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Bookfuturism.com is a digital commons and multi-user blog open to anyone interested in the future of reading. It's also a social network for bookfuturists - men and women who believe that books, bookshops, libraries, publishers, newspapers, authors, and readers have a future -- albeit one that may be radically different from the present -- and who want to participate in that future.

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Home » Blogs » vsandbrook's blog

A Little of Everything: My Bookfuturist Sampler

vsandbrook's picture
Submitted by vsandbrook on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 12:34pm

I've been thinkig about how I'd debut myself on this site since I joined a few days ago (2 days and 2 hours ago according to my account log), and I've finally decided that my position on a few key (or at least timely) issues will suffice, even though I run the risk of repeating some of what's been said. If you've had an in-dept discussion on the site at one point or another, just point the way and I'll mosy over to comment. With any luck, though, this will add something to the conversation anyway.

  • DRM. As a content-user/reader, dislike DRM. As an editor/writer, I understand it. It'd be wonderful if we could create some sort of a la carte pricing and delivery structure that would allow users to pick and chose a) what they want to do with their content and b) how much they want to spend to do it. Want to be able to pass along your Kindle book when you're done reading? Pay $1 extra. Need virtually unlimited sharing rights because you're a library? Get the competitive rate. Want a completely slimmed-down version that you'll only use on one device? Pay 20% less. That sorta thing. There should be enough protection that gross piracy can be identified, but not so much that users are frustrated.
  • Alternate Piracy Prevention. Ultimately, I think that affordable and easily accessible e-books published and sold by companies percieved as "good" (or at least "not evil") will significantly reduce and prevent piracy. I truly believe that most people are willing to pay for content, so long as it is worth their while and so long as they feel that paying is fair. Litigation, DRM, content-strangleholds, and monopolies are the worst ways to prevent piracy.
  • E-readers. I commented on mcrumph's post "Which Will Die First?" when I first arrived and wrote a little bit about my ideal e-reader. To summarize my thoughts, I probably won't buy another reader until it simultaneously replaces my netbook and smartphone (without being larger or harder to carry than either). An e-reader should also accept multiple formats of books and accept books from a multitude of sources (various sellers and stores, personal files, etc).
  • Pricing. Customer must understand that it is more economical to publish digital versions of a book, but it is neither free nor "cheap." Publishers (and self-publishing authors) should have the right to set the price they want for their e-books. Sellers should have the right to negotiate discounts. The actual price of an e-book should be market- and profit-driven, just like the "print model." So publishers will need to bring down costs with more efficient production models, customers will need to accept that some e-books will be more expensive than others, and Amazon needs to reevaluate how they're going to stay in the e-book-selling business.
  • Future of Print. I collect print books. I love print books. I still buy and read print boos. Until e-books and digital reading become more universally affordable and until the majority of readers are those who have been reading digitally their whole lives, print will play a major part in publishing. I give it 60 years for print sales to decline to a low simmer--essentially till they are the same % of the market that e-books are now. I hope there will always be a deep appreciation for the art of printing and that there will always be a (small) market for printed books.
  • Future of Publishers. We're not going anywhere. We'll learn how to be digital content providers and we'll be able to prove it very soon. Big houses may get much smaller and the industry may move away from its traditional centers, but the rise of the small to mid-sized house is on the rise. The houses that become and remain successful will be those making spectacular books of high quality while keeping their costs very low.  And I think that will be true whether the publisher produces exclusively print, exclucively digital, or any combination thereof.
  • Future of Editors (or, Crownsourced vs Edited Content). I don't have any problem with Wikipedia and other crowdsourced material, but I also thing it will not replace traditional editing and the author(s)/editor relationship. It's the reason blogs become bestselling books. Edited content is authoritative and should be the best possible version of the informaton availibe. If it isn't the editor hasn't done his/her job (and should probably seek to acquire the best possible information to begin with).
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