Is piracy likely to harm ebook sales?

[markbot]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

What you call "piracy", which is really just unauthorised downloading, can only have a positive impact on the book industry. It will create a demand for ebook readers in much the same way that the unauthorised downloading of music did for mp3 players. This demand will lead to very cheap ebook readers and make them mainstream devices. When they are mainstream, most people will look for mainstream ways of getting their ebooks. Which is when the publishers and distributors will make their vast profits, just like the music publishers and distributors are doing now with mp3.

This type of reasoning is why many people believe democracy is a bad idea.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

Hmm, I'd never heard that about Harlan Ellison. Loved his work, but I tend to love the books (or music, or film) without much caring about who the author is. Being aggressive about his copyright would not make feel more or less justified in pirating an author's work.

I doubt if many of the people either uploading or downloading digital copies of his books have ever read any of them, that won't be the motivation in this particular case. (Metallica got the same treatment over on the music side).

But to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, there's only one thing worse than being pirated and that is not being pirated. If nobody likes your old book/record/comic/film enough to think it is worth preserving for the digital age, then it can't be up to much.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by JaneFancher

True...but if the free copy is pretty where's the incentive to come buy the real thing other than a reader's own good nature? .

It would probably work better with a series of books, where you give the first one away for free and then people can buy the others if they want. Rather than hobble the free copy, another way to do it would be to insert advertising/ "buy here" nags every few pages.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by markbot

This type of reasoning is why many people believe democracy is a bad idea.

It's just an obsesrvation on what has happened with the music industry. Ebooks have followed the same pattern up to a point (ie the publishers are now releasing them at a price higher than the physical product), and I don't see any reason for it not to follow the rest.

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

It would probably work better with a series of books, where you give the first one away for free and then people can buy the others if they want.

One of the explicit motivations behind the Baen Free Library, indeed.

[JaneFancher]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

It would probably work better with a series of books, where you give the first one away for free and then people can buy the others if they want. Rather than hobble the free copy, another way to do it would be to insert advertising/ "buy here" nags every few pages.

Actually, that's what I've done with my first series, tho I'm getting pressure from my readers to remove it (GroundTies) from the "freebie" list as it is, according to them, "too good" to be given away.

Right now, I'm maintaining that if they feel that way, they can donate...and many have, generous sweethearts that they are. What I really want is readers to try it. I know there's a market for the kind of books I write and I want to get the word out and a few people talking on line about it. It's that critical mass thing.

Who knows...I might put up the "new edition" I'm working on that has a ToC and extra content and such for sale, leaving the initial version up for a sample. I dunno. Lots of options and still very early times. We just opened in December.

Gawd...I hate those "buy here" nags!!!

But I'm really kinda taken with this notion of pirating my own book....it's just such a delightfully twisted idea...I wonder how many authors have already done it?

[JaneFancher]

Originally Posted by HarryT

He famously said, not so long ago, "If you put your hand in my pocket, you’ll drag back six inches of bloody stump".

Heh heh...he was saying that back in the seventies. He's a product of the streets of the Bronx. Small and exceedingly feisty. Very protective of what's his.

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

Hey, if authors and/or publishers want to put their material out there for free download because they think it will actually increase their sales and income good on them. My problem is with book pirates that presume the same right.

I'm not going into the morality of it; I'm just addressing the thread topic: "Is piracy likely to harm ebook sales?"

Maybe you haven't walked around your neighborhood recently. Blockbusters are disappearing like the American buffalo; victims of businesses like NetFlix, cheap prices to just purchase DVDs, and pirate sharing on torrent sites. I'll not try to argue the relative impact of the three.

My local Blockbuster is doing fine. Though I'll have to admit, they've been doing without my business for a few years.

Partly it's the cost issue: when I can own a movie for life for what it would cost me to rent it twice, I'm more likely to go the purchase route. Another part is the selection: They have several zillion copies of the latest releases, but the stuff I really want to watch? If they ever had it, it went on the "pre-viewed" table (oh, how I hate those "pre-" weasel words) a year ago. I like anime and classics, cheesy old SF and historical documentaries, and especially old TV shows on DVD (the fact that I write fanfic for some of the latter may be involved). Another part, actually, is the proliferation of useful review websites, and of things like Amazon's recommendation engine. I don't have to rent a movie for a couple of nights to find out if I want to buy it anymore, and with the price of purchase dropping so close to the rental price, there's little cost advantage in doing so. Oddly enough, the bonus content is another rental-killer. I'm the person who buys the deluxe edition of the DVD because I love the behind-the-scenes features, the storyboards, the production art, the cast interviews ... all that stuff. Sometimes that's twice as much material, running time wise, as the movie itself, and because of its fragmented nature (ten 10-minute segments of interviews, for instance) you tend to go through it more slowly. Rentals preclude slowly enjoying the bonuses over the next couple of weeks, even if they have them (and they generally don't). Also, there's Redbox. If I'm going to rent a recent release, I can get it at Redbox for a dollar for the night I want to watch it, instead of renting it at Blockbuster for the equivalent of renting it for several nights at Redbox. In other words, I only have to pay for the time I'm actually using it.

You know what I'd like to see at a physical bookstore? And what someone needs to start marketing to the independent stores? A little kiosk sort of like a Redbox machine, where I could go through a publisher's whole backlist, buy the books I want, plug in my Reader, and have them all loaded. For an extra few bucks (per purchase, not per book!) it could burn them to CD for me as well (perhaps with a copy of Calibre included for the benefit of people who don't know about it yet). Something like that would allow Joe's Bookstore to sell as wide a selection of books as Barnes & Noble in the space of a soda machine. That's my dream store: one where I get the personal service of a small bookstore, the selection of a giant chain, and the pricing of an online discounter. Add a few comfy chairs, some charging ports, a selection of new and used ebook readers for sale, a rack of accessories like cases and lights for the most popular models ... there's money to be made there.

A little machine like that -- an ebook kiosk -- would, if it was affordable (probably some kind of leasing + % of sales option) be a huge draw to used bookstores, too. Among other things, the ebook kiosk might generate some money for the publisher on sales of used books: how many of us, after buying that worn but precious volume to at long last fill in the gap in some SF series, would go straight to the ebook kiosk and buy the electronic version, too? Among other reasons, I'd do it so I didn't have to worry about the paper one falling apart. I recently spent about $60 at Baen, and out of the dozen or so books I bought, only two were ones that I didn't already have in physical form. I wish I could do that at my favorite used SF store.

Sorry for the threadjacking!

[Iphinome]

Originally Posted by JaneFancher

But there ya go. What I've got to do is go post all my stuff to pirate sites (badly scanned versions, of course) then post that the pretty and legit copies are available at CC!

Whole new ad campaign! (where's my pirate hat?) Arrr!

Ah, hello madam pirate. Would you like to become a privateer? Not much of a benefit plan but if you're captured with a letter of marque you become a prisoner of war instead of hanged as a criminal.

[JaneFancher]

Originally Posted by Iphinome

Ah, hello madam pirate. Would you like to become a privateer? Not much of a benefit plan but if you're captured with a letter of marque you become a prisoner of war instead of hanged as a criminal.

Do I get to wear my pirate hat? And an eyepatch? Sparkly-green stiletto boots? (makes it hard to stand upright in rough seas, but they look really cool.)

[Iphinome]

okay sure, I've already issued one letter of marque to Ghosthawk I'll send you one too.

[mrkarl]

Originally Posted by JaneFancher

But there ya go. What I've got to do is go post all my stuff to pirate sites (badly scanned versions, of course) then post that the pretty and legit copies are available at CC!

Whole new ad campaign! (where's my pirate hat?) Arrr!

Yes! I knew there had to be one.

or just just add a PO box so I could mail a ckeck to you direct and skip the people in between. I'm not even picky about spelling, I'll figure it out,

[JaneFancher]

Originally Posted by mrkarl

or just just add a PO box so I could mail a ckeck to you direct and skip the people in between. I'm not even picky about spelling, I'll figure it out,

Ah, but there are no inbetweens! A link to CC w/b a link to me! And my covers are prettier, too! And we have a donation button.

But a PO Box...that could happen, too!

And I write big books, so my ToCs are useful. (I'm just starting to go back and put them into my already offered books.)

[JaneFancher]

Originally Posted by Iphinome

okay sure, I've already issued one letter of marque to Ghosthawk I'll send you one too.

I'm working on an appropriate response...

I love it!

[Iphinome]

Originally Posted by JaneFancher

I'm working on an appropriate response...

I love it!

Well I can't afford to outfit a whole data navy being just a person and not a state collecting taxes but there is a precedent for commissioning armed merchant vessels to act on your behalf. I suppose I'll need an Admiralty court to adjudicate prize claims.

Anyway Ghosthawk told me he framed his letter of marque. Think Lynn Abby would want one? I'd trust her with a commission just because I liked her Orion's Children books even if I thought Eleanore came off kinna homophobic...