Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
I'm not seeing why you think this. I can't think of a single book written in the last 10 years that I wanted that wasn't available as an e-book. I'm sure there must be some out there, but it's very much a rarity. What exactly do you think they are obstructing and in denial about? DRM? Book prices?
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Many things, though I suspect you will not agree. I will discuss just some of what I see as the major ones here. Certainly ebook pricing. I believe that they are deliberately seeking to slow ebook adoption in order to preserve their print book market for as long as possible. This may not be an irrational tactic from their point of view, and it does seem to be working to some extent. But it is a short term tactic and a dangerous one for them. It is detrimental to their authors, who bear the brunt of this tactic. They are losing market share and have stood idly by and watched the development of a huge and growing market in which they play no role. At the same time, they delude themselves that their product is so superior that it is in essence a market of its own, and not in competition with the cheaper Indie market. On the supply side, their response to much better deals for authors in the Indie market has not, as one would expect, been to themselves offer better deals for authors. It has been to offer even worse terms, slash advances, cut many authors and engage in a rights grab. Their source of best selling authors in the future must surely be from the Indie ranks, and to attract such authors they will have to offer very good terms indeed and accept only limited rights. I will be interested to observe what their strategy is as their mega selling authors cease to write new books. Perhaps they do have an intelligent strategy to transition to the new state of affairs, and this is just a rational strategy to maximise their profits in the meantime. But I can't personally perceive such a strategy. All I can see so far is denial and short-sightedness and lost opportunities.
Finally, to return to your music industry analogy once more, imagine Amazon had not come along when it did. Certainly as better reading devices came along there would likely have been increasing piracy. Perhaps a Napster equivalent would have arisen, or simply a trade through the various file sharing systems. Publishers would possibly have offered ebooks in some form, no doubt at ridiculous prices, much as the record labels did with music files at different times. When Apple came along with IBooks it would have dominated distribution of ebooks, much as it did music. Or imagine the music industry with a timely Amazon. Apple may never have bothered with ITunes because it would have had to compete on price with an established player with deep pockets. But the one thing that could have happened in both Industries but did not is the established players embracing the new format and offering and controlling it themselves. Because they made the choice to take the safe road and not jeopardise their existing business model, which of course others then did anyway.