3 ms·

If only there were a Napster for ebooks

3 points by allenleein 6y ago

ggm 6y ago
I have written to publishers (hachette, random) saying that I want to throw money at their authors, who aren't on epubs in my economy. Robert Buderi: Radar -classic work. Not officially online. Uneblievable that a history of how the Internet and VLSI emerged (in part) is not obtainable, over the medium it documents. Some Authors, (Ursula Le Guin, Philip Pullman) are taking a principled position because of Amazon and Apple and the bad return to Authors. The agency licencing is a giant rip. OK, I get this. Respect the author. Sometimes its really bizarre. Trilogies, you can buy paper co-bound but only volumes 1 and 2 of 3 are online. Sometimes, its announced TADAAA "all of Michael Moorcock coming to epub" and then it floods a bit, and then dribbles, and then dries up: Somebody held some rights, or fights over rights and the bits you want, can't come. It really is "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY" Guys. I'm old, fat and for book buying, sufficiently rich. Please sell me the books. Hofstader hated epubs back when they launched, refuses to let EGB be online. Its LaTeX and he's acting like we can't do PDF at high resolution online. Love the book but he needs to be taken out back for a pasting. Stop this! AZW is not the problem. (sigh) I'm reading buderi on the internet archive, via library lending. Its truly awesome to use the internet to "borrow" a book in 12 hour chunks, or even less, and read it. Thanks! (my SO ran a bookshop. I know how the business works in some ways, others are a mystery. I've spoken to publishers and literary agents and authors. Its a minefield. I've used KDP, and print-on-demand, I have done camera-ready stuff, I know this tech is sometimes unkind to print but it can also be fantastic to printed information, done well its a joy to ageing eyeballs)
- allenleein 6y ago
  >> I'm reading buderi on the internet archive, via library lending. Its truly awesome to use the internet to "borrow" a book in 12 hour chunks, or even less, and read it. Thanks! Such a fascinating idea! Wonder how many people will pay for 'the lending model'. ex: pay 1 USD for reading unlimited ePubs 12 hours / 9 USD for a week, etc.
  - ggm 6y ago
    This is a model kindle floated. Of course, what they didn't tell you is they wanted to keep the revenue, so the books you can read, are the stuff Kindle pays the least outside IP cost for, and not the things you want to read. Amazon's model appears to be "meh: books are fully substitutable goods" and certainly thats how they advertise kindle product to me: "You liked reading Philip Kerr, you therefore may like these other authors <list of knock off books in the style of>" -Guys thats not how it works. Dickens is Dickens. Trollope is Trollope. Trollope is not Dickens.

3 points by allenleein 6y ago

ggm 6y ago

I have written to publishers (hachette, random) saying that I want to throw money at their authors, who aren't on epubs in my economy. Robert Buderi: Radar -classic work. Not officially online. Uneblievable that a history of how the Internet and VLSI emerged (in part) is not obtainable, over the medium it documents. Some Authors, (Ursula Le Guin, Philip Pullman) are taking a principled position because of Amazon and Apple and the bad return to Authors. The agency licencing is a giant rip. OK, I get this. Respect the author. Sometimes its really bizarre. Trilogies, you can buy paper co-bound but only volumes 1 and 2 of 3 are online. Sometimes, its announced TADAAA "all of Michael Moorcock coming to epub" and then it floods a bit, and then dribbles, and then dries up: Somebody held some rights, or fights over rights and the bits you want, can't come. It really is "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY" Guys. I'm old, fat and for book buying, sufficiently rich. Please sell me the books. Hofstader hated epubs back when they launched, refuses to let EGB be online. Its LaTeX and he's acting like we can't do PDF at high resolution online. Love the book but he needs to be taken out back for a pasting. Stop this! AZW is not the problem. (sigh) I'm reading buderi on the internet archive, via library lending. Its truly awesome to use the internet to "borrow" a book in 12 hour chunks, or even less, and read it. Thanks! (my SO ran a bookshop. I know how the business works in some ways, others are a mystery. I've spoken to publishers and literary agents and authors. Its a minefield. I've used KDP, and print-on-demand, I have done camera-ready stuff, I know this tech is sometimes unkind to print but it can also be fantastic to printed information, done well its a joy to ageing eyeballs)

allenleein 6y ago
>> I'm reading buderi on the internet archive, via library lending. Its truly awesome to use the internet to "borrow" a book in 12 hour chunks, or even less, and read it. Thanks! Such a fascinating idea! Wonder how many people will pay for 'the lending model'. ex: pay 1 USD for reading unlimited ePubs 12 hours / 9 USD for a week, etc.
- ggm 6y ago
  This is a model kindle floated. Of course, what they didn't tell you is they wanted to keep the revenue, so the books you can read, are the stuff Kindle pays the least outside IP cost for, and not the things you want to read. Amazon's model appears to be "meh: books are fully substitutable goods" and certainly thats how they advertise kindle product to me: "You liked reading Philip Kerr, you therefore may like these other authors <list of knock off books in the style of>" -Guys thats not how it works. Dickens is Dickens. Trollope is Trollope. Trollope is not Dickens.