Sales Increased 54% Going DRM Free

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Sales of that publisher's eBooks went up after DRM was removed.

The article intended to create that impression but it’s not what the article says. They may have gone up, but they certainly didn’t go up 54% or the article would have said so without resorting to obfuscation.

It’s appropriate to invoke Twain et al. “Lies, damned lies and statistics.”

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Sales jumped 54% when this publisher went DRM-free

I like eBooks.com. The fact that they use these sale's figures (even though they don't seem very convincing) to encourage publishers to dump DRM is a plus. They also explain how to use ADE in Wine for Linux users. And though I've never been able to get ADE working in Wine, it's still shows a more independent mindset than most booksellers have.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

...This is largely why all my current business is through Amazon or Kobo if it must be DRM-encumbered--at least I can reliably break the DRM (for now). I won't buy anything from B&N, even though I'd prefer to give them business over Amazon, because getting the books out of their ecosystem is a royal PITA.

Agreed. I would like to buy my books from B&N because I want to see them succeed (the more choice the better) but their DRM system drives me elsewhere.

[crossi]

How many words in an average fiction novel? The most popular ones like romance, science fiction, mysteries, ect. How long would it take a good typist to type it into Word, run spellcheck and put into ebook form. Might be even faster with a good speech to text program. If some pirate really was contemplating significant sales, it would be worth the investment, but I doubt there is enough of a market to cut into legitimate sales. DRM is pointless for anything other than telling when a library ebook needs to go back.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by theducks

Exactly

All DRM does is either annoy a legit customer or stop a sale that would have been made because the customer will not deal with another (propriatary device) platform, signup...

And YOU can do your own backups and not worry that your vendor (DRM method) goes out of business or tied to a specific piece of hardware.
Those Paperbacks I bought in 1963, still work (a bit yellow, and I sometime tape the page back in place). The 45 & 33 Records still play just fine on any Turntable (OTOH some of my QUAD stuff needs a $pecial catridge and Decoder box. But any working one will do). So far, all my CD's still play.
All without DRM, which allows me to format shif them to play direct in my vehicle without a kludged adapter
(Cassette ->CD ->MP3 on a flash drive)

Unfortunately, my 8 Tracks no longer work. I wonder if that is a DRM issue?
Apache

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by crossi

How many words in an average fiction novel? The most popular ones like romance, science fiction, mysteries, ect. How long would it take a good typist to type it into Word, run spellcheck and put into ebook form. Might be even faster with a good speech to text program. If some pirate really was contemplating significant sales, it would be worth the investment, but I doubt there is enough of a market to cut into legitimate sales. DRM is pointless for anything other than telling when a library ebook needs to go back.

Scan, OCR, proof (seems optional). They used to just scan when Google play didn't check and promoted PDFs. Typing to do piracy is so 50 years ago (or more).

Even photo with phone & OCR and simple automated page turn works with a Kindle eink.

But they cut spine of ARC and early retail paper copies if not as an eink, use a bulk feed scanner and optionally OCR, then optionally proof.

Movies can be pirated with a 4K camera pointed at TV in dark room, in the projection booth and often from the studio.

Capture of Streaming of DRMed video or audio can be done in software and fall back is a 4K HDR monitor with a camera pointed at it or headphone socket, or BT receiver for wired headphones.

USA Publishers used a typist from 19th C. up to 1970s when republishing UK books. Or sometimes cut the spine off and photographed using 6"x4" plate camera and made lithoplates. Hence for nearly 100 years some USA titles and magazines hard to get in UK & Ireland as publishers leaned on wholesale and retail not to import them.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by crossi

How many words in an average fiction novel? The most popular ones like romance, science fiction, mysteries, ect. How long would it take a good typist to type it into Word, run spellcheck and put into ebook form. Might be even faster with a good speech to text program. If some pirate really was contemplating significant sales, it would be worth the investment, but I doubt there is enough of a market to cut into legitimate sales. DRM is pointless for anything other than telling when a library ebook needs to go back.

Why go to such lengths when it's easier to buy a copy with standard ePub Adept DRM or Kindle DRM (KF8 only) and use DeDRM/Calibre to remove the DRM?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Apache

Unfortunately, my 8 Tracks no longer work. I wonder if that is a DRM issue?
Apache

They still work. It's just that you have no player to play then with. However, there are plenty of 8-track tape players available on eBay.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Movies can be pirated with a 4K camera pointed at TV in dark room, in the projection booth and often from the studio.

Capture of Streaming of DRMed video or audio can be done in software and fall back is a 4K HDR monitor with a camera pointed at it or headphone socket, or BT receiver for wired headphones.[/quote]

A camera pointed at a TV screen is not what's done. It's a capture of the stream and edited from there. DRM gets removed and if it's something like a TV show with commercials, they get edited out.

[John F]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Sales of that publisher's eBooks went up after DRM was removed.

Did you read issybird's post above yours:

Originally Posted by issybird

Except that you can’t, or oughtn’t, use a duplicitous article which misuses stats to present an inaccurate analysis. It undermines your argument in the sense that if that’s the best you can do, you’re on shaky ground yourself.

That “54% increase in sales” which is really a 54% increase in portion of ebooks.com sales? First, we can assume that the publisher’s sales didn’t go up 54%, because ebooks.com wouldn’t have engaged in that roundabout locution if they had. So why did their percentage of ebooks.com sales go up? Because ebooks.com sales went down? Because other publishers stopped selling through ebooks.com? In any case, it doesn’t reflect well on ebooks.com actual sales. No wonder they’re casting around for new business!

Jon, based on the article you linked to, do you stand by your post:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Sales of that publisher's eBooks went up after DRM was removed.

[JSWolf]

I know you can read into it that sales of other publishers dropped and not this publisher so that would count for an increase in the % of sales from this publisher. But I'm trying to be hopeful that this is not the case and sales did rise because or DRM removal.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Agreed. I would like to buy my books from B&N because I want to see them succeed (the more choice the better) but their DRM system drives me elsewhere.

I'm with you there.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

They still work. It's just that you have no player to play then with. However, there are plenty of 8-track tape players available on eBay.

They were before my time, but 8-tracks use magnetic tape, which do degrade and lose magnetization after a while, especially if they weren't stored right. I think that 8-tracks also had a reputation for being notoriously unreliable. But between those, I wouldn't be surprised if they had failed over the years.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

They were before my time, but 8-tracks use magnetic tape, which do degrade and lose magnetization after a while, especially if they weren't stored right. I think that 8-tracks also had a reputation for being notoriously unreliable. But between those, I wouldn't be surprised if they had failed over the years.

My Dad did have an 8-track tape player in the car and I had an 8-track tape player. I never once had a problem with any of the tapes. But I don't know how good they would be now if I still had them.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

My Dad did have an 8-track tape player in the car and I had an 8-track tape player. I never once had a problem with any of the tapes. But I don't know how good they would be now if I still had them.

I had friends with 8-tracks. Track changing in the middle of songs was really annoying.