Quote:
Originally Posted by petermillard
One of the things I've found telling about this thread (and others before it) is that even here on MobileRead, amongst people who 'get' the whole ebook concept, we can't actually agree on what features we want for the concept to reach critical mass - or rather, perhaps, everybody's ideal feature set is different.
|
To some extent, I see that as a good thing. It lets the market make the decision. The more routes between content providers and content consumers, the better.
Historically, one company comes up with a breakaway business plan, other companies see their success and try to outdo them with a different idea, competition ensues, and the consumer gets several options. I think all we're looking for here is that first spray of water through the dike. Once someone shows that there's money to be made, others will follow.
But publishers are a backward lot. They'll grasp at any excuse to stay mired in the 19th century. The only reason Baen's success hasn't had a greater influence on the publishing industry is that Big Publishing can run to the excuse that "That's just genre. Those people will read
anything. It will never work with
real books." Tor hasn't been hesitant in following Baen into e-publishing, it's parent behemoth Holtbrinck has.