Gizmodo 
Enter your username and password.
Tip your editors:
Editorial Director:
Brian Lam | | Twitter
Editor:
Jason Chen
| AIM | Twitter
Features Editor:
Wilson Rothman
| Twitter
Senior Contributing Editors:
Jesus Diaz
| AIM | Twitter
Mark Wilson, Reviews
| AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Matt Buchanan
| AIM | Twitter
Adam Frucci
| Twitter
Sean Fallon
| Twitter
Jack Loftus
| Twitter
John Herrman
| Twitter
Dan Nosowitz
Chris Mascari
Kat Hannaford
| Twitter
Rosa Golijan
| Twitter
Chris Jacob
Columnist:
Brendan I. Koerner
Interns:
Don Nguyen
Kyle VanHemert
Comment Account Questions:
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
12/15/09
12/15/09
12/15/09
Is this blindness only for the media, and they are just making as much cash as possible before bailing? Or are they truly and utterly blind to how miserable they are at evolving the industry?
12/15/09
12/15/09
Everyone expects stuff for cheap, and prices are driven artificially low. It's not sustainable for publishers and writers to sell their content @ $10 a pop when the same content in hardcover format costs $40 and only $10 to actually produce and distribute. That's a $30 loss of profit because little Johnny E. Reader wants his book in digital format, but isn't willing to spend $30 when everything else is $10.
These digital distribution forms simply aren't accounting for product VALUE the same way physical always had. The industries are right to be scared, because it is essentially destroying profit, and if the industry isn't lucrative anymore, who wants to get in?
12/15/09
The primary reason publishing houses exist is because of the need to print and market books. A lot of money goes into these two things, money that authors don't have.
But now with the internet, authors can publish their books for pennies, and they can market them quite effectively without massive advertising budgets.
Increasing numbers of authors are refusing major publishing houses, and releasing books online through smaller independent web publishers who can market a book and get it to Amazon/B&N as well as any large publisher.
These are the last gasps for cash of the big publishers in every major industry. I think the movie publishers will last the longest (so much money and smaller companies can't make blockbusters like Transformers), but the major book and music publishers are going down the drains.
This is the beauty of the web. After some turmoil, you have a multitude of smaller groups providing a larger amount of content, treating the content creators better, and developing the capability to create content with as large production values as were found back in the days of the giant publishers. While the larger amount of content means a lot more shitty content, it also means the chance to discover genius content which would never have made it up the marketing ladder of the publishing giants.
Just give it some time and both content authors and consumers will be happier than ever, and the old publishers will live comfortably on their massive golden parachutes, wondering what went wrong.
12/15/09
12/15/09
12/15/09
12/15/09
12/15/09
1) Another thing they need to wrap their heads around is that $10 per book price. That is the trade paperback price and if they are saving all that distribution cost, I expect some of that savings passed on to ME!!!
Better yet, sell each physical book with a code that allows me access to the digital version of it. Actually, since AMZN has my credit card/shipping info there is no need for a code, just link it to my account.
I am not going to re-buy my book collection like I did from cassette to CDs.
2) While I love to read via my iPhone, one of the main barriers to a better e-reader is the massive lack of 2nd/3rd tier books in digital form.
I understand that the history of Byzantium isn't very popular, but how much does it really cost you put that in digital form?
Every book published in the last ~15 years was done digitally and then printed. Converting that digital "proof" to e-reader format should be a batch job for the IT department.
12/15/09
They are providing content that no one else would provide! So NOW they complain and want their share of the profits?
12/11/09
How about the FACT that while hundreds, maybe thousands of talented writters get the boot from these bastards because they lack the fame or money to publish a book?
What about all those craptastic books written by all kind of skanky people? all those dumb, overproduced children books supposedly written by celebrities?
The iPod didn't kill the music industry, overprice and mediocrity did, and so will in the publishing industry.
12/08/09
12/08/09
As soon as you take something out of the hands of the people who produce and consume it, it belongs to no one. Unscrupulous people will steal it (oh, sorry- "obtain an unlicensed copy"), and middle-men (aka "distributers") will take all profit away from the creative talent.
When even great authors are no longer able to support themselves through their writing, no more great literature will be produced.
Enjoy your comics (oh sorry, "graphic novels"), you idiots. That's about all there will be to read if these things take off.
12/08/09
But eReaders don't have to help novels get pirated - they were being put online a decade ago. If someone's interested, they'll just OCR a whole book - presumably with some kind of whole-book scanner since I don't imagine a causual pirate doing 80 flatbed scans back to back...
Also, like Steel Fox mentioned, digital distribution has boosted music sales. Way back in the day, they even found that Napster and P2P users were more likely to buy a CD. Sure, they're more likely to steal a hundred others, but they're more likely to buy more CDs in stores than they would have otherwise.
Personally since iTunes went DRM free, I've been kind of hooked on that since I can buy and download the album on my Touch and start playing the album as it downloads.
12/08/09
In many cases the ebooks cost just pennies less than physical copies, with all of the restricted use that goes with the digital download. Ereaders are not purchased at their premium price to save pennies per purchase, and the companies have no right charging even 80% of full price for a digital restricted copy of a book.
12/07/09
12/07/09