[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by BillSmithBooks

Dennis:

I agree with you on most everything you said.

Thank you.

I miss those days, too. I do most of my writing on an AlphaSmart (will be upgrading from a Dana to a Neo this week) BECAUSE it uses AA batteries--the Neo runs 500 hours on a set of AAs.

I'm aware of the Alphasmart devices, and know people who have them. Earlier versions shipped with an OEM version of Blue Nomad's WordSmith as the word processor. I've been using WordSmith for years, and still consider it the best extant program for creating text on a PalmOS device.

Not being hostage to a proprietary battery that someday WILL die is a huge advantage.

I think the assumption is that by the time the battery dies, you will have already upgraded to a newer and more powerful device.

To me that is one of the prime advantages of HTML...run it on almost anything but also very easy to convert to a different format if that is your preference.

Exactly. It's a good underlying format. I can convert to Plucker (offline HTML viewer for PalmOS devices) or MobiPocket format here easily, and to other formats wuith a little more effort. Things like MobiPocket are essentially encapsulated HTML, so conversion is in part putting a wrapper around the HTML source.

That is undeniably true...something that will be utterly ignored by the average user.


I believe that, incorrect as it may be, the average consumer will come to equate EPUB with DRM'd ebooks even though they are completely separate matters.

That depends on how many ePub books they encounter that aren't DRMed.

But ultimately, DRM is not tied to ebook format. It's a publisher/vendor decision, and for the most part, current commercial titles will be protected by DRM, regardless of what format they are offered in. Let's say the user does decide that ePub is evil because of DRM. What do they get instead? Unless they want to play games with cracking DRM and format shifting, they'll get DRM regardless.

You're correct on that. I just think readers will reject this approach.

That may well be, But that won't be Adobe's problem. They aren't selling to the average user. The readers will reject Adobe's customers, not Adobe.

I think the Horrible Example is a result of the industry not listening to what customers wanted--cheap, backup-able, move from one device to another.

I think DRM made music piracy a lot more prevalent than it would have been if, say, they'd gone to non-DRM'd MP3s, 99 cents a single, $5 for a whole album right off the bat.

I think you might be right. But I think the music industry would still have gone through massive and uncomfortable changes.

I sure hope so.

That's what I've bet my business model on...because it's what I want as a reader.

I think most reasonable people get the idea of "Hey, I really like this guy's stuff. I might want to pay him so he can afford to write more stories for me to enjoy so he doesn't have to flip burgers to pay the mortgage."

You and a lot of other folks.

The challenge for most authors is described by Cory Doctorow's comment "The problem for the writer isn't piracy, it's obscurity". I think he's dead on. Unless you are an established best seller like Stephen King, your problem is marketing. How do you let the folks who might be interested in what you write know that you exist, and have books they might like to read?

That's the piece people complaining about publishers forget. Half of the publisher's job is making the reader aware you exist. There are lots of complaints, often valid, about how poorly they often do it, but they do it.
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Dennis