Random House: We’re not responsible for Mobipocket focus

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By David Rothman

Random House tells Sue Kleiman that retailers, not Random, are responsible for a recent focus on the Mobipocket format for some books.

That said, I hope that Random and other large publishers will take a strong stand in favor of the nonproprietary ePub format and against overreliance on a single company’s technology. It’s really to Random’s interest to keep many options open. In a competitive industry like e-books, let the emphasis be on words and writers and old-time publishing basics—not on formats and proprietary tech! Otherwise readers like Ficbot just may not buy.

In full here’s the note Sue received from Random House:

Thank you for contacting Random House and for your interest in our publications.

We are not the distributor of the e-book or downloadable audio format of any of our publications. When we release an eBook it is done in a “generic” format. It is then up to the individual retailers to convert the generic file into the items they wish to offer to their customers. As with any retail store, online retailers such as iTunes and Audible are responsible for selecting the products that they wish to offer to their customers. If none of our suggested suppliers carries it, we regret that we are not able to direct you elsewhere. All of our known suppliers are featured on our website. You should contact your preferred retailer(s) and request that they add the title/format to their offerings.

Random House Consumer Services

Correctly Sue wonders why publishers can’t have a strong voice in format matters, if they’re not already, rather than leaving such issues to retailers and distributors. Further comment welcome from all companies involved! And from other readers, too!

The optimal scenario for publishers: ePub along with a mix of the most popular formats. Long term, the move should be toward nonencrypted ePub—that is, no DRM to gum things up. In this era of scanners, cracking programs and the Pirate Bay, e-book DRM will be a joke. Read Marcus Sunderman very closely. I’m anti-piracy and hate it when DRM contributes to the problem. Three cheers to small publishers—and to enlightened people at large houses, such as Pan Macmillan’s Sara Lloyd—who understand the threat of DRM to the prosperity of writers and publishers.

Related: MobileRead thread on these issues.

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