Comments on: Have e-books turned a page?

Steady growth suggests that the publishing industry may finally have a grip on what readers want from electronic books.

[Stefan G]

Big ommission

I found the article about the acceptance of e-books very interesting, but I felt that one huge reason for their slow acceptance was left out. The price of e-books! The price of most e-books is the same as a hardcover book. I personally find that ridiculous. I rarely buy hardcover books because I don't like paying that much for a book (unless it's for business). Considering that there are no printing costs, I would expect an e-book to be cheaper than a regular book, not more expensive!

I would never be willing to pay more than the price of a paperback book at the most. However, I would buy a lot of e-books at that price. I would love being able to read my casual reading books on my Palm PDA. When they lower the price, I'm there.

Sincerely,
Stefan

DRM pointless for e-books

The audience for e-books is quite different than that for digital music. These readers are not likely to engage in the kind of file-sharing that has music industry execs breaking into sweat over lost revenue.

If e-book publishers engage in the kind of "psychological DRM" that one of the interviewees mentions, most readers will respect that in the sense of "loaning" a copy of a file to a friend with the understanding that it won't be further passed on. But the friend is now far more likely to buy other books by that author than perhaps they were previously. This is just good peer-to-peer marketing.

[dpayment]

Re: Have e-books turned a page?

Having started using my PDA as an ebook reader, I find the format pretty convenient, although the small screen is a a little annoying. My recommendations to ANYONE trying to come up with a new dedicated ebook reader would be to make something with a screen approximately the size of the page from a paperback novel, no thicker than the average paperback, with controls placed so the hand is in a natural position while reading. Make it reasonably priced (so that the return on investment is achieved in less than 100 books!) and you might just have something.

[T-rex]

Another omission

What about MP3 format? The article didn't even address listening to e-books. I would love to be able to listen to books on my MP3 player. There are dedicated services such as IPOD and ITUNES. But, should you have to replace your MP3 player with another one? Audible.com offers books in there own formats, but very fews players are compatible. If someone would make downloadable MP3 formats available to all MP3 players, I think sales would zoom.

Yet another omission

eReader, Adobe !!! let me laught.

Mobipocket is the leading format for eBooks.
- it works on more devices,
- it uses a real DRM, not a kind of password protection (stolen cards, temporary card numbers like in europe),
- more eBooks and dictionaries available in Mobi than in other format.

Do you guys really look at the market?

[David Amerland]

Points well made

As someone involved in the eBook publishing industry at editorial level (www.coolpublications.com) I totally agree with the comments regarding pricing and DMR. Our own experience over the last twelve months is that the eBook market is growing with people buying titles despite the fact that they're in eBook format, not because of it. Original work, well-presented and aggressively priced coupled to a policy that allows the same flexibility over what you do with your eBook as if it were a paper book has seen a 30% increase in our sales. A long way to go before we get to the paper book sales figures but the future is approaching.

Pricing

Dennis, after the first burn of an ebook, where is the material cost? It is a digital file. It doesn't need to have a set amount of paper and ink processed for each copy printed. There is no manufacturing cost for the ebook product after the master is made. The retail cost right now should be no higher than a paperback.

I like the concept of ebooks but I'm not going to pay $15 or $20 for one when I can get the same paperback for $7.

[David Amerland]

Points well made

As someone involved in the eBook publishing industry at editorial level (Cool Publications) I totally agree with the comments regarding pricing and DMR. Our own experience over the last twelve months is that the eBook market is growing with people buying titles despite the fact that they're in eBook format, not because of it. Original work, well-presented and aggressively priced coupled to a policy that allows the same flexibility over what you do with your eBook as if it were a paper book has seen a 30% increase in our sales. A long way to go before we get to the paper book sales figures but the future is approaching.

[hn20]

All-in for eBooks

I buy quite a few books on technology (formerly an IT consultant, now in corporate IT sector) and most of these books are quite hefty volumes. Transporting these volumes around is a major hassle that eBooks easily resolve. Facing a choice between two equally good books, I'll always chose the one that has a PDF copy on the supplementary disk and I'll read it on my laptop at work or on the plane.

I don't like reading them on devices with small screens (such as PDA or god forbid cell phones), but laptops and especially Tablet PCs are the ideal medium. I really see Tablet PCs type of devices become the eBook reading devices of the future and I wouldn't be surprised to see companies like Microsoft, Adobe and hardware manufacturers pushing eBook agenda in the very near future...

The whole idea of being able to take all your library with you on a trip to a park is very appealing, much like I currently take ALL of the music that I have with me on my iPod...

Major gripe against existing eBook offerings is the price - it is ridiculously high. By moving to eBook format, the publishers and retailers can achieve tremendous cost savings on printing, logistics (transportation, inventory management at multiple locations, distribution costs) and etc and pass those savings onto the customers while retaining or even improving their profit margins. Win-win situation for all: better prices for consumers, higher profits for publishers.

DRM issues are important and eventually suitable technology/processes will be worked out. There'll always be someone who would get around it, but that's inevitable with any technology. The industry will compensate for this by the fact that those who buy books will buy more of them more frequently...

Pass This On

I read some excellent comments here, I'm presently located in Thailand and good reading in English is hard to get. Having just got into the eBook arena, I say get thoes prices down, get an MP3 voice format going and get these comments to the publishers. They are shooting themselves in the foot by holding back.

Also think about books readable on a browser then all the bases are covered!

JC

[bigjim01]

e-Books, must be required

I think that every publisher must be required to release all their books in PDF format. I for one am very tired of having to purchase non-digital books for my classes. I am starting to adopt a policy that if I can't get the book in a open digital format that will allow me to keep the book as long as I like, then I really don't need or want the book.

Simple Digital Rights Management Solution

Encode the purchaser's information into the publication. Have the purchase agreement state that any and all unpurchased copies found with a purchaser's code will be charged to that original purchaser at 10 times the purchase price. Stipulate that any possessor of an uncoded copy will pay 1,000 times the retail price, plus attorney's fees and court costs.

Original purchasers who have half a brain or more will be very protective of their copies. Liabilities could quickly grow into the millions for popular works.

Finally, sell inexpensive copy lifetime protection insurance to the purchasers. This will protect them if someone steals their copy and redistributes it.

[death3ater]

I think that by adding lots of DRM to ebooks, they are making them difficult to use for the people who actually paid for them. If people want to get content for free, they will always find a way of getting around DRM.

And... I think that ebooks should have something more than just plain text. If you're going digital, you might as well make use of the technology available to you. Electric Book Works just released the Moxyland ebook (the fist ebook with a soundtrack). I haven't started reading it yet, but it looks quite cool. Can't wait to get started.