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By David Rothman

image ePub is “probably the publishers’ best defense against Amazon and the Kindle.”

I’ve said similar things for a long time, and these days Mike Shatzkin, the publishing guru, is aboard. Way to go!

Now, Mike, how about convincing Random House and the other biggies to pay for accelerated development of this IPDF standard? It isn’t enough to talk up ePub. The standard really does need to be good and ready for the future.

The long-overdue creation of an ePub logo—ideally just for nonDRMed and social-DRMed books at first, so as to promote genuine compatibility—wouldn’t hurt either. Oh, and, please, IDPF: say “ePub,” not “EPUB,” which is a noisy atrocity that aesthetically minded publishers will hate.

The context of Mike’s comments: He thinks ePub and the availability of more gizmos could get in the way of Amazon’s Kindle side dictating prices. Granted, ePub would in fact weaken Amazon’s leverage in that area. But wait! Hasn’t Sony called for lower e-book prices? And if giant publishers won’t oblige, lots and lots of smaller ones will. Simply put, that $10 is a real barrier, even for nonDRMed books that you can own for real.

image Don’t blame Jeff Bezos. Blame competition from video games and other entertainment media, not just small publishers. Consumers don’t give a whit about Random House’s bottom line, and it’s high time for big conglomerates to cut back on expensive real estate and other frills that don’t add to books’ appeal. Can you imagine a shopper in Oklahoma or Vermont saying, “I’m going to buy E. L. Doctorow’s latest because Random overspent on its headquarters” (photo)? Rent at least part of the sucker out, Random, if you aren’t already!

Related: Mike’s advice for writers.

 
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