Publishers still missing the point on e-book prices

[xg4bx]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

There is indeed both stated and oblique support for unauthorized file-sharing of ebooks on Mobileread. There are people who've said they have downloaded books they have in physical form, and will continue to do so; there are people who admit ownership of hundreds (thousands, sometimes) of darknetted ebooks; there are people who've said they stripped the DRM off paid books to give a copy to a relative or friend.

What MR doesn't allow is detailed instructions on how to do those things, not discussion about whether or not they're ethical or legal. Support for the ideas is permissible, as frustrating as it is for some authors.

The ebook-community group at Yahoo is, fwiw, very author/publisher-focused and anti-"piracy", which they seem to define as "more than one reader per purchase." Part of what I like about Mobileread is that I can say "I don't think unauthorized sharing of the text of books is the worst thing that can happen to authors, nor do I believe it will cause the collapse of the publishing industries." And in some people's minds, that translates to "support of piracy."

i think it takes a special kind of d-bag to say "yea, take whatever you want. screw those guys! i've got terabytes worth of pirated books!" i think most people are simply able to cut through the scare tactics and realize that the "dangers" of piracy are greatly exaggerated (for the most part).

i've admitted to pretty much every example you've given. yea i share books with my wife. yea i've visited pirate sites. yes i've "taken" ebooks of paperbacks i own. but i also buy a ton of books, i just dropped $250 on paperbacks and ebooks the past 2 days. i think most people who do these things do it because they love books. yea they might take one here&there but they also support the industry heavily. i've bought entire bibliographies of authors based on "sampling" one of their works. "piracy" is the entire reason i'm into space opera. one sampling lead me to buy almost every one i come across now. i wouldn't have given it the time of day before.

am i killing the industry by taking a book here and there? hardly, i'm a rabid book buyer and i go out of my way to support the small press and indie authors. am i the exception? no, i honestly don't think so. i've come to interact with users on "those sites" and the impression that i get is that many are coming from a place of hey i like this, check it out and support it if you like it too. many simply can't get the books legally in their country.they're not sitting there doing the money squeeze and laughing at how they got one over on a publisher or took dinner out of an author's mouth.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

A survey cited at TeleRead this morning states that "70 percent of 411 respondents to a survey drawn from a cross section of the publishing industry cited ‘quality’ as the most important consideration when publishing an eBook."

"70 percent?" That's all?

I simply don't know how any publisher could consider anything to be more important than ebook quality. But apparently 30% of them do.

Teleread may have typo'd that: MediaBistro says that 70% Of Publishers Release eBooks For ‘Equality’, meaning usable-on-all-readers (by which they seem to mean, both Adobe & Kindle DRM) Checking the DCL site doesn't turn up actual survey results or even mention; maybe it's a special-subscribers-only thing.

Publishers first being interested in number of sales platforms, followed by cost, sounds much more like what I've come to expect from publishers. I was rather surprised that publishers would say they were "concerned" about quality at all; they seem to be fairly oblivious to the fact that quality issues exist.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by stonetools

There are people on THIS forum who have expressed the view that piracy should simply be viewed as a form of advertising for the author. Some clearly feel that piracy is more benign than attempts to reduce piracy.

It is ludicrous that the entertainment industry, music industry and publishers blow untold millions employing copyright trolls and buying US senators votes without making any changes to their woefully obsolete business models first.

Misguided pro-activity solves nothing.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Teleread may have typo'd that...

This post includes the link to the survey results, which I obtained later. The results are a bit oddly-stated, in that the numbers are not actual percentages of one-response question responses; but take a look for yourself to understand the figures (I lack the statistician's vocabulary to do it justice this evening).

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Part of what I like about Mobileread is that I can say "I don't think unauthorized sharing of the text of books is the worst thing that can happen to authors, nor do I believe it will cause the collapse of the publishing industries." And in some people's minds, that translates to "support of piracy."

Maybe not.

An exchange like this: "I wish I could break the DRM on this book I got from hrmm hrmm." "PM me and we'll discuss it. "

That (if it is not removed by mods) translates to "tacit support of piracy."

But anyway...

[EscapeVelocity]

To beat the pirates, lower the price.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

An exchange like this: "I wish I could break the DRM on this book I got from hrmm hrmm." "PM me and we'll discuss it. "

That (if it is not removed by mods) translates to "tacit support of piracy."

But anyway...

Not at all, I am strongly against piracy but I am also strongly against DRM. The simple reason is that I have a number of readers and I want to read on all of them. Besides, I reserve the right to buy where I can get the cheapest price and read it anywhere. And I don't want be stuck if (however unlikely in some cases) the store closes down or ends support for the format. There are plenty of "legit" reasons to oppose DRM.

Did you ever consider that those that need help to remove the DRM are real customers, who bought the book and NOT pirates?

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Not at all, I am strongly against piracy but I am also strongly against DRM. The simple reason is that I have a number of readers and I want to read on all of them. Besides, I reserve the right to buy where I can get the cheapest price and read it anywhere. And I don't want be stuck if (however unlikely in some cases) the store closes down or ends support for the format. There are plenty of "legit" reasons to oppose DRM.

Did you ever consider that those that need help to remove the DRM are real customers, who bought the book and NOT pirates?

Exactly so. What if you decided to update or replace your ereader with another type that requires a differing format? (Kindle to Sony for instance).

Living in a country that is heavily region restricted, I often go through hoops to be able to buy an ebook I want to read. I do not care what format it is, simply that I have LEGALLY purchased it and ensured that the author is paid (however little their publishers pay them). If the format is different and not one my Sony can display, I remove DRM and convert it.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

I don't want to turn this discussion into another pointless piracy debate. Let's move on.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

I don't want to turn this discussion into another pointless piracy debate. Let's move on.

Yet, you steered the thread in that direction.

[JD Gumby]

Originally Posted by stonetools

There are people on THIS forum who have expressed the view that piracy should simply be viewed as a form of advertising for the author. Some clearly feel that piracy is more benign than attempts to reduce piracy.

An understandable view given that said attempts only harm the legitimate consumer and do nothing to stop the illegitimate, at least not more than a week or so.

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by JD Gumby

An understandable view given that said attempts only harm the legitimate consumer and do nothing to stop the illegitimate, at least not more than a week or so.

Let's just return to the topic than re-chew fat that's been chewed a dozen times before. Thanks.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Yet, you steered the thread in that direction.

Well, if I have that much unilateral power in this thread... I now steer it back. Move on.

[HarryT]

Let me ask those people who think that eBooks are too expensive a question:

The standard price for a paperback book in the UK is £7.99 (about $12.30); that's what you'll pay in any physical bookshop.

What would you consider to be a reasonable price for the corresponding eBook, assuming it to be nicely formatted, error-free, etc?

[din155]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Let me ask those people who think that eBooks are too expensive a question:

The standard price for a paperback book in the UK is £7.99 (about $12.30); that's what you'll pay in any physical bookshop.

What would you consider to be a reasonable price for the corresponding eBook, assuming it to be nicely formatted, error-free, etc?

Is this a trick question?

din

[HarryT]

No, it's a perfectly serious question.