MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

ClintBrauer · 05-12-2009, 01:41 PM

Well...my guess is their view is to get the most popular titles with the highest volume sales converted first.

Then...in a world of limited resources, they can only "convert" so many titles a day.

Here are the costs to conversion:

1.) First off you must have the meta-data arranged properly. If it's anything like what I experienced in music, it's a very challenging process. Yes you can throw people at it....but the data validation process is critical and requires custom software to fit the specific publisher situation.

2.) The conversion itself - Even if the source file is in PDF (which many are), then if you have anything beyond a single column with limited graphics to convert...it gets extremely time consuming and expensive. A few years ago the average for conversion was around $140 which since then is less than half of that for a single column "trade" book.

3.) Rights - Music business didn't even know what rights they had for a lot of their materials. It was on paper and not indexed. And given the control freak nature of those in the legal business (for good reason), it took a lot of time to "discover" what rights they had.

Then if they didn't have the rights...then they must enter into negotiations to secure them. Of course this is often adversarial so it takes time.

I agree with you is that the cost argument can only be taken so far. At the end of the day you either are willing to invest in a business or you are not.

If you are not, time to get out of that business or someone is going to take it away from you. (either pirates, competitors or your investors)

05-12-2009, 01:41 PM	#48
ClintBrauer Enthusiast Posts: 43 Karma: 240 Join Date: Oct 2008 Device: Readius	Well...my guess is their view is to get the most popular titles with the highest volume sales converted first. Then...in a world of limited resources, they can only "convert" so many titles a day. Here are the costs to conversion: 1.) First off you must have the meta-data arranged properly. If it's anything like what I experienced in music, it's a very challenging process. Yes you can throw people at it....but the data validation process is critical and requires custom software to fit the specific publisher situation. 2.) The conversion itself - Even if the source file is in PDF (which many are), then if you have anything beyond a single column with limited graphics to convert...it gets extremely time consuming and expensive. A few years ago the average for conversion was around $140 which since then is less than half of that for a single column "trade" book. 3.) Rights - Music business didn't even know what rights they had for a lot of their materials. It was on paper and not indexed. And given the control freak nature of those in the legal business (for good reason), it took a lot of time to "discover" what rights they had. Then if they didn't have the rights...then they must enter into negotiations to secure them. Of course this is often adversarial so it takes time. I agree with you is that the cost argument can only be taken so far. At the end of the day you either are willing to invest in a business or you are not. If you are not, time to get out of that business or someone is going to take it away from you. (either pirates, competitors or your investors)