Top 10 Myths about Ebooks

[Lloyd Simcoe]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

There is an acronym in computer tech support that seems fitting: EBKAC. Google it. :-)

Thanks for pointing that out.

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by igorsk

PRS-300 vs. book vs. white paper.

Thanks for the picture. I grabbed my most convenient digicam and decided to follow suit. I tried to pick one of my books that was fairly representative of "standard" paperback whiteness in my collection...not as bright as my better books, but not exactly bottom-rung (I generally avoid those anyway).
http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...aen/readah.jpg
Sorry for the poor quality.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by nboshart

It's true, there's a large impact, but as I was typing this post, I remembered the impact of pulp mills. Anyone know of a direct study that's been done?

You can start with this one.

(There's another, more recent one bouncing around this site somewhere, but I've misplaced it.)

Overall, when you compare the energy and resources involved in building and maintaining a datafarm, and the energy and resources involved in producing paper from trees, printing, shipping and distribution, electronic systems come out way on top by virtue of their vastly superior capacity.

[hnoto]

Just today, I was taking about 1/3 of my pbook collection to resell for store credit at the local used bookstore. I made the error of telling them I was moving to ebooks. "Oh, we are sorry to hear that. What if you drop your reader in the tub? What if you are out reading in a field and get hit by lightning? What if your reader gets stolen on a bus?"

All of these were said very tongue-in-cheek, but still. I joked back that I don't read in the tub, we live in AZ and there aren't any fields, and our mass-transit system is so awful that I have my own car. They gave me over $200 in store credit, which my kids will enjoy for their video game, dvd and personal book collections over the next year.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by hnoto

Just today, I was taking about 1/3 of my pbook collection to resell for store credit at the local used bookstore. I made the error of telling them I was moving to ebooks. "Oh, we are sorry to hear that. What if you drop your reader in the tub? What if you are out reading in a field and get hit by lightning? What if your reader gets stolen on a bus?"

I take showers, and believe in backups. Next!

Well, you can't blame them for feeling sorry, since they haven't figured out how to get on the e-book bandwagon, and they're going to lose business because of it. But it's especially a shame that they didn't try asking you how they could win your business back, or maybe learn more about e-books to see if there was a way they could get in on the market. Sad.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by hnoto

"Oh, we are sorry to hear that. What if you drop your reader in the tub? What if you are out reading in a field and get hit by lightning? What if your reader gets stolen on a bus?"

In all those cases, you keep the books, you only lose the reader.

What if you drop a paper book in the tub? What if it falls in the camp fire? What if you forget it in the park?... And what if you finish the book you took for your trip? What if you realize the book is crap and want to read another one instead? What if your nose bleeds on a paper book?

[zacheryjensen]

Originally Posted by Jellby

In all those cases, you keep the books, you only lose the reader.

What if you drop a paper book in the tub? What if it falls in the camp fire? What if you forget it in the park?... And what if you finish the book you took for your trip? What if you realize the book is crap and want to read another one instead? What if your nose bleeds on a paper book?

Or vomit... you know, when your in bed reading and you're sick

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Bald Eagle

However
'2. "You can't back up your files" / "If you lose or break your e-reader or if a new e-reader comes out you lose all your books"'
is actually true for DRMed books.

You can backup your files. Granted if they have DRM, they are only usable for where they are authorized.

Say you have a 505 and it gets damaged, you can buy a nook and ut all of your ePub on it. So if you use ePub, this is a non-issue.

[zacheryjensen]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You can backup your files. Granted if they have DRM, they are only usable for where they are authorized.

Say you have a 505 and it gets damaged, you can buy a nook and ut all of your ePub on it. So if you use ePub, this is a non-issue.

You're assuming that the nook will support the same adobe encryption as the 505 used and can be authorized by the same account. Neither of which are known for certain until it's in our hands.

Backup and reuse of DRM'd files is a huge concern and definitely can not be trivially wiped away by such unfounded commentary. Other, more popular systems are even more impacted. For example, your files with amazon are good on one single device and useless to back up. Amazon does it for you sure but that's not a real backup. Furthermore, no new devices will support their encryption schemes because they aren't sharing. Furthermore, you can't move to another line of devices. You're stuck with Kindle.

With ePub you have a few more choices assuming that you get a common DRM format. eReader, same deal, but not MUCH better. There is no ePub reader for iPhone that supports any DRM, for example.

IMHO, this is the most valid concern about eBook readers. Life-long readers do not know this kind of limitation in any form. Lending books has always been trivial, and you've never had to worry about transferring your books to a new format unless you go blind or something.

eBook readers demonstrate epic failure in this regard, due to publisher fears more than anything naturally.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by zacheryjensen

Backup and reuse of DRM'd files is a huge concern and definitely can not be trivially wiped away by such unfounded commentary...

IMHO, this is the most valid concern about eBook readers.

Agreed. That's why we should be buying non-DRM'd e-books, and passing on the rest. (And yes, I know what I'm saying, but how else are publishers going to get the message?)

The best thing we can do for people who get new readers is to inform them of non-DRM sources of books to read.

[zacheryjensen]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Agreed. That's why we should be buying non-DRM'd e-books, and passing on the rest. (And yes, I know what I'm saying, but how else are publishers going to get the message?)

The best thing we can do for people who get new readers is to inform them of non-DRM sources of books to read.

I'd really like to believe that such actions would be effective. However, I don't think there is sufficient reality and rational thinking going on in the heads of people demanding DRM. I'd really be interested to find out the true reasoning behind EMI supporting non-DRM music sales, which clearly led the charge to coerce the other major studios to go non-DRM, even for iTMS. That's a fascinating scenario because even before it happened Apple was already in the top 10 music sellers, B&M stores included. It's not like they needed to get rid of DRM to stay afloat or something. Maybe the effect of vendor lock-in was becoming too obvious for some of these music sellers?

Perhaps the only effective way to promote non-DRM sales is to popularize the idea about eBooks not being easily sharable or whatever because of DRM. I don't know a single avid reader who does not share their books and just one time ever and only under the special permission of the publisher is insane and ridiculous, it's insulting really. So maybe if it becomes the most obvious perceived divisive issue for people who are on the fence about eBooks then the sellers and publishers will take notice. I'd also accept watermarking if I could know it didn't change the content of a book. As an author I simply would not accept even a single word changed for this purpose, and it seems all the suggested efforts in this area are based around word substitution.

Of course, until eBook sales make a meaningful impact in the bottom line of major publishers, I don't think they'll move on any coercion tactics, whether it be dollar-voting or FUD.

As for promoting non-DRM sources, I completely agree. I just wish I could find more material that interested me. I currently only know of a handful authors who distribute without DRM that have interested me enough to even download their books, let alone pay. Two of those authors give their eBooks out for free (Peter Watts, Cory Doctorow) and one of those I've paid for is you! heh

Finally, my biggest fear about DRM in eBooks lasting a lot longer than it should is based around this stupid trend of "teaming up" with a distributor for your eBooks. Consumers new to the idea are basically seeing two options, Kindle and nook. Sony may be older but they don't exist at all in the realm of your walk-in reader. Borders? They are going out of business. Target? Target sells like 10 books at a time and the way they set up their store displays, they hide the Sony reader display amongst $250 bose headphones. No wonder they don't sell them. It's a little better in Best Buy but you're going to get the iRex reader muddying up the waters soon there too. And who knows what the sales clerks will say? They make up the most ridiculous lies to sell things to people. I am always overhearing them selling something I know intimate details about and they are so off-base... oy.

So avid readers know B&N, they know Amazon. How do they learn about any alternatives? I think it's a problem because newcomers are being indoctrinated into this idea that you have to essentially join a big club, pick your team, and then stick with it. It's all or nothing, buy a nook and you have to buy all your books from B&N, buy a Kindle and then it's Amazon, even though in both cases that's not true, the idea of it is definitely promoted and perceived.

When I get into a discussion about this with a newbie, and they ask where I get books if not from Amazon I don't have a good short answer: "All over the web, many for free" seems to incite confusion or maybe a sense of being overwhelmed. That's got to be a challenge, to make independent or small distributors better known to the mass consumer audience. How do you convince a person it might be worth their time to look around for media instead of just signing up for the Amazon or B&N kool-aid stream?

I dunno, maybe I'm seeing a blacker sky than is really there but it seems like a huge challenge to get most people to do any leg work at all if they don't have to. The all-in-one-store offering does appear rather convenient at first glance. Of course, if you go with B&N you can just get used to being ripped off on nearly every book you buy... maybe that will motivate people to find alternate sources and learn about DRM

Soooo anyway my whole point there is that I fear the general consumer market for eBooks will end up polarized around a couple huge providers, will never actually learn about alternatives, and thus will not care about the DRM issue except possibly for the difficulties in sharing books with friends. That would make it much harder to get consumer interests to work for pressuring publishers to drop DRM.

It seems like ultimately there's two points to jam into every new eBook fan's head before they get too involved:

1. If you ever want to switch from a nook to a kindle or vice versa, you won't get to take any of your "protected" books with you
2. If you ever wanted to share a book, you're at the mercy of those existing systems and definitely can't share with your friend/mother/father/husband who has a Kindle instead of a nook or vice versa. Of course, copying is not necessarily legal without DRM involve, but at least it leaves the decision up to the consumer about whether they are going to follow fair practices for lending or violate the law.

I think those two points are generally understandable by many people. Unfortunately I think they'll be most effective in just turning people off to eBook reading entirely.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by zacheryjensen

Perhaps the only effective way to promote non-DRM sales is to popularize the idea about eBooks not being easily sharable or whatever because of DRM...

That's probably the LAST thing you want to popularize... because it's the publishers' fear of sharing that is directly leading to demands for DRM on their books.

I hate to say it, but the future of sharing media is in serious doubt, and it might be something we're all going to have to get used to giving up. As convenient as it was in the past, the paradigm is completely different with easy-to-replicate digital media than it was with physical media. Sharing too easily results in mass distribution, in the eyes of publishers. Until that perception changes, and publishers believe they will see healthy profits even with some sharing, we will be stuck with DRM. That's how it worked with the music, and how it will work with e-books.