Amazon snags Bond

[ProfCrash]

When I was looking at e-readers I checked out the Sony page. They had themes for some of their e-readers. The themed e-readers came with a special cover, some books, and the 100 free books everyone got at the time. One of the themes was James Bond. They had a special cover with the 007 and gun on it and some of the books. I am Bond geek enough that I thought about it. The books could have been the more recent Bond novels, I am not sure about that.

I waited because I had mentioned to my Hubby, then boyfriend, I was looking at e-readers and thought he might get me one for my birthday. He did, he got me a Kindle.

My point is that people who want the Bond books and do not have Kindles have had more then a few years to pick up the Bond books. I know the Ian Flemming ones have been out for a while because I have mocked the price at Kindle Boards and here more then once.

So the whining over exclusivity is once again ignorning that people could have bought them as E-Pubs for at least the past few years. And if they had been selling well enough, the Big 6 Producer who was selling them would have renewed the contract. They chose not to and Amazon got the deal. Now EPub folks can buy the book from Amazon and read it using the Kindle App or remove the DRM and convert.

ETA: Just re-read the post and found my mistake. Fixed it. My bad

[JoeD]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

While this is an entirely reasonable request, it is not going to happen.

Amazon will require Whispernet on any device or app that natively reads their files. They might ditch DRM one day, but it cannot imagine Kobo or Sony integrating Whispernet into their devices (due to attitudes on both sides).

If you want to read the Bond ebooks on your Sony or Kobo, your only option will be to buy it, download the file, crack the DRM and convert it, or pirate it.

Would it be unreasonable to see Amazon sell a book DRM free though? That's what I was getting at, as the "initially" comment in the earlier posts suggested they wanted to sell the book beyond the kindle which I can only see as possible if they dropped DRM on the books. i.e after an initial exclusive to kindle owners only period, it might become exclusive to amazon customers only but since it'd DRM free owners of other devices could buy/download/read the book on their device.

Amazon doesn't have to require other devices offer any support, nor provide support for them themselves or even make it easy to do, all they have to do is provide the book DRM free and say you can install it on your device if it supports it (they might provide multipel format, or simple leave conversion up to the customer if their device doesn't support DRM free mobi), but why not buy a kindle where you get to use all these great features like.... It would give non-kindle owners a reason to buy from Amazon and perhaps in the future lead to some of them becoming kindle owners in order to take advantage of all the added features.

i.e use the exclusive as an opportunity to pull in customers who own other devices onto the Amazon store.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by JoeD

Would it be unreasonable to see Amazon sell a book DRM free though? ...

Not unreasonable at all. The publisher gets to decide as I did when I self-published via Amazon.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

When I was looking at e-readers I checked out the Sony page. ...special cover with the 007 and gun on it and some of the books. I am Bond geek enough that I thought about it. ...
ETA: Just re-read the post and found my mistake. Fixed it. My bad

Yep, I just edited my post and put up a pic of the special Sony Bond Reader.

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Huh?



Ah-ha! The "Anti-Kindle" : http://www.chipchick.com/2009/02/ian...l_edition.html



Looks just like my 505 ... that I continue to use daily! woo-hoo!

Love that the comments even discuss the $359 Kindle.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by crossi

Personally I don't complain about backlist fiction unless it is over $7.

In my time I have done my share of hunting for vintage out-of-print titles with personal meaning and price always played a secondary role to the condition and availability of the volume.

With backlist ebook titles the same applies; I don't *demand* that a backlist be priced significantly less than a modern title of comparable quality. A good read is a good read regardless of the date of copyright. But I *will* be more inclined to pick up the ebook edition of a book I already have in print if the price is modest (say $3 or less).

(Then again, my purchase policies already skew low to start with; I can count on the fingers of a hand the ebooks I've paid more that $6.99 for.)

The Bond books I already have in paperback so I'm in no rush to get them. But if a $50-60 bundle should be offered...

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

Nope.

The limitation isn't due to DRM, it's because Amazon wants exclusives. Even if they were DRM-free, you'd need to buy them through Amazon.

Amazon sells DRM-free books. If the publisher chooses it.
When Amazon is the publisher, they have so far chosen DRM.
So do most other publishers.
(shrug)
The world would be a better place if DRM were only used for library ebooks.
The world would also be a better place without politicians and taxes but I don't see either going away any time soon.

As to exclusives; yes, Amazon wants as many of those as possible. So does B&N and so do Apple and Kobo. It's called differentiation, in biz-speak.

Yes, the ebook business is starting to look a *lot* like the console gaming business.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by JoeD

I really hope that's the case even though I have my doubts.

The "initially" part *does* suggest a timed exclusive.
But if they are going to offer up ePub versions at some future date--say in 2014--they aren't exactly going to say so in advance.
So for the short term at least it is safest to assume they'll be Kindle exclusive until Amazon says otherwise.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

When Amazon is the publisher, they have so far chosen DRM.

According to this interview it's up to the individual authors (or rights holders I suppose in the Bond case) as to if Amazon's publishing arm uses DRM or not (at least for Montlake titles)...

Will Amazon Montlake titles be DRM free?

This decision is up to every author.

http://dearauthor.com/features/inter...on-publishing/

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

Amazon will require Whispernet on any device or app that natively reads their files.

That have said so repeatedly; that they *are* willing to license their delivery system to third parties but it has to be the full system with Whispernet access. The cornerstone to the Kindle ecosystem is Whispernet, after all.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

According to this interview it's up to the individual authors (or rights holders I suppose in the Bond case) as to if Amazon's publishing arm uses DRM or not (at least for Montlake titles)...

It's a fair enough (and not unreasonable) policy but I suspect Amazon doesn't go out of their way to suggest DRM-free to their authors.

DRM lock-in isn't the full extent of their competitive advantages (as some would like to pretend) but it sure doesn't hurt.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by JoeD

Would it be unreasonable to see Amazon sell a book DRM free though?

"Unreasonable," no. However, the DRM is an important part of their vendor lock-in. Thus they have little incentive to remove it.

They also have no, I repeat zero, interest in selling outside the Kindle platform (apps and/or devices). The whole idea of exclusives is to bring people into the Amazon platform. They'd rather lose sales than give up exclusivity.

Users would also need to convert the DRM-free files. It's not that hard -- unless you're an average person who has no interest in downloading, converting and side-loading files.

Originally Posted by JoeD

Amazon doesn't have to require other devices offer any support....

They have no interest in just selling ebooks a la carte. If that was their goal they would have done it from the start and saved lots of expenses and trouble tying everything into Whispernet.

The Bond books aren't their first exclusives either -- and won't be their last.

So again, your idea is not unreasonable, but it is not going to happen.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

That have said so repeatedly; that they *are* willing to license their delivery system to third parties but it has to be the full system with Whispernet access.

You do realize that implementing Whispernet on their devices would be suicidal for B&N and Kobo, yes?

I am aware of what Bezos has said on this point... which is why I said "Whispernet will be required." The Kindle apps mitigate many of the exclusivity issues. But the reality is that Whispernet will never be available on B&N, Kobo, Sony and a handful of non-tablet devices. As such, those particular users will always have a problem with any Amazon exclusives.

[howyoudoin]

If Amazon is the publisher for these books, and they still carry DRM, then I'll sneer everytime Amazon trots out the "The publishers insist on DRM" for books that are not published by Amazon.

[plib]

Originally Posted by KenFisher

I wonder if they figured in their calculations that the original Bond books will be public domain in Canada in 2015?

Ken

The whole lot should be, worldwide, long ago. Instead we got stuck with the stupid idea that they can be protected for at least 2 1/2 times longer than inventions which can save your life.