A Fourth issue for thoughtful debate - what's holding back electronic books?

[david_e]

Originally Posted by emt

Every successful business has a business model - I don't believe that book publishers do.

Do you think this could be because the reader devices have been created and developed by electronic companies and not publishing companies?

Is it that the technology was something they never had any interest in developing and it has now been forced upon them?

[OtterBooks]

Originally Posted by david_e

Do you think this could be because the reader devices have been created and developed by electronic companies and not publishing companies?

Is it that the technology was something they never had any interest in developing and it has now been forced upon them?

True, they didn't make and sell ereaders, or ask for them. But in all fairness all I'm asking is for them to make the first shift to a new medium in the history of the industry, not to mention 500 years of human civilization, a medium that can be flawlessly manufactured and distributed by common household equipment during a time that the industry is already facing a crisis. Get a refined business plan already. If they can't then I'll tell them how. Obviously I know stuff.

[greenapple]

Geographical restriction is the No 1 issue for me.

[astra]

DRM infection
eBook prices

[bevdeforges]

Originally Posted by Bald Eagle

You can buy paper books from everywhere without problems despite geographical restrictions because the sale takes place at the site of the shop (which obviously is in an allowed region).
This is not true for ebooks where the point of sale is your place, even if the logic of that ruling quite escapes me.

There's another issue that is linked to this one, too. Here in Europe, e-books have been declared "data files" rather than "publications" - which apparently is what defines the point of sale (i.e. location of the buyer, not the seller) and subjects them to full-rate VAT rather than the reduced rate normally accorded to published material.

[CyGuy]

Originally Posted by astra

DRM infection
eBook prices

+1 This sums it up...

[david_e]

Originally Posted by astra

DRM infection
eBook prices

Doesn't DRM actually help keep book prices low?

If there were no DRM, and a book could be purchased from any vendor and read on any device, that would trigger a short term price war between book vendors. And slowly (or not) smaller book vendors would be pushed out of business by the largest vendor (most likely Amazon) who could afford to make very little to no profit at all in the short term with the purpose of being the sole provider in the long term.

What do you think will then happen to prices?

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

Geographical Restriction on the books....

This is the biggest issue for me and while publishers in some regions lag behind the best option would be to treat it in the same manner as books that are allowed to be shipped out of their intended region, the only true difference is that the shipping is simpler.

[ficbot]

No, DRM does not 'keep' prices low, because there is a development cost to DRM and that gets factored into the book cost and passed onto the customer.

If I had to make a list of what is 'holding back' ebooks, I'd say it would be:

Price, DRM, Book Availability (for the Americans)
and
Geographical Restrictions, DRM, Price, Book Availability (for the non-Americans)

[leebase]

I wonder at the premise. It doesn't seem to me that ebooks are being held back at all. The growth rate for the adoption of ebooks is rather fantastic.

Lee

[astra]

Originally Posted by david_e

Doesn't DRM actually help keep book prices low?

DRM is a very expensive thing. It raises the price of ebooks.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by astra

DRM is a very expensive thing. It raises the price of ebooks.

Yep. Adobe DRM costs publishers $0.22 per ebook sold, and that's neglecting the capital and maintenance costs of the server software and server to run it on.

[OtterBooks]

If there were no DRM, and a book could be purchased from any vendor and read on any device, that would trigger a short term price war between book vendors. And slowly (or not) smaller book vendors would be pushed out of business by the largest vendor (most likely Amazon) who could afford to make very little to no profit at all in the short term with the purpose of being the sole provider in the long term.

What do you think would happen if both retailer oriented DRM and industry-set pricing were removed? Frankly I don't trust Amazon not to do something like drop prices to a level nobody can beat, taking losses if necessary, gaining the business of consumers who own other retailers' devices. Sure the other retailers could keep selling their devices. Business as usual, but..

Problem is once those customers take their business to Amazon, increased exposure to Amazon's ereader, and likely its exclusive perks, would almost certainly result in even greater hardware domination. I like Amazon n' all, but I don't really like the idea of their already significant domination turning absurd. I don't know the solution.

[hal2814]

Even without DRM, multiple formats are a pain to deal with. If I buy from Amazon, my book is in a different format than if I had bought from Barnes and Noble. I can't just copy a book from my Nook to my Kindle. I have to convert it. One thing I've been rolling around in my head since I first read this post is that it would be nice to have a victorious format where I can buy from whoever and get something that I can use on any eReader I may happen to purchase. Sure there are people out there willing to throw their eReader next to their HD-DVD player, their MiniDisc player, and their old Betamax deck if the eReader's format becomes obsolete, but a lot of people are going to sit on the fence until they know the book they buy today will still be easily readable 5-10 years down the road.

[lenseman]

Originally Posted by OtterBooks

I like Amazon n' all, but I don't really like the idea of their already significant domination turning absurd. I don't know the solution.

The only real solution is for other companies like B&N to remain competitive with them.

I am thinking Amazon might not be the real threat but rather Google in the long term. With their acquisition of that tablet/ereader company recently they seem to be getting ready to push out their own device. I think we will be seeing a lot more 'free' offers from their online bookstore to help push its adoption.