Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
Well, if that's the case, then I guess we should all stop discussing how the industry could be made better and healthier, go back to OCR'ing more public domain books for each other, and talking about how DRM, like, really, really sucks, dude.
The fact is, the books business is not exactly like the music, software and video markets. However, books publishers are looking to those businesses, seeing the troubles they went through, and digging their heads into the sand. The most progressive company out there... Amazon... is tying their customers into one device, one format (okay, two, really) and one channel, with DRM, as close to an iTunes-like experience as can be, and still, they can't get all publishers on the bandwagon. And in the meantime, a lot of older books are not getting converted into a format that people can use.
The publishers are not making desisions, good or bad, and it's because they do not have good information to go by, including info on what customers want. We are their customers, and we are discussing what we want, what we do not want, and what we will buy. And as the publishers do not seem to know how to give it to us, it behooves us to come up with suggestions and solutions for them to think about.
Other threads have made it clear that the publishing industry does know about MobileRead, and look to us for information about the market from the consumer's POV. These threads aren't just to hear ourselves talk... we're trying to participate in the development of a growing market. We're the test group, and as such, our responses are actually heard.
Which is why I say, based on common themes in these threads, it's no wonder Amazon gave us the Kindle system to lock books into a single device. It's what we, as a group, have indicated to those outside will be the only way to put books out there that will not be ripped off.
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Steve,
How on earth could you take my response to you as saying we shouldn't discuss things when you were the one telling me I shouldn't state my opinion at all? Please.
Secondly, no, ebooks are not like music and video since there are fewer other ways to make money than actual sale of the content which makes illegal downloads even more scary for the publishers. Music has live performances. Video has cinema and TV. Very few books make money with anything other than book sales.
Thirdly, I'm sure publishers do know about us. Yet I don't see the bigger publishers taking many of our suggestions. Places like Baen do. We're their demographic. If the larger publishers out there thought we were a representative sample of their potential market, I don't think they'd worry about DRM at all. If you took this place as the microcosm, you'd think very few people downloaded without paying.
I don't see how telling me to shut up lest the publishers think people might share files helps anything. I think they're on to it.