Re: "The Elusive E-book"

But why? If there are a million good pieces to read for free, then 
readers save millions of dollars. Some of that can go on welfare for 
out-of-work authors and publishers who can't turn their hands to 
anything else. Free books don't have to be perfectly substitutable for 
paid ones, just substitutable enough to give people incentive to switch. 
You can't wrap fish in a website, but that hasn't stopped the newspapers 
from going under. All blacksmiths did unique work, but that hasn't kept 
the profession alive.

And it's not simply a paid/free divide. Recently I got paid for writing 
an article on Joomla for an Australian journal. I can guarantee by the 
law of averages that someone in London was getting paid for a similar 
article at the same time. And someone in New York, and someone in 
Bangalore. The only thing that keeps me getting paid is that my 
publishers haven't yet woken up to the fact that all this material is 
equally accessible now. It's a race at the moment as to whether they 
stumble on the woman in Bangalore before she stumbles on them, but 
whenever that happens I'm going to be out of work.

At the moment the world of publishing is one of massive redundancy. 
Should we act like selfish unionists and support feather-bedding, or 
look for ways the economy can benefit everyone? In other words, how many 
Accounting 101 textbooks does the world actually need?

Jon.

Aaron Walker wrote:
> You might get one piece out of a writer for the sheer joy of writing, but after that, reality sets in. Uunless there is a way to feed themselves and/or a family, don't expect folks to aspire to writing for a living.
>  
> As e-publishers AND mostly as e-readers, we can only pray that never happens.  

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