What’s the greater fear for publishers? Amazon or piracy?

[howyoudoin]

Also, for the same price as a paper book, one would expect the same rights, i.e, one would expect to own the ebook, rather than merely license it.

[stonetools]

I really would prefer not to relitigate for the 12659th time whether ebook prices are too high or the uses of of DRM. Been there, done that, got the T shirt, wore it out.

Lets just accept that the Big Six Publishers and most professional authors think DRM is necessary to prevent financial losses caused by casual sharing of their titles by unsophisticated consumers and they would have to be convinced otherwise.
Lets also accept that prices are the most significant factor in determining demand for ebooks for consumers and that DRM is irrelevant for most consumers.
Suppose one of the Big 6 decide that they could live with the likely financial losses that they would suffer if they went DRM free, could they circumvent Amazion's strangehold on the retail market by offering their books to the public the way Pottermore did

[ProfCrash]

Or they could offer their books without DRM through the bookstores like Amazon, BN, Sony, and Kobo. They wouldn't have to sink money into building, running, and maintaining their own websites.

Pottermore was not needed. JKR could have sold her book, sans DRM at the various bookstores. She wanted to include a watermark, a different type of DRM, that would allow for freer use of the novel while allowing her people to track down who bought the pirated copy. All she did was use a less restrictive form a DRM. (Yawn)

If Publishers want to sell books without DRM all they have to do is check a box when the book is uploaded at the various bookstores. The Publishers keep checking the box to use DRM so I don't think that is an issue.

[abookreader]

Originally Posted by stonetools

I really would prefer not to relitigate for the 12659th time whether ebook prices are too high or the uses of of DRM. Been there, done that, got the T shirt, wore it out.

Lets just accept that the Big Six Publishers and most professional authors think DRM is necessary to prevent financial losses caused by casual sharing of their titles by unsophisticated consumers and they would have to be convinced otherwise.
Lets also accept that prices are the most significant factor in determining demand for ebooks for consumers and that DRM is irrelevant for most consumers.
Suppose one of the Big 6 decide that they could live with the likely financial losses that they would suffer if they went DRM free, could they circumvent Amazion's strangehold on the retail market by offering their books to the public the way Pottermore did

Maybe. Pottermore was a bit of work for me even though I went there already knowing exactly what I wanted to buy. No need to browse or suggestive sell or anything like that. I had to register a new account. In fact, I had to register two of them to trick my way into the UK versions that I wanted.

One Click buys are awfully easy and addictive. The Publishers would have to come up with one kick butt website that is easy and works well. Then they'd have to entice me there with great prices and large catalogs of things I like.

So far (since the advent of Agency Publishing) I've been underwhelmed with the major Publishers ability to treat me as a valued customer.

[ProfCrash]

Actually, you just needed the one. You needed two emails but only one account. You could open the gift certificate in your initial account after sending it to your second email.

And I was not thrilled with the Pottermore thing. The number of downloads is great but I do not want to have to go to different stores, with different accounts, in order to buy books. Sell them free of DRM at the major bookstores. Check the box that sells no DRM. It is easy enough to do.

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Or they could offer their books without DRM through the bookstores like Amazon, BN, Sony, and Kobo. They wouldn't have to sink money into building, running, and maintaining their own websites.

Pottermore was not needed. JKR could have sold her book, sans DRM at the various bookstores. She wanted to include a watermark, a different type of DRM, that would allow for freer use of the novel while allowing her people to track down who bought the pirated copy. All she did was use a less restrictive form a DRM. (Yawn)

If Publishers want to sell books without DRM all they have to do is check a box when the book is uploaded at the various bookstores. The Publishers keep checking the box to use DRM so I don't think that is an issue.

The problem is that this would rubber stamp the status quo, where Amazon dominates the ebook market. I think the Big 6 would only give up DRM if they could break Amazon's strangehold.

[MovieBird]

Originally Posted by stonetools

The problem is that this would rubber stamp the status quo, where Amazon dominates the ebook market. I think the Big 6 would only give up DRM if they could break Amazon's strangehold.

No, it would level the playing field. Once DRM no longer locks people into a specific platform, then competing stores will participate in a battle to the death with prices. If Amazon gets too greedy, a young upstart company will eat their lunch.

Assuming the customers can freely move back and forth between storefronts.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Shack70

People think ebooks should be cheaper because some of the cost of making a paper book is missing. No paper, no warehouse to store the books, no brick and mortar store to sell it at, and they make one copy and distribute it vs. thousands of copies.

Publishing corporations say that those only account for 10% of the costs of bringing a book to market. What they don't seem to want to tell us is the percentage that covers re-selling. The second hand market is massive, and any new book will need to take that into account in its pricing. Whereas with ebooks there is (in theory at least) only one reader per purchase.

But the reason why real books are often cheaper than ebooks is stores discounting them heavily just to get rid of them and make space for more books. Storage isn't really a problem for ebooks, even if they only sell 1 a month there's no reason to discount them.

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by MovieBird

No, it would level the playing field. Once DRM no longer locks people into a specific platform, then competing stores will participate in a battle to the death with prices. If Amazon gets too greedy, a young upstart company will eat their lunch.

Assuming the customers can freely move back and forth between storefronts.

People were battling to the death on prices before agency pricing-and Amazon's competitors were dying. Amazon had 90 per cent of the ebook market,remember? Now they are down to 60 per cent.
Upstart companies? You mean like Rocketbooks? They declared bankruptcy. Borders went bankrupt also. Fictionwise-everybody's favorite-ended up being bought up by B&N. Kobo was bought up by Rakuten.
Every single business analyst I've read thinks that Amazon will win big and regain monopoly control if agency pricing goes. No one thinks that some upstart young comany will be able to come aong and compete with Amazon when that happens .
Business analysts agree that prices will fall short term-until Amazon becomes the one big pipe.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Pottermore was not needed. JKR could have sold her book, sans DRM at the various bookstores. She wanted to include a watermark, a different type of DRM, that would allow for freer use of the novel while allowing her people to track down who bought the pirated copy.

It will be interesting to see if that works, since they were all over the internet within 24 hours of being available to buy.

[MovieBird]

Originally Posted by stonetools

People were battling to the death on prices before agency pricing-and Amazon's competitors were dying. Amazon had 90 per cent of the ebook market,remember? Now they are down to 60 per cent.
Upstart companies? You mean like Rocketbooks? They declared bankruptcy. Borders went bankrupt also. Fictionwise-everybody's favorite-ended up being bought up by B&N. Kobo was bought up by Rakuten.
Every single business analyst I've read thinks that Amazon will win big and regain monopoly control if agency pricing goes. No one thinks that some upstart young comany will be able to come aong and compete with Amazon when that happens .
Business analysts agree that prices will fall short term-until Amazon becomes the one big pipe.

You're ignoring that Amazon

1) Uses DRM to lock people into their ecosystem

2) Is cut-throat about keeping prices to the consumer low

OF COURSE they're going to win big with those two caveats. I don't purchase ebooks from Amazon, but I admire the way they have created an outstanding experience, and coupled it with (relatively) reasonable prices.

But the day they get too greedy and raise prices too far, a whippersnapper company will demolish them. The barriers to entry are lower than they've ever been for service companies. It takes less time, and capital, to create a storefront on the internet than at any time in the past.

[abookreader]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

It will be interesting to see if that works, since they were all over the internet within 24 hours of being available to buy.

I think it is going to be interesting.

I mean, just how responsible am I (because God no I didn't read the user agreement) for protecting my watermarked copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from unauthorized use?

It's sitting on my hard drive right now and it is backed up in my Dropbox account. What if somebody breaks into my house and steals my computer or somebody hacks Dropbox and my Harry Potter ends up on a Pirate site?

Is Rowling going to sue me?

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by stonetools

People were battling to the death on prices before agency pricing-and Amazon's competitors were dying. Amazon had 90 per cent of the ebook market,remember? Now they are down to 60 per cent.
Upstart companies? You mean like Rocketbooks? They declared bankruptcy. Borders went bankrupt also. Fictionwise-everybody's favorite-ended up being bought up by B&N. Kobo was bought up by Rakuten.
Every single business analyst I've read thinks that Amazon will win big and regain monopoly control if agency pricing goes. No one thinks that some upstart young comany will be able to come aong and compete with Amazon when that happens .
Business analysts agree that prices will fall short term-until Amazon becomes the one big pipe.

Why is a monopoly that much worse than a market controlling ogilopoly?

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by MovieBird

You're ignoring that Amazon

1) Uses DRM to lock people into their ecosystem

2) Is cut-throat about keeping prices to the consumer low

OF COURSE they're going to win big with those two caveats. I don't purchase ebooks from Amazon, but I admire the way they have created an outstanding experience, and coupled it with (relatively) reasonable prices.

But the day they get too greedy and raise prices too far, a whippersnapper company will demolish them. The barriers to entry are lower than they've ever been for service companies. It takes less time, and capital, to create a storefront on the internet than at any time in the past.

I think the real fear is that they will squeeze suppliers (writers), not customers (readers). At the moment they pay near enough 70%, if they were the only venue left I doubt it would stay at that level for long.

[whitearrow]

The real fear for publishers (and authors) should be total obscurity -- nobody paying any attention at all to their book -- neither Amazon nor piracy.

What their real fears are, I couldn't hazard a guess.