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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.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday February 23 2018, @12:13PM (7 children)
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)
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)
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)
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
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)
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)
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
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.