Re: Re: Amazon.com's "Search Inside the Book"

> Hi, John: Why do you say it's counterproductive to put the whole
> book online? Some people just don't have the money to buy your
> book, period. But, having read your book online, and having found
> it to be one of the most inspirational works they've ever read, they
> then go out and become your most productive seller/salesperson for
> you. Is that counterproductive?

If that happened, it would be great, but I don't see much evidence that it would. Most of my books are cheap, under $20 retail, and in the US at least, the number of people who would want to buy them but can't afford them is small. Library copies are fine, and I give copies of my books to local libraries, but everyone who borrows my book from the library doesn't get to keep it. I did put the unedited mss of one technical book online, which has helped sales, but I'm pretty sure that if I put up final page images rather than text with rough sketches of the figures, the result would have been different.

>What, exactly do you mean by piracy?

The usual thing, making copies of most or all of a book without permission or royalty. I suspect you knew that.

>Now, suppose you put your book online. Then, you also made a nice
>packaged binder with your book in it, and offered it for sale at a
>reasonable price for your needs. Now, offer an additional binder/book
>with your personal autograph at a higher price, speaker engagements,
>book tours, classes about the topic of your book, etc. Work up a whole
>product line of gifts and merchandise, ...

Sadly, my imagination is greatly constrained by my experience. My publisher (IDG Books, later Hungry Minds) had an elaborate business plan based around dynamic online content, which led to their running out of money, coming within a hair's breadth of liquidation, and having the assets bought by Wiley, a publisher that specializes in boring old paper books and makes money at it. I have done autographed copies, speaking tours, all of that junk, and the total income from all of them put together over the years might be as much as one good quarter's royalty income from paper books sold through bookstores.

I am no fan of the RIAA, and I have as little patience for hardware and software copy protection dongles on e-books as anyone, but I do think that it's a poor plan for Amazon to set up a new service that says "Here you go! Don't even think of paying us!"

-- 
John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711
johnl@iecc.com, Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner, http://iecc.com/johnl, 
Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail