...And how, the iPad is a wonderful piece of technology but that is a topic for another day. One of it's functions is that of electronic reader.
I have a number of book apps loaded, Kindle, Kobo, iBook and others and while my device has not been specifically designed for ebooks it works adequately well, and along with any disadvantages, there are some positives.
Our household is awaiting delivery of it's 1st Kindle due next week. So the differences between a dedicated reader and a device that can be used as an electronic reader are at this point only guessed at.
The kindle appears as paper page so can be read outdoors, the iPad cannot, but frankly I wouldn't carry any expensive product poolside or to a beach, those are locations for a paperback. Me, I read in bed, the screen is backlit (dimmed) so I don't need to turn on the bedside light. But all these devices allow the text size to be enlarged, so no need for reading glasses. Yay.
Really though, it is not the devices which raise my ire, it is the cost of the books that bother me so much.
I have a friend a winemaker who laments that he does not have a "cellar door" from which to sell his wines, because this is where the realm profit is made-No middle man. His vineyard is a highly respected and prize winning making boutique wines which sell for about $35per bottle, I remember being absolutely appalled when he told me that with the cost of producing and selling the finished product he made a profit of about $1.80 per bottle.
I think authors command about the same remuneration.If they were to earn royalties of 10% they could consider themselves luckier than most.
This speaks volumes to me, this means that as with any other manufactured product the real cost is in the "marketing"' and please don't mistakenly think this is advertising. Marketing is so much more. Yes there is a little advertising involved, because otherwise how would we all know what is available out there, but mostly it's about the cost of getting the product to you, like producing, warehousing and transporting to a retail outlet near you.
Does this make the publishing business, (and I say that even though publishing is a bit of a misnomer for an ebook) like the diamond business ? Because even though bandwidth has a cost and so does transmitting to a device for reading , a website must be built and maintained and advertised, there is no warehouse and no truck and no retail store needed. I suspect that the costs are fractional to sell ebooks and I further suspect the author is still not getting anymore than ever before.
That means that the mythical middle man is getting more for doing less.
I can't assume that everybody else feels the same about being ripped off- but I don't like it, and I don't really think many other people do either.
I think they're running scared, those publishing houses and its time for them to get real and offer the buying public value for money.
When I think of how many hands an ink and paper book passes through then it gives a real value to the book.
OK so I buy a book, its a new release and costs $30, I read it and so does my spouse, we both lend it to work colleagues and family members. In its 1st year on my shelf 10 people have read it. After that it can be sold to a used book store or donated to a church fair, either way it has a news life and is ready for another 10 people, this pattern can go on until the book disintegrates and the pages are falling out.
Now the ebook is read by me on my device and maybe my spouse gets to read it too, but goes no further than that, I don't want it taking up space in my reader, and so its life is over.
Lets not even get into the free books that are available, there is not a great deal there that I want to read.
I think it would be a fair thing to charge a similar fee to read a book as to rent a DVD, after all that usually has the one family viewing by several people at once and then goes back to the DVD library. Some have a higher market cost than others , it would be the same with books.
Shouldn't the publishers become ebook libraries instead of pretending to pass ownership of a written work by means of a purchase price. How can they charge $22 for an electronic book when the real one can take up space on my bookshelf for just $30.the writer received no more than $3, so I'm thinking somebody is paying too much. I don't want it to be me.
