Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
What is going on is a "perfect storm" of out-dated practices converging to dump on consumers....
|
Ugh, I hate that metaphor. It's so overused.
I can't quote your entire post, so here goes.
• Nationalism does apply in some places (especially India, and I presume Japan) but I don't think that's what is holding things up. It's just that sorting out all the digital rights is complex, expensive and involves lawyers.
• Middle-men have gotten squeezed for years, and are largely out of the ebook game. Publishers and retailers aren't trying to save them either.
• I concur it is much easier to deliver a digital good internationally compared to a physical good. That doesn't change the fact that a small publisher isn't going to have the resources to effectively distribute one of their books internationally.
As long as different territories have different cultures, languages, tax structures, business networks and consumer tastes, it's going to make sense to deal with local publishers and local retailers.
• It may not be in an author's best interests to sign over exclusive international digital rights. It certainly weakens their bargaining position, and puts them in a real bind if they are highly popular abroad but unpopular at home, since the "home" publisher may be less enthusiastic about the author.
• I don't think resolution is that far off. In the US, which has the most mature digital market so far, new books rarely have the kind of availability problems they did 18-24 months ago.
Sure, some publishers are hanging on to the "old" ways (which, really, are only 5-10 years old). But there are valid business reasons for utilizing regional expertise that extend beyond existing contractual obligations, and I for one expect that to continue. What will happen is the local publishers will get their act in gear as ebooks surge in popularity in those nations.
It's only going to seem like a "long time" to those whose patience is measured in nanoseconds rather than months.