John Grisham speaks out on the future of pbooks and ebooks

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Harmon

Question is, can it? Do you see any way that some publisher or reseller will abandon the pbook model for something involving ebooks?

I don't think there is a choice, they will change or go out of business. Right now they are fighting to survive, it's only the beginning. The model was already flawed what with the return policies and the survival based on the mega-blockbuster, it needs to move to a more sustainable model (just like energy and the environment) and it will be better for everyone, particular the authors and the consumers. But for now the existing publishers will continue to ignore, mistreat and disparage the ebook market until the time when a mega-bestseller is released in ebook only form. Maybe then they will sit up and take notice.

[Jadon]

Originally Posted by eGeezer

You don't hear any radio versions of CSI or Masterpiece Theatre

While you don't get much in the way of scripted drama or comedy on radio in the US, that's not true everywhere. I alternate between audio books (next week is Stargate 5: Resistance) and audio plays when exercising, with most of the latter being from the UK. Stuff like Julie Enfield Investigates, Agatha Raisin, various one-offs. Other countries, too. I've enjoyed The Avengers from South Africa, plus programs from Canada and Australia.

[eGeezer]

My apologies. I usually try to remember that just because we are the biggest and most arrogant, it doesn't mean we are the only paradigm in the world.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by eGeezer

My apologies. I usually try to remember that just because we are the biggest and most arrogant, it doesn't mean we are the only paradigm in the world.

[The above apology is the personal opinion of the writer, and does not reflect the views of this particular American.]

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by Jadon

While you don't get much in the way of scripted drama or comedy on radio in the US, that's not true everywhere. I alternate between audio books (next week is Stargate 5: Resistance) and audio plays when exercising, with most of the latter being from the UK. Stuff like Julie Enfield Investigates, Agatha Raisin, various one-offs. Other countries, too. I've enjoyed The Avengers from South Africa, plus programs from Canada and Australia.

For those who are interested in this sort of thing, pretty much all the radio content on the bbc (besides sports coverage) can be streamed worldwide for 7 days following a radio broadcast on their iplayer system.

Check out http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/ for more info.

[SanFranMatt]

Originally Posted by markbot

Assuming people don't pirate the digital books as they do in emerging markets, I think the publishers and writers are underestimating the secondary market effects. Digital books greatly reduce the size of the secondary market.....thus this allows the publishers to make more money.

the secondary market is a key difference between music and books that i think is lost on the publishers.

for example...college text books. the digital version can't be resold 4 different times. instead of making only $100 the first time it is sold at retail.....perhaps they sell this book at $50 to all 5 people...thus netting $250.

Why would anybody assume that people don't pirate the digital books? When Grisham considers whether or not to go digital, I'd imagine piracy is the #1 reason for him to hesitate. If he was able to (hypothetically) sell an ebook that simply cannot be pirated, I'd imagine he would have released his books in ebook a long time ago.

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by SanFranMatt

Why would anybody assume that people don't pirate the digital books? When Grisham considers whether or not to go digital, I'd imagine piracy is the #1 reason for him to hesitate. If he was able to (hypothetically) sell an ebook that simply cannot be pirated, I'd imagine he would have released his books in ebook a long time ago.

People pirate pbooks! (scanner + OCR). No need to wait for the ebook. In fact, all Grisham books are already available as ebooks in the darknet.

[charleski]

Originally Posted by SanFranMatt

Why would anybody assume that people don't pirate the digital books? When Grisham considers whether or not to go digital, I'd imagine piracy is the #1 reason for him to hesitate.

I seem to recall that this attitude worked really well for J.K. Rowling. So well, in fact, that people who might otherwise not have got involved in piracy ended up helping to digitise her last HP book so that a reasonably-well-proofed machine-readable form of it appeared on torrent sites within a week of the book's release. The Harry Potter books are now probably the most easily-obtainable of all pirated literature...

You fight piracy with convenience. If you only need to tap a few keys on your Kindle to read the latest John Grisham book right now, then people will pay rather than hunt out a torrent, wait for it to download and then try to figure out how to convert an amateur PDF file to something your machine will read properly.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by charleski

You fight piracy with convenience. If you only need to tap a few keys on your Kindle to read the latest John Grisham book right now, then people will pay rather than hunt out a torrent, wait for it to download and then try to figure out how to convert an amateur PDF file to something your machine will read properly.

The knock-on effect of people getting used to one method or the other for obtaining their books should not be ignored either, just as people can get into the habit of buying their books if they are available the opposite is equally true, if a person ends up having to go off and find the book they want without buying it then you could very easily end up with them doing that for all their books and the overall market is harmed and not just the sales of those few stubborn authors.

The thing that some authors/publishers don't seem to want to accept though is that for some people, no ebook version = a lost sale.

Using myself as an example, the 3 books I was most looking forward too in the last month or so were the latest discworld, the latest in the hhgttg trilogy and the latest wheel of time book.

The first one was out as an ebook and I bought it right away and they might even gain a paperbook sale later as I wouldn't mind getting a signed copy. The hitchhiker book was not initially out as an ebook and as a result I haven't yet bought it because I bought some others I also wanted to read in the meantime, it showed up as a download before an official release so they are going to lose the sales of some people due to that. Finally, there's the latest wheel of time book, not out as an ebook for another year and I do not intend buying the paper version, it's been available as a download for some time and I am sure the ineptness of the publisher is going to cost them a lot of sales overall.

[SanFranMatt]

Originally Posted by charleski

I seem to recall that this attitude worked really well for J.K. Rowling. So well, in fact, that people who might otherwise not have got involved in piracy ended up helping to digitise her last HP book so that a reasonably-well-proofed machine-readable form of it appeared on torrent sites within a week of the book's release. The Harry Potter books are now probably the most easily-obtainable of all pirated literature...

You fight piracy with convenience. If you only need to tap a few keys on your Kindle to read the latest John Grisham book right now, then people will pay rather than hunt out a torrent, wait for it to download and then try to figure out how to convert an amateur PDF file to something your machine will read properly.

If it was released digitally, wouldn't it have been on torrent sites within a day of its release with better than reasonably-well-proofed quality? HP fans want access to the book immediately, and many don't want to wait a week for a copy that's not fully proofed.

As for Grisham, he released a book within the last couple weeks (Ford County) and I don't think it's on the torrent sites yet. His previous book (The Associate) took a while to get on torrent sites. Authors like Grisham make a lot of money right when a book is released, and to avoid illegal copies during that period is crucial.

[edge777]

Well, yes, some points, but not really. eBooks are the future (yes, there will always be paper books, but more and more people will be reading in electronic formats). I would have gladly paid for Ford County for my Kindle (although, all-in-all, but great writing at all), but it wasn't available. However, "Ford Country" by John Grisham is now available in all e-book formats (mobi, pdf, pdb, epub, docx, html, lit) at [i]Links deleted by moderator[/l]

So, as mentioned, John Grisham can argue, but he won't win.

Filename: JohGrisForCou.rar
File size: 3.09mb
Direct Download Link: [i]Links deleted by moderator[/l]

Torrent: Links deleted by moderator

[edge777]

Originally Posted by charleski

I seem to recall that this attitude worked really well for J.K. Rowling. So well, in fact, that people who might otherwise not have got involved in piracy ended up helping to digitise her last HP book so that a reasonably-well-proofed machine-readable form of it appeared on torrent sites within a week of the book's release. The Harry Potter books are now probably the most easily-obtainable of all pirated literature...

You fight piracy with convenience. If you only need to tap a few keys on your Kindle to read the latest John Grisham book right now, then people will pay rather than hunt out a torrent, wait for it to download and then try to figure out how to convert an amateur PDF file to something your machine will read properly.

Totally agreed, it's a non-argument. I think it basically all boils down to greed. The music industry tried to hold off digital format, they lost. If they would have embraced it right away, they would have been way better off. The movie industry is trying, and they too will lose. Grisham can claim it's piracy, when it's actually greed. He will lose, although I think it might be for other reasons (he used to be my favorite author, and now his works are getting worse and worse).

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by edge777

Totally agreed, it's a non-argument. I think it basically all boils down to greed. The music industry tried to hold off digital format, they lost. If they would have embraced it right away, they would have been way better off. The movie industry is trying, and they too will lose. Grisham can claim it's piracy, when it's actually greed. He will lose, although I think it might be for other reasons (he used to be my favorite author, and now his works are getting worse and worse).

Downloading a copy off the darknet is not greed?

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by edge777

Well, yes, some points, but not really. eBooks are the future (yes, there will always be paper books, but more and more people will be reading in electronic formats). I would have gladly paid for Ford County for my Kindle (although, all-in-all, but great writing at all), but it wasn't available. [B]However, "Ford Country" by John Grisham is now available in all e-book formats (mobi, pdf, pdb, epub, docx, html, lit) at
So, as mentioned, John Grisham can argue, but he won't win.

MobileRead does not allow links to pirated books, you should remove your links.

[edge777]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Downloading a copy off the darknet is not greed?

I buy 3 or 4 books a month on my Kindle. If Grisham's books were available, I'd buy them too.