Quote:
Originally Posted by wallcraft
Note that it is already common for a publisher to provide a single ebook format to its ebook distributors, with the distributors doing the conversion to other formats.
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I'm wondering about this statement. Maybe there are other factors involved, but it seems to me that if this is true then it would make sense for the distributor to offer the book in any format the buyer wanted (or at least any format the distributor supports). Of course I'm thinking of FW here and they seem to have many books that are only offered in one or two formats.
Why limit their market unless they must? (Before someone mentions GR, I'll point out that they limit their market that way because the publisher insists on it. I can maybe see the publisher insisting that the book be sold in a DRM'd format, but can't see why they'd restrict it any further than that.)
So, it seems to me that either the statement isn't true or, possibly, that it's a fairly recent innovation and the books that are offered in limited formats are older ones that were provided in those formats by the publishers.
Or some other reason entirely that I just haven't been able to think of.