E-book competition

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by nekokami

Maybe not if they were allowed to save and reuse the files for other customers bringing in the same book... and possibly even exchange files with other shops in an affiliation group.

I started to suggest the same thing. However, the likelihood that a used book store is going to be able to take advantage of the economies of quantity on a particular book aren't likely, I think. For more popular books, you'd probably be better off getting the publisher to just release an e-book.

[nekokami]

Yeah, I suppose even if the bookstore were to go straight to the darknet whenever possible, quality isn't that great and some cleanup would be required, possibly more than the shop would be able to get reimbursed for.

If publishers were actually interested in converting customers to ebooks, they could set up a special discount deal with brick-and-mortar bookstores to do the swap.

Actually, there is a higher-quality source of user-scanned files that are legally available (in the US) to vision-impaired readers. Maybe book shops could gain legal access to those for a system like this. Then they could contribute newly scanned or proofed books back to that system, with a benefit both to vision-impaired readers and other swap shops.

Just a thought....

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by nekokami

Just a thought....

I used to say that a lot, but then my brother got in the habit of responding "Just barely." I love my brother.

In this case, I think it's a great thought. It actually astounds me every time I brush up against the infrastructure that already exists that could be used to support e-books, and makes me disgusted and frustrated that no one who can wants to put the pieces together.

The pubs have everything they've printed in the last, what? 20 years? available electronically, so making e-books of that material is trivial, this vision impaired service likely has a fair catalog of previous material digitized and would probably share it back with the publishers, for a nominal fee/donation -- heck, they might could re-invent themselves as a service to do this sort of scanning for the pubs in the first place, since their specific niche/need would go away when e-books become widely available. Gutenberg is handily processing texts from the other end of history. And that doesn't even take Google's efforts into account!

I want to ask why this all has to be so difficult, but I know that it doesn't, certain folks who happen to be in critical positions just want it to.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by NatCh

It actually astounds me every time I brush up against the infrastructure that already exists that could be used to support e-books, and makes me disgusted and frustrated that no one who can wants to put the pieces together.

Me, too. Why it is that publishers don't utilize the profit potential for older material in e-book form constantly puzzles me. As older, possibly out-of-contract material, new contracts could be negotiated on it without interference with current contracts. Non-current material would be perfect material to experiment with DRM-free distribution systems. It seems like an easily-accessible, essentially expendable and purely profitable resource to me.

But as I've said in other threads, publishers have clearly decided to sit back and let someone else do the costly R&D on e-books, then adopt their model when it proves to be successful.

[VillageReader]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

As I understand, the basic point that watcha is trying to make is that ebooks can't be resold.

Reselling books is what publishers and a great deal of authors have been crosseyeing for a long time; they get nothing from a resale. I can see them pretty happy about the new E-way approach that changes this. Eh! there is always an other side to a medal.

Like, for example, when you sell your car and $100 goes to the original, oh, wait...

[yvanleterrible]

Who runs the darknet? Voldemort?

In French Voldemort means 'The dead's flight' or the Flight of the dead' or 'Flight of Death' or 'Flight to give death' or 'Theft of a dead'. Take your pick.

'Vol' can mean 'theft' or 'flight'.
'Mort' can mean 'dead' or 'death'.

[nekokami]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

Who runs the darknet? Voldemort?

It's an anarcho-syndicalist commune.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by nekokami

It's an anarcho-syndicalist commune.

I thought that sounded familiar!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by nekokami

It's an anarcho-syndicalist commune.

No, it's just a bunch of criminals who think that they have some "God-given" right to obtain books without paying for them .

[NatCh]

I think nekokami was making a joke, HarryT

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by NatCh

I think nekokami was making a joke, HarryT

I think Harry knows that... he just doesn't think it's particularly funny...

[NatCh]

Oh, I know that HarryT knows that .... okay, I'm just going to stop there, before the whole thing gets away from me -- no good can come of a sentence that begins so.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Y'know, I'd love to be able to build a kiosk, take it to local bookstores and arrange for floor or desk space, in exchange for a cut of my profits. It could be a simple desktop system, a small computer with a miniscule hard drive (just enough to hold the e-books and store data), a touch-screen, the browser- or Flash-based interface, and an internet connection. The device would allow people to browse books, select, pay for online, and either download their book on the spot or e-mail it to the address of their preference (which makes it ideal for gifting!).

About the only issue is the transfer method on-site: There's no really standardized method of delivering the content to a user, because all devices do things differently. Even among physical interface similarities, delivery protocols for electronic files differ so much. And there's cross-contamination to be concerned about (you don't want to be passing viruses around!).

Of course, you could try to establish and offer a few fairly popular delivery methods, and default to e-mail if none of them work (leaving it up to the user to initiate some sort of test for compatibility, nothing more complex than plugging in a USB cable or responding to a wireless signal).

[yvanleterrible]

Usb mass storage would work. Those 'Cruzer' devices are quite cheap nowadays. You could even take a cut out of those to boot. A tour of book shows would be a better outlet for you. And you'd help us all in the longrun. Maybe an MR sponsorship could be set up to help you.(I'm pushing it there) Of course there would be the regular exchange of procedures. Hey, I've been itching to do the Montréal book show! If floor space was paid for I'd be glad to do it for free! And help any manufacturer promote readers too!

Couldn't you hookup with a device manufacturer?

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

Usb mass storage would work. Those 'Cruzer' devices are quite cheap nowadays... Couldn't you hookup with a device manufacturer?

Well, I was thinking of an automated kiosk, left at a bookseller or other venue, that would dispense e-books purely electronically, not give out hardware with books on it. If the kiosk used retail-type HW and SW (say, a Dell PC, or software from Red Hat), I might try to wrangle branding/ deals to discount the equipment.

Anyway, with only 10 books to sell, I'm not sure the kiosk idea would work for me. But for a major publisher, I think it would be great! Maybe something worth designing and trying to sell to them, to break them into e-books in smaller venues like used book stores.

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

A tour of book shows would be a better outlet for you.

As a matter of fact, if I were to do a tour, I would probably put the e-books on a mini-CD, the cheapest form of storage hardware out there. If I had a laptop with internet connectivity on-site, I could e-mail it.

USB transfer sounds good, but there are so many variables to deal with: Who brings connection cables for their device with them to a show? Do I stock a few dozen cables, and see which one works? Some PDAs and other hardware won't connect to a PC and exchange files without installing connectivity software and accounts... who's going to wait for that? The more you think about it, even a common format like USB isn't great for this.