5 ms·

The bigger problem for me is buying Ebooks without DRM, which are cheaper than the paperback. I see no reason why I should be paying the same (or often more) th

by vhanda 5mo ago

The bigger problem for me is buying Ebooks without DRM, which are cheaper than the paperback. I see no reason why I should be paying the same (or often more) than the paperback version. Just let me buy the ebook and let me own it. Right now, after pirating it, I have to find the author's patreon / something and contribute some money that way. It shouldn't be this hard to give someone money.

Ferret7446 5mo ago
Because you're primarily paying for the copyright. The cost of a book is fairly trivial
- vynase 5mo ago
  Not with paper prices where they are these days.
  - ghaff 5mo ago
    I haven't done the research recently, but I assume that the cost of printing and distributing physical books is still less than a lot of people assume it is.
deepsun 5mo ago
Is it hard to buy non-DRM books? Well, if you bought Kindle, then I see, but... don't buy Kindle? There are plenty other options.
- xboxnolifes 5mo ago
  Care to share these other options?
- aaronax 5mo ago
  Where can I buy DRM free Anathem? The Road? Hunger Games?
b00ty4breakfast 5mo ago
Calibre (though this is not so simple with Amazon ebooks since they disabled downloading books to your PC)
- LocalPCGuy 5mo ago
  Amazon did re-enable downloads for books without DRM, in the same place in the Content Library. Not as good as it was before, but better than nothing.
hahajk 5mo ago
> (or often more) than the paperback Not an expert but my guess is that price is supply and demand. And oversupply of physical books will drive the price down since it costs money to warehouse them. There cannot be an oversupply of ebooks.
- HPsquared 5mo ago
  On the other hand, there cannot (physically at least) be a supply shortage of ebooks.
Jtarii 5mo ago
>Right now, after pirating it, I have to find the author's patreon / something and contribute some money that way. It shouldn't be this hard to give someone money Why not just buy the thing you are pirating? That would seem to be the easiest way to give someone money.
- Macha 5mo ago
  The thinking is the sold product is the inferior product than the pirated version and so rather than reward the people making it worse (Amazon, mostly), trying to reward the person who made something you want in the first place
- rcxdude 5mo ago
  Because significantly less of the money you pay goes to the person who wrote the book.
  - vidarh 5mo ago
    To quantify that: If the author has self-published on Amazon, 35%-70% goes to the author. (70% above a certain price threshold and assuming the e-book is exclusive to KDP) If published via a publisher, the author is more likely to be getting 10%-15%.
    - boarush 5mo ago
      To be fair though, a lot of publishers also do a one time payment deal with authors as well, after achieving a certain milestone of number of books sold.
      - vidarh 5mo ago
        The more common is an advance payment, but note that these are almost always offset against royalties, not in addition to royalties, and you need to be fairly successful before you'll ever earn out a full advance. For 99%+ of authors, writing is a hobby that pays less than minimum wage. For self published authors it's often a net loss after costs like editors and cover design.
renewiltord 5mo ago
I like to pay the author for the marginal cost and then once it's hit a sum that can be transferred I do that. e.g. I estimate about $1E-12 per time I hit Cmd-C and Cmd-V on each book. So far, no author has hit the threshold for me to send them their cent, but I dearly believe "render unto Caesar what is Caesar". It's important we pay authors.
sync 5mo ago
You can strip the DRM fairly easily these days if you have an ACSM file, I vibecoded this the other day after I couldn’t find any online converter that actually worked: https://www.acsm-converter.com https://www.acsm-converter.com
presbyterian 5mo ago
> I see no reason why I should be paying the same (or often more) than the paperback version. I rarely see the ebooks cost more than print, they're usually slightly cheaper. But the reason they aren't drastically cheaper is that a significant portion of the cost of a book isn't actually in the paper or the printing, it's in paying the author, editors, designers, marketers, etc. All of those people are crucial to the book publishing process, whether it's print or digital or, usually, both.

by vhanda 5mo ago

Ferret7446 5mo ago

Because you're primarily paying for the copyright. The cost of a book is fairly trivial

vynase 5mo ago
Not with paper prices where they are these days.
- ghaff 5mo ago
  I haven't done the research recently, but I assume that the cost of printing and distributing physical books is still less than a lot of people assume it is.

deepsun 5mo ago

Is it hard to buy non-DRM books? Well, if you bought Kindle, then I see, but... don't buy Kindle? There are plenty other options.

xboxnolifes 5mo ago
Care to share these other options?
aaronax 5mo ago
Where can I buy DRM free Anathem? The Road? Hunger Games?

b00ty4breakfast 5mo ago

Calibre (though this is not so simple with Amazon ebooks since they disabled downloading books to your PC)

LocalPCGuy 5mo ago
Amazon did re-enable downloads for books without DRM, in the same place in the Content Library. Not as good as it was before, but better than nothing.

hahajk 5mo ago

> (or often more) than the paperback Not an expert but my guess is that price is supply and demand. And oversupply of physical books will drive the price down since it costs money to warehouse them. There cannot be an oversupply of ebooks.

HPsquared 5mo ago
On the other hand, there cannot (physically at least) be a supply shortage of ebooks.

Jtarii 5mo ago

>Right now, after pirating it, I have to find the author's patreon / something and contribute some money that way. It shouldn't be this hard to give someone money Why not just buy the thing you are pirating? That would seem to be the easiest way to give someone money.

Macha 5mo ago
The thinking is the sold product is the inferior product than the pirated version and so rather than reward the people making it worse (Amazon, mostly), trying to reward the person who made something you want in the first place
rcxdude 5mo ago
Because significantly less of the money you pay goes to the person who wrote the book.
- vidarh 5mo ago
  To quantify that: If the author has self-published on Amazon, 35%-70% goes to the author. (70% above a certain price threshold and assuming the e-book is exclusive to KDP) If published via a publisher, the author is more likely to be getting 10%-15%.
  - boarush 5mo ago
    To be fair though, a lot of publishers also do a one time payment deal with authors as well, after achieving a certain milestone of number of books sold.
    - vidarh 5mo ago
      The more common is an advance payment, but note that these are almost always offset against royalties, not in addition to royalties, and you need to be fairly successful before you'll ever earn out a full advance. For 99%+ of authors, writing is a hobby that pays less than minimum wage. For self published authors it's often a net loss after costs like editors and cover design.

renewiltord 5mo ago

I like to pay the author for the marginal cost and then once it's hit a sum that can be transferred I do that. e.g. I estimate about $1E-12 per time I hit Cmd-C and Cmd-V on each book. So far, no author has hit the threshold for me to send them their cent, but I dearly believe "render unto Caesar what is Caesar". It's important we pay authors.

sync 5mo ago

You can strip the DRM fairly easily these days if you have an ACSM file, I vibecoded this the other day after I couldn’t find any online converter that actually worked: https://www.acsm-converter.com https://www.acsm-converter.com

presbyterian 5mo ago

> I see no reason why I should be paying the same (or often more) than the paperback version. I rarely see the ebooks cost more than print, they're usually slightly cheaper. But the reason they aren't drastically cheaper is that a significant portion of the cost of a book isn't actually in the paper or the printing, it's in paying the author, editors, designers, marketers, etc. All of those people are crucial to the book publishing process, whether it's print or digital or, usually, both.