Yeah, but the problem is if the US wins and the publishers go back to the old model, Amazon will just sell ebooks at a discount until they've cornered the market and driven everyone out of business.
There just isn't an easy answer.
And I'm curious to see what happens in five or six years, when people move on to the 'newest' model of e-reader or switch brands...and realize that they can't migrate the stuff they've bought before. So they either have to buy it again or keep the old device.
(and don't even get me started about library e-books. *eyes Random House, where e-books cost the same as books on CD....in other words, the average kids title is $40, and the average teen title is $55...and HarperCollins, who are still only allowing 26 circulations per title.)
1. Why would amazon have more power to undercut everyone else in the world when there are other online retailers? Yes, big box brick'n'mortar were busy putting mom and pop bookstores out of business, but we had several healthy B&Ns and Borders and even a couple of Book a Millions in the metro Atlanta area. 2. How can a publisher get away with limiting availability of an ebook in library circulation when the hard copy can be lent out until it disintegrates? (and given "library binding," I'm assuming that could take a while.)
#2 is also kind of my question about why publishers felt the wholesale model worked for dead tree versions, but they'd have to get their profit's worth out of pixels. I have a hard time believing the finished product in e-form costs more than paper and ink.
Your mention of the device switching issue is close kin to why it took me so long to buy a Kindle (pun not originally intended, but as I'm mentally 12, it's staying in.) Since honestly obtained e-books couldn't be lent when I first bit down and still cannot be resold or traded in at the local used bookstore, I waved the Kindle Swindle flag like war protester until I popped a retinal blood vessel and experienced the miracle of modern laser surgery. After that, they had me at "adjustable font," and virtually glareproof screens (though fluorescent lights can apparently do what the sun can't.) Kindle was the only retailer with an enormous selection that was at the time not backlighting their screens. With the Kindle Fire, even amazon has succumbed to the iPad killer syndrome.
They'd only lose me as a user if they discontinued what is now called the Kindle-with-keyboard and no one else had it, because I appear to be the only e-reader geek unaffected by the Apple Mystique.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2012-04-11 11:32 pm (UTC)There just isn't an easy answer.
And I'm curious to see what happens in five or six years, when people move on to the 'newest' model of e-reader or switch brands...and realize that they can't migrate the stuff they've bought before. So they either have to buy it again or keep the old device.
(and don't even get me started about library e-books. *eyes Random House, where e-books cost the same as books on CD....in other words, the average kids title is $40, and the average teen title is $55...and HarperCollins, who are still only allowing 26 circulations per title.)
no subject
Date: 2012-04-16 12:00 am (UTC)1. Why would amazon have more power to undercut everyone else in the world when there are other online retailers? Yes, big box brick'n'mortar were busy putting mom and pop bookstores out of business, but we had several healthy B&Ns and Borders and even a couple of Book a Millions in the metro Atlanta area.
2. How can a publisher get away with limiting availability of an ebook in library circulation when the hard copy can be lent out until it disintegrates? (and given "library binding," I'm assuming that could take a while.)
#2 is also kind of my question about why publishers felt the wholesale model worked for dead tree versions, but they'd have to get their profit's worth out of pixels. I have a hard time believing the finished product in e-form costs more than paper and ink.
Your mention of the device switching issue is close kin to why it took me so long to buy a Kindle (pun not originally intended, but as I'm mentally 12, it's staying in.) Since honestly obtained e-books couldn't be lent when I first bit down and still cannot be resold or traded in at the local used bookstore, I waved the Kindle Swindle flag like war protester until I popped a retinal blood vessel and experienced the miracle of modern laser surgery. After that, they had me at "adjustable font," and virtually glareproof screens (though fluorescent lights can apparently do what the sun can't.) Kindle was the only retailer with an enormous selection that was at the time not backlighting their screens. With the Kindle Fire, even amazon has succumbed to the iPad killer syndrome.
They'd only lose me as a user if they discontinued what is now called the Kindle-with-keyboard and no one else had it, because I appear to be the only e-reader geek unaffected by the Apple Mystique.