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dhbailey · 05-26-2007, 07:42 AM

I, too, have more books than I'll ever read, lined up. Of course, many that I think I might be interested in may turn out in reality to be deleted after a few pages.

But I think the ebook marketplace which Tim is complaining about is going to take a while to catch up. Just as the paperback marketplace in bookstores often needs to catch up.

There are lots of authors which I have found over the years who have been published for more than 10 years and have a fairly nice back-catalog of books, and when I go to order books not on the shelves, I get told by Barnes and Noble or Border's that the books I want haven't been released yet. What they actually are saying (although their computer screens don't indicate this) is that the original printings are out of print and the publishers are gradually bringing the books back into print, as they feel the marketplace will bear.

Publishers are in business to make money. Plain and simple. They are not here to further the culture, they are not here so that we can read our favorite authors except that by publishing our favorite authors they can sell us the books.

The publishing world is firmly entrenched in the manuscript-to-printer-to-binder-to-distributer-to-bookstore-to-customer business model. It's how they've done business for hundreds of years. Once a book has been printed, those plates aren't stored for future printings -- they're melted down and used for new books. So when they reprint books, it has historically involved a large expense in having the book typeset again, then going through the whole printing/binding process, etc. Publishers need to know they will recoup their expenses and make a profit on that process.

In this electronic age, the printing/binding/distributing expenses are minimal and since authors are expected to submit their works as digital files (I'm sure some of the big-name best-selling authors who want to send in typescripts are allowed to do so, but the up-and-coming new authors had better be digital or be damned), the time and expense in getting them ready to print is much less, and once done, there is no need ever to do it again, as the digital files can be stored forever (we won't get into the longevity of various storage media here). And that means that creating various ebook formats isn't all that time consuming anymore, either.

But I believe it is the publishers who do the conversions, not the on-line retailers such as Connect. Publishers want to know that their materials will be presented as they wish, and not left to the whims of a third-party. So they need to know that they will make a profit from a particular format before jumping whole-hog into converting back-catalog books, since many of those will need to be either scanned from printed versions, or manually entered into the computer, having originated as typescripts and not as digital files when originally submitted.

So, in the words of the immortal tv show Kung Fu, "Patience, little grasshopper."

And buy those books so that the publishers know there is a marketplace and will be encouraged to make more of their works available in Sony Reader format.

Project Gutenberg is terrific, but it will not get the next Spenser for Hire or Robert Ludlum book onto the Connect website. It won't even get the next reprint of an Agatha Christie copyrighted book onto the Connect web-site.

The only way to get those books and lots more onto the Connect website is to convince publishers that they can make money from putting their content there. So e-mail the publishers of your favorite authors and e-mail the authors themselves and tell them that you and your credit card are waiting for their offerings to appear.

05-26-2007, 07:42 AM	#6
dhbailey Guru Posts: 604 Karma: 733 Join Date: Mar 2007 Device: HP iPAQ211 / PRS 500, 700 and 505	I, too, have more books than I'll ever read, lined up. Of course, many that I think I might be interested in may turn out in reality to be deleted after a few pages. But I think the ebook marketplace which Tim is complaining about is going to take a while to catch up. Just as the paperback marketplace in bookstores often needs to catch up. There are lots of authors which I have found over the years who have been published for more than 10 years and have a fairly nice back-catalog of books, and when I go to order books not on the shelves, I get told by Barnes and Noble or Border's that the books I want haven't been released yet. What they actually are saying (although their computer screens don't indicate this) is that the original printings are out of print and the publishers are gradually bringing the books back into print, as they feel the marketplace will bear. Publishers are in business to make money. Plain and simple. They are not here to further the culture, they are not here so that we can read our favorite authors except that by publishing our favorite authors they can sell us the books. The publishing world is firmly entrenched in the manuscript-to-printer-to-binder-to-distributer-to-bookstore-to-customer business model. It's how they've done business for hundreds of years. Once a book has been printed, those plates aren't stored for future printings -- they're melted down and used for new books. So when they reprint books, it has historically involved a large expense in having the book typeset again, then going through the whole printing/binding process, etc. Publishers need to know they will recoup their expenses and make a profit on that process. In this electronic age, the printing/binding/distributing expenses are minimal and since authors are expected to submit their works as digital files (I'm sure some of the big-name best-selling authors who want to send in typescripts are allowed to do so, but the up-and-coming new authors had better be digital or be damned), the time and expense in getting them ready to print is much less, and once done, there is no need ever to do it again, as the digital files can be stored forever (we won't get into the longevity of various storage media here). And that means that creating various ebook formats isn't all that time consuming anymore, either. But I believe it is the publishers who do the conversions, not the on-line retailers such as Connect. Publishers want to know that their materials will be presented as they wish, and not left to the whims of a third-party. So they need to know that they will make a profit from a particular format before jumping whole-hog into converting back-catalog books, since many of those will need to be either scanned from printed versions, or manually entered into the computer, having originated as typescripts and not as digital files when originally submitted. So, in the words of the immortal tv show Kung Fu, "Patience, little grasshopper." And buy those books so that the publishers know there is a marketplace and will be encouraged to make more of their works available in Sony Reader format. Project Gutenberg is terrific, but it will not get the next Spenser for Hire or Robert Ludlum book onto the Connect website. It won't even get the next reprint of an Agatha Christie copyrighted book onto the Connect web-site. The only way to get those books and lots more onto the Connect website is to convince publishers that they can make money from putting their content there. So e-mail the publishers of your favorite authors and e-mail the authors themselves and tell them that you and your credit card are waiting for their offerings to appear.