2. Quit trying to charge hardcover prices (and yes, $10 is HC) for books you’re not allowed to resell. A lot of the literary fast-food that comes out is good for read-once and then what?

3. And do, please, find a decent way for people to say “I want to hear about new books from (author x) and (author y) and … without having to find out they’re available by monitoring the pirate outlets or putting up with “Here are all the books WE want you to buy.” Fictionwise had just that over a decade ago before Barnes and Ignoble and the publishers collaborated to ruin it.

http://stallman.org/ebooks.pdf.

Only now are consumers starting to wake up to just how incredibly limited and restrictive their rights over the ebooks they purchased really are. Mainstream ebook publishers view us as little more than walking cash-registers remotely purchasing fancy reading devices and buying limited and restrictive leases to personally read a tiny text file for big bucks.

The only way consumers can fight back is to stop playing a game where all the rules are stacked against them. Only buy ebooks that have no DRM whatsoever. Follow common sense when it comes to your ebooks. Back them up. Share them with family. When you are done reading them go ahead and give them to a friend if you don’t want them any longer and delete your own copy.

Laws in this country are no longer written for the benefit of the people; they are written for the benefit of big corporations. We have no moral obligation to be good little consuming serfs and toe the corporate line.

There is another point in the UK, paper books are not taxed, however e-books are liable to VAT at a rate of 20%.

Anyway, I did a 3-part blog series on this topic a few days ago:

http://davidhyoung.net/2012/10/23/who-owns-your-ebooks-again/

Hard copy books were typically read by lots of people – there are book swapping clubs just for this purpose, and most people I know swap, give, and donate books. Publishers seem to see DRM as a way to stent this ‘appalling’ profit-damaging practice, and ensure that everyone pays full whack for their own (well, actually, not really their own) digital copy.

SHAME ON YOU, PUBLISHERS

Yet the argument that “having” an electronic file (whether book, software, photo, or whatever) does not mean a lost sale to the publisher. The “pirate” or “unauthorized user” might very well never have purchased the electronic file in any event. In that case, there isn’t any lost revenue. (Years ago, I know “hacker kids” who prided themselves by having copies of a huge variety of software … yet they never used the programs but were “collectors” who had bootleg copies of hundreds of programs like Lotus123 or Word Perfect.) The software industry sent out screeds condemning these collectors — but in reality, they did not lose any revenue as few, if any, would have bought the programs they collected.

It’s a little more difficult to excuse those who widely share electronic files with the general public (not just immediate friends and family) — the music industry did lose considerable revenue due to “free” music sharing services. But the music industry should not be forgiven their paranoia, because while they were losing revenue through Naptster, etc., they were also resisting accommodating a changing market where music buyers wanted the opportunity to legally purchase individual songs one at a time (or as albums). The success of iTunes proves this point (and DRM has pretty much gone away in the music field). The music publishers have had to revise their operations to reflect the new realities of the market — and they don’t make as much money — and performers are now beginning to sell their music DIRECTLY without the big publishers. Of course, this is the real issue.

When it comes to books, (both print and ebooks), authors are discovering that they can sell directly through Amazon and other vendors … and they don’t need the big publishers. If I recall correctly, the big publishers issued 50 or 60 thousand new titles (in a recent year) while independently published works were 4 or 5 times the big publisher works (for a total of over 400,000 new tritles). 25 years ago, 60,000 new titles was a “record.” Naturally, the middleman (the publishers) are not at all pleased with this growing trend. (Readers tend to suffer from overload and many excellent books get lost in the “noise” of all the so-so titles that are being issued.)

The Sony Betamax decision (before the Supreme Court) set the legal precedent that a “buyer” of intellectual property is free to use media in the form, location, and time desired, without (legal) interference from the copyright holder. DRM was developed to interfere with this user’s right (and the DCMA was passed to give more leverage for copyright holders to limit user’s rights).

The use of DRM tends to inconvenience the honest user while leaving the bootlegger free to steal and copy content with only slight difficulties. So the honest users suffer the inability to move content between devices as they ought to be able to do. I understand the feelings of the publishers, but the result that DRM provides does not actually protect them and merely annoys their honest customers. The free market will eventually win this one.

When it comes to books (even ebooks), there is little value to copying them for resale. It’s hard enough for publishers to sell books, so if a book is reasonably priced, there is little opportunity for a bootlegger to make a profit at the expense of the original publisher.

The “agency method” (preferred by Apple) allows a publisher to set the price of an ebook, then the vendor (iTunes bookstore) simply takes a flat percentage (usually 30%) of the sale price as set by the publisher. A feature of the agreement between Apple and the publishers, is that they would not allow the book to be sold elsewhere for a lower price. This forced Amazon to adopt the agency method, as well. The Federal Trade Commission has opened a “price fixing” investigation against Apple and several large publishers on this point. All but one of the big publishers have signed consent agreements with the FTC. Apple and the one remaining publisher are fighting the FTC’s action in court.

Before agency pricing (retail vender receives a fixed percent of publisher’s price) the distribution pricing model was used. The distribution model starts with a “list” price established by the publisher, the book (both print and ebook) is then sold at a discount from list either to middlemen (distributors or wholesalers) or discounted directly to retailers. This is still the method used for print books. The discount typically works out to 15% to the wholesaler, 10% to the distributor (if used), and 40% discount to the retailer. If you do the math, the publisher receives between 35% and 45% of the list price of a print book. (There are differences between wholesalers and distributors — most print books only pass through a wholesaler’s hands.) Ebooks were sold in a similar manner but with different discounts. With the distribution model, the retailer could sell the book at any price — even give it away for free — but the retailer still had to pay the publisher or intermediaries the discounted price of the book. (So for a book that has a list price of $20, the retailer would pay $12 to the wholesaler, who, in turn, would pay $9 to the publisher. The retailer could still sell the book at any amount to the ultimate purchaser.)

In the end there is much complexity to theses issues that are invisible from the reader/book buyer’s standpoint.

Since producing an ebook eliminates much of the cost of publishing, why not give a greater percentage of the take to the author? At present, Amazon.com receives 68% of the profit.

Present policies, lack of clear ownership, and low payoff to the author will eventually kill the publishing industry as we know it today.