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posted by martyb on Friday February 23 2018, @11:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the roar-of-the-dinosaur-publisher dept.

Arnaud Nourry, the CEO of Lagardère Publishing (the parent company of Hachette Book Group), gave an interview to Scroll.in in which he claims, "the eBook is a stupid product."

In the US and UK, the ebook market is about 20% of the total book market, everywhere else it is 5%-7% because in these places the prices never went down to such a level that the ebook market would get significant traction. I think the plateau, or rather slight decline, that we're seeing in the US and UK is not going to reverse. It's the limit of the ebook format. The ebook is a stupid product. It is exactly the same as print, except it's electronic. There is no creativity, no enhancement, no real digital experience. We, as publishers, have not done a great job going digital. We've tried. We've tried enhanced or enriched ebooks – didn't work. We've tried apps, websites with our content – we have one or two successes among a hundred failures. I'm talking about the entire industry. We've not done very well.

For an in-depth explanation of Arnaud Nourry's comments, we go to The Digital Reader:

Hachette's sales are low because Hachette keeps their ebook prices high. If you check the Author Earnings report, you will see that ebooks make up a significant part of the market. And it's not just a tiny group of readers who like ebooks; almost all of romance has gone digital, as well as around half of the SF market.

This guy understands so little about ebooks that it is almost frightening.

[...] They've tried enhanced ebooks, ebook apps, and even ebooks on websites, all because Nourry doesn't understand ebooks as a product. And soon they will be trying video games.

Let me say that again so it sinks in.

The CEO of a major multi-national book publishing conglomerate does not understand his company's products or his company's markets.

This point is so mind-boggling because it is really not that hard to find out why consumers like ebooks: just go ask them.

Consumers like ebooks because we can change the font size. We like ebooks because we can carry a hundred ebooks on a smartphone. We also like being able to search the text, add notes that can later be accessed from a web browser, and easily share those notes with other readers.

Here's an editorial rebuttal from The Guardian:

[...] The built-in, one-tap dictionary is a boon for Will Self fans. And as an author, I'm fascinated by the facility that shows you phrases other readers have highlighted; what is it about this sentence that resonated with dozens of humans? It's an illicit glimpse into the one place even a writer's imagination can never really go: readers' minds. And Kindle's Whispersync facility lets the reader fluidly alternate between reading a book and listening to it. What are these if not enhancements to the reading experience?

And then there's the simplest, most important enhancement of all: on any e-reader, you can enlarge the text. That in itself is a quiet revolution. Page-sniffers who dismiss ebooks out of hand are being unconsciously ableist. For decades the partially sighted were limited to the large print section of their local library, limited to only the usual, bestselling, suspects.

[...] Finally, Nourry claims there is no digital experience. Isn't that the point? If it's got graphics, noise or animation, it's no longer a book – it's a computer game or a movie. Just as I write disconnected from the internet and in silence, I don't want my books to do other stuff. The beauty of the book, in a world of digital noise, is the purity of the reading experience – and there's nothing stupid about that.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by anubi on Friday February 23 2018, @11:44AM (28 children)

    by anubi (2828) on Friday February 23 2018, @11:44AM (#642322) Journal

    DRM.

    I might not be able to read it. Even after paying. Then the onus is on me to maintain an "authorized" reader.

    All the "E-Books" I have are .PDF files.

    I will go kicking and screaming to avoid proprietary filetypes.

    I have been bitten before. Finding "investments" in proprietary file formats to be a real pain in the ass. It almost always comes back to bite me. Usually in the form of a "sunk cost" in terms of my money and time.

    It is a crippled format, and I expect to see a *significant* price cut... like at least 90%.

    Well, how would you merchants like it if the public got their act together and buddied up with Congress to pass a "Digital Millenium Currency Act" using some sort of Bitcoin that we could reverse the transaction at any time we thought our "rights" had been abridged? You did not spend the money you got as we saw fit? Bang! Reverse the transaction!

    Would YOU accept Digital Rights Currency?

    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
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  • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday February 23 2018, @12:13PM (7 children)

    by PiMuNu (3823) on Friday February 23 2018, @12:13PM (#642331)

    That's a really interesting concept. One could put the burden back on the vendor to maintain their DRM servers ( or whatever).

    I guess most people (including me) have been bitten by the "well, you bought a perpetual licence for the product, but we can't be bothered to support the DRM tech so tough, we are just gonna kill your licence". With some weasel words in the EULA to cover their ass.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @02:22PM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @02:22PM (#642370)

      I guess most people (including me) have been bitten by the "well, you bought a perpetual licence for the product, but we can't be bothered to support the DRM tech so tough, we are just gonna kill your licence".

      No, not everyone. Every single one of my ebooks is DRM free and will work today, tomorrow, or in 2118 (provided of course that a program to display them is still able to be run on 2118's computers).

      Now, why is this so for me? Because from day one I have refused to purchase any e-books that have any form of DRM attached. Instead I simply torrent copies of those that I decide I want. And the torrented copies (as always) are the superior product from a customer benefit perspective.

      • (Score: 4, Informative) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday February 23 2018, @03:16PM (5 children)

        by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Friday February 23 2018, @03:16PM (#642396) Journal

        Similar story here, except that I do sometimes download DRMed ebooks, but then immediately strip the DRM off them. It's not difficult.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @04:08PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @04:08PM (#642434)

          Well, in my case, if it has DRM to start with, unless the "download" is free of monetary charge, it remains where it is. Maybe I go look for a torrent, maybe I don't. But I won't give them a dime for a DRM'ed e-book, ever. Reason being if I do give them a dime for the DRM'ed copy, they interpret that purchase as "DRM's just fine, look, people bought it anyway".

          • (Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday February 24 2018, @11:00AM

            by anubi (2828) on Saturday February 24 2018, @11:00AM (#642987) Journal

            Trouble is once you give them a dime, you have to provide your banking info.

            The info to me is worth far more than a dime. Every time I provide account info, I am assuming a risk that it be used not in accordance with my wishes, then the onus falls on ME to straighten it out.

            Paying anything incurs a risk to ME. Unless I can go to a brick and mortar store, pay in cash - I have no idea if the business I provide my financial credentials to will share it with others who will cause problems for me, so I try to minimize my own risk.

            That means even asking for a dime is too much.

            --
            "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
        • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday February 23 2018, @11:57PM (2 children)

          by Immerman (3985) on Friday February 23 2018, @11:57PM (#642736)

          Not difficult, no. But it is illegal. If you're going to to be a criminal anyway, why pay for the book and support such customer-abusive tactics?

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 24 2018, @12:09AM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 24 2018, @12:09AM (#642744)

            No, not a criminal - rebel.

            I am paying for amazon prime yet I have not seen a single movie using the service. I pirate all my movies.

            As per legality, blacks and jews were on the other side of it. Not much changed since than.

            • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Sunday February 25 2018, @04:06AM

              by Immerman (3985) on Sunday February 25 2018, @04:06AM (#643315)

              Sorry, but it's the people making the laws that get to make that distinction. You only get to redefine the terms if you manage to actually win the relevant culture war. I'd say you've got good fighting odds, but the winners don't get to rewrite history until after the fact.

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by rigrig on Friday February 23 2018, @12:54PM (3 children)

    by rigrig (5129) Subscriber Badge <soylentnews@tubul.net> on Friday February 23 2018, @12:54PM (#642341) Homepage

    All the e-books I have are (DRM-free) .epub files, which really makes a world of difference on a e-reader.

    I even paid for some of them, because they were published by people smart enough to realise putting in DRM hurts their profits.
    (Not only because it stops people like us (or anybody with a device which doesn't support their flavor of DRM) buying their inferior product when "liberated" versions are available, but also because supporting DRM for a bunch of customers with different devices can't be free.)

    Also, I discovered quite a few nice books on Project Gutenburg [gutenberg.org], I doubt I would ever have picked up a physical copy of e.g. Dracula or Peter Pan.

    --
    No one remembers the singer.
    • (Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday February 23 2018, @05:22PM

      by hendrikboom (1125) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 23 2018, @05:22PM (#642469) Homepage Journal

      If you liked Peter Pan (which I think is really called something like the story of Wendy and Peter Pan) you might also enjoy Peter Pan in Kensington Garden. I found it in the rare book section of the public library in the 50's.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by richtopia on Friday February 23 2018, @06:19PM

      by richtopia (3160) on Friday February 23 2018, @06:19PM (#642519) Homepage Journal

      I watch the Humble Bundle for ebook offerings. They are epub and DRM free, and I typically agree with the price.

    • (Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday February 24 2018, @11:03AM

      by anubi (2828) on Saturday February 24 2018, @11:03AM (#642989) Journal

      Thanks.... I thought .epub was business-speak for "sucker-level" .pdf.

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
  • (Score: 5, Informative) by DaTrueDave on Friday February 23 2018, @02:12PM (4 children)

    by DaTrueDave (3144) on Friday February 23 2018, @02:12PM (#642365)

    If the only e-books you have are PDF, you're doing yourself a disservice.

    Get a decent e-reader and download some EPUB books. EPUB is an open format that is available without DRM (although DRM is an option).

    After reading PDFs, your eyes will thank you!

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @02:28PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @02:28PM (#642372)

      If somebody doesn't know what this is all about is usually PDFs have a set layout, fonts and colors, with e.g. EPUBs you can change those to your heart's content.

      And somebody already gave a shoutout to Project Gutenberg.

      • (Score: 2) by Lester on Saturday February 24 2018, @09:55AM (1 child)

        by Lester (6231) on Saturday February 24 2018, @09:55AM (#642976) Journal

        The goal od PDF was to keep the format across devices, screen, printer etc (In fact, that was PostScript format, PDF came latter). But is the format so important? No usually, no. In a novel, format it more a matter of aesthetic. So eReader converted to a free-flow text with minor style sets (titles, bold, italic foot notes...) is a good option.

        Nevertheless there are texts where the format is important. i.e. tabulated data, program code, images, and other. In such cases, the format is important. The author thinks i.e. "this must fit in a page", if you format it other way, it is not just an aesthetic problem, but a readability problem. Most of such documents in PDF are designed for an A4 page, trying to fit an A4 in nowadays eInk eReaders is difficult, you'll see too small letters, or you'll have to scroll up and down (or even left and right) which is not a nice reading experience in a eInk screen.

        I'm still waiting for an eInk screen that is big enough to read an A4 page, or a portable one (I've read time ago about the research of flexible eInk screen that you can fold like a newspaper). Or a eInk that can scroll text quickly like a normal screen.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 25 2018, @11:24PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 25 2018, @11:24PM (#643634)

          I believe Sony sells an A4 sized e-reader at around a thousand dollars.

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by NotSanguine on Friday February 23 2018, @07:20PM

      by NotSanguine (285) <NotSanguineNO@SPAMSoylentNews.Org> on Friday February 23 2018, @07:20PM (#642571) Homepage Journal

      If the only e-books you have are PDF, you're doing yourself a disservice.

      Get a decent e-reader and download some EPUB books. EPUB is an open format that is available without DRM (although DRM is an option).

      After reading PDFs, your eyes will thank you!

      Even better, get something (and yes, it's FOSS) like Calibre [calibre-ebook.com] (or build it yourself [github.com]) and convert all your documents to e-reader friendly formats (EPUB included).

      --
      No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
  • (Score: 1) by Revek on Friday February 23 2018, @02:21PM

    by Revek (5022) on Friday February 23 2018, @02:21PM (#642369)

    This I actually bought a book and the DRM on it prevented me from reading it. It needed some adobe product and I never did get it working on my tablet. I guess I could have sat at my computer at night before bed and read it but instead I just bought a hard copy of it.

    --
    This page was generated by a Swarm of Roaming Elephants
  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Freeman on Friday February 23 2018, @03:31PM (1 child)

    by Freeman (732) on Friday February 23 2018, @03:31PM (#642407) Journal

    Not all E-Books have baked in DRM. The "Good" publishers don't include DRM in the e-book you are purchasing. TOR is one of those "good" publishers that don't include DRM in their e-books. Most (all? / some?) of the e-book bundles from humble bundle are DRM free. DRM is a scourge and needs to be killed. DRM complicates things for your paying customers. While the people who pirate your goods typically have a better user experience. Why are companies surprised that people pirate things? Most people aren't actively looking for new ways to break the law. Would be nice, if companies / people took a hint from GoG.com. They have reasonable prices, DRM free, and include goodies with each game. Goodies like, Wallpapers, Soundtracks, etc. They treat their Paying Customers like they actually want to keep them as future customers.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Friday February 23 2018, @08:26PM

      by DeathMonkey (1380) on Friday February 23 2018, @08:26PM (#642614) Journal

      True, but figuring out which publishers are good and which are bad isn't a necessary step when you buy a paperback.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @03:37PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @03:37PM (#642414)

    It's not just that, you've got asshats like the ones running the Nook division at Barnes & Nobel changing the format without giving notice or allowing people to keep their purchases as they were. The result being, that anybody using the previous software is forced to upgrade and if they can't, then tough.

    Ebooks aren't stupid, the people selling them are. Color pictures, links to other sections in the text or the web, and not having to have a huge physical library to house books that we might wan to reread periodically are reasons for the format to exist. The publisher is just upset because most people don't buy into that book experience bullshit. Physical books are mostly for certain kinds of reference or for keeping as an archive in case something destroys all the electronic devices on earth.

    • (Score: 2) by cykros on Saturday February 24 2018, @06:00AM

      by cykros (989) on Saturday February 24 2018, @06:00AM (#642902)

      Physical books are mostly for certain kinds of reference

      This is actually a place I think there is room for improvement with ebooks, but it may boil down to a client fix rather than a format fix. It's basically the same thing that decided the codex vs. scroll competition; the ability to grab a section of pages and quickly and easily flip back and forth between the two, or even look at both simultaneously. Bookmarks almost can handle this, but the UX is pretty lacking when you put it into practice with any applications I've used. If ebooks could handle this more fluidly, the (or my, anyway) insistence on physical books for reference would likely dwindle, especially when you couple in the ability to do in-text searching for terms and in-line note-taking.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Friday February 23 2018, @06:04PM (3 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 23 2018, @06:04PM (#642500) Journal

    Yes. That.

    DRM is the crux of the problem. I would prefer e-books over bulky, heavy physical books. I just bought the textbook Artificial Intelligence A Modern Approach (Peter Norvig and Stuart J. Russell) for $125 used good condition, because new it was $175. Now I would pay the same for an e-book -- except for DRM. The book itself is rather large, bulky and heavy.

    How is it I can buy entire albums of mp3s for under $10 without DRM? They must trust me not to pirate (and I do not pirate). But I do copy those onto every device and computer I own so I can listen anywhere I happen to be. I would expect no less with an e-book. I expect to OWN that copy in the sense that I own a toaster. I don't need DRM permission for each piece of toast.

    I can buy a DVD and rip it. Then, again like an mp3, put it on every device, phone, tablet if I want to watch it while travelling or waiting somewhere. Put it on my server so I can watch it on any TV in the house. I'm not getting anything I didn't get from having physical possession of the DVD other than convenience.

    E-books are about convenience. In particular, the fact that I can fit WAY WAY more e-books into a pocket sized or laptop sized device than I could ever hope to carry in a book bag. Or from work, I suddenly realize that some obscure information I need is at home in a certain book, I can log in to my server at home, look at the book, or even copy it back to my office computer in order to search / read the e-book.

    The utility of information appliances are AMAZING when you don't have DRM. (Nevermind the content but . . .) I have a single android app with in-app purchases. On that app I have: Five translations of the bible, Two concordances that have definitions of words from original languages, Five commentaries. And I could install more. The ability to search instantly on device is more useful than any turn-the-page book could ever be. This same utility is valuable no matter what the content happens to be. I sure wish I could have that much utility with technical e-books that are DRM free. (Yes, I know tech books probably lead the way on this, but still.)

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @08:36PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 23 2018, @08:36PM (#642619)

      How is it I can buy entire albums of mp3s for under $10 without DRM? They must trust me not to pirate (and I do not pirate).

      No. It's not trust. You can buy entire albums of mp3s for under $10 without DRM because of Apple.

      To be clear, I dislike Apple, their walled gardens, their "you're holding wrong" culture, and the fake-cult that Apple devices are "easier" to use (they aren't... people just got used to iPhones first).

      However, it was absolutely Apple (and maybe even Steve Jobs personally... I don't know the internal Apple politics) which broken the stranglehold of DRM-music. I still remember the step-by-step process, and how reluctant the music industry was at each one of those steps. Essentially, the industry got hoodwinked by offering large short-term payments in tradeoff of long-term loss of control.

      I expect the other industries have watched and are not going to make the same decisions. Unfortunately.

      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday February 23 2018, @08:39PM

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 23 2018, @08:39PM (#642623) Journal

        In my naive idealism I was hoping the other industries would see that DRM free mp3s has not caused the end of the world to come about, and would see the overall benefit and follow suit.

        (Decades ago I loved Apple, then I was neutral, then for the last decade I have hated Apple.)

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by cykros on Saturday February 24 2018, @06:02AM

      by cykros (989) on Saturday February 24 2018, @06:02AM (#642905)

      DVD copying was a bad example; DVD's use encryption for a DRM scheme; it just happened to be cracked years ago to the point where people basically forget it exists anymore. Not sure about how court precedent may have gone with this, if there is any, but as far as I am aware, it is technically illegal to rip a DVD even for personal use due to it requiring a circumvention of DRM, which is itself a crime.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Friday February 23 2018, @06:22PM (1 child)

    by frojack (1554) on Friday February 23 2018, @06:22PM (#642520) Journal

    I might not be able to read it. Even after paying. Then the onus is on me to maintain an "authorized" reader.

    All the "E-Books" I have are .PDF files.

    I will go kicking and screaming to avoid proprietary filetypes.

    I used to buy a fair amount of ebooks. I buy them, or obtain out-of-copyright titles from freely available sources.

    They then ALL go through Calibre with the DRM Removal extensions installed. Let em come get me.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by FakeBeldin on Friday February 23 2018, @08:47PM

      by FakeBeldin (3360) on Friday February 23 2018, @08:47PM (#642626) Journal

      And that's the main reason e-books aren't taking off as much as movies or music are.
      It's just too hard. If it would "just work", then many more people would go for it.

      Of course, for e-books to "just work" means getting rid of DRM, because otherwise I have to authenticate my devices -- a barrier to entry.

      (another big reason e-books aren't working as well as movies or music is that books aren't typically streamed.)