Poll on obstacles to ebook buying

[rhadin]

Tomorrow or Thursday there will be a new poll which will be the next step on my discovery road, and this one will include geographical restrictions. Please check it out at An American Editor.

The polls are working their way through multiple issues. I'm trying to get a sense of attitudes, which you can't get if every poll includes all possible options.

[scveteran]

Originally Posted by dickon25

I haven't voted because the biggest problem for me, like other non-US residents, is Geographic Restrictions...and that's not one of the options.

Can someone explain the problem with geographic restrictions? You say other non-US residents have this as the biggest problem.

I am assuming that you mean books from other countries are not available to you instead of just books from the US are unavailable to you.

After all, we all know that us rednecks from the US are not cultured enough to write that many good books. And the US population is not only a small portion of the world, but a small portion of the English speaking world as well.

So I have to assume that you are talking about geographic restrictions from other countries.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by scveteran

Can someone explain the problem with geographic restrictions? You say other non-US residents have this as the biggest problem.

I am assuming that you mean books from other countries are not available to you instead of just books from the US are unavailable to you.

After all, we all know that us rednecks from the US are not cultured enough to write that many good books. And the US population is not only a small portion of the world, but a small portion of the English speaking world as well.

So I have to assume that you are talking about geographic restrictions from other countries.

Due to contractual agreements and distributing rights which appear to be different in most cases to hard/paper-cover books, residents of countries that wish to purchase an ebook title cannot.

This issue is becoming more and more restrictive and often occurs mid series. An earlier book or books available to be purchased but later not.

There are some workarounds for a purchaser to be able to buy geo restricted titles but these are becoming fewer. The vast majority of GR books appear to originate from US publishers, even if the selected author is a citizen of the same country the purchaser resides in.

This ridiculous restriction almost more than anything else would certainly make the would be purchaser look at "other" options in order to acquire the ebook title they were keen to purchase.

No point worrying about DRM and prices when a book cannot be purchased at all.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by scveteran

Can someone explain the problem with geographic restrictions? You say other non-US residents have this as the biggest problem.

I am assuming that you mean books from other countries are not available to you instead of just books from the US are unavailable to you.

The most common language to read in other than you native language is English. So it is books published in the US and UK that you want to buy but cannot.

I do not think the world is split in regions in the same way for books published in other languages than English. And if the split exists the markets are so small that publishers probably do not care about it.

[rhadin]

The results of last week's poll and the new poll questions are now up at An American Editor. You are invited to participate in this second round (and geographical restrictions is a choice ).

[Ben Thornton]

I was a little confused by the first question of the new poll. It seems to me that geo restrictions have to be the answer to that question, because the other two obstacles don't actually prevent purchase.

[TallMomof2]

The biggest impediment is availability. Only a small percentage of published books are available in digital form. Geo restrictions don't affect me but I can see how it affects everyone who doesn't live in the U.S.

DRM is the second biggest problem. As long as it's easily removed I'll live with it but the publishers are fooling themselves if they think that DRM stops the darknet.

Price is the third obstacle. If it's above $9.99 I won't buy it. If the same content is available in paperback I will not pay more than the paperback price. Most of the time you get less in the digital form. No cover art or decent chaptering. Throw in DRM and no legal method to resell or even give away and for me the digital version is a poor value.

What I do is wait for the ebook to come down in price, see if I can borrow it from library, or most likely find something else to read.

[jamesbeat]

Originally Posted by Ben Thornton

Convenient access, well-formatted and proof-read content - and a fair price.

Alas, these things are all too rare with e-books, but experience with the music industry has shown that this model can work (OK, except for the DRM part!)

I'm pretty sure that pirated ebooks are exactly the same as their legal counterparts, except that they are stripped of any DRM restrictions. Where do you think they come from in the first place?
Someone downloads the book, fixes the DRM and makes it available on bittorrent etc.
The only way a publisher could avoid piracy is to only sell paper books, as scanning a book is usually too much work for a pirate.

That's why I don't understand the attitude of the publishers. They charge too much for the books (no printing or distribution costs) and then do silly things like DRM which makes the purchaser feel cheated.
I think the reason itunes has worked so well is that they have fixed prices to make the music easily affordable, and got rid of DRM.

Finding an illegal book (or music or video) takes probably five minutes and comes for free with no restrictions.
itunes makes the music even easier to find and download, and doesn't charge much for it, so it redresses the balance somewhat.
People generally follow the path of least resistance.

Publishers need to lower their prices to reflect the savings they make by not using printed media, and they also need to stop treating their customers with contempt by dispensing with DRM.

DRM doesn't affect people who download illegally, but it does make people who download legally bitter. Ask anyone who lost their entire (paid for) music collection...
Why punish the honest people?

[Ben Thornton]

Originally Posted by jamesbeat

I'm pretty sure that pirated ebooks are exactly the same as their legal counterparts, except that they are stripped of any DRM restrictions. Where do you think they come from in the first place?
Someone downloads the book, fixes the DRM and makes it available on bittorrent etc.
The only way a publisher could avoid piracy is to only sell paper books, as scanning a book is usually too much work for a pirate.

This is not my experience. A lot of material that's available illegally is not available legally at all. Much of it seems to come from scanning paper books - by enthusiasts, not people seeking to sell them on.

My point was that where there is a convenient way of getting a high quality copy at a fair price, people will do so - which is the same point that you make about people following the path of least resistance.

[dragonbone]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Due to contractual agreements and distributing rights which appear to be different in most cases to hard/paper-cover books, residents of countries that wish to purchase an ebook title cannot.
This issue is becoming more and more restrictive and often occurs mid series. An earlier book or books available to be purchased but later not.
There are some workarounds for a purchaser to be able to buy geo restricted titles but these are becoming fewer. The vast majority of GR books appear to originate from US publishers, even if the selected author is a citizen of the same country the purchaser resides in.
This ridiculous restriction almost more than anything else would certainly make the would be purchaser look at "other" options in order to acquire the ebook title they were keen to purchase.
No point worrying about DRM and prices when a book cannot be purchased at all.

Exactly! One can buy any paper book at for eg. Amazon.com, and have it shipped to anywhere in the world, but about 80% of the exact same inventory in ebooks from Amazon.com (and now audiobooks too) are not available due to geographical restrictions.

[jamesbeat]

Originally Posted by Ben Thornton

This is not my experience. A lot of material that's available illegally is not available legally at all. Much of it seems to come from scanning paper books - by enthusiasts, not people seeking to sell them on.

My point was that where there is a convenient way of getting a high quality copy at a fair price, people will do so - which is the same point that you make about people following the path of least resistance.

Yes, that is also true. I read what turned out to be one of my favourite books of all time, only to discover that it was first in a short series. I looked high and low for the other books, but discovered that all but the first one was out of print. While I was searching in vain for used copies, I came across all of the books in pdf format. What was I supposed to do?
The publisher wasn't printing them so I was unable to buy them, and even if I had found used copies, the money would have gone to the used book seller, not the copyright holder.
At the time, there was no such thing as an ebook reader, and I would have gladly paid money for an easier to read paper version.

I think I'm correct in saying though that more modern books that have been professionally created by a publisher for sale to owners of ebook readers are also being pirated, and are readily available. If it's for sale on an epublisher's website, it's almost certainly floating around as a torrent too.

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

TGeo restrictions don't affect me but I can see how it affects everyone who doesn't live in the U.S.

They can affect US residents too if they're looking for work published elsewhere (UK is the obvious example).

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by jamesbeat

I think I'm correct in saying though that more modern books that have been professionally created by a publisher for sale to owners of ebook readers are also being pirated, and are readily available. If it's for sale on an epublisher's website, it's almost certainly floating around as a torrent too.

My experience says you're not correct, actually: the overwhelming majority of what's getting shared continues to be scanned from paper, most of what gets added daily is new scans. The big exception to this is romance - the majority of the commercial e-books I see on the darknets are romances.

[scveteran]

Originally Posted by tompe

The most common language to read in other than you native language is English. So it is books published in the US and UK that you want to buy but cannot.

I do not think the world is split in regions in the same way for books published in other languages than English. And if the split exists the markets are so small that publishers probably do not care about it.

My point was, if you listen to all the international elitest out there , Americans don't know how to read, let alone write a book.

I will ask forgiveness for that post. I was in a lot of pain that night and had just read a post from another international website that was saying how stupid we Americans are. Together, they ticked me off enough to make that post.

Again, I ask forgiveness for this.