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From: Chris Ridd on 18 Jul 2010 04:10 On 2010-07-18 08:28:22 +0100, Jaimie Vandenbergh said: > On Sat, 17 Jul 2010 21:17:41 +0100, David Kennedy > <davidkennedy(a)nospamherethankyou.invalid> wrote: > >> SteveH wrote: >>> >>> Seems the digital book market is being afflicted by the same issues as >>> the digital magazine market - there's no real price incentive to trade >>> printed for electronic media. >>> >> >> Seems to be the same attitude that the manufacturers had when CDs first >> appeared; "grab the punter by the wallet an squeeze, surely he'll come >> back for more." > > Charlie Stross, currently one of my favourite authors and also a > techie and gadget fan, has interesting things to say about the > economics of publishing ebooks. > > http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/05/cmap-9-ebooks.html Book publishing seems to be done in some odd alternative universe. -- Chris
From: Ian McCall on 18 Jul 2010 05:22 On 2010-07-18 08:28:22 +0100, Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie(a)sometimes.sessile.org> said: > Charlie Stross, currently one of my favourite authors and also a > techie and gadget fan, has interesting things to say about the > economics of publishing ebooks. > > http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/05/cmap-9-ebooks.html Very interesting article. I think he may be slightly out about the cost to physically print (I once worked in a printers - proper one with web presses etc.. Wasn't cheap) but I can fully believe it's not the major component. He's also right about the DRM too - it's exactly why I haven't bought an eBook yet. Won't do 'til there's no DRM. It's also why I've bought no films online either - I do have a couple, but they're freebies that came with a physical DVD. Interestingly it's also why I won't buy Blu-Ray although I do rent them - if I can't rip it for online storage, it's just not that useful to me. Then there's the whole eReader thing. I can buy a book for 99p. An eReader costs - what, �150-�200 for a dedicated device, and that's -before- I have anything on it? I've read a Gutenburg book on my iPhone - worked ok'ish but not as nice as reading a book simply due to page size. Also, unlike the shift to digital music I can't take my existing material and convert it to digital. I could rip a CD to go on an MP3 player, but I can't guillotine my physical book, scan, OCR and then proofread the conversion. I'd like to like eBooks, but there's still too much wrong and too much expense for me. Cheers. Ian
From: Chris Ridd on 18 Jul 2010 06:22 On 2010-07-18 10:22:17 +0100, Ian McCall said: > He's also right about the DRM too - it's exactly why I haven't bought > an eBook yet. Won't do 'til there's no DRM. It's also why I've bought > no films online The only ebooks I've bought have been without DRM. Some publishers do "get it", and I'm enjoying reading their stuff in epub format. O'Reilly and the Pragmatic Programmers are probably the best known of these publishers. Some authors are self-publishing their back catalogues which are out of print and to which their print publishers have no ebook rights, and those tend to be DRM-free too. > I'd like to like eBooks, but there's still too much wrong and too much > expense for me. O'Reilly also "get it", in that you can "upgrade" printed copies of your books into ebooks. Presumably you can then ebay your printed copies... -- Chris
From: Dr Geoff Hone on 18 Jul 2010 09:33 On Sun, 18 Jul 2010 08:28:22 +0100, Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie(a)sometimes.sessile.org> wrote: .... ... >Charlie Stross, currently one of my favourite authors and also a >techie and gadget fan, has interesting things to say about the >economics of publishing ebooks. > >http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/05/cmap-9-ebooks.html > > Cheers - Jaimie Don't let Rowland see this! When I posted a very simplified version of this, he rubbished it. The Stross account gives the insiders view in real detail, and Rowland won't know where to start slagging. The Stross blog also has a link to the merits of PDF for e-books (that is, no merit at all). So now for the bug question: If LaTeX and it's variants are the answer to everything in publishing, typesetting, etc, why has no-one tried it for e-books? Geoff
From: Steve Firth on 18 Jul 2010 10:06
Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie(a)sometimes.sessile.org> wrote: > Charlie Stross, currently one of my favourite authors and also a > techie and gadget fan, has interesting things to say about the > economics of publishing ebooks. Charlie Stross is also, sadly, sucked in by the publishing world and imagines that the way it is, is mostly how it must be. As are the throwbacks who run the music and movie publishing business. I interact far more than is good for me with music publishers and the term "dinosaurs" comes to mind over and over again. There's a real shortage of imagination when it comes to dealing with digital distribution. Sadly I think the only way out is to have a revolution of the sort that occured when Indy music publishers entered the market. Then, when the big corporates realise they are losing sales they will do what they did to Indy, buy up the competition and incorporate them into their core business. |