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Why ebooks are bad for you
Stoic Joker:
Oh yeah, Apple is definitely way ahead of Google.-Deozaan (June 14, 2011, 04:23 PM)
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Yes, but that's only because their User Experience Probe sticks out farther. ...As it has to be that long when they stick it up your ass to read your mind (or re-program it as necessary).
:D
wraith808:
The lion's share of the money still goes to the publishers
-40hz (June 13, 2011, 07:24 PM)
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Not true -- the biggest share goes to the retailer.
-johnk (June 14, 2011, 05:38 PM)
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Depends on the publisher and the market and whether you are considered a distributor or not. I know that in most science fiction/fantasy and gaming books that's not true from experience.
40hz:
who used to justify their percentage because of the mechanical reproduction costs they incurred by printing, binding, and shipping books.
-40hz (June 13, 2011, 07:24 PM)
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Not true -- it's always been a small part of publishing costs (10-15 per cent)
-johnk (June 14, 2011, 05:38 PM)
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You and I both know that. But it hasn't prevented the big publishing houses from crying on any shoulder that will allow about their spiraling costs of production. Check the trade rags. Justifications made by industry groups don't have to be true - or even make sense. ;D
The lion's share of the money still goes to the publishers
-40hz (June 13, 2011, 07:24 PM)
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Not true -- the biggest share goes to the retailer.-johnk (June 14, 2011, 05:38 PM)
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I wasn't speaking of the percentage of the retail sale. Publishers have little control over retail price. Especially now that 800 lb. gorillas like Amazon, WallMart, and Ingram have so much to say about what the sell price (and their seller's cut) will be. I don't hold publishers accountable for that.
I was speaking of the ratio of money received by the publisher for a book in comparison to the amount of royalty paid to the author out of it.
Add in the borderline-deceptive accounting practices employed when calculating royalties that most publishers employ and it's small wonder most authors have so little to show for their efforts.
And that was the case long before the first digital books were even envisioned, so it's not e-pub pirating that's solely to blame for it.
Stoic Joker:
Any time these forums discuss the marketing of books/music/tech there is a general tendency to kick the big companies involved who want to make money. Add to that a general loathing of DRM without offering any idea as to how content creators are supposed to make any money. I have no illusions about big bad corporate life (I've done my time there) but putting two fingers up to the money-making machine without offering any alternative doesn't advance the argument.-johnk (June 14, 2011, 05:38 PM)
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I think you anytime people discuss the topic of DRM. That's real people. Normal people. People that are outside of the corporate machine. What was it something like 4 billion dollars these clowns pissed down the drain on the protection scheme some college kid "cracked" with the Shift key?!?
They cry about piracy making them lose their shirts, but I haven't seen record execs driving rusty Pintos yet. Back before the infernal inter-web, there was always a guy in every neighborhood that had a dual cassette deck that would happily dub you a copy of what ever albums were current if you showed up with the blank cassettes (and a 6 pack). It was simple enough to do. And nobody ever even raised an eyebrow. But then again there was a lot of really good music back in the 60's and 70's.
Gas prices, unemployment, inflation, and the simple fact there really hasn't been a real flood of truly great bands in the last decade have a hell of a lot more to do with declining sales that piracy ever did or will.
In my time I've purchased 4 copies of U2's The Joshua Tree on cassette...because they kept breaking. I finally pirated the last copy, so now I have one that I know I can keep. Does that make me a bad person? (Do you think I care...? :) )
zridling:
EDIT: Erm, I guess this is off topic for this thread. Oops!-Deozaan (June 14, 2011, 04:23 PM)
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Related in that I'm not buying any one company's devices -- Apple or Amazon at present -- just to read or access books on their service. You've got a handful of mega-corporations that are working night and day to wall off the internet; that is, you must buy their devices and buy in to their EULAs, their online services, their proprietary formats, their pricing schemes (pay PER-view?), and so on. Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, and Google are working this angle hard. As Deozaan referenced, most these companies would be more than happy to maximize every dime by charging you for the rest of your life to listen, view, read anything and everything through their networks.
In return, you get the privilege of every keystroke being spied on. (Next up, facial recognition!)
...for me Google Music is much way ahead of iCloud because I don't use iTunes and I don't own an iDevice.-Deozaan (June 14, 2011, 04:23 PM)
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And that's why I've purchased a few books from the Google eBookstore. For now, it allows me to read books on the widest number of devices, though they won't let me save my puchased .ePUB books to my own HD.
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