Great editorial on the ebook world. However, I am disappointed that you failed to mention the only publisher that I know that is getting everything “right” and doing all your observations – BAEN books.

Release eBooks at Same Time as Print Versions – they have done that since 1999. In fact you can sign up for webscriptions and get access to the books a month before the official publication date.

Provide Additional Content in the eBook – Many of their ebooks have additional content or links to websites where more content is available.

Price It Right – Average single book price is $6

Experiment – Bundles, webscriptions, online magazine, very active forum, support for fan sites

Use eBooks as Loss Leader – they put a CD with a lot of content in many of their print books. Those CDs are also available online.

Get the Rights Thing Worked Out – OK, can’t really comment on this.

Get Rid of DRM – BAEN has never had DRM on its ebooks.

-Kurt
Stop Fucking Up in General. You are making us look bad.

And…that is the reason I fear ebooks. The fact that things can be easily redistributed, well, it sucks. So, my book goes out as an ebook. And, very soon after, it goes up on websites where it’s available for free. Not cool.

The thing is, that ship has sailed. It’s not possible to roll back the tide. Publishers can either get out ahead of the wave, and learn how to profit from ebooks, or they can hang back and try to fight the pirates. The music industry has already tried the second option, and it failed miserably (and lost a ton of customer good will in the process).

I completely understand the sentiment, but there aren’t any options other than those two. Wishful thinking isn’t going to make the Web go away.

Check the pirate sites. This week, the new books by Suz Brockmann and Susan Elizabeth Phillips went up on most of them, and they’re out hardback only! Pirate sites also feature old Harlequin releases which never came out in ebook.
Print books are, unfortunately, not immune to piracy and are, if anything, pirated as often as ebooks.

And…that is the reason I fear ebooks. The fact that things can be easily redistributed, well, it sucks. So, my book goes out as an ebook. And, very soon after, it goes up on websites where it’s available for free. Not cool.

I’ve been an e-book author since 2003, and have worked with two different publishers. I have yet to see any of my stuff up “for free” on any web site (unless I put it there, as in the form of out-takes for promotion).

Yeah, I suppose somebody could take my content and put it up on some obscure web site. And yeah, I suppose it might make plagarism a little easier. And I’m sure that someone has likely downloaded my ebook onto a CD or two, and given it to a friend (not that I’m vain about something like this, LOL).

But so what? The overall percentage of that happening is pretty low If someone does put my stuff up for free, and other people like it, maybe they’ll come over to Amazon or AQP and BUY some of my other books.

My publisher, Amber Quill, releases e-books before the print version. They don’t do it out of any desire to be difficult, but because they work through Booksurge on the print side. AQP is at the whim of Booksurge’s schedule. Most times, the trade paperbacks are released within a week to 10 days of the ebooks, but there have been times when the lag has been as long as three weeks.

I understand you’re talking more about the mainstream pubs in this scenario, but sometimes it’s out of the pubs’ hands if the actual printing and distribution goes to another company.

There is unfortunately a great deal of fanfic on Amazon that is self-published dreck written by people who, in some instances can’t even spell let alone construct a sentence, and which Amazon has apparently never paid attention to. Phantom of the Opera, Buffy… (though I think Whedon’s been fairly successful at eliminating those) and as long as anyone has the ability to self-pub, there always will be.

And *I think*, as long as Amazon is making money from them, they have no real incentive to do anything about it either.

Sad, but most likely true.

Seems like Amazon doesn’t pay a whole lot of attention to what’s being sold by whom until someone calls them on it…

And…that is the reason I fear ebooks. The fact that things can be easily redistributed, well, it sucks.

It is this narrow minded view on who is STEALING vs. who is BUYING that is really, really sad. Ebooks are the future. Live on EBOOKS!

Tom Clancy just released a slew of his books in e-format. Yay. I hope more authors will do the same.

It’ll be interesting to see how the survey pans out, anyway. Like Jonathon and MaryK, I want a format that will work universally, and be as future-proof as possible. Which is why I opted for html.

I checked out the survey and left without filling it out. I’ve not even used half the formats listed; the only one that stands out is mobi because I hate it. I want a format that works universally.

I don’t care what format is the “preferred” format. Somewhere recently I saw someone mention MP3 v. AAC (apple) v. Ogg (open source) relating to music. Really, I don’t care. The differences between each, why each is better/worse, etc, – nope, makes no difference to me.

I just want to use my e-media on my preferred device.

If it’s music, I like my iPod. But I don’t care if it uses MP3 or AAC. I just want what I buy to work on it, and I want to keep using it if I buy a different player.

If it’s books, I like my Sony Reader. But I don’t care if it uses BBeB, LRF, LIT, XYZ, TMI (yes, last 2 are made up!), or whatever. I just want any book I buy, from any source, to work, and I want it to still work if I decide to some day buy a different reader.

So my preferred format? The one that works.

Here’s my question, and please forgive me if it’s already been mentioned. Why is it Amazon can sell MP3’s without DRM from major labels and everything is fine and good, but it can’t be the same with ebooks?

The book industry is several years behind the music industry on this, for several reasons.

- Popularity. A lot more people listen to crappy music than read books.

- Arrogance. Each industry looks at the other with disdain, and that will keep publishers in the dark ages for quite some time yet. :(

- Technology. Recording music and playing it back had to have it’s roots in electronic devices. Publishing is much older, and didn’t need electricity to get started. It’s easier for music to make the jump to high-tech. Hard to think of a 70 yr old industry as “the new kid”, but it is, and publishing can’t get over it.

I think the Google settlement will also generate sales of OOP (out of print) books, but publisher-issued ebooks would be preferable to the material that Google can offer, because the latter’s computer-screen format is hard to read.

Either way, it seems like an epic win for both publishers and authors of OOP books that are still under copyright.

Angie