For what it's worth I know at least one publisher who would really like to do just what you're talking about, for all the reasons you cite, but can't because the company's owned by a conglomerate whose upper echelons totally don't get it
That's very unfortunate, because the people who are most paying for such bad decisions are the authors themselves. And they're paying in sales they don't get and royalties they can't collect. They're paying for it with the careers, actually.
Honestly, I don't understand why any company would fail to want to do this, or something like it. Because it would cut overhead considerably and could put companies in very advantageous positions. Plus, it would allow for companies to take chances on more authors with less risk!
Not to mention that if the eBook library came straight from the publisher themselves, they could cut out any middleman!
There really should be an industry wide, all-inclusive author's union for this type of thing. Because it's honestly something that is actively hurting writers, and it's turning a lot of readers who might have been customers into pirates, basically. These companies are shooting themselves in the foot and their authors with them.
Not to mention that I'm not sure why Apple hasn't come out with an affordable, marketable eBook reader. If anyone could make this all happen, from getting licensing agreements with companies to having an affordable reader, it's them.
So far, Sony's model and the Kindle are kind of duds in my book. Sony's reader breaks down in the cold and the Kindle is too costly.
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Date: 2009-06-16 12:19 pm (UTC)That's very unfortunate, because the people who are most paying for such bad decisions are the authors themselves. And they're paying in sales they don't get and royalties they can't collect. They're paying for it with the careers, actually.
Honestly, I don't understand why any company would fail to want to do this, or something like it. Because it would cut overhead considerably and could put companies in very advantageous positions. Plus, it would allow for companies to take chances on more authors with less risk!
Not to mention that if the eBook library came straight from the publisher themselves, they could cut out any middleman!
There really should be an industry wide, all-inclusive author's union for this type of thing. Because it's honestly something that is actively hurting writers, and it's turning a lot of readers who might have been customers into pirates, basically. These companies are shooting themselves in the foot and their authors with them.
Not to mention that I'm not sure why Apple hasn't come out with an affordable, marketable eBook reader. If anyone could make this all happen, from getting licensing agreements with companies to having an affordable reader, it's them.
So far, Sony's model and the Kindle are kind of duds in my book. Sony's reader breaks down in the cold and the Kindle is too costly.