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Clueless Ebook Quotes
Gathered from around the web, some from recent discussions, some not so recent. A collection of comments by people who obviously are not in favor of ebooks.
1) The book industry should "get over the misconception" that digital publishing is more environmentally friendly than printing -- Karen Christensen, CE of Berkshire Publishing
Plz to ignore the timber industry and toxic chemicals produced by ink production. We will hint at the horrible factory conditions of the manufacture of electronics; we will not be discussing the paper mills, much less the amount of smog created by the many stages of shipping involved in books, starting with hauling the trees to timber mills and ending with the reader's driving to the bookstore. (I do understand that electronics are not usually green. But I'm not buying that ebooks should bear the entire environmental blame for all computer waste, and anything less than that makes it pretty obvious that digital publishing uses less environmental resources than print.)
2) There are many reasons why eBooks can sometimes cost more than print, such as the cost of converting text files into eBook formats, or the simple fact that some sites are able to offer a deeper discount on certain titles. -- Harlequin Romance editor.
Note: this is about a currently-in-print book, where the print book—a paperback—costs a bit less than the ebook. Because, um. The cost of converting the file to a couple of different formats is greater than the cost of printing, shipping, storing and inventorying the physical copies. Riiiiight.
3) the costs of hosting, maintaining, and supporting electronic products ran higher than printing, binding, and shipping costs. -- Barnes, re: Gale e-books for academic libraries.
Repeat: Digital file management is so much more expensive than physical archive management. We all know how it costs less to ship books than it does to email them.
4) I kind of go out of my way to make certain no potential readers have to commit any sort of illegal act in order to read one of my stories, if they’re badly wanting to.
And this happened. It’s very disappointing. I might as well rescind that limited permission, if people aren’t going to take advantage of it. -- Author G.L. Drummond, reacting to finding her books behind a paywall (adwall) pirate site.
Because the best way to punish the people who are breaking the law is to take away things from the ones who were playing by the rules. That'll teach 'em.
5) I would happily suggest smothering the new trend of ebook and never speaking of it again -- Corrisande
Spoken like someone who thinks the Kindle was the first dedicated ebook reader. *Stares at 1994 Project Gutenberg on CD.* Hmm... is that anything like the new trend of HTML? Can we smother that one too?
6) If the illegal downloading of books continues, there may soon be a world in which you will never be able to read books again. -- S. Jae-Jones, author
Because nobody releases their books for free online right now. Andif the current batch of pro authors stops writing, there will be nothing for any of us to read, because there's certainly not enough reading material already in existence to keep us in books for the rest of our lives. Oh, wait. There is.
7) When copyrighted material is traded, provided for free, or sold by someone other than the copyright holder (author) or the copyright holder's contracted publisher as listed on the book, it is by law theft of intellectual property. It is hurting the author's career and depriving the author of his/her livelihood. It is also the same as literally stealing money from the author's pocket in that the author is being deprived of the income from sales. -- Samantha Gentry, author
"Literally," she says. When did "literally" start to mean "figuratively?" Also, used book sales are IP theft. That's stealing from the author; you must never buy used copyrighted material.
8) there should be the same level of property rights whether it's a house or a movie -- James Murdoch, News Corporation executive.
Because you can sell a house to ten thousand people in the same week, of course. And you have the right to demand royalties if anyone makes a movie using it, even after you've sold it. (OK, this one's not exactly about ebooks. Close enough? Probably?)
9) People who can afford to buy an eReader can afford the proposed eBook prices. Whenever the owner of a $300 product says they “can’t afford” to pay $3.00 to $5.00 more for something, what they really mean is “I really prefer not to pay more.” -- Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers
This was only a couple of years ago. But even today, publishers believe that the only people buying ebook readers will be buying full-price new books at ebook stores, and are not people who want to read Gutenberg books and fanfic and their own documents on them. And none of the Big 6 publishers acknowledge the existence of Baen or Smashwords, nor the idea that someone on a tight budget could squeeze out the cost of an ebook reader in order to buy $1-6 ebooks instead of $7-20 pbooks.
1) The book industry should "get over the misconception" that digital publishing is more environmentally friendly than printing -- Karen Christensen, CE of Berkshire Publishing
Plz to ignore the timber industry and toxic chemicals produced by ink production. We will hint at the horrible factory conditions of the manufacture of electronics; we will not be discussing the paper mills, much less the amount of smog created by the many stages of shipping involved in books, starting with hauling the trees to timber mills and ending with the reader's driving to the bookstore. (I do understand that electronics are not usually green. But I'm not buying that ebooks should bear the entire environmental blame for all computer waste, and anything less than that makes it pretty obvious that digital publishing uses less environmental resources than print.)
2) There are many reasons why eBooks can sometimes cost more than print, such as the cost of converting text files into eBook formats, or the simple fact that some sites are able to offer a deeper discount on certain titles. -- Harlequin Romance editor.
Note: this is about a currently-in-print book, where the print book—a paperback—costs a bit less than the ebook. Because, um. The cost of converting the file to a couple of different formats is greater than the cost of printing, shipping, storing and inventorying the physical copies. Riiiiight.
3) the costs of hosting, maintaining, and supporting electronic products ran higher than printing, binding, and shipping costs. -- Barnes, re: Gale e-books for academic libraries.
Repeat: Digital file management is so much more expensive than physical archive management. We all know how it costs less to ship books than it does to email them.
4) I kind of go out of my way to make certain no potential readers have to commit any sort of illegal act in order to read one of my stories, if they’re badly wanting to.
And this happened. It’s very disappointing. I might as well rescind that limited permission, if people aren’t going to take advantage of it. -- Author G.L. Drummond, reacting to finding her books behind a paywall (adwall) pirate site.
Because the best way to punish the people who are breaking the law is to take away things from the ones who were playing by the rules. That'll teach 'em.
5) I would happily suggest smothering the new trend of ebook and never speaking of it again -- Corrisande
Spoken like someone who thinks the Kindle was the first dedicated ebook reader. *Stares at 1994 Project Gutenberg on CD.* Hmm... is that anything like the new trend of HTML? Can we smother that one too?
6) If the illegal downloading of books continues, there may soon be a world in which you will never be able to read books again. -- S. Jae-Jones, author
Because nobody releases their books for free online right now. Andif the current batch of pro authors stops writing, there will be nothing for any of us to read, because there's certainly not enough reading material already in existence to keep us in books for the rest of our lives. Oh, wait. There is.
7) When copyrighted material is traded, provided for free, or sold by someone other than the copyright holder (author) or the copyright holder's contracted publisher as listed on the book, it is by law theft of intellectual property. It is hurting the author's career and depriving the author of his/her livelihood. It is also the same as literally stealing money from the author's pocket in that the author is being deprived of the income from sales. -- Samantha Gentry, author
"Literally," she says. When did "literally" start to mean "figuratively?" Also, used book sales are IP theft. That's stealing from the author; you must never buy used copyrighted material.
8) there should be the same level of property rights whether it's a house or a movie -- James Murdoch, News Corporation executive.
Because you can sell a house to ten thousand people in the same week, of course. And you have the right to demand royalties if anyone makes a movie using it, even after you've sold it. (OK, this one's not exactly about ebooks. Close enough? Probably?)
9) People who can afford to buy an eReader can afford the proposed eBook prices. Whenever the owner of a $300 product says they “can’t afford” to pay $3.00 to $5.00 more for something, what they really mean is “I really prefer not to pay more.” -- Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers
This was only a couple of years ago. But even today, publishers believe that the only people buying ebook readers will be buying full-price new books at ebook stores, and are not people who want to read Gutenberg books and fanfic and their own documents on them. And none of the Big 6 publishers acknowledge the existence of Baen or Smashwords, nor the idea that someone on a tight budget could squeeze out the cost of an ebook reader in order to buy $1-6 ebooks instead of $7-20 pbooks.
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