plunging in

[gfish]

I know I should stay clear of Amazonfail, but I just want to say that a publisher which can't make a profit selling $9 etexts (or $5, or $2) deserves to go bankrupt. If amortized editing and design costs are really the lion's share of a physical book, the system is deeply, deeply broken.

(Even applying design costs to the etext version is largely ridiculous. How much design work does an etext need? I'd prefer it as a raw text file anyway, but a LaTeX-generated PDF would also be just fine as well. The only reason for fancy design in the first place is to catch people's attention in a store. Etext selection and browsing is nothing like that, so why bother with it in the first place? Tradition? Snob factor? Anything that can't be seen in the scaled down image of the book cover in an Amazon listing is a complete waste of money.)

I remain unconvinced of the long-term viability of selling data as a business model. But if you want to find a way for authors to make money, don't make it even harder by trying to defend these dinosaurs at the same time.

Comments

[satyrblade.livejournal.com]

(As for musicians not being harmed by music piracy, I suspect you could have a lively debate on that topic with the professional musicians in your life. Just because artists have managed to make a living around music piracy - not an easy task, as they could tell you - it doesn't mean no harm is done. Producing music costs tons of money, time and energy. When someone unconnected with that effort posts the results of it online and hundreds or thousands of people take it without giving anything back to the artists, trust me - harm is done.)