Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
But nobody is forcing you to publish your books through MobiPocket. If you choose to publish your books through MobiPocket, however, you play by their rules. That seems entirely reasonable to me.
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Because that's what it is today. Not what it will be tomorrow.
The MobiPocket format is completely controlled by MobiPocket. If they decide to change the rules, they can - at any time. If MobiPocket becomes the dominant eBook format, that will cause problems - as history has taught us.
And you still didn't answer my question: Why do I need to ask MobiPocket (or any other company) permission to publish an eBook?
Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
If you publish your book through any publisher, you follow the publisher's rules.
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Remember that publishers exist for the authors, not the other way around. Why does an author need the publisher's permission to publish?
But getting back to the topic that we've strayed so far from...
When I buy a pBook, I have certain rights. Among those are the right to re-sell the book - or in other ways transfer ownership to someone else.
If I buy a pBook on Amazon for $15 and after reading it I decide that I probably won't re-read it, I can re-sell that book and get something back for it.
I can also give that pBook away to someone else.
On the flip side, if I really like that book, I can put it on my bookshelf and in, say, a year, pull it back down and re-read it.
If I get a DRMed eBook, things are very different. I am barred from transferring ownership. So the "residual value" of the book is gone. I pay $15 for the eBook and don't like it, then I'm stuck. I can't get any money back for it.
If the eBook is DRMed or in a closed format, then I may not be able to pull it off my "bookshelf" a year later and read it. Either the key for the DRM may no longer work, or my current reader may not support the format, or the format may be no longer supported.
The bottom line is that a DRMed eBook, or a closed format eBook, is a 1 shot read. It's disposable. The expectation is that the eBook will be priced accordingly.
Fair market value (as set by the local library): $0
Since libraries only have a limited number of copies, we can raise the price a little for the service of immediately borrowing a copy from the eBookstore. The price as set by iTunes: $0.99.