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Which "publishers" are you talking about? Sony? Apple? Amazon? The ones that made
dedicated eReaders available? Calling them publishers would be totally inaccurate,
except that they are adding certain elements to the ebooks. Elements that cause a
good deal of the discussion here on MR.
Now, the "real" publishers of books, seem to have found that making eBooks is a very
profitable way to sell the books they produce. For the most part, they are new to this
publishing method and have not been the ones to advance the eBook technology. For
now at least, they are still seeing the volume of their book sales from their paper books.
(Remember I'm talking here about the traditional publishing houses and the sale of the
books by their major contracted authors. [Amazon can be selling more <$10 ebooks than
their paper books, but they are not the major titles.]) What the publishing houses see
are sales of their ebooks as a minor, but growing segment of their book sales.
The publishing houses that pay attention and seek to optimize ebook production and
customer (us & your "most readers") acceptance/interest; will gain a competitive edge.
The issues that the "early adopters" take note of, are the very ones that may have a
real impact on what the company is prepared to offer, in the future. All business
decisions, corporate or otherwise, have a cost benefit component, but the least of that
relates to consumer segument.
Publishing has been around a long time and has gone through some changes, to be sure,
but many of these houses started when books were a luxury item. They may have come
to learn that they could make more money on "Penny Dreadfuls", but they maintained a
higher opinion of themselves that may still effect their thinking. At some point they will
see the value of the ebook, and seek to find an edge for their company, in terms of
their ebook products.
Luck;
Ken
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