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Originally Posted by DiapDealer
Read those first couple of sentences again. Seriously. You've just indicated that there was an "ebook revolution" as far back as Microsoft Reader and the .LIT format. You've even indicated that there was a leading ebook seller before Amazon. I don't care about specific companies. I'm only addressing the fact that there were clear indicators that ebooks were going to be a big deal before Amazon or Apple or Sony ever entered the device/ereader/app picture. You just supplied further evidence of that. So can we drop the pretense that publishers were utterly blindsided by ebooks? Please?
There were harbingers. It was their industry. I don't know if they could have done anything about it—I don't really care. I just know they (or Shatzkin, or you) don't get to claim they got t-boned without warning by the ebook's popularity.
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Agreed. They weren't blindsided by ebooks. They were blindsided by their own egos and their belief that they could hobble ebooks to the extent that only a few freaks would buy them to read on their computers or PDAs. What was happening to newspapers and magazines wasn't going to happen to them, nosirree. No free content gravy train with books, in fact they decided to charge hardcover prices for ebooks, slapped DRM on everything, and sat back to watch the fad play out. If a few idiots are willing to overpay for pixels who are they to complain? <snigger> Except they were wrong, people are actually willing to pay for the convenience digital offers. It wasn't a fad, it was a trend. Whoops. Amazon came along and picked up the reins, but the horses were out of the barn long before that.