Update Your Shelf: BitLit Offers Access To Ebook Versions of Books You Own

First time accepted submitter Peter Hudson (3717535) writes Cory Doctorow writes on boingboing.net "BitLit works with publishers to get you free or discounted access to digital copies of books you own in print: you use the free app for Android and iOS to take a picture of the book's copyright page with your name printed in ink, and the publisher unlocks a free or discounted ebook version. None of the Big Five publishers participate as yet, but indies like O'Reilly, Berrett-Koehler, Red Wheel Weiser, Other Press, Greystone, Coach House, Triumph, Angry Robot, Chicago Review, Dundurn, and PM Press (publishers of my book The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow) are all in."

What could possibly go wrong

[photonic]

Great, one guy who actually owns the book takes a high resolution scan and puts it on the internet, everyone else prints it out and signs it ....

Physical books are great

[redmid17]

but they take up a lot of room, and when traveling I find it much easier to bring my kindle fire. With as much as new books cost, especially hard covers, there is no real reason to not bundle an ebook with the physical copy. The last few years I've shelled out $15-$30 on brand new hardcovers (preorder to impulse buy). I enjoy reading them and then stick them in my bookcase. I don't really want to get them torn up while traveling and they are huge. That gives me three options: purchase another physical book in paper back, buy the ebook, or download an ebook. I've already spent upwards of $30 on the book, so giving more money isn't really an enticing option. The $30 is probably enough to buy the hard cover, paperback and ebook a year after it comes out.

Just bundle them. Do it as a pre-order thing. People might even be enticed to pre-order something they wouldn't otherwise.

Re:What could possibly go wrong

[mfh]

People aren't evil. The simple fact is if a publisher sells a book at a fair price people would rather pay money than simply download the book.

Case in point against DRM are the musicians and comedians who are offering a "pay what you want" model that is so successful these guys make MORE money than they would through a traditional publisher, with less advertising and less overall effort. Time is money.

So yeah some guy will offer the book for free... and a few people will see the link and realize they can BUY the thing, and they'll do that instead. The people who download it wouldn't have bought it anyway. How many books do you read at Chapters? Do you buy EVERY BOOK?

Nope.

Re:What could possibly go wrong

[davester666]

Pretty much the only musicians/comedians who make money with "pay what you want" or even with their own web site selling their wares for similar or even lower than the 'regular' price of similar merchandise are the ones who don't need the money and who have already 'made it'. They already went through the process of going through labels or promoters, dingy nightclubs, and made it big, so that lots of lots of people already know about them and what to expect from the product they buy. And they also get a whole bunch of free advertising by doing it. Louis CK offers a video of his standup for a couple of bucks, lots of web sites published articles about how cool it is that he is doing it all on his own. Joe Blow comedian does the exact same thing, NOBODY NOTICES and/or CARES. His mom will buy a vid, but that's about it.

But this is only about your DRM thing. The rest of your comment is reasonable.

Re:What could possibly go wrong

[rtb61]

Not all books are the same. There are two major categories non-fiction versus fiction. I would have to be honest and say when it comes to say text books, I want to download them for free and never pay for them. I don't want a text book written by one author that only lasts a couple of years. I want one where hundreds even thousands of people expert in the field have collaborated on and update once a year. A government funded exercise, where it is not about generating a profit but saving money by reducing cost for education for every citizen. So open collaborative text books free of copyright hassles beyond keeping plagiarists under control.