Librarians will not be stupid. Nor will publishers. Both will want a file format that can be used on the widest number of devices. That’s ePub (even if it is “Adode-formatted”).

The publisher revenue obviously depends on where it is being sold:

1. PBook in a shop: assume discount (i.e. price paid to publisher by retailer) of +/-50%
2. Ebook in an e-tailer: assume same discount
3. eBook or p-book in publisher’s own site: 0% discount to “retailer” (as is same as publisher); yet publisher fails to pass saving onto customer for fear of annoying customers (retailers) in 1 and 2. And possibly out of greed. So (3) is not a viable channel.

What I find amazing is that, presented with the opportunities of an entirely new (and, let’s face it, open) retail channel, (UK) publishers have opted for selling through exactly the same model they are complaining about on the high street: giving someone else the spoils, leaving them with the scraps.

If digital is all about disintermediation, where is that on the horizon?

They need to get it through their heads that the paper and e-book market segments are not going to have that much overlap, and lower their e-book price to reach an optimal equilibrium point to bring in as much additional money as they can from the e-book segment, while still selling to the p-book segment at p-book prices.

Maybe someday that will actually happen.

* I think Pan Macmillan makes as much of its stuff available in ePub as possible, but in so doing (1) has to bring round a load of authors who know nothing other than fear by the term “unprotected” (2) has to find the time to do this and (3) probably doesn’t shout about it for fear of scaring other – ignorant – authors and agents off. But good for them.

* Glad you linked to Cory’s piece as well – it is very relevant. On which note – all of Cory’s boks are available in ePub, and I guess no-one has made a competing site out of them (possibly for exactly that reason)

* I do think that piracy may be a good thing for reading, if it brings new readers to “books” – at least in the short term.

* The problem I note is exactly pricing – why rip off your early customers by charging almost twice as much for something that costs less to sell to them? That’s gredy and short sighted.

Thanks,
David

Playing by those three rules, social DRM should work, particularly as the digital-using market grows more diverse and fast-paced. With many people now buying a new computer, iPod or (perhaps soon) ebook reader at least once a year, registration DRM will be such a hassle that, to avoid the hassle, people will turn to the pirates for copies they’d have willingly bought without DRM.

In short, we should not act like the record companies. Be decent, keep it cheap and keep it simple are the best ways to keep it legal.

We also need cross-platform, cross-gadget software that will manage these books, something that’d let me store all my books in a digital bookshelf and check out (as many copies as I like) to my gadgets. With a glance, before going on a trip, I can see if I have than new bio I picked up on both my MacBook and (perhaps soon) iPod touch.

Call it an iTunes for books if you like. It’d help make owning an ebook as simple and straightforward as owning a book.

–Mike Perry, Inkling Books, Seattle.