Harry Potter

I just found out Rowling won't release her books in ebook format.

hahaha. What a maroon.

A good story is a good story. Is King Lear less of a story when reading it off a printing press instead of scribed? Is music only good live?

Paper books are a wast for a great many reasons. They need to be phased out. Of course she is deluding herself. In 10 years when most person books are in electronic format, she will have a sudden change of heart. Probably along the lines that she doesn't want to deprive the current generation of her works.

There are people who love books, and there are people who love good stories. They are not necessarily the same person. You can tell the difference by how the describe their reading habits. If they mention the sheer number of books in their collect, reading is just an excuse for them to collect books.

Of course, the other side of this ugly coin is copyright lengths; which are far too long for a healthy and vibrant culture.

Penguin Publishing cc: Jim Butcher

Dear Penguin Publishing,

You are failing to learn the lessons of previous industry impacted by the new digital life.

People want to pay less, not more then the non digital equivalent.

I can get a song for 99 cents and listen to it with equal enjoyment many, many time. Almost all books don't warrant a separate reading.

A book is often a bigger endeavor, so I will pay up to 5 dollars for an eBook. In my case it's the kindle but that applies to future readers as well.

Five Dollars, Max.

Don't forget who you are competing with. It's not eBooks v paper books. It's you're current business model vs Used books, libraries and, yes, copyright infringer.

eBooks and whatnot

eBooks have come under some heat lately, mostly because publishers are craving to make the same mistakes the music industry did. They could jump up and make a lot of money and adapt to a new market just by following what Apple did with iTunes. A central place to get and manage music.

The publisher could make a consortium and create similar software for books. Nothing about it would really be technically new or really challenging. It WOULD require them to think about future contracts, and how to charge. You will be a lot more successfully with eBooks if you charge less. The digital price point is different. By different I mean lower.

There is still billions of dollars to be made with eBooks, different strategies to getting people published and effectively infinite shelf space.

This is only a problem because publishers are loosing their monopoly on who gets published. They need to realize this is going to happen, and figure out how to be the company people buy their eBooks from. They also need to stop penalizing the consumer when the person selling a book does something wrong.

I am waiting for some established writers to say good buy to the publishing house and just sell their book online. IN fact, I can see an editing industry popping up where authors pay to have their book edited and prepared for eBook distribution. A company completely separated from publishers. Authors just put their book online through any of the new emerging channels.

The 'Butcher fiasco' should be sending a clear message to all parties involved: "Digital books are hear, and you need to stop assuming everyone is ripping you off."

Or they can just let Apple become such a power house they have to do separate negotiations for eBook with them, Just like the music companies did.