REAL LIFE NEWS: BARNES & NOBLE SHOWS THE DOWNSIDE OF EBOOKS
by Hazed
I love ebooks. Admittedly I am biased because my real life job is creating and publishing them (through Amazon, Apple, and soon I hope Kobo and Google). But leaving aside my work, as a reader myself I fell in love with my Kindle and just love the convenience of having all my books with me, in something that isn’t too heavy or awkward to read on the tube.
But sometimes the ebook retailers and/or publishers seem to be doing everything they can to poison the experience. Here’s two examples, one a minor inconvenience, the other a major outrage. Plus as a balance, a company that is doing it right.
Let’s start with the major outrage. Barnes & Noble’s stupid DRM system is preventing a woman from downloading a copy of a book she previously purchased from them, because the credit card she used to buy it has now expired.
She’s paid for the book. Barnes & Noble had got their money. But they wouldn’t let her access it a few months later. You can read the full story here.
The minor annoyance concerns the latest book by one of my favourite authors (David Weber: Midst Toil and Tribulation, book 6 of the Safehold series). I have the previous 5 books on my Kindle, having bought them from Amazon. Now the new book is out in hardback, and US customers can also buy a Kindle version. UK customers, on the other hand, can’t, because the book hasn’t been officially released in this country yet. We can buy the hardback version because Amazon UK lets you buy physical copies of US books (at a price), but not the electronic version. That’s digital rights management in action, and it’s just as annoying as the regional coding on DVDs and blu-rays.
So I am lugging the very heavy hardback with me on the tube, and I resent it. I’ve got so used to using my Kindle I hate having to revert to a “real” book. The really stupid thing is that Amazon, and the book company, have lost a sale: I would have paid for an ebook, but I have borrowed the hardback from a friend.
For a book company that does things right, I recommend Baen Books (coincidentally the publishers of the other series by David Weber, the military science fiction books about Honor Harrington). Baen releases all of their books as ebooks, which you can buy from their site. They are available in a multitude of formats. Once you’ve bought one you can download it as many time as you like, forever, in whatever format you want. The books have no DRM. Baen also lets you download some backlist books for free, as an enticement for you to discover new authors.
Now that’s how to sell ebooks!
It’s in my interest for ebooks to succeed, both as a reader and a publisher, so I hope the publishing companies and retailers sort out these annoyances soon – otherwise it just encourages piracy.
