategy.

Oops, sorry, hadn't seen that question.

Yes, the kind of marking done by Immateriel (Bragelonne's distributor) states (openly and visibly) at each chapter's start and end, to which customer (by email) it was sold.
That marking can be "erased", but nobody does it.


I agree that Amazon's inability to provide such markings can be due to technical reasons, but Amazon has time and again shown that it IS master of it's own technlogy. In addition,creating custom books for each buyer is easier than creating custom books for each device of each buyer, as iis done with DRMized ebooks.

[svenlind]

Originally Posted by TheSFReader

Oops, sorry, hadn't seen that question.

Yes, the kind of marking done by Immateriel (Bragelonne's distributor) states (openly and visibly) at each chapter's start and end, to which customer (by email) it was sold.
That marking can be "erased", but nobody does it.

I don't know about any markings. I can't see anyone in the watermarked epubs that I have bought.
I suppose that the marking that show that I have bought the books is encrypted in the books.
I have out of curiosity tried to find my credentials in one of the books I bought. To no availl, and that is certainly very fine with me.

[Morpheus Phreak]

Originally Posted by crashed

My main issue with Amazon is real simple, while I don't care for the closed environment, there is one area that boggles and annoys me to no end - ebook pricing.

Now I know this has to do with publishers as well as Amazon, but IF Amazon is the number 1 ebook retailer in the US (world?), then they should help spur ebook adoption faster by helping to push these book prices down considerably.

I'm sorry, but while I like ereading, I just know it's incredibly cheap to produce over a physical book, so why am I paying close if not the exact same pricing of a hard copy?

This is one area at least Apple had the balls to stand up for when it came to the music industry, it helped them by making them lower their pricing to an acceptable level where anyone doesn't mind paying the price for said music, and entering Apple's ecosystem.

Why Amazon doesn't leverage this, is likely the reason why people prefer other devices where maybe they can find or use other stores to hopefully save some cash, ect.

Someone has to get prices down if anyone in the future wants to get ahead in the ebook business.

Amazon WAS promoting and pushing lower prices for eBooks. Then Apple stepped in...

Apple told the publishers that if they wanted to do business with Apple (for the iBooks marketplace) that they would have to terminate Amazon's ability to price things on their own. So that's how the 'Agency Model' was born.

Amazon legally CANNOT push down the prices due to the contracts now in place...thanks to Apple.


So before you say you have an issue with Amazon on that you really should be looking at Apple and the publishers. Amazon's hands are tied on this matter.

[larrymohr]

Originally Posted by Morpheus Phreak

So I bought the original Star Wars trilogy on VHS back in the 90's. I really want to use them on my Blu-Ray player and have all the features of the Blu-Ray version, but I can't.

No, I bought my Star Wars and found it would only work on my Toshiba VHS and not on a Panasonic or Sony VHS.

Larry

[J. Strnad]

I had a Samsung DVD recorder/player that (as it turned out, months later) wouldn't play some of the very DVDs it had itself recorded.

I thought about selling it in a garage sale but didn't want to inflict it on anyone else.

I took a sledgehammer to it.

Very satisfying.

[crashed]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Since you say "you just know", I assume that you have personal experience of the publishing industry? Almost all the costs of producing a book apply equally to a paper and an eBook. The only thing you don't get with an eBook is the cost of printing, which is a very minor component indeed of the overall cost of producing a book.

I find that most of the eBooks I buy are considerably cheaper than the corresponding paper book - generally they are about 70% or so of the paper book cost. This is a fair price, in my view.

Are we now forgetting distribution, shelf space, and advertising costs as well? Books don't just sell themselves. I am actually in a business that involves channeling things through a very similar pipeline minus a publisher. And yes, I do know for a fact that it costs significantly nothing to make a ebook (i have built and seen the hardware to convert said books into ebook formats if you are going the conversion route).

There is really little reason for a lot ebooks to at least be 50% of the physical copy. Sorry, but much like the music industry, you have to make things more affordable and accessible in the digital age, thats where price and competition play a major role. Things like Drm and regional avaliability sap that progress away. Esp if its by the people who can help sculpt that progress for their loyal customers. Amazon would be helping everyone by trying to change old ways that no longer are relevant in todays economy and digital infrastructure.