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Originally Posted by rlauzon
And you still didn't answer my question: Why do I need to ask MobiPocket (or any other company) permission to publish an eBook?
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I'm sorry, but you've entirely lost me. You have a completely free choice as to whether or not to publish your book through MobiPocket. It you decide to go with them, you use their publishing tools. Nobody is holding a gun to your head and saying "you must publish your book through MobiPocket". If you want to set up your own web site and do it yourself, go ahead.
I believe that, if you do sell through MobiPocket, they take a 40% cut of the selling price. That pays for the web site, the publicity, etc. But again, if you decide that you don't want that, it's your free choice.
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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?
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Permission? What on Earth are you talking about? It's YOUR choice whether or not to publish your book through MobiPocket. If you don't want to - don't. Nobody is forcing you to.
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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.
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<shrug>
Suppose you go to the cinema, and don't like the film. Do you expect to get your money back?
Yes, eBooks are different to paper books, nobody's denying that. But nobody is forcing you to buy an eBook - if you'd prefer to buy a paper book, go ahead and doing so. It's a free market - the customers will ultimately decide whether or not the business model works.
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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.
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In your dreams
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