Originally published on: 10/29/2005 1:13:37 PM
The thing that had been nagging at the back of my mind when considering these tools is that the books "cost" the author something like $11-14 for a trade paperback (the 6"x9" paperbacks that so many business books are printed as). The setup fee I actually understood more than this. It does cost time and money to make sure the file is formatted correctly and won't fubar the POD printer, etc. However, I figured that they were aiming to make their money mostly on the first 20 or so copies of the book along with the setup fees. This is much like how portrait and wedding photographers work. They charge very little over their costs (or below in many cases) for the actual service and mark up a $3-5 8x10 to $30-50. When you buy a few, the total amount evens out their costs and they're OK with it. When I saw setup fees of $100 and per book costs of $11, I figured this was going on here as well.
Turns out it is. A single POD printer actually prints almost ALL of the POD books on the market: Lightning Source. They're a division of Ingram books, which in turn distributes the vast majority of books to brick and morter as well as online bookstores. Basically, Ingram has a great vertical market and did a great job of setting it up. Lulu and iUniverse are just 2 of a long list of "publishers" who are little more than middle-men taking manuscripts and passing them on to Lightning Source (LS hereafter). The list of places that LS recommends you go if you're an author and not a publisher yourself is a long one. If you've heard of any of these, they all use LS to do the printing: AuthorHouse, Aventine Press, Black Forest Press, Booklocker.com, Inc, BookPublisher.com, Cold Tree Press, Cork Hill Press, First Books, Infinity Publishing, iUniverse, Llumina Press, LuLu, Morgan James Publishing, LLC, Outskirts Press, PageFree Publishing, Inc., Publish America, Tabby House, Universal Publishers, Unlimited Publishing, WinePress Publishing, Xlibris, Xulon Press.
I did a little more digging and found a great blog full of information on how to become your own publisher and get access to the *real* cost of actually getting the book printed and distributed. The information there confirmed my suspicions. The setup costs are, indeed in the $100-$300 range depending on what you actually do and how long the book is, but the actual printing costs are much lower. For a 128 page book he uses as an example a lot, LS will print and deliver the book for about $3. The only barrier is being a publisher with an ISBN prefix. (see footnote for my current activities in this direction if you're intrigued).
The author of that site is really selling his book (though most of the information you really need to start a publishing company is there on the site) and it looked interesting. When I went over to Amazon to buy it, I noticed that it had an ebook version. Knowing that I start writing my novel on Tuesday, I wanted to have the information in my hands as soon as I could. That, combined with the lower price had me ordering the Adobe PDF ebook version of the book . . . my last Adobe PDF book . . . ever.
Before I continue, I want to say that the content itself has been useful and worth every penny. But, like a perfectly grilled steak served up on a dirty garbage can lid, it's not entirely the content that matters here.
I bought the book during my morning blogging/breakfast/reading/browsing time. First, Amazon required that I re-enter my credit card information. Since I actually use a designated card for Amazon purchases and don't carry that card with me (and, being in my bath robe, I didn't have any of the others either), so I had to go upstairs and dig for credit cards. Amazon has stored my credit card information for so long, this was a major irritation. They say it was because it was my "first digital" purchase. Too bad it will be my last unless they change formats.
OK. So, I had the credit card in hand and typed it in. The purchase went through and there was a download link in Amazon, so I downloaded the the file to my download location and opened it. Well, it's not actually a PDF at that point, just the digital rights management (DRM) authorization. It starts up Acrobat reader and pitches a fit because I turned the auto-update feature off a while back. So, I turn it back on and go to open the file again. It's gone. Apparently it deletes the file if it can't open things up properly.
Given my experience trying to download another copy of an audiobook that got corrupted from iTunes, I figured I was just out $9. iTunes only let me download it again "as a 1 time exception". Fortunately, Amazon has better customer service and my digital locker would let me download it again, though I was starting to wonder when it might cut me off.
I triple verified that Acrobat was able to update and opened the file again. This time it connected and did a LOT of stuff before bringing up a 181 page PDF. This wasn't the first protected PDF I'd used or anything, but the first that did this whole long dance. I'd subscribed to several PDF magazines that were encrypted with my email address but they didn't do anything this elaborate.
So, I read for about 15-20 minutes until it was time to get dressed and go to work. I figured I'd print out a chunk of it 4 pages to a sheet and read it walking in from the parking lot and at lunch, etc. because I was enjoying the content. I did the math and figured if I did 6 per sheet instead, I'd just get a whole copy and be done with it. So, I hit print and headed to my office to see the printout. Turned out too small for even me to be comfortable with, so I hit cancel to avoid wasting toner and paper. I went back to print it at 4 per instead and discovered one of the wonderful "features" of the DRM that the author decided to use. Apparently, he chose to "allow" printing of the book once per year. You read right. And, the 12 pages that made it out of my printer counted as my once. On every machine I ever want to use the file on.
After all of that, I figured I'd just download another copy to my workstation on the client site for reading during lunch and work with what I had. I worked the morning away and made it to lunch, when I logged into Amazon to do the whole download dance again. As I hadn't modified my Acrobat installation on that machine, I just launched it. It started up and started trying to verify the rights and then promptly died. It couldn't see the servers. Apparently, this "consumer friendly" DRM uses the LDAP ports to verify rather than the web port 80. Given the literally thousands of corporate firewalls that only allow ports 80 and 443 as outbound traffic, this pretty much meant that the file was useless there too.
I tried a couple of different ways to see if I could easily route the traffic, etc. to no avail and wasted my entire lunch hour. When I got home, I looked for a way to break it open (never even crossed my mind until it slapped me over and over), but generally don't like downloading cracking tools and abandoned that quickly. I tried printing to postscript, etc. as well as a last ditch resort. Thought I might save a copy of the PDF itself and transfer that, but the DRM kicks in again. I quit once I'd put about $150 worth of my billable time into it and figured I'd just read what I had and vow never to buy another one of these things again.
The net result is that I paid a dollar amount that most ebook publishers would be thrilled with: $9 for a digital copy of a book. I was OK with it. I barely even hesitated. I wanted the immediate delivery. I then tried to do EXACTLY what I do with every single print book I buy: read it while walking in from the parking lot, at lunch, etc. I never tried to give it to anyone else. I never "shared" it or distributed it in any way. Yet, the DRM so got in my way that I've moved from being the ideal ebook customer to never going anywhere near any ebook that uses anything similar ever again. Frankly, I'm completely amazed that they've sold as many of these things to people as they have.
And, beyond that, all of the people over the next couple of days who will read this now also know about it and many of them will avoid them as well. This is particularly ironic given the strong urging the author gives for the use of an author website and internet marketing to promote your book. That particular effect can cut both ways. The internet spreads word of mouth and doesn't care whether it's good or bad.
I'm now even more convinced that I made the right decision with Inheritance to make it completely open source and to plan to make all of the final digital versions available in the most open and transparent formats available.
*Footnote: Incidentally, for OpenFiction's purposes, my own novel and some non-fiction book ideas I've had, I've already started this process. Contact me if you're interested in publishing open source books under Creative Commons licenses with printed copies via this model. I'm really only interested in working with folks who are hip to the idea of freely available open source digital versions of those same books.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004089.php
"... if you want to make a legitimate use of a piece of media, but have been turned back by DRM and the DMCA, now is your chance to take your case to the Copyright Office and try to make the world a happier and safer place for the next three years."
A solution I have gone for, and if someone wants to sue me they are very welcome, is buying ebooks in the Microsoft Reader format, which are very easily de-DRMed by a very useful tool called Convert Lit which I will not link from here for potential DMCA issues (I assume you live in the US, which I don't, and I wouldn't want to get anyone in trouble). The resulting content is reasonably well-formed html and an OPF document.
If I were Adobe, I would issue a public apology, unlock all their products for everyone, and start over. Continuing down this path seems a clear recipe for disaster for their image.
Or at least fix their software and support so that both actually work.
Jim
http://www.wynia.org/wordpress/2005/11/21/drm-groklaw-adobe-and-ebooks/
Baen makes their offerings available in several formats, and once you've paid you can return to the well for additional downloads in multiple formats. According to Baen they're making good money and they are extremely user friendly.
As far as Adobe goes, I know it's used a lot, but I think it is irritating at best, and nightmarish at worst. I have yet to buy an Adobe e-book, and probably never will. (I can get Adobe onto the PDA, but the format is almost impossible to read there!)
This law quite plainly states that the goods (or services) you buy must be "fit for the use intended" and also "of merchantable quality". Clearly the eBook in question violates both - you can't reliably use it and you cannot reliably read it!
If you had bought it in Ireland (or from an Irish company) you could demand your money back!
Mighty handy for making your legally purchased e-books more portable and printable.
There are a hundred different small programs for encrypting info for distribution pruposes in ways that retain formatting. Adobe's tools are by no means a monopoly, but the services that combine POD with per user authentication are certainly working the territory. I look forward to hearing more about your exploration, and I hope that writers of the world find inspiration in your model.
Charging for print and opensourcing data is the financial model to work with. Seth Godin's new 'Knock Knock Joke' ebook is one idea about how to monetize the data portion, and POD is obvious. He is a producer, though.
For producers who are continually contributing, DRM becomes less and less a requirement. The simple implementation would be a boon for the novice producer who fails to create out of fear of loss, but even that would not 'solve' that problem. Creating in the face of fear is the only way to solve that problem.
I'm actually here because I bought an e-TextBook from Amazon, it opened once, and then never again, giving me an arcane error that dozens of Web searches have only come close to. I'm not the "average user," I teach graduate level computer programming, and I can't figure out what's wrong. Both Web sites are extremely helpful in solving problems I don't have after which Amazon says ask Adobe, Adobe says ask the vendor, and I'll never buy an eBook again.
I create a discussion group and a page. Can I post the contents of this page to the discussion groups?
http://groups.google.com/group/paspda
I just created it today. No other contents yet though.
This is my problem: I spend years researching and accumulating material, and then write it up in a book. Eg my books on treatment programs for various mental health problems, a training manual for sales managers to use with their teams, a practitioner training manual for NLP. They're not some 25-page book on how to sell more on the internet. They're high-quality books.
The first month my books come out, they sell relatively well. After that they rarely sell at all, but heaps of people have copies. In the case of one of my books I actually know this is in the high thousands, even though I have received less than $1000 all up in revenue. I get mails from all over the world from people who've read it and want free help, but never paid for the book. I've found web sites selling my books and keeping 100% of the profit.
After a while this gets to you because you realise that probably the majority of people will pass on an ebook, thereby robbing you of your income.
I think authors are pretty desperate right now to find a solution to all the thieving that goes on and could care less about the sensitivities of people who want them to remain vulnerable to piracy.
So this is an issue that has honest folk on both sides of the equation tearing their hair out.
There is plenty of information on the web on how to setup a website selling your ebooks with clickbank. Whilst you can do something to protect your work, most ebook publishers with Clickbank don't worry about it.
Clickbank customers have a long grace period to claim a refund, and many do. But because they have no DRM, more people do buy, with that assurance that the ebook will be worthwhile.
In the right market, especially ebooks which solve problems, 100s and sometimes thousands of copies are sold.
I have personally spent more than $500 on ebook from Clickbank in the last year, and maybe £30 on hard copy.
Thanks for taking time to comment. I have used Clickbank, and found that thousands of my books were all over the net, but perhaps only 50 actually sold. They just got passed on. I even found 2 sites that were selling it and keeping 100% of the profit.
The way I see it, the only way to make a return on a book is to have a mailing list of many thousands, so many people are exposed to the book at one time. After a short period, the book becomes worthless to the author because everyone just passes it on. No need to buy it because it's freely available.
Not all authors can do it, but probably the best thing is to release the book as usual, but tie the book heavily to backend products which have to be purchased, like memberships, consulting, or hard copies of stuff, using the book merely as a marketing tool instead of as a product in its own right.
With my latest book, people have to have a receipt for it before they can access free follow-up consulting. I have no idea if it'll work - it's an experiment to see if I can actually get value back from something I spent 4 years on.
Cheers
Christine
Just to let your readers know that I have a love-hate relationship with Amazon and my publisher. I sell a lot more eBooks from my site on book writing, publishing and internet promotion in one day than Amazon for the year. I give a 100% guarantee. I wonder why authors still think that Amazon is the way to sell their book. Not so, have faith in yourself and get more of what you deserve $$ for your efforts.
So, don't be discouraged out there with eBooks, You can get printable ones (eDocument) from many pros who write well and give you quality informatin at their site.
If you are selling one, I recommend a low-cost site to sell your books from and then to get all the qualified visitors you want with article marketing.
Amazon just doesn't do the job for me either.
Judy Cullins
Have you read Harvery Segal's Ultimate Supertip?
You can use the same process he uses for branding affiliate links for a free ebook, to "brand" an ebook with your customer's details, such as a visible Name and email address.
Customers would be much less likely to distribute an ebook that is branded with their personal information.
Andy, I haven't seen Segal's technique before but it sure sounds worth investigating. Many thanks for letting me know. I missed your previous note - thanks for that also. I've since set up a secure store on my site with a shopping cart template that works with PayPal. Now I'm busy with a planned rollout of 30 articles (one for each day of the month) that I'm releasing partially manually and partially by Article Post Robot, hopefully appropriately loaded with the right keywords to attract more traffic.
We'll see what happens :-)
Warmly
Christine
I couldn't make a story like this one up. And, if you still don't believe me, you're probably giving me too much credit.
We're a small online book and ebook publisher. For ebooks we use PDF format, but not the Adobe DRM system. In fact we use no DRM at all. We choose PDF for platform universality, stability, and file size. Print sizes are those you find in a regular paperback and we allow unlimited printing and unlimited portability. The only restriction is that we assign a password that you make up--period--no other restriction. We only do this to assure that you have given your book to someone else and so have included the password.
This method doesn't assure that the ebook cannot be republished. Just print it to a PDF printer, and you have the ebook in an other PDF file which is not password protected... :-(
Adobe tech support were helpful but totally ineffective. Amazon was worse - they refused to help because 'we have removed eBooks from our product line'. This despite the statement on the Amazone website: "Rest assured, any e-Book that you've purchased from Amazon.co.uk in the past will remain available for download." But guess what! I can now get my eBooks from Mobipocket... an Amazon company! Something stinks, and it ain't me...
So, no more eBooks until I get the same guarantee I do with a paper copy, that when I've read it I can pass it on to my friends.
Julian
I went to open my (Acrobat) eBook the other day to find it would not allow me to open on my computer claiming I was not licenced to use it,and to contact the vendor for a new download copy. Then I recalled my HDD has been replaced so I have lost my DRM.
Upon logging in to Amaazon to get a fresh download from my media, I find it is not there. A record of my purchase is there, but the link is gone.
I contacted Amazon and they advise they no longer have eBooks and all of my eBook links have been removed my media. End of email.
So I wrote back and asked, "so how do I view the book I have paid for but can't open?"
They replied a few days later with a full refund!
So if you are stuck with an eBook from Amazon that you can't open, I suggest you complain loudly and you may get a refund.
Cheers,
Mal
I get what you're saying. It's like acquiring a license to puretracks, which many know is a legal MP3 download pay site. If your computer is screwed and clean installed over again, getting that license back sees you your ripping out hair.
That said...
Being the author of a book, I have to agree with Christine. I don't want my book being sold by somebody else and screwing me over. Let's face it. For every one of you legit customers out there, there are 10 "jerks" looking to rip someone off freely. With that kind of ratio, I'm not looking to hose the legit guy, but I have to evade those 10 jerks to find him. When I do find him, the jerks have just posted my ebook up on their websites and making money on my time. Is that fair? Absolutely not.
However, I do have to say that some authors need to practice some faith and loosen the noose somewhat. Because in order to shield ourselves from the jerks, you legitimate customers are getting messed over in some cases... And that's not fair either. In this case it's a no-win situation.
I don't want people swearing off e-books, so I'm not going to make them give me a DNA sample. (For the record, I haven't posted my book as an e-book yet. I've learned a lot from your article J, and I will exercise leniency when I do.)
In another example, let's look at a multi-billion dollar software company. Like authors, they pour a deal of effort in getting their product out there for profit. Now tell me this... Who hasn't heard of someone placing an illegal copy of Windows 98 or XP on a computer? (In the XP case, the Pro version.. Not saying I have, just saying).
Now Microsoft has that evil WGA to check if your copy is legit.... Oh! The world went and got themselves in a pissy state! How dare they do that!!! Who do they think they are??
A hint...
They wrote the program that you MUST buy to operate your computer. It's not a freeware you can get off your neighbor. That key code was written for a reason and in XP Home ed, you must activate it. Yes big brother maybe watching you, but if you got ripped off a few times, wouldn't you do the same? As the future recipient of profit from an ebook, I most certainly have to in order to keep those profits safe, just like Christine stated.
We don't usually put passwords on them or lock them down at all - maybe we should.
What do you think ?
A pity the costs are high for people trying to get into the field, as THEY are the ones who hurt most by piracy.
As for that software maker, if they want to use USB keys for their Bitlocker encryption service, why can't they distribute USB keys with the authentication code for their operating system; a standard procedure done by other companies for their software products? The irony is sad; especially as WGA breaks on legitimate users. (Who programs and tests it?! Wouldn't have otherwise saved all the money gone to those "talented" programmers to just hand out coded USB keys instead? (BTW: An article on money.cnn has Gates saying he tolerated piracy in China... "How Microsoft Conquered China", 7/23/07... Mind you, his company is large enough so he can survive by allowing it to happen.)
Apologies if someone already mentioned it. Just thought you would like to know :)
This stinks. I pay money to get treated this way?
I started publishing using DRM because I found that there were literally thousands of my pdf books being freely passed around the net, and even sold on sites all over the world, with the thief of course retaining 100% of the profit. But this costly experiment failed because so few people were willing to buy a reasonably-priced book in DRM format.
I went back to producing books in pdf because that's still the only format widely accepted by the market.
But what I've done is put the prices up, and include high-quality and personalised on-line support for each book. I've also laced each book with references to other sites and other content, so that even at worst case, it's acting as an advertisement even if it was stolen.
I've found the price makes no difference to sales and I'm satisfied that while criminals may steal my work, they can't steal my personal support. And if anyone steals and sells my work, they risk immediate action by an unhappy buyer who can't get what they paid for, the totality of which is clearly stated in the book.
The more I think about it, the more I think DRM can't work for anything but software, and even that can be problematic for purchasers, switching from one computer to another.
Best
Christine
What a joke. First, the purchase was at print copy prices ($13.95), and only AFTER the purchase did I discover that I'd have to install and use Adobe's Digital Edition reader to access the book. I'm picky about the software installed on any of my computers, so I attempted to use the offered "eb20" browser-based reader, to no avail (the only page visible in the whole book was the title page).
Next, I downloaded and installed the Digital Edition reader, which proceeded to glom onto 24 ebooks I've had for years (it apparently goes hunting the entire My Documents>My eBooks folder for PDFs. I didn't want those books in my "bookshelf," but the primitive UI didn't allow for customizing much.
Finally, and this is the death blow, as far as I'm concerned, I couldn't successfully prove to Adobe's satisfaction that I'm the legitimate owner of the ebook. It's on my PC, and I paid MY CASH for the right to have it there, but that's not sufficient in Adobe's eyes--they tell me I have to prove my ownership by getting permission from the seller!
When I buy a book, regardless of format, I expect not only to keep it where I want, but to use it in any way I want, when I want, without having to ask permission of anyone for anything. If I want to mark it up, tear pages out, or insert my own notes in the form of pages, that's MY business, not the seller's, or anyone else's.
I will NEVER AGAIN purchase any ebook that has DRM applied to it. My time is valuable, and my patience with this kind of baloney is non-existent.
Thanks for documenting your struggle, though. I hope people pay attention.
Therefore, even in the case of a physical paper book, the buyer has only purchased the right to read the authors words. For example, the purchaser cannot copy the contents of a book and resell the work as his own, in whole or in part.
The same protection applies to all electronic copyright material including PhotoShop, Microsoft Office and commercial eBooks. DRM is not about ownership, it's about ensuring that a customer has paid for the right to use or read the content. DRM has a bad reputation because customers see most DRM systems, such as Adobe, B&N or Amazon, as invasive, frustrating and complicated. Authors, on the other hand see them as expensive and too easily bypassed or hacked.
DRM is not going away. For those authors looking for something better, a DRM model does exist that makes security more acceptable and less of a handicap. Why put up with online login and tracking when you can have the DRM managed on the customer's own computer where the eBook only needs to be activated one time.
It's a transaction. The writer must agree to the terms of the transaction, as must the buyer. In my case, I was led to believe I was BUYING a book (irrespective of the medium), and what I discovered was that I was buying ONLY the right to READ the book. This wasn't explained by the vendor before I forked over cash, and as a result, I felt ripped off.
Ron Lemire's opinions about improvements in the simplicity of use notwithstanding, it'll be a really cold day in Tartarus before I invest another nickel in supporting eBook distribution through Adobe, B&N, or Amazon. As far as I'm concerned, the "enhancements" he describes are really the exemplar of "lipstick on a pig."
This is definitely not the case with DRM and ebook vendors who seem to feel that they have the right to restrict the number of people with whom I can share my purchase by curbing my accesses and usage of their products. If they want to do that, perhaps the sales model they should use is a rental, rather than a purchase, and make that clear in their advertising. Look at the flak Amazon caught when they pulled Orwell's book from their customers' Kindles without notice. The battle lines are being drawn, and I am on the side that says "no" to anything or anyone that interferes with how I use what the reading matter I buy.
I will reiterate my original point, in case anyone missed it:
I will NEVER AGAIN purchase any ebook that has DRM applied to it. My time is valuable, and my patience with this kind of baloney is non-existent.
While I sympathize with eBook readers who believe that everything on the Internet should be open source, this notion is delusional. The only information freely available on the World Wide Web is pubic educational material, personal comments and opinions, advertising and other materials without (monetary) value. The only free "content" you'll find on the Internet that you can't find in your local supermarket is pirated software.
In our "free enterprise system" authors have just as much right to protect their intellectual property as a supermarket trying to protect itself from shop lifting. While the supermarket has 911 and the police for protection, the only protection available to an eBook author is DRM...
Fortunately DRM (for PDF files) no longer needs to be erratic and complicated.
A "stand alone" PC application now exists for PDF/eBook authors that allows them to take complete control of their own eBook security. This hacker proof "do it yourself" security system is easy to use for both the author and the eBook reader. While the HYPrLock system prevents copying, modifying, sharing and printing (if desired) and manages everything from download to refund disabling -- customers only need to enter their e-mail address to get instant password access.
Authors can instantly reactivate an eBook if a customer's computer crashes or issue additional access if desired. This unlimited "royalty free" system is not an online security service and there are no monthly fees.