MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Discussion: eBook Publishing Model proposals

brecklundin · 12-29-2007, 04:38 AM

is "the risk of piracy" any more significant competition from 2nd hand book stores? Ebooks with DRM at a lower price would seem to ADD new customers that would otherwise wait for the previously read copies to hit the used book stores. I suspect that is Amazon's motivation on the $9.99 NYTBS deal. Amazon makes less on each individual sale but uses the economy of scale to predict they make more in the long term as there will not be saleable used copies. BTW, YES they are making a profit @ $9.99 for NYTBS...publicly traded corporations are REQUIRED to not sell anything at a loss. Do you really think you are getting a "free/discounted" phone from Verizon? Even the EVDO access is factored into the price for the Kindle...it's likely that could be the largest expense in producing the device. Sprint is not giving it to Amazon for free unless there is a way to generate revenue for Sprint or they are doing it under a beta-test agreement for their EVDO network.

What will restrict ebook sales (specifically for a proprietary DRM format) is the cost of the reader device. Until the devices can be bought by everyone ebook sales will not be a viable revenue stream. Baen works because of portability/device independence which allows for increase total volume of sales. Baen's nurturing of folks who are doing the Cybook Gen3 thing is another smart move that BigPubCo cannot do either...a device that supports almost anything you can throw at it. Supporting other DRM format's might present a conflict of interest issue because it is not the publisher's format but rather a a format controlled by a competitor.

Interestingly maybe Amazon's purchase of Mobipocket will allow it's eventual absorption into Amazon itself which would perhaps expand Amazon's ability to support other DRM format's. Also, as Mobipocket books with DRM are still the competition because Mobipocket is run as a separate company so Amazon might not be allowed to add support for the device. Not sure...

Portability and device cost are the keys in my opinion.

12-29-2007, 04:38 AM	#124
brecklundin Banned Posts: 1,906 Karma: 15348 Join Date: Jun 2007 Device: mine	is "the risk of piracy" any more significant competition from 2nd hand book stores? Ebooks with DRM at a lower price would seem to ADD new customers that would otherwise wait for the previously read copies to hit the used book stores. I suspect that is Amazon's motivation on the $9.99 NYTBS deal. Amazon makes less on each individual sale but uses the economy of scale to predict they make more in the long term as there will not be saleable used copies. BTW, YES they are making a profit @ $9.99 for NYTBS...publicly traded corporations are REQUIRED to not sell anything at a loss. Do you really think you are getting a "free/discounted" phone from Verizon? Even the EVDO access is factored into the price for the Kindle...it's likely that could be the largest expense in producing the device. Sprint is not giving it to Amazon for free unless there is a way to generate revenue for Sprint or they are doing it under a beta-test agreement for their EVDO network. What will restrict ebook sales (specifically for a proprietary DRM format) is the cost of the reader device. Until the devices can be bought by everyone ebook sales will not be a viable revenue stream. Baen works because of portability/device independence which allows for increase total volume of sales. Baen's nurturing of folks who are doing the Cybook Gen3 thing is another smart move that BigPubCo cannot do either...a device that supports almost anything you can throw at it. Supporting other DRM format's might present a conflict of interest issue because it is not the publisher's format but rather a a format controlled by a competitor. Interestingly maybe Amazon's purchase of Mobipocket will allow it's eventual absorption into Amazon itself which would perhaps expand Amazon's ability to support other DRM format's. Also, as Mobipocket books with DRM are still the competition because Mobipocket is run as a separate company so Amazon might not be allowed to add support for the device. Not sure... Portability and device cost are the keys in my opinion. Last edited by brecklundin; 12-29-2007 at 05:23 AM.