Become A Robot

I was searching for an image of a broken Kindle to add to this post when I found this comic, which lead me to read about this The Twilight Zone episode, which lead me to wish I had seen more of the show. Now if only Netflix could stream The Twilight Zone episodes instead of forcing me to devote an entire out-at-a-time DVD slot.

I really like my Sony eBook reader, but I won’t deny that I sometimes find myself thinking “I’d like to have this book sitting on a shelf” or “this would be a fun book to thumb through randomly” or most commonly “I wish I could set this thing on the floor and not worry about the kids stepping on it or throwing it across the room”.

I have yet to buy an eBook since I received my reader. I’ve stuck to free eBooks such as public domain works (70+ years since the author died) and relatively new books released free in electronic form by publishers (also, THIS HANDSOME FRIEND OF MINE utilizes the questionable practice of downloading pirated eBooks off the Internet because “it’s barely different than checking out a physical book from the library”).

The problem with buying eBooks is that they’re rarely/barely cheaper than a paperback (they’re usually cheaper than a hardcover if you’re buying from the Kindle Store or Sony eBook Store). Why should I pay more for a digital copy that costs nothing to make and barely pennies to send? This is not a problem with the technology, this is 100% a problem with the publishers. I think eBooks should cost around $5.  That’s enough of a savings for more people to say “Ok, I’m giving up some of the convenience/aesthetic of a paper book, but the convenience of an eBook coupled with this great price makes it totally worth it”.

It addition to simply lowering eBook prices (which is undeniably a no-brainer), I really think we need to see bundle prices for buying a paper book and its eBook version together.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:

Publishers should include a DRM-free eBook version with every paper book they sell.

They won’t do this for some time I’m sure. Why do that when your most loyal, dedicated fans might pay you twice to have the book in two formats?  I think it would be smart for publishers, as it would increase the sale of paper books, which they seem to prefer selling over eBooks despite the increased profit margins and easier (ie. nonexistent) distribution models for them.

I do expect the publishers will get in line eventually and start making the improvements we’re asking for (lower prices, no DRM, bundle discounts for getting paper book and eBook together).  I’m just impatient.

(Photo used with permission of Flickr user danielhermes.)

I’ve had my Sony PRS-505 Reader Digital Book for a week now, and feel like I’m qualified to share some thoughts on it.

Read the rest of this entry »

The second biggest reason I haven’t bought an Amazon Kindle yet is that I don’t like paying for books (the first being that it’s an expensive gadget).  I don’t like paying for anything really, but books are something that’s particularly easy to get for free thanks to your local library.  That doesn’t mean libraries don’t hurt authors any more or less than pirating music reportedly hurts artists, but libraries are currently 100% legal (more, earlier thoughts on this here).  There are thriving e-book piracy communities on-line. One needs only to remove the DRM of a commercially purcahsed e-book (easier for some formats than others) or digitally scan the book manually and spend hours pouring through the OCR output for typos.  Then people like me can easily reap the rewards of their efforts.

So the third biggest reason I haven’t bought a Kindle yet is that whether you pay for e-books or pirate them for free, many titles simply aren’t available anywhere in electronic form. It would be incredibly frustrating to have just spent over $300 on a device to read books on only to have to obtain a physical copy of a book that isn’t availible electronically.

And that’s where Daniel Reetz’s $300 high-speed book scanner is a great step in the right direction.  Sure, at $300 you’d need to have a lot of non-electronic books you really wanted to read on your e-book device(s) or have a desire to serve the greater e-book community with your efforts. And you can’t just queue up a book and walk away; you have to turn the page after each 2-page snapshot it takes. But even then you’ll only be standing there a good 20 minutes for a normal length book.

I could really see myself taking the time and money required to build this if it meant I’d be releasing books from the shackles of the physical world and letting them loose in electronic form to the world. But sharing copyrighted materials like that is considered illegal.  Building this machine solely for personal use seems like too much work for too little reward.  It’s tempting to join the e-book piracy movement and become a major “content provider”, but I’m just not sure that that’s the best way to deal with publishers (and libraries) dragging their feet as demand for e-books grows.

Anyway, my hat goes off to Daniel Reetz and others like him who are making it an especially exciting time to be a bibliophile.

A good, fast way to see if a book is available in electronic form is to visit its Amazon page. Amazon tells you right away if a book is available for their Kindle e-book reader, and while it’s not a given, books released for Kindle are often also already released in other electronic formats as well (sadly, this gulf is widening; Amazon is doing a better job of convincing publishers to go electronic with them, and other formats are getting left in the dust).

Prior to today, the page for a book on Amazon that was not available for Kindle had a button that said something to the effect of “Publishers: Find out how you can make this book available for Kindle”. I’d often think “Look at that easy button! Come on publishers!”

But today I noticed that the button has changed:

Clicking it gives the following message (“Thank you for requesting this title in Kindle edition…”):

I hope that by doing this, I’m not contributing towards a publisher releasing a book for Kindle and not for other electronic formats. I’d like to think that once they’ve seen how well Kindle sales do, they’ll consider doing the same easy electronic release for others.

Anyway, thanks Amazon for letting us help you help publishers get their act together.