04-18-2008, 12:18 PM | #1 |
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Very interesting article from The Bookseller
Hi all,
You may find this article from today's online issue of The Bookseller interesting: http://www.thebookseller.com/in-dept...al-battle.html It's mainly about rights issues and the pricing of eBooks, however it also has interesting snippets of information about readers: "Sony is gearing up to launch its e-Reader in the third quarter of this year. Amazon is understood to be readying its Kindle for a British launch in 2008—or a Kindle II, which may feature both e-book and digital audio downloads. Eindhoven-based Polymer Vision, an offshoot of electronics giant Philips, is releasing its lightweight Readius in mid-2008. It has a five-inch flexible, rollable screen and 30 hours of battery life." Regards HTC |
04-18-2008, 12:26 PM | #2 |
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04-18-2008, 12:29 PM | #3 | |
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Regards HTC. |
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04-18-2008, 12:31 PM | #4 |
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That would be nice if 3rd quarter Sony did release the 505 in the UK.
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04-18-2008, 12:37 PM | #5 | |
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The article flies in the face of the folks around here that believe eBooks should be substantially cheaper, some say a $1, because they are digital and free to reproduce. To quote from the article:
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04-18-2008, 12:39 PM | #6 |
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04-18-2008, 12:44 PM | #7 |
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04-18-2008, 12:45 PM | #8 |
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I would take some of the references to increased costs due to a multiplicity of file types with a mine of salt.
Fictionwise managed to convert 19,000 titles to a new format in less than a month and managed do do so without worrying about passing the cost to consumers. Baen added LRF without any major concerns for cost either. Given that Baen can make a profit with sub-paperback prices on eBooks (and higher royalties) I would suspect that Random House is choosing to inflate the costs of their works. I think the highest reasonable cost for an eBook is still roughly the same as that of a paperback (when dealing with fiction). |
04-18-2008, 12:50 PM | #9 | |
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In most cases, eBook prices are based on the latest prin edition. So when they go from hardcover to this new paperback, eBooks will still be overpriced. It's not until the print edition makes it to the regular paperpack (if ever these days) that the eBook price might be reasonable. |
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04-18-2008, 12:51 PM | #10 | ||
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Very interesting article, yes. thanks for the link.
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(should i mention how much money they would save, if they dropped DRM and its associated costs ? not to mention that they would probably thereby increase sales, effectively getting two hits with the same stone...) |
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04-18-2008, 12:53 PM | #11 | |
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04-18-2008, 12:57 PM | #12 | |
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The "normal" paperbacks are called Mass Market Paperbacks (MMPB), if I recall correctly. All that being said, I share your view that the MMPB is the norm for paperbacks, and I don't usually like the TPB's either, with the occasional rare exception. Baen's prices are usually $4~$6 (for those who don't know) so they're below the MMPB and way below the TPB prices. |
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04-18-2008, 12:59 PM | #13 |
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Also not to mention the fact that a file is usually created as part of the process of creating the print version.
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04-18-2008, 01:08 PM | #14 | |
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For example, the marketing, editing, etc, etc are the same fixed costs for any book... they don't change. For the foreseeable future they are doing those things for every book anyway that they are bring to print. Also, they talk about file conversion, digital warehousing, etc. Give me a break. Isn't all publishing, layout, done electronically anyway. Are you telling me that publishers don't already have storage facilities for the digital source of their books? Heck, they could use Amazons S3 service with no needed infrastructure and store all they want for $.10 (10 cents) a month per gigabyte. You can store alot of compressed text in a gigabyte. File conversion? Give me a break. If they used a common source format like .epub which is what they compressed (zip/rar) and stored they could provide that format to printer/retailers etc and the retailers could create the formats that they sell... or even better, .epub could be made avialable directly if only ebook readers would support it. Even if the publisher did the conversions, it takes very little processing power to do this and it could all be automated in a batch when a book is released and then those formats could be stored so the conversion isn't run realtime. The other cost they talk about such as "infrastructure" is generally borne by the retailer, stuff like web sites, transaction costs, cc processing etc... unless the publisher is going to sell direct. BOb |
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04-18-2008, 01:12 PM | #15 | |
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