She's ALL about the ebooks these days...
Given that my personal and professional interests collide, perhaps it’s not that strange that I spent a lot of Conflux talking about digital publishing. So it’s perhaps fitting that I logged on to clear my feed and found heaps of ebook links!
Ebook royalties
I really enjoy pubrants, and generally enjoy the conversation in the comments, but this one got up my nose slightly because of authors complaining about the royalty rate. It’s true that once an ebook is “up and running” (ie edited, typeset, converted, QA’d and distributed) there aren’t the same residual costs to the publisher as a print edition, but there are costs associated with ebooks.
We’re all banking on the fact that this will be a growth industry (and personally I think that’s a safe bet), and therefore at some point in the future ebooks will be profitable (hence that clause that Kristen mentions!) but the cost of converting an ebook to three or four formats* combined with current sales places the return on investment point WELL in the future for all but top tier authors.
That also doesn’t take in to account the massive costs associated with setting up an ebook program (consider the infrastructure requirements needed for coping with a digital, non-diminishing inventory item in a business that, until now, has counted physical objects as a way to handle stock-take, invoicing and royalties).
I agree that it will be good when this shakes out a bit more and an “industry standard” for royalties is established. Certainly it will be less confusing. But for now, please don’t assume that ebooks are money for nothing for the publisher! It’s a business and while no-one is looking to screw authors over**, publishers are entitled to make a profit on their books, and that’s not likely to be for some years to come!
* but lets not talk about eBabel today!
** after all a publishing house without authors isn’t going to fare well!
Ebook readers
So, we have duelling announcements for Sony Reader and Kindle. Kindle is slightly prettier. Slightly. But I'm more impressed with Sony. Front-lit screen. E-ink with a light source is a very attractive thought! I doubt I’ll move away from the convenience of always having my ebooks with me (on my phone), but there's no doubt backlit is not good in direct sunlight situations!
Via /., Wired & Teleread (Kindle & Sony)
All of this should be compared to the growth of iPhone as an ebook reader (via Teleread)