Last Verse, Same As The First!
You know sometimes I honestly think people have a god damned issue using Google and doing a bit of research. For example…
Booksellers Ask Justice Dept To Probe Price Wars
Moreover, the retailers “are devaluing the very concept of the book,” the association said in a letter sent to the Justice Department.
“They’re using our most important products … as a loss leader to attract customers to buy other, more profitable merchandise. The entire book industry is in danger of becoming collateral damage in this war,” it said.
The Book Publishers really must feel they are the special snowflakes of capitalism to think their products cannot be priced exactly what they are worth by the retailers. Sorry New York but you have been selling high priced crap for years now through these “big box” stores undermining local small business and your very own industry so welcome to the dollar bin at Walmart you so deserve the grave you have dug yourself. I think it goes something like “You lay down with dogs, you wind up with fleas.” So don’t mind me if I don’t cry you a river that Stephen King is long past his “sell by” date and you did not get the memo.
What I really wanted to point out was how closely this all resembled the music industry’s war with iTunes pricing. Remember how after the collapse of the local record stores and CD Album based sales (Sound familiar? Hello!) and the damage done when they sued Napster and the RIAA started suing little old ladies and single mothers it was up to Apple with their iPod to show the music industry how to sell music at a reasonable price of 99 cents a song and they hated Apple… You remember that?
All Apple was doing was realizing that the choice between free and 99 cents was not that big a deal to the typical online customer as long as it got on his iPod as automatically as possible.
Negotiations Leak: Could Variable iTunes Pricing Be On The Table?
Amazon Launches MP3 Album Discounts
This simply proves my point that what goes for the music industry digitally is what goes for the book publishing industry digitally with all the good and possibly really bad if they continue to not learn from the RIAA debacle. Not to mention DRM and lack of products for sale in eBook format contributing to piracy.
Next page…
Of Sparking iPods And Brain-Dead Record Label Moments
Who can forget Lars Ulrich, the drummer for the heavy metal band Metallica, waving a list of Napster users outside Napster’s Silicon Valley offices?
I want every author out there to read that sentence in total fear. You never ever want to become the next Lars Ulrich. He and his band Metallica lost it all with that one stupid publicity seeking moment. Their sales, their credibility, their fans. Despite their fame they did not survive the backlash of being seen as gleefully attacking their young customers. Just remember that.
Readers Have Copyright Rights Too
Then this happened. Do you notice a theme I am getting at here?
when suing the customers is your best answer to changing technology, you have problems
Include in that sentence “authors running around playing vigilante”.
I am not blaming the authors for this so much as I think the publishers are to blame for making authors do this work for them. I am saying though this whole situation needs to be reassessed. Obviously the authors are frustrated at seeing their work being handed out for free by attention whoring kiddies and it is as easy as pulling a listing on Google. As long as they are smart enough to realize that most of the real big time piracy is going on Torrent and eDonkey and the like which being P2P do not get listed on Google. Those Google listings are usually either kids or trolls looking to start something.
Piracy should be dealt with legally but I think the publishers need to step up and do that as sanely and professionally as possible and I think authors should not be seen online personally confronting people even if the person in question is obviously file sharing. No matter how much you feel wronged by piracy it’s a no win situation and will continue to be till book publishing wakes up to the realities of the digital world as the music industry was forced to and provides a better alternative. Maybe Apple again will step in and fix the mess.
If there is one lesson for authors to learn about Napster and the RIAA… Do not become the next Lars Ulrich.
Tags: eBook Commentary
Tired Book Buyer wrote,
As a consumer, I am finding this whole thing frustrating and disheartening. I feel really, really horrible for any author who discovers an illegal file being offered. But I am equally tired of authors going on the warpath and claiming that those 900 downloads are all lost sales, because 99% of people who would download from those sites would not purchase that book in the first place.
I am getting the distinct impression that some authors have no idea copyright law or what is in their contracts.
I have seen authors claim that used book purchases (for a book in print) are not kosher. I have seen authors accuse a woman of being a thief, publicly and continue to make excuses for their poor behavior.
If they were a clerk in the store, then they would be fired or sued. If a musician is rude to a performance goer, chances are they will not be hired back.
Every time a reader asks for a few rights in regard to e books (ability to lend, more than one device) a gaggle of author’s come out of the woodwork to scream about piracy and how dare people possess more than one copy.
We get it. But I don’t think some e-pub authors get it.
What the heck are the publishers doing?
Link | October 25th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
It’s a mess that’s why I brought up the whole Napster death match. No one will win.
It became a personal battle that ran off customers and damaged the artists who got involved.
Link | October 25th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Angelia Sparrow wrote,
We keep sending the polite DMCA letters to the pirate sites. We do not deal with the users directly.
Our links at Asatalk go dead within a day of being put up, and the users whine. But, we do not engage them. All our business is done through the site’s complaint form. And we will keep doing it.
I’d like to see better pricing and less DRM and everything. Then again, if they’ll pirate a $1.29 short story, I don’t see how pricing is going to change anything.
The B&N Nook’s “Sharing” feature has some people worried. I don’t mind if someone lets a friend read a copy of my work. That’s how authors get spread around. I do mind when they put it up for free to 100,000 of their buds and I haven’t even seen a check on it yet.
Link | October 26th, 2009 at 5:16 am
TeddyPig wrote,
The problem is not that piracy should not be dealt with I just think the whole having authors send out the DCMA letters and handle the whole thing themselves has lead to some serious frustration. It’s one more thing that unfortunately if mishandled has the potential of blowing up and creating a situation damaging to them.
Link | October 26th, 2009 at 5:52 am
Tired Book Buyer wrote,
I don’t think the pirates on Asatalk are the real problem. I think the users on eBay who try to profit from selling whole collections of ebooks are the problem. They are targeting consumers who are willing to pay for a book. The pirates are not going to buy those books. An author may lose one or two actual paying customers, but for the most part anyone trolling those sites has no intention of ever paying for anything.
Better pricing? If prices are comparable to mass market books then you have an issue. When buying a physical book, I am not just paying for the “story” but I am also paying for the book itself. Something I can turn around and sell.
If you drop the prices, then you will have authors upset.
Link | October 26th, 2009 at 6:08 am
Teddypig wrote,
A lot of the piracy issue is something the ePublishers have the traditional New York Presses to thank for. ePublishers have been in the forefront of trying to find solutions.
New York ebook pricing is whack their attitudes towards ebook buyers and use of DRM are whack. They are the ones with the geographical arrangements and now the floor is falling out from under them on hardcover prices.
They have robbed Peter to pay Dan Brown and guess what bill is now due?
Notice how hardcover prices fell in line with ebook prices? You can’t sell a $25.00 ebook now. Funny how content is being treated as content despite format.
Link | October 26th, 2009 at 7:04 am
Just a reader wrote,
The Lars Ulrich analogy is perfect. I’ve been thinking the same thing, but was afraid to say it on a book blog because people would chew my head off.
I realize authors want to vent, but they shouldn’t do so on sites that are populated by the very readers who ARE buying their books and supporting their work. It is unprofessional. If I bitched at my clients about my compensation woes I’d be fired.
Thank you for letting me vent ;)
Link | October 26th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Using The Same Advanced Projective Mathematics… | The Naughty Bits wrote,
[...] That’s the problem with the alarmist speak of the vigilante. Facts take a back seat. I look at the ninety-nine cent non-DRM downloads I buy from Apple all the time and smile and realize that every day is a new day for the techno-weenies fearful of new things who do not listen to common sense. [...]
Link | January 19th, 2010 at 5:23 pm