"Why e-books cost money to publish"

[Justy]

Originally Posted by lilac_jive

Checking it out I wouldn't mind volunteering!

I've learned a lot volunteering at www.pgdpcanada.net. It's really rewarding and I love seeing the books I helped out on show up in PG Canada.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

I just came back from the Tools of Change in Publishing conference in NYC, where publishers essentially show up hoping to figure out how they're going to save their own butts from The Future. As an author (who got a pass through my connection to Read an E-Book Week), it was interesting to see the extent to which publishers are hoping to combine things like e-books into what they are doing right now. They are not really looking for new business models... they are looking for the easiest way to jump onto the e-bandwagon, baggage and all, and enjoy the ride. "Who's gonna do the blogs and Facebook links for us?"

Only a few of them really seem to get that they need to do some radical thinking to truly embrace an e-book market. Fewer still accept that they will need to make radical changes in their print-based products, or they will strangle themselves. Look to the smaller, newer companies and indies... they seem to be able to overcome the inertia of the old guard, and they will be the true drivers of change in publishing.

Talk about getting to actually be that "fly on the wall". Thanks for relating the info. I do have concerns that the "business as usual" crowd will either make or break the market in the near term. I don't know why, but to me there is more hyperbole in the ereader device market (from the device mfg's themselves) than any other and at the same time the publishers seem stuck in the 50s using punch cards to flip mechanical switches.

When shopping for ebooks these days, I do wonder if the current "only as good as your last quarterly" corporate environment is something keeping book costs up and selection down (though improving a bit more these days). It would seem to me there long term revenue from conversion to electronic format since no book would ever again be out of print.

I also do not get the "company store" nature of content. Increased device/platform independence of content would surely seem to equate to increased revenue?? But then that too would seem tied to that 50s mindset.

Hopefully this will be "the year of the device" and the next domino to fall will indeed be the publishing world. That and a "whiter" eink display background...hehe...

[GeoffC]

oh - look - flying pigs ....

[ke7dbx]

These arguments just remind me of whats going on in the downloaded music and movies world.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by ke7dbx

These arguments just remind me of whats going on in the downloaded music and movies world.

yep, they all be similar - and please don't start on DRM (that's had plenty of lifetimes here already).