Quote:
Originally Posted by LBalsam
I recently attended a presentation by and spoke with one of the Sony's Reader evangelists.
He made it quite clear that the hold up is on the publishers' side. The publishers are terrified that the intellectual property they have made substantial investments in will end up posted on the Interest. Many publishers do not like the e-book business model because they are somewhat marginalized.
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If that's so, we probably shouldn't expect the publishers to sign on until they figure out how to get their desired piece of the pie... or until they see that they have no choice.
It's true, e-books will certainly take some of the power and control of the industry out of the hands of publishers. Unfortunately, that is the price of progress, and the only thing that can be said about that is, the publishers aren't the first industry to be turned upside-down over progress, and they won't be the last.
However, the sooner they figure out how they can survive and thrive in the face of change, the better for them... and, by extension, for us. It would seem that they would benefit from dedicating a unit to converting their old catalogs for e-book sales, even if it is as a loss-leader. But as such an effort would stil require printed text transcribers and proofers, then a file conversion department, even that isn't going to be cheap for them.
Still, publishing evolved to handle the first mass-printed books, then they evolved to handle paperbacks, and again to digitally process books. They can evolve again. They just have to make the effort, and bite the bullet if necessary.