Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
But why not keep digitial versions to be used a ebooks? Why have to then take a paper copy and have to scan/ORC it? It would seem to me to be a lot easier to take the ready-to-go digital copy and format shift it. Heck, I'd love to get a job preparing ebooks from digital content.
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...for reasons many have posted here, most of them related to the nature of being middlemen: control.
By destroying the resource that would facilitate their own (delusional, self-perceived) "demise" they can say that the cost of getting into the ebiz is high, etc.
I mean, is there really any
technological reason to use a word processor to write a book, then print it out doublespaced in a monospaced font and submit two copies to a publisher in this day and age? I mean *really*?
In a fantasy world where the publishing model for books de facto was digital the costs associated with doing so would be so low compared to paper that the publishers would lose some leverage in negotiating their percentage of their 'cut' so the incentive there "long term" is practically nil. Flow control and market shaping save the day...again
It's a highly competitive world out there for writers, and once you make it mainstream, you kind of figure out too that it is not to your advantage to change this system. The barriers to entry serve to keep guys like the writers that frequent here out of the way.
It's kind of
mechakucha if you ask me. While I am NOT a fan of trade unionism, I do admire the SAG here in the USA for their Actor's Strike a few years back in the USA. Practically every "big name" actor involved at the time pretty much had the same reasoning: they didn't need it, but there are scores of actors out there that would never make it "big" that did. They remembered what it was like "in the trenches" as it were, and realized that it could easily have been them still there.
If there was that kind of thing going on amongst writes in a top-down sort of way, things would be different. Imagine if like 2-5 "big name, big money" authors started their own ePublishing house. A lot of writers would be able to do what they love to do and make a decent living out of it, a LOT more diverse books would be seen and overall, it would be better.
There is enough capital floating around that a "writer's publisher" could get even get a ubiquitous reader device out there. To do that would require a "good enough" device at the iPod price point, with the "value-add" of either shipping with these Big Name Author's books in place or a scheme to download the eBook if you have the pBook. The secret to the iPod's sucess isn't just clever marketing...its that it is cheap and adds value to the music library you already own.
What's a "good enough" device, you may ask. Well, let's look to the market leaders for some ideas...Nintendo and Apple.
It needs to be priced below the competitors, small, and easy to use. It would have *less features* than competing products but a lower price.
So, I'd say a device priced in the iPod Nano range ($200) with an eInk screen...but to get it in that range, make it *slightly smaller* than the current models...say 3/4ths the size in both dimensions.
You want the minimal amount of of buttons, but enough to use an onscreen keyboard for "quick notes" but not a full chicklet keyboard.
OTA anywhere buying...maybe. I don't know that too many people with iPods and iPhones that can do this actually bother. iTunes is well understood, tho the Whispernet is attractive, its not a real killer app at $400 price of entry.
Then, innovate in the service too by allowing (gasp) buyers of ebooks to print one copy of it should they choose to do so.
Further innovation would be in the revenue sharing model: do what CD-Baby does.
Do these things, and I'm pretty sure eBooks will take off...but its going to take some support from folks already in the pBook industry and some innovative *thinking* to go with it.
But you know, some people forget where they come from, and who it is they are supposed to be serving and selling to, so we have this mess instead.
Too bad.