It seems publishers are still promoting piracy and illegal file sharing as suggested by this story at Bookseller.com about the dirty trick of deferring the publication of eBooks to force anxious fans to buy the much more expensive hard cover editions.
John Makinson, Penguin Group c.e.o., said, “We need to try to understand those dynamics better.”
Hmmm. “Yah, think?” Do they not understand this yet? An eBook buyer is not the same thing as a hard cover buyer. Surely to god these powers that be (or powers that were…) can understand that things have changed. Selling a million eBook copies at $9.99 (still too high) to happy customers is better than trying to manipulate those consumers into buying something they may have never wanted.
The publishers will try to justify it, but it’s all about them maintaining the same level of profit regardless of advances in technology and culture. (Seems to me the whole planet’s reeling economically from similar ‘profit at any cost,’ ‘keep the blinders on’ thinking.)
The article also talks about the upcoming debates over author royalties and digital book rights.
I begin to think that 2010 will be as pivotal a year for publishing as the year old Gutenberg started using moveable type.
