What are you afraid of? (Amazon, Apple, MacMillan)

[guyanonymous]

Thinking about it though, Apple may sell a lot of over-priced e-books. After all, people are going to be paying $800 (with accessories) for an overpriced tablet!

[fugazied]

Originally Posted by guyanonymous

Thinking about it though, Apple may sell a lot of over-priced e-books. After all, people are going to be paying $800 (with accessories) for an overpriced tablet!

Their MP3s/videos/tv shows are priced moderately, we should jump the gun on that one yet. It depends on how well Jobs negotiated with the publishers I suppose.

The only things we need to fear are anti-capitalistic mechanisms which may be employed by e-reader manufacturers or publishers.

In a capitalist system, the complex competition between Apple, B&N, Amazon, Sony, Publishers, independent publishers and other ebook devices would create great market competition and a lot of supply. We'd see ebook prices drop as more people embraced the technology.

However we have formats getting in the way. Kindle owners can only read certain formats, Sony owners read others and Apple read others. The various stores only support certain formats. Some do it to lock in the market share they obtain. It gets in the way of consumers changing e-readers (which may screw up their exiting e-book libraries) and for getting the best prices (if a reader has a device not compatible with the Apple shop for example).

That's what we have to fear - but Apple has said they will embrace epub. But what DRM will be on the ibookstore books and will they support un-drmed books from other sources. Will the Kindle ever support epub and will a Kindle owner be able to buy from the Apple store. Same goes for B&N devices and Sony.

That's what I am afraid of - proprietary formats hindering competition in the market place to the detriment of comsumers. If we get epub everywhere then potentially we will have a better outcome.

[Blue Tyson]

Keyser Soze

[K-Thom]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Keyser Soze

Naa, not this time. The usual suspects are quite obvious, and you don't have to come up with some mysterious figure.

It's all about control over the content, the market and the consumer.

The consumer (Homo consumeris) in general will accept what's most convenient for him, even if it doesn't do him any good. If the architecture of the iPad is appealing to him and the price increase of the average eBook won't matter, he'll pay the extra dollar and enjoy what he got.

It's easy to say "vote with your wallet". But a large number of consumers mostly read bestselling authors. And they've got ongoing contracts with the big publishers. So you either accept their policy or - and this won't happen - look around for lesser known authors whose work is either self-published or published by smaller, lesser known companies.

I'm not in favor of either Amazon or Apple or MacMillan. I'm only in favor of an open, free market which keeps the benefit for the consumer in mind. And not that of the stockholders.

And I'm afraid of worms, too. But only if they disguise as humans.

[zacheryjensen]

Originally Posted by kjk

I've found the whole eBook battle quite fascinating.

It is obvious from the comments in various threads that a lot of people are quite up in arms about it, and taking sides, vowing celibacy, waving pirate flags, etc.

But, really, what are you afraid of?

1) This will kill the eBook market? (Through piracy, lack of sales)

2) That this will unacceptably slow the adoption of eBooks to the general public?

3) That your least favorite company/publisher/conglomerate in the world might "win" or "lose"? Even though no one really knows what a "win" or "loss" is in this context?

4) That the general public will yawn, and continue to buy Kindles, Nooks, iPads, or whatever, and pay whatever prices end up being set?


Personally? I just feel crappy for the authors...because this whole controversy really shows how low on the totem pole they are in the current scheme of things. But I'm betting on #4.

First, I'm annoyed that people think $14.99 is too much for a book. Authors deserve more, and books deserve to be valued higher. Trade paperbacks cost this much, after all, and you can tear those pages and have no hope of getting another copy for free.

I've said it for a long time, I'd gladly pay more for eBooks. But I would prefer they not have DRM that I have to rip off, potentially violating laws in my country. I prefer they be fair sales, or if that isn't an option, then I change my disposition and insist on a far lower price. However, I believe that as more ignorant average consumers realize they are being duped about "ownership" then the DRM will come off. It was this same consumer ire, as nearly every device they bought could play digital music, that drove the digital music retailers to push for DRM-free music sales. Eventually the same thing will happen to eBooks. People like to own books. You won't see this same thing happen to movies because by and large, people don't really care to own movies. It's really interesting how different media invokes different sense of ownership and value on wildly varying scales. But I think it's fair to say that bookworms like ownership and will eventually demand it when they realize they've lost it.

Second, I'm annoyed about the support for Amazon when they completely rip off the independents with their awful 70% cut for what amounts to providing a download link on a website and an entry in a search engine. Amazon has a storied history of being anti-competitive, and anti-consumer. Jeff Bezos pushes the most petty issues, and somehow comes out on top. Not to mention that Amazon is really the only online retailer at its scale, there is no practical competitor. Not even Wal-mart has the kind of selection of broad product line that Amazon has. This makes Amazon into a kind of monopoly and any actions they take regarding forcing market prices in a particular direction should be regarded as antitrust material.

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by fugazied

t depends on how well Jobs negotiated with the publishers I suppose.

The deal Macmillan just made with Amazon? That's the deal they already had in place with Apple, which is why it was so important for both Macmillan and Apple to get Amazon to accept the same terms.

Apple has the same deal with the other five of the Big Six, which means we probably haven't heard the last of this.

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by zacheryjensen

Authors deserve more, and books deserve to be valued higher.

I agree, authors are deserve more, and I agree, many people undervalue books. But value and price are two different things, and an increase in the price I pay for a book doesn't necessarily mean an increase in the amount of money the author receives - sometimes it means the author makes less money.

Don't kid yourself - Macmillan was fighting to protect the economic interests of authors about as much as Amazon was fighting to protect the economic interests of consumers.

[dmaul1114]

Tons and tons of e-books out there, including tons of free public domain books.

I'll probably never pay more than $10 for an e-book, so stuff priced above that I'll just stay away from and just check out the book from the library if it's something I really want to read.

So in short, I'm not scared at all. I'll buy stuff I thinks priced reasonably, and not buy stuff that's not. I only read 1-2 books a month anyway, so I'll never run out of free/cheap books to read.

Reading isn't very high up on my hobby list (behind movies, video games, music, TV, sports, etc.) so I'm just not willing to put much money into it. It's not worth more than $5-10 to to me personally to read a book once (as I rarely, rarely ever re-read a book).

[chaznsc]

Personally, I like to see new readers, etc on the market. What I dont care for is multiple types of books or documents out there.

I would like to see an industry standard for the publishing of books and the like digitally. And then let the reader developers have at it.

Of course, the publishers are going to have to accept that they arent the lifeline for authors they once were, and therin lies the real rub. And the losers here are the "artists". Like the music industry, the "labels" get the money. They cant let go of that so they strangle anyone who has a new idea.

For instance, the oil industry has so lobbied congress that we are 10 years behind in developing the hybrid vehicles so badly needed to reduce our need for petroleum based fuels. Likewise the artist labels and publishing houses arent going to let go on their turf.

Afraid? Not me, I am excited!

[Sparrow]

I like worms - bookworms especially.

I'm afraid publishers will carry on churning out poor quality etexts.

[asjogren]

I am concerned that none of them are addressing what I want: eBook rental OR eBook purchase, share, and sell.

There are very few eBooks that I really want to keep. I rarely reread fiction.

I want to see a for-profit enterprise to augment the Public Library system. Kind of like how both the local BlockBuster and the local used DVD store augment the Public Library's video collection.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by asjogren

I am concerned that none of them are addressing what I want: eBook rental OR eBook purchase, share, and sell.

There are very few eBooks that I really want to keep. I rarely reread fiction.

I want to see a for-profit enterprise to augment the Public Library system. Kind of like how both the local BlockBuster and the local used DVD store augment the Public Library's video collection.

I've never thought about the rental option, but I would like it. If I could get something like my Netflix account (1 movie a month, $10.99 with blu ray) and just rent books I'd be all for it.

Have a monthly fee of $10 or whatever, one book at a time, have to delete it before you can rent another etc. Would work great for me.