Holding on to old business models is not the way to endear yourself to customers. <\/p>\n
\nBut unfortunately this is also, simultaneously, a bad time to be a reader. Because the dinosaurs still don’t get it. Ten years of object lessons from the music industry, and they still<\/em> don’t get it. We have learned, painfully, that media consumers\u2014be they listeners, watchers, or readers\u2014want one of two things:<\/p>\n
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- DRM-free works for a reasonable price<\/li>\n
- or, unlimited single-payment subscription to streaming\/DRMed works<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Give them either of those things, and they’ll happily pay. Look at iTunes. Look at Netflix. But give them neither, and they’ll pirate. So what are publishers doing?<\/p>\n
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- Refusing to sell DRM-free books. My debut novel<\/a> will be re-e-published by the Friday Project<\/a> imprint of HarperCollins UK later this year; both its editor and I would like it to be published without DRM; and yet I doubt we will be able to make that happen.<\/li>\n
- crippling<\/a> library e-books<\/li>\n
- and not offering anything even remotely like a subscription service.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n
– Jon Evans, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Books<\/a>, via James Bridle’s Stop Press<\/a><\/p>\n