MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Sir "Sony" Stringer is in love with his e-book reader

NatCh · 06-07-2006, 11:00 AM

dugbug -- since this is the mobileread forum, you're mostly talking with folks who read perhaps more than most.

ultim8fury & Riocaz -- since this is the mobileread forum, we're mostly folks who read perhaps more than most.

That being the case, the music industry differs from the publishing industry in another rather fundamental way. The music industry expects, needs and is structured for a very high volume. Part of this is because their product is such a short format, part is because it's kind of a background to our worlds (as dugbug pointed out).

The Publishing industry on the other hand is arranged around a much lower product flow. Again, a lot of this is the nature of the pruduct; using it does take a focus of time and attention.

Something they share, however, is that a large chunk of their costs are tied up in physical packaging of their product -- a product that can easily survive and work without that physical packaging.

The Music industry has discovered that if they sell their product digitally, they lose the cost of that packaging. What does a CD cost? About 15 USD? Now if you buy 15 songs as MP3's, at .99 USD each, hmm. that's 14.85 USD? (I don't trust my arithmatic unless I check it with a calculator

) so their getting almost as much revenue with less cost. I have no idea what packaging and shipping a CD costs, but I'm guessing that it's more than .15 USD apiece.

I do know that the majority of the cost of making a book is the printing, and shipping is not inconsiderable either.

So, if a publisher were to convert even a portion of their sales to digital they would increase their profit on those sales to the difference between the cost of delivering it electronically vs. paper. Even if they gave buyers a discount of part of that difference they still come out ahead. Add in that all modern books exist in an electronic format to begin with (so there's no extra cost to make them that way), and you can see that the publishing industry would have a vested interest in e-books -- if they can get past their pirating concerns.

The main reasons that e-readers have not done well in the past are readability, poor battery life, and that getting an e-book to read onto whatever you're reading it on (what with getting it electronic in the first place and converting it to a format you can use) has been a major pain in the sitter-downer. Of course, when they insist on charging more for the product than they do for the new-published hardback version....

I think that a reader with excellent readability, great battery life, and ability to handle a wide variety of formats (or a single generally accepted standard format) would go a long way toward changing the public opinion on e-readers. It wouldn't happen quickly, which means it will be difficult, but I think it would happen. But we are going to have to reach some sort of mutual happy place on the piracey issue with the publishers, and they seem to be giving some, anyway.

BTW, I read more than 50 books in a single year. And I read 'em multiple times, if they're any good, that is -- I don't consider a book to be good unless I want to read it more than once.

06-07-2006, 11:00 AM	#10
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	dugbug -- since this is the mobileread forum, you're mostly talking with folks who read perhaps more than most. ultim8fury & Riocaz -- since this is the mobileread forum, we're mostly folks who read perhaps more than most. That being the case, the music industry differs from the publishing industry in another rather fundamental way. The music industry expects, needs and is structured for a very high volume. Part of this is because their product is such a short format, part is because it's kind of a background to our worlds (as dugbug pointed out). The Publishing industry on the other hand is arranged around a much lower product flow. Again, a lot of this is the nature of the pruduct; using it does take a focus of time and attention. Something they share, however, is that a large chunk of their costs are tied up in physical packaging of their product -- a product that can easily survive and work without that physical packaging. The Music industry has discovered that if they sell their product digitally, they lose the cost of that packaging. What does a CD cost? About 15 USD? Now if you buy 15 songs as MP3's, at .99 USD each, hmm. that's 14.85 USD? (I don't trust my arithmatic unless I check it with a calculator ) so their getting almost as much revenue with less cost. I have no idea what packaging and shipping a CD costs, but I'm guessing that it's more than .15 USD apiece. I do know that the majority of the cost of making a book is the printing, and shipping is not inconsiderable either. So, if a publisher were to convert even a portion of their sales to digital they would increase their profit on those sales to the difference between the cost of delivering it electronically vs. paper. Even if they gave buyers a discount of part of that difference they still come out ahead. Add in that all modern books exist in an electronic format to begin with (so there's no extra cost to make them that way), and you can see that the publishing industry would have a vested interest in e-books -- if they can get past their pirating concerns. The main reasons that e-readers have not done well in the past are readability, poor battery life, and that getting an e-book to read onto whatever you're reading it on (what with getting it electronic in the first place and converting it to a format you can use) has been a major pain in the sitter-downer. Of course, when they insist on charging more for the product than they do for the new-published hardback version.... I think that a reader with excellent readability, great battery life, and ability to handle a wide variety of formats (or a single generally accepted standard format) would go a long way toward changing the public opinion on e-readers. It wouldn't happen quickly, which means it will be difficult, but I think it would happen. But we are going to have to reach some sort of mutual happy place on the piracey issue with the publishers, and they seem to be giving some, anyway. BTW, I read more than 50 books in a single year. And I read 'em multiple times, if they're any good, that is -- I don't consider a book to be good unless I want to read it more than once.