[KevinH]

> • Because the cost is not zero. It can cost quite a bit of money
> to convert a book into epub, mobi or other formats.

I simply do not believe this is true if any electronic version of the book exists. With the right tools, you can do Word to RTF to xhtml and keep most if not all of the styles. If I start with an electronic version it should not take even 1 full person day (at full costing say $100/hr) to convert an electronic version of the book to an ebook.

> • Because ebooks, for all the hype, still constitute 3-5% of
> sales (possibly less, internationally)

So then why the need to even worry about geo restrictions at all. I can drive to the Buffalo in under 3 hours from my house and buy books (hardbound) until my heart is content. The bulk of the population of Canada could claim the same thing (within about 100 miles of the US border). This is allowed and I am sure would be welcomed by every book store near the border in the US. I just can't buy them online.

> • Because rights over electronic editions are not always
> clear-cut. It's explicitly addressed in more recent contracts,
> but not always in older agreements.

So authors are not required to assign copyright when they get published? Even so, I can not believe that offered a reasonable piece of the pie, all authors would choose to NOT have their paperback and out of print books available for sale worldwide.

> • In the US alone, around 250k new books are published
> each year; somewhere around 45k of those are fiction. If
> the publishers wanted to just convert all new fiction books
> from the last 10 years, that alone hits close to half a million
> books. And obviously, priority is going to the new books,
> which have much stronger sales than back catalog titles.

Again, in the academic journal business they have been asking for electronic versions for over the last 15 years or so. If an electronic version exists, then the costs to translate them (especially when handled in bulk) is not that large.

As an alternative, simply ask the authors themselves to create an ebook for any of their titles they would like to have for-sale that is 5 years or older or out of print. My guess is they would welcome the chance to get these books out their in e-book form as long as they receive the a decent percentage from every book sold.

> That's relatively rare. Also, it really doesn't cost a lot less to
> make a paper edition than an ebook edition -- maybe 15%.

That is bull. Simply look at the fully loaded supply chain costs including the bricks and mortar required, vehicles, the number of people it takes to handle and stock books on shelves, count them, audit them, display them, move them, sell them, order them, track them, plus all of the material costs and the entire carbon footprint of the printing operations. Even divided by the total number of titles available in any one year, this is not 15% of an paperback book's price. Simply grab your companies books and look only at the cogs, depreciation of property, plant, and equipment. Even per book, that is more than 15%.

Your idea of costing just looks at editing and author fees and tries to keep the exact same paradigm making none of the supply chain related costs variable in any way. The entire way business is done needs to change and then the costs of selling e-books can go way down.

> Again, your frustration is understandable, but you really
> ought to calm down. Ebooks are just getting started, and
> there are millions upon millions of books that need to be
> converted, lots of legal issues to be sorted out, and both
> publisher and author resources are finite. Contracts,
> international law, authors, publishers, retailers, and
> society at large do not perform 180º turns the second
> you bought your ebook reader.

Nor do I expect them to. I do expect them to act intelligently for their shareholders and to listen to their customers, to be forward looking, and understand that a completely new selling paradigm is needed (and will come) and that they need to be at the vanguard and not fight tooth and nail to prevent it from coming.

"Making it next to impossible to buy an e-book" is not something that in any way shows they deserve to remain as top management for any of the firms involved.

As I said, there is a real opportunity for an international e-book store who understands these things and are willing to make an end-run around the publishers to get things done, directly with the authors if need be.