[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Cthulhu

When I first joined, there was a member who very aggressively argued that there is no value imparted by a publisher, and that digital rights software completely robs a digital text of value.

I could never understand that petulant and--in my opinion--incorrect stance.

I concur, though I see them as separate contentions.

First and foremost, a publisher is a filter. Publisher make their living selling books, and have an interest in acquiring books that will sell. I've encountered folks claiming that publishers add no value, but most have been folks who haven't been able to get published. It was sour grapes, pure and simple. In a few cases they had a legitimate beef about good work being passed over, but there's a good reason most of it got rejected. (Talk to anyone who has read slush...)

I poked around years back in various on-line forums devoted to writing, with folks who would post samples asking for criticism. It was quickly apparent that they didn't want actual criticism: they wanted to be told how great their stuff was. Folks like me who tried to offer practical advice on the assumption that folks in the forum might want to sell what they wrote, and offered suggestions on how to sell it, were not greeted with favor.

Writing is intertwined with ego, and is perilous to self-image. You need persistence and a thick skin to become a selling writer. The late SF writer Harry C. Stubbs (Hal Clement) was on a panel at a con a few years before he died, where the topic was how you knew when you made the grade and your stuff would sell. Other folks on the topic made pious pronouncements about how they knew they'd turned that magic corner. Then Hal said "I still don't know! I get rejected all the time!" The other panelists then hemmed and hawed and admitted they were perhaps a bit optimistic in their statements, and did still have a level of uncertainty. After all, if Hal Clement, a Grand Master of SFWA, could freely admit to still collecting rejection slips... (And that was Harry. There wasn't a pretentious bone in his body. It wouldn't occur to him to not admit to still getting rejected.)

Many years ago, SF writer Norman Spinrad opined that there should be enough magazines produced that everyone could get published. My thought then was "That's very nice, Norman, but who would read it?" Now, with the Internet and self-publishing setups like Lulu.com, everybody can get published, but I still ask the same question.

If you write, I assume you want people to read what you write, and you might even like to get paid for writing. That requires reaching an audience who will like your stuff well enough to buy it, and helping to make it good enough to buy and reaching that audience is what a publisher does. You can argue that many do it badly and have a point, but it's still what they do. The smart houses know what they do well and stick to it. One editor friend described rejecting books she personally loved, because she knew her house didn't know how to sell that kind of work. Back to the agent it went, with a suggestion or two about possible better homes.

As a case in point, Baen Books does mid-level action/adventure SF and Fantasy. They know that market, they're good at it, and they stick to what they are good at. People buy Baen Books in part because they know what they are getting, and the fact that Baen published it means it will be a good example of that sort of book.

On similar lines, I once made a Tor editor happy by stating I would buy a first novel by a new author because Tor published it, and I'd learned to trust their taste.

Proofreaders, editors, et al, have a role and it can be important. Just like producers or A & R people in music, some talent must be developed.

Correct. And publishers provide marketing and distribution, giving your book a better chance of actually being seen by the folks who might want to buy and read it.

As for DRM, I see it as at best a necessary evil, and want to see it go away for practical and philosophical reasons.

The practical reason is simple: I want to get electronic content once, and read it on whatever device I happen to have. DRM may get in the way. What if my DRM protected copy is locked to a particular device, and I lose or break that device? I may still have file backed up elsewhere, but I can't read it.

I sidestep the issue. I don't buy DRM protected content. Most of what I have these days is in HTML format, which I can read directly in a browser on desktop or laptop, and convert readily to a form I can read on my PDA. I'm also accumulating stuff in Mobipocket format, mostly due to the efforts of folks here, who have been producing finely crafted electronic editions of classic material.

The philosophical reason is an objection to the mindset underlying use of DRM. People who use DRM seem to operate from an assumption that the market is mostly composed of thieves, who will happily copy and share unprotected work, and the only was to make any money on electronic content is to lock it down so that can't be done.

Perhaps I'm an optimist with a too rosy view of my fellow human beings, but I don't agree. There will certainly be people who will copy and share, and never care about compensation to the folks who created the work, let alone those who issued it in electronic form. But I think enough of the market is honest and honorable that DRM is not a necessity. Produce the right content, price it properly, and make it easy to buy, and you can sell stuff and make money. I always want to ask someone pressing for use of DRM "Why do you assume the market will rip you off if you don't use DRM? Is it because it's what you would do in their place, and you assume everyone else is a no-good so-and-so, just like you?"

If I'm stuck with DRM, Mobipocket's is probably the least odious. You can register up to five devices to read Mobi content, and they have a version of their reader for just about everything but Mac OS/X, so you likely can read it on whatever you happen to have.

My point is that I want more of the backlog released in a digital format. Preferably, sell it for $10.00 or so. Am not keen to pay $25.00 for an ebook because I hate doing it for a physical book. $15.00 is a high premium for their property occupying space in my domicile.

You and everybody else. I think we'll see that happening, but it will be a slow process. First, the backlist needs to be in a form that can be issued electronically, and in some cases the original electronic manuscripts from which the printers prepared plates may no longer exist, and will need to be recreated.

To clarify, by first-run I meant a nice, new hardcover copy, not necessarily pristine antique texts.

Agreed. Facsimile editions are a special niche.

Think that I will have to bite the bullet and fire some emails into the ether at various publisher's websites, hoping that they reach the inbox that will do the most good.

That's the tricky part. Navigating the corporate hierarchy and knowing who you need to reach is a challenge.
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Dennis