Can e-Publishing Overcome Copyright Concerns?

[Greg Anos]

As the Congresscrooks say in their speeches, I would like to revise and expand my remarks in #47 above.

The "Economics Of Abundance" force a particularly difficult kind of competition on the creators of new designs. Since this a <legal> competition, I need to point it out for clarity.

The public domain!

When a design enters the public domain, it becomes a legal competitor for new designs. And it costs nothing. This provides a further drag to charging the cost of new designs. Why buy a new design when an old, free design will do just as well? Why buy a new version of a Beethoven Symphony (or Britney Spears) when I can copy an 1957 LP version of the Beethoven Symphony (legally in Great Britain) for free? Harry Harrison or Mark Twain? Generic vs. new drugs? Why pay for new?

This is prevented in the "Economics Of Scarcity" world due to the saving of economy of scale in manufacturing. But if this ever goes away, the 21 year old designs (patent is only 20 years, remember) will become serious competitors for new designs.

This will slow down progress as the years go by. This may be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your viewpoint, but it is an <is> thing. I felt I needed to point this out. ( To quote Hemmingway, "You either do something new, or you're beating dead men at their own game". Not only that, but the dead men don't charge you either.)

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

But you do have more costs than most people think. The only cost you really don't have is the actual printing (which isn't as much as some people think, about 10-15% of the cover price). You still have all the traditional production costs, plus the distribution costs just like pbooks. What they need to do is get rid of the old style distribution model where wholesalers & retailers get 70% of the books cover price divided between them (yes, they even use this for ebooks)

Why though? What possible reason is there for a retailer/wholesaler getting paid the same amount for selling an ebook as they do a pbook? If you can't run an online store with much less overhead than a traditional brick and mortar store, then there's a big problem there.

I definitely agree that the distribution model needs to change. They should be able to greatly reduce that 70%, which will go a long way towards making ebook purchases more attractive compared to copying/sharing via other means.

I suspect that it's more a case of the contracts that publishers have with retailers are the same whether it's for a pbook or an ebook, and that profit margins on ebooks are a lot higher than the same priced pbooks. In other words, the distribution chain is being treated the same whether it's physical or digital. That seems to me like the biggest problem with the current pricing.

[dkb]

Re: David Pogue's comment: "Unfortunately, I've had terrible experiences releasing my books in electronic form. Twice in my career, 'blind' people e-mailed me, requesting a PDF of one of my books. Both times, I sent one over--and both times, it was all over the piracy sites within 48 hours, free for anyone to download.

I understand that J. K. Rowling's books were pirated and on the Internet the day after the print copy was released. I'm sure she didn't send any PDF's to blind people. :-) As Eric Flint pointed out, anyone with a copier can convert a book to an ebook. It seems to me she or any author would be better off also selling electronic versions. I think most people would pay for their e books. I want my favorite authors to keep writing--I know they won't do that for free!

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by dkb

I understand that J. K. Rowling's books were pirated and on the Internet the day after the print copy was released.

I thought some of them were on the internet before the printed copy was released. Or am I mis-remembering?

I agree though, not releasing an ebook won't stop people from sharing digital copies anyway. So even if a publisher/author wants to avoid the whole issue of having to come up with a new business model by ignoring the ebook market, people are still going to distribute ebook versions of their work.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by dkb

I think most people would pay for their e books. I want my favorite authors to keep writing--I know they won't do that for free!

However, we regularly hear from people on these forums who seem to give the impression that it only takes a small transgression from an author to satisfy their justification to take their e-book from the darknet and not pay for it. "Have you seen him... with that stupid big nose? I'm taking Big Nose's book! Ha!"

It seems that everyone can come up with a justification to take what they want, if they know where they can get it for free... and digital files are too easy to get. I may disagree with Rowling's intention to not release Potter e-books, but I cannot blame her for expecting to lose a potentially large sum of money because of e-books. The claim that "a book taken from the darknet isn't a lost sale, because they wouldn't have bought it anyway" is one that the publishing industry has not yet accepted (and for the record, nor have I).

[tompe]

Now you are mixing up collectin and reading. It is trivially true that all downloading from darknet is not a lost sale. I have not seen any empirical experiments that supports a given percentage of lost sale. Have you?

I just bought two paperbooks that I had downloaded from somewhere and not read in the electornic version. Definitely not a lost sale.

[tirsales]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

It seems that everyone can come up with a justification to take what they want, if they know where they can get it for free...

The point is - not releasing e-books won't change anything to this. As we have seen, book available in the darknet, wether they are released as e-books or not - without differing quality or availability.
And people still buy those books - in p- and in e-form.

I repeat: Not releasing e-books won't change anything. Fair deals for e-books WILL get bought - give good service (e.g. fast downloads, a good shop-system accessible from everywhere, clearly arranged and up-to-date), fair prices, and NO DRM - DRM does not protect e-books but annoys your customers.

A little remark for your i-tunes comparison: Playing an MP3 on your PC and recording with your MP3-Player would actually be illegal in Germany, as is e.g. transforming one kind of drm-protected format into another.

and digital files are too easy to get. I may disagree with Rowling's intention to not release Potter e-books, but I cannot blame her for expecting to lose a potentially large sum of money because of e-books. The claim that "a book taken from the darknet isn't a lost sale, because they wouldn't have bought it anyway" is one that the publishing industry has not yet accepted (and for the record, nor have I).

Well - I guess a number of people won't buy books (or music, films, etc) because they can download them for free. But most people (and yes, there are studies proving this) use the darknet to "test" new books, music, etc - stuff they wouldn't have bought - and buy them if they are good. It is quite possible, that the darknet will kill libraries - but not the book-sales...

[MaggieScratch]

In J.K. Rowling's case, in many times it WOULD be a lost sale, because Potter nuts have already shown they are willing to buy her books over again in different formats. Many Potterheads I know have the books in hardback, paperback, British "adult" editions, audiobooks, etc. (I have them all in U.S. hardback--the first three replacements for previously purchased paperback editions.)

I would welcome the opportunity to purchase legal versions of her ebooks, if they were properly formatted, because there are places in the books where handwriting fonts, etc. are used and would probably have to be rendered by images. I would also love the inclusion of the wonderful Mary Grand Pré line drawings at the beginning of each chapter in the U.S. versions. I would still keep all my paper editions if I purchased ebook editions. A friend sent me bootleg ebooks of all the novels and they are OCRed and not proofread and generally a mess. I've never bothered to read them through.

Also, my understanding is that JKR doesn't prevent the release of electronic versions not so much because she fears piracy as because she just doesn't like ebooks. I read somewhere that she said she doesn't want to deny someone the opportunity to read the paper version of the book. My answer to that argument is: she isn't. She's just giving them a choice.

[moz]

Since publishers can't choose not to have ebooks of their output made available, the real question they're answering is: do we want to profit from ebooks? I'm surprised at how many say no.

I suspect that there's a second set of lost sales that counterbalances the first - people who will not buy pbooks. In my case, because I don't want to encourage the wrong behaviour. Every time I say "well, it's not available in a sensible way so I guess I'll just kill a few trees" I'm paying someone to do the wrong thing.

[Ramen]

Originally Posted by tirsales

The point is - not releasing e-books won't change anything to this. As we have seen, book available in the darknet, wether they are released as e-books or not - without differing quality or availability.
And people still buy those books - in p- and in e-form.

I repeat: Not releasing e-books won't change anything. Fair deals for e-books WILL get bought - give good service (e.g. fast downloads, a good shop-system accessible from everywhere, clearly arranged and up-to-date), fair prices, and NO DRM - DRM does not protect e-books but annoys your customers.

This can't be stressed often enough. There's been a huge community for digitalizing pbooks since the beginning of the internet. Unlike videos, ebooks are small and the equipment for digitalizing pbooks has been around for a long time.
Not releasing ebooks will never stop this unless nobody is interested in the book. Likewise, selling DRMed ebooks will never work either.

This completely ignores the fact that all current DRM schemes are insecure.

Originally Posted by tirsales

Well - I guess a number of people won't buy books (or music, films, etc) because they can download them for free. But most people (and yes, there are studies proving this) use the darknet to "test" new books, music, etc - stuff they wouldn't have bought - and buy them if they are good. It is quite possible, that the darknet will kill libraries - but not the book-sales...

A lot of times, there is no distinction made between people willing to pay and people unwilling to pay. The later should be ignored if countermeasures have any negative effect on the former group.
If someone wants me to buy a ebook, they should make the decision as easy as possible: free chapters, even free first book in a series (BAEN style), no DRM, multiple formats, good price.

People that are looking to buy a book will do so if the deal is right and they can be more or less sure they'll like the book. Focus on selling books.

Since there is a huge amount of books and the book shops don't offer sufficient sample chapters and the like, the darknet is the only alternative. Some people will buy subsequent books in a series or even buy the book they've read for free. However, this situation only exists because ebook sites are unwilling to provide the customer with sufficient info and proper formats.
People that wouldn't buy the books anyhow need to be ignored: they will never buy a book anyhow and are therefore not a lost sale. They are only noise. Perhaps some of them will start buying books but that is really irrelevant.

[GeoffC]

Fictionwise, amongst others, provide a sample chapter from their book lists.

[Ramen]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

Fictionwise, amongst others, provide a sample chapter from their book lists.

Yes but a single chapter or two isn't enough for almost all books.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Ramen

Not releasing ebooks will never stop this unless nobody is interested in the book. Likewise, selling DRMed ebooks will never work either.

This completely ignores the fact that all current DRM schemes are insecure.

People that are looking to buy a book will do so if the deal is right and they can be more or less sure they'll like the book. Focus on selling books.

Actually, the last statement demonstrates why the first statement is inaccurate. If "the deal is right," people will buy DRM'd books. As for the second statement: DRM'd books don't have to be 100% secure, as long as the purchase process is not too upsetting to the public who wants the books, as iTunes illustrates.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Ramen

Yes but a single chapter or two isn't enough for almost all books.

So you want to read a book, before you decide to buy it?

[Ramen]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

So you want to read a book, before you decide to buy it?

There's a lot of space between one chapter and the whole book.

For a book, the ending is absolutely necessary. Therefore, you could offer 2/3 (arbitrary ratio) of the ebook for free and charge the ebook price for the last third. Anyone who likes the book and therefore wants to finish reading it will buy the last third.
The customer has all the reading info he wants and the publisher/author gets paid. Negative effects would be:

• Books that suck will be seen as thus before you buy them (good for the customer, though)
• Digitizing pbooks will be reduced to 1/3 the work, though again, this is irrelevant (will be done anyhow; ebooks are insecure anyhow; focus on selling).

BAEN offers ~7 chapters for free for the webscription books (non-free ebooks).