A different kind of wish list

[dhbailey]

Originally Posted by revfish

[snip]

This make perfect sense. A lot of DVDs come with a digital copy of the film, if you buy the deluxe edition. They could do the same for books. When you go to Barnes & Noble or Borders or wherever, if you buy the 'deluxe edition' of whatever book you want, you would get a code that would be assigned to your account when you use it, getting you a digital copy of the book in which format you choose. (Wow, that was a nice run-on sentence!) I know the digital copies of movies I have gotten are attached to my iTunes account and are listed as 'purchased' even though I didn't actually buy them.

While this is a good suggestion, there are some problems with it which would have to be worked out:
1) formats -- there is only one format of your on-line digital movie, so it's easy to create one format and upload it to the iTunes store and then simply mark it as paid for your account so that you can download it. And it is linked to your hardware so that you can't use it on anything else, as I understand the workings of iTunes. With the veritable tower of babel in the ebook marketplace, the availability of one book in the many different formats requires a lot of work on the part of the content providers -- quite different from either the video or the music world.

2) singularity of merchant -- each ebook company (Sony, Amazon are the two prime contenders here since Microsoft books are available in many locations) sells its own format, so then pbook publishers would have to make ebook versions available at both Amazon and Sony sites, and we have already seen that they are reluctant to release a lot of their books into ebook format, let alone release them to both formats. I can envision a time in the not too distant future when Amazon tries to wield its Microsoft-like clout and force publishers to release ONLY in Kindle format. It's already embroiled in a POD (print on demand) lawsuit for unlawful tying and monopoly practices in forcing Print-On-Demand publishers who hope to market books at Amazon (who doesn't want their books listed on Amazon?) to have all their books printed by a company which Amazon now owns. In the movies and music worlds, it's easy for companies to include the download-version in a hard-copy purchase if it's listed at iTunes. I'll bet that those which aren't listed at iTunes simply aren't available for download and don't include that same offer.

So your suggestion, while a great one, won't (in my opinion) become reality until the ebook world can agree on a single format and there emerges a huge giant of marketing for books in that format.

Someday, maybe, but there's one industry more firmly entrenched in the past than the music industry was, and that's the publishing industry!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dhbailey

The multi-format books at Fictionwise are not quite what you think -- you have to make a commitment for ONE format, and once you've downloaded that format, to the best of my knowledge you can't download the same book in a different format. And it's not like you get a zip file with all the formats in it.

No, that's incorrect. If you buy a multiformat book you can download it in as many different formats as you wish. Simply choose the download format on the "bookshelf" page in the dropdown list alongside the "Download Book" button.

[dhbailey]

A thousand pardons, HarryT is absolutely correct. Something happened when I first joined Fictionwise that led me to believe that once a format was selected in the multi-format books, that was it. But I am happy to admit when I'm wrong, so you can indeed download the book in as many different formats as you like, once you've purchased it.

Cool!

[astrodad]

As far as concerns about giving out the code. That should be easy enough to fix: it can only be used once. The code is no longer active once it is used to download a book.

I agree with most of the other comments here on its feasibility, but you said this was a wishlist right?

Perhaps there will come a day when all devices will at least support one standard format, even with DRM.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dhbailey

A thousand pardons, HarryT is absolutely correct. Something happened when I first joined Fictionwise that led me to believe that once a format was selected in the multi-format books, that was it. But I am happy to admit when I'm wrong, so you can indeed download the book in as many different formats as you like, once you've purchased it.

Cool!

You do have to select a specific format for the DRM-protected books - perhaps that's what you were thinking of? If a DRM-protected book is available in, say, MobiPocket, Microsoft Reader, and eReader formats, you choose your format at the time of purchase and, if you want a different format, you have to repurchase. That doesn't apply to the "Multiformat" books, though - with those, one purchase gets you all the formats.