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The eBook Wars: Reality vs. Fantasy in Expectations
March 6, 2010 | 8:09 am
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By Rich Adin
One of my favorite op-ed columnists is Leonard Pitts, Jr. of the Miami Herald. I don’t always agree with him, but like certain other columnists (Froma Harrop, Paul Krugman, Kathleen Parker, David Brooks, Linda Chavez, and George Will), I always read his opinion piece. Some people are worth reading and their opinions worth considering, whereas lining the litter box is the proper place for certain other columnists (Michelle Malkin comes readily to mind) – they simply lack any pretense to intelligent conversation. (If I want to be harangued, my wife and kids can do the job expertly.)
In a recent column, Pitts observed: “But objective reality does not change because you refuse to accept it. The fact that you refuse to acknowledge a wall does not change the fact that it’s a wall. And you shouldn’t have to hit it to find that out.” This made me think of the ebook war between ebookers and publishers.
Each side in this war has firm positions and beliefs from which they seemingly will not bend. eBookers expect low prices, no DRM, no geographical restrictions, near-perfect editing and formatting; publishers expect high prices, DRM, and good-but-not-perfect editing and formatting. Pricing and DRM are the hot button issues (along with geographical restrictions for those ebookers living outside the United States).
The reality for ebookers is that in the near term DRM is going to remain. Bang your head against that wall as often as you like, but until publishers find a way to minimize their financial gamble and until authors feel confident that ebookers will pay and not pirate, DRM will be part of ebooks. The financial stakes are simply too high for some publishers and many authors to give it up. Even the ebookers’ “friend” Amazon hasn’t been touting a non-DRM world for ebooks. (What would happen to the Kindle if one could buy any device and also buy books at Amazon?)
Yes, I know that DRM is really treating honest folk as pirates but let’s take another look at reality: Given the opportunity to get an ebook free or to pay for it, most people will take it for free. That’s just the way of humans. They might not go to the effort of stripping DRM and putting something up on the darknet for the world to access, or even visit the darknet themself, but they there is a strong likelihood that they will e-mail the latest book to dozens of their friends if they can. It’s just being human.
So faced with the reality of DRM, what is the most productive thing for ebookers to do? I suggest urging publishers to adopt a single DRM scheme to which all publishers adhere and to which all publishers require all ebooksellers to adhere, and which they make available to all device makers. It doesn’t eliminate DRM but it reduces the “evils” of DRM for 97% of ebookers. Such a universal scheme would be a compromise win for both sides to the argument and we can move on to other pressing matters such as price. Yes, you’ve read this before; it has been part of my pitch for the central repository system, but it needn’t be part of such a system. What really matters is the universal DRM scheme, just like we see on CDs and DVDs — they can be purchased and played on any player from any hardware maker, which is the way it should be with ebooks.
Pricing is the second great evil of ebooks. To many ebookers, few fiction ebooks are worth more than $10; in fact, to many ebookers, few fiction ebooks are worth more than a few dollars when they come packaged with DRM and lackadaisical editing and formatting. Publishers, however, would like to see more ebooks sold at a price above $10 than a price below and with DRM. But neither side is living in the real world.
We already know why ebooks aren’t worth more than $10: they are leased, not owned because of the DRM; they aren’t really portable (e.g., for Kindlers, if Amazon goes out of business, so go ebook purchases); for many ebookers fiction ebooks are one-time reads; and the list goes on. Publishers, however, see great value in ebooks as mirrors of the print book. And authors want to collect a fair share of the proceeds.
This ground has been churned numerous times in past months and neither side has sole ownership of fantasy expectations. The question really is whether both sides are willing and able to give up some of their fantasies and meet in reality for the betterment of the vast majority of ebookers? This is an open question today.
Editor’s Note: Rich Adin is an editor and owner of Freelance Editorial Services, a provider of editorial and production services to publishers and authors. This is reprinted, with permission, from his An American Editor blog. PB
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Comments:
I really think the solution has got to be a common format everybody uses. I would be okay with ‘DRM’ as long as it did not inhibit my rights to use the books I buy. Right now though, there is no way to allow the use I describe within the limits of the current DRM schemes, so someone who wanted to do as I proposed would have to go searching and it’s a bit of a gray area. People think readers are ‘anti-author’ and out to steal books when they say they don’t want DRM, but that is not the case at all. People like me just want to be able to read the books we pay for.
Fascinating comments everyone and you read like experts so advice please…
I am a specialist author of business books who self-publishes. I sell direct yet with 2 million copies sold in 20 languages I would say I am good at what I do.
I have not sold on Amazon.
I have not sold digitally.
I own my rights [except in some foreign languages.]
I am going to launch digitally through Amazon and through my own new webstore.
My target industry is very networked and the chances of people forwarding an ebook like mine is very likely. Thus I have not sold digitally thus far.
Yet my industry is not technically competent. So I am not too concerned about people ‘unlocking’ DRM individually UNLESS someone unlocks then forwards.
I think many people would have ethical reasons with forwarding if the titles had ‘do not forward as this is stealing…’
What are your views?
On my site, DRM or NOT?
Strong DRM or simple?
If you make the books easy to buy and priced appropriately for the digital market, and if your customers understand that, you probably won’t need DRM. You will probably have losses, but they should be minimized if your customers are okay with buying from you.
As far as being concerned about someone breaking DRM and forwarding, keep in mind that it only takes 1 person to do it. And if your industry is already established as a group that will share files if they’re available, expect them to do just that. Again, make it easy to buy from you, and they are less likely to share the files.
Edward,
You say that your industry is not technically competent? So why add more technical hoops that your audience will have to jump through to read your book?
Let me further point out that Strong DRM is a myth. Pretty much every method of DRM available has been broken and the software to strip the DRM off the work is widely available. By the time your users figure out how to get their DRM’d books working on multiple devices, they can have figured out how to strip the DRM (The level of effort is similar).
I think your notion of asking your readers to forward the work in question is a far better approach than telling your users you think they might be pirates by putting DRM on it.
Thanks for advice guys. Any more thoughts are appreciated as this is real life decisions….
Its weird… Amazon makes it easy to put an ebook on. Barnes & Noble allegedly dont want you unless you are US based and put the paper version on. Idiots.
Dont they realise that the rest of world shops online, so who cares where publisher is based.
Thus I [being non-US based] will put my titles on Amazon and promote this site globally…
Edward,
first of all let me completemnt you on your work so far and wish you even bigger success in the future.
From a consumer standpoint, there are a number of issues that I am looking for in any digital product. The most important of which is portability.
To be accurate, I only purchase products that I can use without hassle on any and all compatible devices which I own, regardless of environmental conditions (one of my computers is a secure, stricly no internet machine) . The alternative to purchasing portable products is, when I have to, is to purchase DRMed products and “jailbrake” them.
When I buy a book, I also buy several additional rights over the book which come from the book being “a whole product”. The right to take the book anywhere with me, the right to transfer the book to anyone I like and the right to toss it into the bonfire are three. I expect all these rights to exist in digital books. In truth, my selection of vendor is also derived from my ability to have these rights – these are my rights as a book purchaser.
I recently bought a computer game from Ubisoft and was fairly dissappointed when their activation servers were not operational. In order to use a game I had already bought and paid for, I had to conduct basic repairs on the game – it is the same in my mind as fixing the leg of a broken chair. The multiplayer options are still not working, thank you ubisoft you useless bunch.
Now here is the question – do I need to deal with the frustration? If this is a mostly useless fiction paperback, I’ll get it at the used book store instead of getting annoyed at “activation” schemes. If it is a book I need, I’ll probably buy it and then fix it so that it works according to MY specifications.