Re: NY Times Ethicist Condones Ripping Off E-books

From: "Chris Smith" 
> Marion Gropen wrote:
> 
>> But, if you look closely at that tidal wave of titles, you find that
>> most of them are really badly done. They're labors of love -- and
>> ignorance. And it shows. Go see for yourselves. I have, and it's not
>> pretty.
>>
>> When we open the floodgates more fully, as we are inevitably doing,
>> and simultaneously make it impossible to for most authors, editors and
>> other publishing pros to earn a living, we will ensure that the drek
>> is what overwhelms the marketplace. It's not that the professional
>> authors don't love their work, it's that they have families to feed.
> 
> I think I might agree with you more than you agree with yourself.
> 
> From the point of view of the *reader* this has been a problem for a very
> long time. Think back to paper books only - I am expected to pay for a
> work whether or not it is worth it to me.
> 
> I could look across the shelves, and all the paperbacks were $2.99 (this
> was a while ago...). Some would be worth it - and some would not. But the
> only way to sort the good from the drek was to buy them. In some larger
> sense, good material might win out over bad, but I as the individual
> reader didn't see the benefits. For the reader, it was "caveat emptor".
> 
> Book publishers were benefiting from this type of market. You could offer
> drek, and if people bought it, they were stuck with it. Sell enough
> different titles of drek, and you could still make money, even though most
> buyers should only have been satisfied with something better.
> 
> Some stores did offer "goods satisfactory or money refunded" (*), but it
> never seemed to be bookstores. Note that the criteria is *satisfaction*,
> not just *didn't fail*.
> 
> Now we have the possibility (through many types of transfers) for readers
> to find the material they like first, and *then* pay for it. They don't
> want to accept the risk of non-satisfaction anymore. Why should they? They
> want "books satisfactory or money refunded". But since no store is
> offering this, they make it up themselves, on a sort of ad-hoc basis. It
> doesn't always work very well, as we are seeing.
> 
> Figure out how to do that, and I think you will have a handle on solving
> the problem once and for all - for paper and electronic.
> 
> (*: this was the actual slogan of Eaton's in Canada upon opening in 1869)
> 
> : chris smith ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
> : nihil tam munitum quod non expugnari pecunia possit - cicero :

I would, broadly, agree with you Chris. 

There are caveats, of  course, but the main thrust of the argument is the 'browse' activity as a normal part of book selection and possible purchase. That is the nature of the bookshop, as much as the net, though.

There are a number of limited situations in which the pre-read of the whole books can make sense. But with books generally there is a major difference  from music. Books are generally read only once; music, when liked, is played repeatedly.

In fact this comes back to the gatekeeper, the filter of the works. As you rightly say, not all publishers were good at it , and some not even sincere. But there is the inescapable fact that there are many different markets. Sometimes, what you, or I, or Marion, might all find awful, is actually very keenly read by some sectors of the market.

This is why judgements are so very difficult. But there is also the 'added value' of good publishing. Once a work is written it can take considerable efforts from others to turn it into something that might appeal to buyers. The judgements can be by several people as that process takes place, and the changes in reading fashions can move faster than the process.

So, while never denying the existence of drek ;-), I tend to caution on being too critical of individual works.

There is another thing. For most readers presentation has a great deal to do with reading pleasure, and, in print, there was a long WWII and post-war period when both supplies of paper were scarce and relatively expensive. This led to a lot of cramping in layouts.

That is true of the period of early expansion, too. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century the books [very long novels by today's standard] were printed in tight 8 or nine point. I had some of those in my childhood. Even being used to post-war shortage I found those difficult.

Print publishers are going to face some hard decisions again as the price of pulp and paper is shooting up now; for the moment printers are trying to absorb that increase, but that is not a working solution.

There  are a number of different levels or areas in publishing, which are looking broadly non-interchangeable. Perhaps the conglomerates, big publishers, medium, small and micro,and ebook. I think the last may have more than one area itself.

If, out of this, there is greater opportunity for the reader to be sure of their reading match before they buy, that can be only a good thing.

Joseph





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