09-13-2010, 08:41 PM | #31 | |
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What I'm saying is, what value do publishers bring to the table that we would not have without them? Before electronic books they were great facilitators and very necessary to get a book from an author to a reader. But what are they good for now (as far as ebooks are concerned)? |
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09-13-2010, 09:29 PM | #32 | |
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For that matter, go take a look at how easy it is to get any of the Harry Potter books as an illicit ebook -- books which have never been released in electronic format. As a counter-example, take a look at Baen. Thanks in part to their DRM-free policy, they have become one of the top SF publishers. And they are not a small press. Anybody who wants an illicit copy of an ebook can get it, and often with less effort than getting a DRM-encumbered version. DRM removal is also minimally difficult for anyone who really cares. The book has to be displayed, so one way or another -- even if it requires screenshots and OCR software -- that is unlikely to change. What DRM really does is enforce device lock-in. People with Kindles (people who don't jailbreak their books, anyway) have to buy new Kindles, etc. That's what the publishers want. That, and the destruction of the secondary market (used book stores). They see their customer as someone who buys a half-dozen hardcovers a year. Precisely why they don't think someone who buys dozens of paperbacks a year is also their customer remains a mystery. That's where companies like Baen and O'Reilly and their kin are smart: they realize that if we can get books cheaper, we'll buy more books -- and specifically, more of their books. So they sell us cheap books (a new release from Baen is usually $6.00, for instance, and no weaseling with ".99" either) and we buy them by the bucketload. It's anything but true that publishers "need" to impose DRM to keep people from copying their books. The torrents are full of copies of their books; that horse is not just out of the barn but cantering down the highway. The publishers can't stop them. It's all about device lock-in, and always has been. |
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09-13-2010, 09:48 PM | #33 |
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I'm really getting the feeling (can't tell you exactly why) that retailers care a lot less about DRM than the publishers do. I wonder if they'd all open up if publishers didn't insist on "protecting" (aka "crippling") their ebooks with DRM.
I've sold x-many copies of Risen at Smashwords, without DRM. I've sold 3x-many copies of Risen at Amazon, without DRM. I've sold, as far as I know, zero/zilch/nada copies of Risen at B&N and the Sony store and Kobobooks with DRM.* What do I think of DRM? Guess. *I know this is not a scientific study with controlled variables. It could be any number of other factors. I'm just saying. |
09-13-2010, 10:06 PM | #34 |
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DRM stands for Digital Rights Management.
It's not about "restricted"; it's not about "protection". Adobe's ADE, and the way it is implemented using the Overdrive facilities for public libraries is a great example of "management". It provides for tracking digital rights from the library to the borrower (temporarily removing the rights from the library and giving them to the borrower) and then tracking the "return" of the item from the borrower to the library. Multiple copies can exist and remain -- but in the expired borrower hands, the management scheme renders the item useless, whereas the library copy is magically "whole" again and read to be loaned out again. |
09-13-2010, 10:11 PM | #35 | |
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I can honestly say I would not buy something at Smashwords, that was also at Amazon for about the price, regardless of DRM. I would assume the Amazon version was better formatted and would buy on that basis. (It may not be true, but in some cases, at least for me, it has been.) |
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09-14-2010, 12:58 AM | #36 | |
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More on Topaz that I could find here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94753 Calibre won't convert. Apparently there's a combo of Python scripts that might convert it to something usable...with some issues. Last edited by GreenMonkey; 09-14-2010 at 01:13 AM. |
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09-14-2010, 01:56 AM | #37 | |
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09-14-2010, 02:26 AM | #38 | |
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09-14-2010, 05:44 AM | #39 | |
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If you look at my original post you'll see my second point of requirements to create an ebook is an editor (just not the whole infrastructure of a publishing house). And I certainly agree with you, there is a lot of junk out there, and a lot of stuff that each one of us may not be that interested in. In traditional publishing there is so much cost in producing a book not directly related to the writing of it, that the responsibility of insuring that money is not poured down a rat hole is the publisher, who puts up the money in the first place. So they become the gatekeeper. But when you decide to read a particular book, how often is your decision based on the fact that Random House is the publisher? You may partially base reading a book on a publisher if that publisher specializes in a genre that you like. When those costs are no longer there, there needs to be other mechanisms for judging the merits of a work. That's where blog reviews, forums, reviews by readers on websites the sell ebooks, book clubs and recommendations by authors you like come in. I think those sources are a much better judge of the value of a book than publishers are. Additionally ebooks do not need to generate the profits that pbooks need in order to support the people involved in their creation. Cheaper ebooks for the reader generates more profit for the authors who keep a higher percentage of the sale, and more books being sold since they are more affordable. So why do we need publishers for ebooks again? Last edited by Robert22; 09-14-2010 at 05:47 AM. |
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09-14-2010, 06:01 AM | #40 | |
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What publishers really do is choose which books they think are the most likely to sell, based on what is currently selling. So if you had a book about sparkly vampires versus zombies you would have a better chance of being published than if you had a book about snail racing. Any subjective "quality" difference between the two books would be irrelevant. This is why Harry Potter was turned down so many times. I'm not saying it's a "quality" book, I've never read it, but it seems to sell well. But when it was first pimped out to publishers there was no similar books with a proven sales record, so it was turned down. When it did sell, it opened the doors for other writers with boy wizard type stories. |
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09-14-2010, 06:35 AM | #41 |
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A big part of the problem is not the people who should be making the decisions, but the bean counters upstairs who know (or think they know) money and nothing else. "The competition just sold a boy wizard books? Buy all the boy wizard books you can get!" They've become so driven by blockbusters that they're not only throwing the midlist authors under the bus, but they're insisting on buying books that will never sell, or never earn out their advance, because they "have to" have a boy wizard, a sparkly vampire, a celebrity tell-all, or whatever is hot this month. Instead of a series of good, solid sellers (see: Baen) they're shooting their bolt on hoped-for blockbusters and generally missing, to the detriment of pretty much everyone, the authors and readers most prominent among them.
There was a time when a publisher's imprint meant that a book could be expected to reach a certain standard of quality. In the past decade or so, unfortunately, it seems that it mostly means that the book reached a certain standard of similarity to other publishers' offerings. I have bought more crap with covers on it (thankfully, usually at the charity book table) than I ever have as ebooks. There are times I wonder if any editor has ever actually read a book. It fits the formula du jour, so they buy it; next month, they'll be buying something else. Instead of looking for good books to promote, they're looking for books that fit their planned promotions, whether they're good or not, and the results, a disturbing percentage of the time, come up "not". And let's not even get started on how much editing (line or copy) the books don't get anymore; I'm getting ready to start hitting someone. So since the publishers seem to be not only abandoning but actively discarding that gatekeeper role ... what, exactly, is left for them to do? |
09-14-2010, 08:20 AM | #42 |
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Well said mr ploppy & Worldwalker! I couldn't agree more...
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09-14-2010, 08:56 AM | #43 | |
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09-14-2010, 10:55 AM | #44 | |
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I see self published ebooks the same way I see self published music. When everyone realised they could put out their own records very cheaply and sell them direct to customers we had a massive explosion in the types of music being released. Whereas what comes from more mainstream music publishers all sounds about the same because it's chasing mass market appeal. |
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09-14-2010, 12:26 PM | #45 | |
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I would not like to see the effect on global economy if all the publishers, printers, bookstores, and other industries that depend on pbook/newspaper/magazine publication and distribution go out of business. Major newspapers are already discussing shutting down the printing presses. Whole areas whose main industry is pulp and paper would be devasted. I got an ebook reader because books aren't sold in the town I am currently in, and I am glad that I did, but it takes very little thought to realize the vast number of people whose livelyhood depends wholly or partially printed works distributed daily. Bound to happen but hope it is a very gradual process. Helen |
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drm, drm protection, epub, kindle, mobi |
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