Re: The right device at last?

Brenna Lyons wrote:

> To John D... I disagree about the text book producers, and this is
> why... No stock to be warehoused, shipped, etc. If errors are found in
> the text, correcting and sending out a corrected file is relatively
> painless (a simple database and e-mailing program), which could
> eliminate or lower penalties on errors in textbooks, which can cost a
> company millions. To boot, they can use a different model for selling
> the books, which would be "license per student per year" at a MUCH
> lower cost over a 5-year model than the paper books sell for. That
> allows schools to update textbooks more often and publishers to be
> more proactive and still make money at it.

You're assuming a progressive-minded approach on the part of textbook 
producers. Since they're in a business mired in government oversight, 
localized decision-making, long-term contracts with printers and 
paper-suppliers and who knows what all else that would saddle them with 
inertia in their approach, I'd be tempted to bet that even major trade 
publishers, not notably progressive themselves, are likelier candidates 
for "rapid" adoption of pro e-book policies.

Of course, if the green movement ever really focuses on the huge waste 
factor built into the returns policies of book and magazine publishers 
(including the annual murder, to no productive end, of many, many 
millions of trees) and decides to make it a big public issue, then there 
could well be some very powerful top-down forces pushing the progress of 
e-books in the marketplace--and then the educational producers would be 
even more pressured than the commercial publishers to do the politically 
correct thing. Maybe when some charismatic politician sees advantage in 
making this kind of waste a big public issue we'll actually see some 
significant movement toward change.

He's not everybody's favorite bookseller but when Riggio at B&N starts 
poking publishers about eliminating returns, I'm on his side and he's 
(whether the addresses the issue directly or not) on the side of growth 
in e-book sales.

John Douglas

-- 
John R. Douglas
johnd16555_at_gmail dot com

------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------
Post a message:   ebook-community [[at]] *
Unsubscribe:      ebook-community-unsubscribe [[at]] *
Switch to digest: ebook-community-digest [[at]] *
Switch to normal: ebook-community-normal [[at]] *
Put mail on hold: ebook-community-nomail [[at]] *
Administrator:    ebook-community-owner [[at]] *

(* == yahoogroups.com)
-------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/

<*> Your email settings:
    Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ebook-community/join
    (Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
    mailto:[email protected] 
    mailto:ebook-community-fullfeatured-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    ebook-community-unsubscribe-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/