Publisher Backlash Against Amazon

[nekokami]

Interesting article. Gladwell does a nice job looking at the different sides of this argument.

[Jill74]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

I would suggest mailing them the link to MobileRead, and suggesting they read thru for a while so that they can take the blinders off...........

yes, I agree with Desertgrandma.

[Gaurav]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

I am a lifelong mystery fan (especially the Golden Age stuff) - and since acquiring my Kindle have been emailing publishers that I currently buy pbooks from to see if they have any plans to offer electronic versions.

Here is the reply I received from Rue Morgue Press today:

"No plans to do so. There isn't much out there other than Amazon's Kindle (and Sony Reader) and we have rejected offers from Amazon, as of course Kindle is a proprietary property and so by letting them do it means that we give them an advantage over all the other bookstores. In fact, we're boycotting the World Mystery Convention because they're allowing Amazon to make a Kindle presentation."

I think in coming future they will rethink their strategy of not being so flexible and disallowing their readers a kindle formatted book. More interestingly I want to know if they are also opposed to Sony's ePub format?

[HappyMartin]

This thread made me realize that I am not a book lover but a reader and lover of stories. I don't give a fig for books and if publishers are in it for the love of books then we are on different sides.

Perhaps if the names were changed we would see the problem more clearly. I want to buy a story and the publisher wants to sell a book. It seems that I need someone who sells stories and perhaps the sellers of books need to decide if I represent a market they wish to satisfy or not. The writers of stories could then decide if they wanted to sell their stories to me and if they did they would have to find a story distributor, not a book seller.

The story is the thing and the book just carried the information. Why the romance about the book

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by HappyMartin

This thread made me realize that I am not a book lover but a reader and lover of stories. I don't give a fig for books and if publishers are in it for the love of books then we are on different sides.

Perhaps if the names were changed we would see the problem more clearly. I want to buy a story and the publisher wants to sell a book. It seems that I need someone who sells stories and perhaps the sellers of books need to decide if I represent a market they wish to satisfy or not. The writers of stories could then decide if they wanted to sell their stories to me and if they did they would have to find a story distributor, not a book seller.

The story is the thing and the book just carried the information. Why the romance about the book

Your sentiments strongly echo Jeff Bezos statements - when using the Kindle, the reader should focus only on the text, not on the reader itself, which should effectively "vanish" from the reader's perspective, leaving only the story.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by HappyMartin

This thread made me realize that I am not a book lover but a reader and lover of stories. I don't give a fig for books and if publishers are in it for the love of books then we are on different sides.

I'm the same way. While I have seen some books that are objects of beauty, most are just a tool to deliver content. I find them to be a rather inferior and inconvenient tool at that. There are places where a print book is still better, but as technology improves they will be fewer. I know there are some people who have a great sentimentality towards paper books and I don't want to denigrate their feelings (they're just as valid as mine), but I think many don't understand that these feelings are not universal amongst people who love to read. I think often times for the ephemeraphiles, the love of the book as an object and the book as content are so intertwined they have a hard time seeing how there could be so many of us that don't share it but still love reading just as much as they do. I have even been accused of being dead inside because my soul doesn't resonate with the smell of decaying tree. When you consider that folks who passionately love paper books have a much better chance of gravitating to the publishing industry, it explains a lot of the resistance to ebooks.

[nekokami]

I'm on the "story" side myself, though I've certainly seen some beautiful handmade books (often blank journals) that I would love to have. It's quite rare at this point for me to prefer a paper version of anything over digital. "How-to" magazines, e.g. MAKE or Bead & Button are among the few exceptions. Even there, as high-resolution color displays come down in price, I can see switching. I'd love to be able to zoom in on a photo of a process step, or even have access to a 3d model that could be rotated, or a short animation.

[carld]

I'm the same. The writing is what matters to me. I like books, but I'd be thrilled to have my entire library condensed down to a couple of SD cards. I mean, the extra space I'd have would be awesome. I can look around my bedroom and see books on every shelf and flat surface.

[ahi]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Your sentiments strongly echo Jeff Bezos statements - when using the Kindle, the reader should focus only on the text, not on the reader itself, which should effectively "vanish" from the reader's perspective, leaving only the story.

And yet the Kindle (prior to the DX) does not support PDF, the only format that makes possible the sort of excellent typography whose primary function is also to enhance one's ability to focus on the content, instead of the poor kerning, unsightly spacing, legions of orphans and widows, and other such "evils".

- Ahi

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by carld

I'm the same. The writing is what matters to me. I like books, but I'd be thrilled to have my entire library condensed down to a couple of SD cards. I mean, the extra space I'd have would be awesome. I can look around my bedroom and see books on every shelf and flat surface.

Really, is that such a bad thing?

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Really, is that such a bad thing?

Books do furnish a room!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ahi

And yet the Kindle (prior to the DX) does not support PDF, the only format that makes possible the sort of excellent typography whose primary function is also to enhance one's ability to focus on the content, instead of the poor kerning, unsightly spacing, legions of orphans and widows, and other such "evils".

- Ahi

While good typesetting does aid reading, 99% of readers won't consciously notice if it's missing. They might read a tiny bit slower, and they might occasionally be a little bit irritated to do "next page" just to get a single line or word.

But in general, they won't notice at all. Of course, you'll notice it all, and I'll notice most of it.

PDF might be the only format that can guarantee good typography, if the creator does things right, but I suspect that enhancements to ePUB reading sofwtare will in a few years give ePUB ebooks 95% of the quality of really good PDF. And yet also include reflowable text and font size changes.

[Abecedary]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

While good typesetting does aid reading, 99% of readers won't consciously notice if it's missing. They might read a tiny bit slower, and they might occasionally be a little bit irritated to do "next page" just to get a single line or word.

But in general, they won't notice at all. Of course, you'll notice it all, and I'll notice most of it.

PDF might be the only format that can guarantee good typography, if the creator does things right, but I suspect that enhancements to ePUB reading sofwtare will in a few years give ePUB ebooks 95% of the quality of really good PDF. And yet also include reflowable text and font size changes.

We can only hope. I tend to cringe a little when I'm reading a pbook and notice that the book designer didn't use ligatures. Or even worse, when they're used in some parts of the book, but not others.