Quote:
Originally Posted by jasonkchapman
The problem with this is that it only works right now, while e-books are a tiny part of the market and p-books dominate. What happens in the future, when e-books dominate? What happens currently when the author's books are only available as e-books and there are no p-books?
I think that's one of the reasons that there is so much rancor around the subject. There are "right now" solutions bumping up against "industry future" needs and the other way around. If everyone agreed with and followed your example, it would guarantee p-book dominance for a long time to come, and would likely lead to publishers moving toward more complex paper protection schemes like the "magic dots" used for currency. It would doom e-books to little more than a promotional scheme for p-books.
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I agree. Folks wonder why publishers are so reticent to publish in electronic form since it so obviously seems to be the way of the future to us. Customers want it, but it seems to me that until they find a way that they think they can preserve their power base as gatekeepers, or trade it for something equally lucrative, they're going to resist. Electronic publishing puts more power in the hands of the authors. Publishers bring a lot to the table with their editing and marketing services but traditionally they've also held massive power with all but star authors because they controlled access to the expensive processes of printing and distribution. They are still highly relevant in electronic publishing but possibly not as powerful as the current players want.