MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - People who want no DRM are impractical dreamers...

HamsterRage · 03-23-2011, 08:50 PM

I'm going to agree for sure that some people are collectors. I've got shelves and shelves of books that I've bought over decades so I understand the motivation.

Although I gather that it's been discussed in other threads, I'd have to say that I've got a fair amount of doubt that any significant proportion of readers is rereading a substantial amount of their collection on a regular basis multiple times. I can see having a small portion that get reread, no problem, and I do that myself. But I'd be willing to bet that 95% of books that 90% of the avid readers are reading is new (to them) content.

I'm lucky enough that I work within an easy walk of about 4 good used book stores, so for me I would only ever buy a new book if it was unavailable in any of those used stores first. Which means it would have to be something very specific, and a little out of the mainstream. Which further means that the overwhelming majority of my reading was done with books that somebody else read once, possibly lent to their friends and then ditched. And if they were cheap like me, they bought it used too.

I'd classify myself as an avid reader. Probably reading in the range of 100 books a year. I have never seen an economic advantage in picking up one of the loyalty cards from the biggest new book chain in Canada, which gives 10% off on all purchases after dropping $30 for the card. Why? Because there's no way I'd be buying even the 25 of those 100 books, which would be the break-even point on the card, as new books.

So to me, easy transfer of a pbook from person to person has been a crucial part of the reading experience in the past. For publishers to expect to use the new media as a way to choke off that channel so that every single piece of new content every reader reads comes from the publisher as a new sale at a price the same as a pbook really annoys me. To me, that's what agency pricing and DRM seem to be trying to do.

Honestly, I'd be happy if ebooks were "sold" as a single read rental for a buck or two a shot. At a rate like that, even books that I read 5 or 6 times over my life would still come out as a wash with buying a pbook and holding on to it.

03-23-2011, 08:50 PM	#436
HamsterRage Evangelist Posts: 435 Karma: 24326 Join Date: Jun 2010 Device: Kobo	I'm going to agree for sure that some people are collectors. I've got shelves and shelves of books that I've bought over decades so I understand the motivation. Although I gather that it's been discussed in other threads, I'd have to say that I've got a fair amount of doubt that any significant proportion of readers is rereading a substantial amount of their collection on a regular basis multiple times. I can see having a small portion that get reread, no problem, and I do that myself. But I'd be willing to bet that 95% of books that 90% of the avid readers are reading is new (to them) content. I'm lucky enough that I work within an easy walk of about 4 good used book stores, so for me I would only ever buy a new book if it was unavailable in any of those used stores first. Which means it would have to be something very specific, and a little out of the mainstream. Which further means that the overwhelming majority of my reading was done with books that somebody else read once, possibly lent to their friends and then ditched. And if they were cheap like me, they bought it used too. I'd classify myself as an avid reader. Probably reading in the range of 100 books a year. I have never seen an economic advantage in picking up one of the loyalty cards from the biggest new book chain in Canada, which gives 10% off on all purchases after dropping $30 for the card. Why? Because there's no way I'd be buying even the 25 of those 100 books, which would be the break-even point on the card, as new books. So to me, easy transfer of a pbook from person to person has been a crucial part of the reading experience in the past. For publishers to expect to use the new media as a way to choke off that channel so that every single piece of new content every reader reads comes from the publisher as a new sale at a price the same as a pbook really annoys me. To me, that's what agency pricing and DRM seem to be trying to do. Honestly, I'd be happy if ebooks were "sold" as a single read rental for a buck or two a shot. At a rate like that, even books that I read 5 or 6 times over my life would still come out as a wash with buying a pbook and holding on to it.