Why the (expletive deleted) couldn't I buy an ebook?!?!?!

[TGS]

I just had a to buy an academic book - got it from Amazon, only £15, not bad - in fact no more expensive than second-hand copies on Waterstone's Marketplace. But then I live in Denmark so also had to pay something over £6 for shipping. It arrived this morning, which was very quick - only about five days from order.

Then I realised that the book has been produced by some kind of "print-on-demand" system - which is fine, quality is OK, but it means that when I ordered it there was, somewhere, a electronic version of the book sitting on some server. Why the f*¤k couldn't I buy it as an electronic version? I would have been happy to pay the same price as the pbook but could have saved myself £6 on shipping, could have had it five days ago, and I'm sure there's also some tree hugger argument as well which I can't be ar*¤d to articulate because I am severely dischuffed.

EDIT: Sorry - I thought I was posting this on the Vent and Rant Thread - mods, please feel free to move it

[kindlekitten]

just out of curioisty, wondering if it is a geographic issue, mind sharing the title?

[TGS]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

just out of curioisty, wondering if it is a geographic issue, mind sharing the title?

It was "The Act of Reading" by Wolfgang Iser (ISBN-13: 978-0801823718) - would be interested to know if it's available as an ebook your side of the pond - I looked but couldn't find it.

[kindlekitten]

nope, just a pbook. anywhere from $13 to $21.48

[TGS]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

nope, just a pbook. anywhere from $13 to $21.48

Thanks for looking anyway.

[BooksForABuck]

It is annoying when you can't get a book in your format of choice. In some cases, the rights are confused--with older books, the author may retain eBook rights (or worse, they're contested between the publisher and author). Of course, there are also geographical rights issues (e.g., you're buying a book from the US publisher but the Danish publisher hasn't come out with it yet). Rights issues are a mess, but most especially this is the case for older books. For newer books, I'd think the first publisher would request worldwide electronic rights, which would mean that they could promptly offer eBooks worldwide (I certainly don't go to contract without getting worldwide electronic rights).

Rob Preece
Publisher, www.BooksForABuck.com

[TGS]

Originally Posted by BooksForABuck

It is annoying when you can't get a book in your format of choice. In some cases, the rights are confused--with older books, the author may retain eBook rights (or worse, they're contested between the publisher and author). Of course, there are also geographical rights issues (e.g., you're buying a book from the US publisher but the Danish publisher hasn't come out with it yet). Rights issues are a mess, but most especially this is the case for older books. For newer books, I'd think the first publisher would request worldwide electronic rights, which would mean that they could promptly offer eBooks worldwide (I certainly don't go to contract without getting worldwide electronic rights).

Rob Preece
Publisher, www.BooksForABuck.com

I do take your point Rob but the experience made me realise that any book that has been printed in the last 20 years or so (I think the first version of QuarkXpress was released in the late 80s, and there may have been something before that), already exists electronically somewhere - since layout and origination has been electronic since then. So arguments about cost of producing the material in electronic format fall by the wayside - it's already there.
So the only issue I guess is rights. The edition of the book I bought has a publication date of 1980, so someone has made an electronic version of the book in order to produce it on a print-on-demand system. The book is clearly "in´print" in the sense that it's not "out of print", but presumably at the time of publication no digital rights were negotiated - so what happens in those circumstances? Does the publisher have to go back and renegotiate digital rights if they want to offer it electronically, or do they in some way assume digital rights in virtue of their original rights?

[BooksForABuck]

Hi TSG,
Many publishers initially believed they had rights...and the result was a series of lawsuits between publishers and authors. Unfortunately, the result has been a slow-down in release of the 'back list.'

Rob Preece