Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
My question to you is how much extra would you be willing to pay for a paper/ebook bundle?
|
I would guess, one extra twentieth. A few calculations bring me in that order, as I try to estimate what could be the cost overhead for the publisher to also have an electronic distribution mechanism.
The IT requirements depend on the size of the item production, but I think they may scale linearly.
For a smallish publisher, I would say an expense around 200$/month may be enough for the development and maintenance of the infrastructure. For one million printed items (per year) you need a database not far from the order of a mere gigabyte, considering some real-world implementations.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
The medium for eBooks also has a cost. It does cost to covert the electronic file or scan/OCR.
|
Electronic versions today would be produced anyway. Conversion is comparatively cheap. Scanning is hardly a requirement anymore nowadays - what had to be scanned was, the rest is past the age of manuscripts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
I know some who think that if you pay for a book, then you have the right to convert it to whatever format you want. Legally you don't
|
Writing as somebody who spent a huge amount of effort scanning texts decades ago because I felt it was much better to study them through a word processor, if somebody told me I had no legal right I would have briskly protested fullest fair use. But of course, in those times electronic copies for sale did not exist. In that academic context, my whole interest was for the text, not for its container.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
It would also put a lot of eBook shops out of business.
|
I do not see why. And I did not know we had so many. (Any sources? Does a "list" exist? Maybe here in this site? Real interest. Most references to books around are links to realms of Bezos', as if he shared the profits.)
And really, for cultural preservation I see warehouse-like stores as much more important than post-postal (the goods come to you, you do not go to the goods) resellers. Culture moves in places of exchange, places where visitors may meet. Samarkand, the market.