Book Publishers Making the Same Mistakes as Record Labels? 227
Techdirt points out an interesting query in Slate asking why book publishers appear to be making the same mistake that record labels did with the iTunes service with DRM, and single-vendor lock-in. "Back in 2005, we noted that Apple's dominance over the online music space, which upset the record labels tremendously, was actually the record labels' own fault for demanding DRM. That single demand created massive lock-in and network effects that allowed Apple to completely dominate the market. If the record labels had, instead, pushed for an open solution, then anyone else could have built stores/players to work as well, and it could have minimized Apple's ability to control the market. Yes, everyone is now opening up (including Apple), but it took a long time, and Apple had already established its dominant position. So why are book publishers doing the same thing?"
One Word... (Score:5, Interesting)
Greed.
That's all this is about. That's all its ever been about.
-S
answer (Score:5, Interesting)
So why are book publishers doing the same thing?
Because the companies are run by old-timer that are still trying to apply a set of rules that no longer apply to a failing business model.
Look, the internet is here, it isn't leaving. Portable electronics are not some sort of passing fad. Dead-tree publishing is an old technology. As things like the kindle and the sony reader start showing people that they don't need to purchase a stack of paper to read a book, they're going to start demanding that when they purchase a book, they own the *book* not the rights to display the text of it on one specific device.
People are starting to catch on to it, too. There is a marketing tool that we use at my work that requires a serial # to activate. Since then, we have installed the software for all of the serials (this is a result of everybody demanding that they need access to it...not just the people we bought it for).
I finally told the boss that we don't have any more serials, we need more, and this is how much it's going to cost. He flipped out. Why was I being so difficult! The receptionist isn't using her copy any more, just use the serial number for that one!
I'm sure this is pretty common. People don't understand how completely and totally ridiculous DRM is until they actually run into it. As digital media becomes more and more ubiquitous, this is happening more and more and people are having their eyes opened.
Another example is when my Dad decided that he wanted to add MP3 playback capability to his home automation system (like what I showed him at my house). Problem was that all(most) of his music had been purchased in the iTunes Music Store and the tool that I was using for music playback ran on linux.
Sadly, it might actually take as long as it takes for some of the people running these companies to retire before things start to change.
Publishers are like auto makers... (Score:3, Interesting)
Not ignorance, fear (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Same S***, Different Pile (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh no it's way more insidious than that. The book publishing industry have wanted to kill the used book and discount industry for centuries now. The eBook and 95 tonnes of DRM on it will Kill that industry they so despise with a passion.
Writers are lucky to get $1.00 a book sold, that's if you signed a really good contract. I have 3 books published, I did what many writers consider career suicide. I told my publishers to go pound sand and I started self publishing. I now make $10.00 per book sold.
Because the publishers are raging assholes, I can never get "published" by any of the big publishing houses, I have been blackballed in the industry.
I really dont care. I will never use a traditional publisher again. They are honestly useless in today's world. My books are on the shelves of Barnes and noble and in Amazon.com without them.
I just have to do the little bit of work they did.
Many big traditional publishers are forcing writers to add DRM even if they don't want it on any e-releases of their books.
If there is a way to destroy every old traditional publisher making them penny-less, I'm all for it.
Re:Not all of them. Baen does not. (Score:3, Interesting)
You probably talked directly to Jim Baen, the publisher, and I'd guess he was irritated that you didn't read the FAQ.
That's not a blow-off answer; Baen's Bar is a very active forum that the authors and publisher use and pay attention to, and they've responded to the PDF question many times before.
Oh, and considering that Jim Baen was an editor for many years, I'd guess he's read more books than you and I combined.
Re:Not ignorance, fear (Score:3, Interesting)
They fear a future of "free" or extremely inexpensive books with the current big distributors largely cut out of the market... which is in fact what will happen if they do not offer alternatives. The recording industry fought and did not embrace alternatives, and so the changing market has been shutting them out, while those who did embrace the new market(s) are doing fine.
What the publishers need to do is embrace this future, rather than trying to prevent it. It is inevitable. If they accept the changes to their market, and work with those changes, they can stay in the game. If they don't, they will be shut off as surely as those others are being shut off.
Re:Not technical books... (Score:3, Interesting)
That doesn't mean they treat authors any better than other types of publishers. Most publishers severly undervalue their authors [onyxneon.com] -- there's no way that the publisher provided seven times the value to my most recent few books than I did. (If they took on seven times more risk than I did, that's not my problem. That's their broken business model.)
Re:Not all of them. Baen does not. (Score:2, Interesting)
Funny, I would put David Drake in the category of glorification of War for just that reason, the soldiers actually feel superior for the way they think of it. Believe it or not, the War is Hell is very much a part of the whole glorification.
And their alternative history books are very much the glorified-war-sci-fi kind. The 1632 series, for example, practically drips it.
I know I sound like a broken record.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Another excellent write up on the subject by Eric Flint can be found at Jim Baen's free library [baen.com]. (along with some free sci-fi and fantasy books-I can personally recommend anything from there-I've read them all)
Re:Not all of them. Baen does not. (Score:3, Interesting)
Believe it or not, the War is Hell is very much a part of the whole glorification.
Here's the thing: the hellishness of war does isolate the people who experience it, and soldiers very often do come to think of themselves as superior because they've been through things that most people don't understand. It's impossible to write a realistic depiction of war without portraying the phenomenon, and depiction is not the same thing as glorification. I agree, however, that it's a fine line to walk -- it's very easy to slip into "we few, we happy few" without mentioning how deeply screwed up this mentality is. FWIW, I think Drake does a good job of showing that when this happens to people, it constitutes a type of damage, just as much as physical injury does. Weber, not so much. Flint is somewhere in the middle.
Re:Not technical books... (Score:2, Interesting)
Indeed; I co-own an independent publishing company [onyxneon.com], and am actively working on two books right now.
Between the two of us, it was about eighteen months of full-time work. It was a long, detailed book that required a lot of research. Not all books are like that -- I can write an average-sized novel in six months.
Re:Not technical books... (Score:2, Interesting)
Sloppy wording for back-of-the-envelope calculations. It was 18 calendar months on the calendar, but probably about 18 FTE months. I don't have an exact figure for how many hours we spent individually and collectively writing the book, but even at the most sinister possible interpretation of my numbers, $10,000 for nine months of full time work is a horrible rate.
Re:Not technical books... (Score:2, Interesting)
I agree, to a point. Exploitive contracts may be legal, but they're not ethical. (I believe a more ethical business would have more equitable remuneration models.)
Would you consider a gentleman's wager? Let's choose the head of a book publishing company at random (say, the one with animals on the cover). Ask him whether he can afford to pay authors 25% royalties. I suspect he'll say no.
Re:At least there's a vendor involved (Score:3, Interesting)
Trust me, it was hard work convincing them this was the way to go, but I don't believe people want $10-$15 encrypyted ebooks they could lose access to at any moment.
The most common complaints with ebooks are
Re:At least there's a vendor involved (Score:3, Interesting)
The most common complaints with ebooks are ... too expensive when they're priced at a similar amount to a hard copy, and too much trouble when they're DRM-locked.
I bought two ebooks several years ago - one from Amazon and one from Adobe. Both were infested with DRM, which was not mentioned until after I had downloaded them (which was obviously after paying). Both had restrictions on printing, copying (cut/paste was actively crippled), and the need for remote authorization prevented transfer to other PCs. There was also an arduous re-authorization process to be followed every time Acrobat was updated, or if you wished to transfer the reading rights to a new PC.
The ebook bought from Adobe subsequently annoyed me greatly for another reason: after a year or so, Adobe closed their ebook store and announced that they would no longer support re-authorizations for Acrobat version changes or changes of PC. Instead, I was instructed to make an archive/frozen copy of Acrobat (v5?) using a special procedure, so that I could keep reading the book with that version even when newer versions of Acrobat were installed. Oh, and no re-authorizations for new PCs either.
The ebooks had cost me as much as the printed equivalents, but had merely arrived sooner. However, their DRM also obliterated my usual right to buy or sell second-hand. Together with the major DRM inconveniences, they were essentially a rip-off for worthless merchandise. Those disastrous ebooks were eventually deleted and replaced by real books, so I ended up paying double. Because of this experience, I swore off all ebooks with DRM of any kind. I will not buy an ebook unless it is explicitly provided without DRM. We continue to buy real books at a rate of several per month.
My publisher is addressing both with this release, and we're hoping it'll catch on.
I hope so also; it sounds like a reasonable approach. We're a "books from dead-trees" house, with more than 5000 on our shelves, but there are probably about a hundred non-DRM ebooks as well. Our kids greatly prefer books that can be held in your hand over text on a screen. Some of the reasons given are: reading without batteries or booting, turning the pages, the feel of the paper, putting unique bookmarks (e.g. horse's hair woven into a thread) in special places, and so forth.