WSJ Article: How To Choose An Online Bookstore

[BBRags]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...wsj_india_main

About how ebooks are locked into a single platform and/or reader and which ebookstores sell books that work on more platforms.

[SameOldStory]

The title "The Chapter And Verse on E-Bookstores" is more than a little misleading.

I read it top to bottom. For anyone on MR it says "DRM sucks, good luck". For the general public it says "or hold off until the industry figures out a better solution".

Reading the "reader comments" is actually more instructive.

Unlike MR members the readers of the WSJ have their Kindles, iPads, nooks, etc. and think buying from the main source (Amazon, Apple, etc) is a no brainer. Why go any where else to buy books? They are happy eating the grass in the "home pasture" so to speak.

Are we so involved in reading and ereaders that we think that the rest of the world is just like us? Maybe WE are the ones out of step with the majority?

[yannibookworm]

Big websites like Amazon and Barnes & Nobles are too commercial.
Why go elsewhere to buy books?
Smaller online bookstore provides very warm, personal service to its clients. Discounts and freebies are not discouraged.

[Worldwalker]

Perhaps we are the ones who are out of step, but does that mean that we're wrong? Or that we need to educate the ones marching in lockstep?

[Teddman]

The article never even mentions the possibility of stripping DRM or converting ebook formats.

Maybe it's an editorial policy, but it makes the whole piece a little pointless.

[Trebro]

Originally Posted by Teddman

The article never even mentions the possibility of stripping DRM or converting ebook formats.

Maybe it's an editorial policy, but it makes the whole piece a little pointless.

Um, isn't that because stripping the DRM is illegal in the US, where the Journal is published?

Not trying to get into the moral side of this, just the actual legality.

[Teddman]

Reading the article again, they do make a brief reference to "resorting to cumbersome (and potentially illegal) third-party conversion software" in paragraph seven.

It's ironic that all the official methods of transferring your ebooks described thereafter sound pretty cumbersome themselves.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

Are we so involved in reading and ereaders that we think that the rest of the world is just like us? Maybe WE are the ones out of step with the majority?

Of course we are: 95% of the world is still buying printed books. We are the trailblazers.

Of course, the risk we take is that we trailblazers always have to look over our shoulder to make sure the rest of the world is actually following the trail we're blazing, and not veering off on another trail entirely...

[MV64]

I like the surf various stores and outlets online for e-books. I'd hate to be locked into one store, because there's always something I end up wanting that none of the big stores have.

[SameOldStory]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Perhaps we are the ones who are out of step, but does that mean that we're wrong? Or that we need to educate the ones marching in lockstep?

Wrong? No. We're just ahead of the curve.

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Of course, the risk we take is that we trailblazers always have to look over our shoulder to make sure the rest of the world is actually following the trail we're blazing, and not veering off on another trail entirely...

The rest of the world is so far behind us (and others like MR) that we're not being followed. Not by many, anyway.

[Poppa1956]

Bear in mind the editorial outlook of the WSJ is more than a little pro-business. They support policies and decisions they believe will protect and help grow businesses.
It is their view, and that of many publishers that DRM is preventing them from losing money via theft.
Previous to the WWW, a major concern of publishers was photocopy machines in libraries and schools. Now, in many countries anyone that can scrap together a few sheckles can buy a computer, and an all-in-one printer/scanner/copier/fax/espresso maker (JK, they don't all have FAX) and make pdfs, and make them available via bit-torrent. (But that is unlawful, so don't say I recommended it.)
Until only a relatively short time ago, if you wanted a public domain book, you needed to find a library or a book store. Obviously, that is no longer true. But B&N, Amazon, (and soon) Borders, et al. are trying a digital variation of that model. I believe they will have a market share for a long time, even of PD books.
For some people, it is worth the cost to purchase PD eBook from a retailer, and have it automatically download to their devices, and much too difficult and time consuming to search for said book, download it, and sideload it. Nor will those same people care whether the book has DRM or not.

[SameOldStory]

Comments


"Melissa Burman wrote:
I didn't think much about it, but I guess I assumed I was locked into buying books from Amazone when I bought the Kindle."

That is "most" people.