Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
Posts: 1

Hello all.

Being a student, and facing the fact once again, now that school is starting, that I'm going to have to buy text books. Now, I'm going to have to drop $290 on text books. image if you had a module that you simply snaped into the VD and there you'd have your text books, with pics, text, and a program to thumb through it.

Any comments? I think the main reason that book publishers haven't done this in the past is piracy issues, but with hardware burning, no one but the truely tech oriented would ever touch it. To add extra safety, send it encrypted, and have the program decrypt the info when the Visor reads it. The price on that mofo would be comparable too..

See ya.
-ZenFox

Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 179

Although the "book" idea has been talked about this is probably the best "use case" scenario that I've heard. What would be interesting is if the program would allow you to some how highlight and/or take notes as well.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 17

Check out the General Discussion board.

There are some software titles that cover the portable text readers. (Text and graphics included) They also have quite a few web sites listed for other software sources as well.

I'm thinking that all that would be needed is a memory expansion module with the appropriate texts downloaded to them.

Sounds like a great business opportunity.

CZ

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Schaumburg, IL
Posts: 151

You're wrong and let me explain to you why. The problem with e-books is that the publisher now cannot reasonably sign on authors for such low margins (15-20%).

See, here's the problem and the reason why e-books haven't exploded yet. If I'm a publisher and I've got to spend tons of time prepping your book for printing, choosing paper, binding it, and then running thousands of copies through this whole process, I can reasonably cut you--the author--down to a much smaller margin.

Authors understand this and as a result, when they push for e-books, of course they expect a much higher margin since the middle labor has been avoided. However, publishers want to keep that money for themselves and also feel--justifiably so--that there's little market out there right now for e-books except in certain vertical markets. (Like law or medical books). Hence, you have little demand for these books.

Plus, most people find a great deal of discomfort in reading from a screen. (Eye strain) There's also something lacking from the tactile feel of a book. I'm no luddite, but I do know that part of my satisfaction with a book is the feel of the experience. Add on to that the challenge of such a small screen for such large books. A tablet reader like the rocket book is much better suited for this kind of use.

Just my 2 cents.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 52

Sorry Jackal, but I think you've missed the mark on this. As a publisher, the lack of electronic material stems from two reasons. One, when electronic material began to appear, usually disc or CR-ROM technical material, almost 10 years ago, most publishers priced the material the same as paper material, even though the cost to produce and ship was greatly reduced. Since no authors were involved, your argument doesn't seem to apply here. The problem was that management wasn't technically savy, nor did they understand the production cost savings. So, they simply missed this sales advantage. And, two, much as most of us would like to believe the world to very much ready for electronic books, the truth is that only a very small percentage of potential readers prefer to read the materials electronically. When this market expands, the publishers will be there to satisfy it.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Schaumburg, IL
Posts: 151

Actually, we agree for the most part about the general market's interest in the books. Until there is a real interest, they won't take off.

As for my comment about the publishers, I was right on the mark. How do I know? Well, there was a very interesting discussion on NPR the other morning specifically dicussing this and it included a couple authors. Does it mean that I adhere to every word that comes out of NPR's mouth? No, but the business model makes sense.

You're right, publishers have priced the books at the same price as paper books, but you didn't finish by saying that they refuse to increase the author's margin as a result. Lower cost in manufacturing/distributing the book, should mean an increase in the margin for any savvy author.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Pittsburgh, PA USA
Posts: 12

With the amount of reading required for a college student; I can't imagine reading hundreds, upon hundreds of pages on a little, green, monochrome screen. Although, I have to admit, it would be nice to be able to keep a semester worth of books on a handheld and some cartriges. I'm especially looking forward to having easy access to translator or dictionary functions. I still use my Franklin Language Master, which I bought in 1990 and would like a more thorough, electronic dictionary.

-Jim (who spent $325 on books this semester)

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: US Military in Germany
Posts: 46

All of you make good points. If the market does open up it will probably not be due to the large publishers, it will probably be small start ups, largely authors not willing to be cut out any more that do it. Also the screen technology will need to advance more, reading large amounts of text from screens is a painful experience but those advances are coming in the way of e-books. But it would be nice to be able to take a chapter on the Visor to look at or even have the whole book there and be able to search for specific key points or words. The school texts would be excellent for this since in many classes you do not read the entire book so much as look at key points. Cliff notes and small compilations would be great also. As well as dictionaries and foreign language dictionaries. Many texts and seminars are also beginning to be offered in audio (MP3 or Audible) format. Diamond is working on the X64 MP3 springboard and we can hope it will include support for other audio formats as well with bookmarking and other advanced features like the Rio 500.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Rio Rancho, NM, USA
Posts: 129

I think Jackal has a good point (Wait! Was that the Earth shuttering to a halt?.. I actually agreed with Jackal)

I think that some sort of copy protected Springboard is needed here. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of text books, with bookmarking, highlighting, and sticky-note functionallity, but there is a question about returns.

How do you keep kiddo's from buying 1 text springboard and 'sharing' it with their friends? Some sort of software key/cookie that would store an account on a user's PC could be possible. The actual number of download credits would be stored at the server level to avoid cookie sharing.

This reminds me a bit of why I don't like Barnes and Noble anymore. A fairly famous Trek author once explained that the rate of returned books is MUCH higher from a super-bookseller like B&N / Borders, then it is from a small dealer. Why? Because the big retailers have set themselves as pseudo-libraries. I've watched folks take a book / magazine from B&N's shelves, read the whole thing (even dog-earing pages!!) and put it back!

Protecting publisher and author rights should be the first and foremost goal of any e-book technology.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Schaumburg, IL
Posts: 151

Man, what is it with people thinking the world has come to an end when they actually happen to agree with me?!

I know I'm opinionated folks, but can't we all just get along?

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Columbus, Ohio USA
Posts: 255

We need to work on the future of book transfers with some type of volatile electronic book source that we can check out of a library and download, right there, onto a palm or whatever the hell we have.

Just a vision for the future, but it sounds pretty neato. I'm sure there'd be plenty of problems with copying and such to work out, but it would be a good idea I think.

Registered: Sep 1999
Location: Hoboken, NJ, 07030
Posts: 105

I talked with the Peanut Presss representative at Internet world and he confirmed that the publishers charge them full price on electronic books. The prices he quoted sounded a little cheaper so I assume that at least they charge less of a cut at their level.

BTW: The rep was pretty good, I glanced at the booth and he immediately started in with the comment, "We sell books, it's true, we've been doing it for years now...."

Registered: Oct 1999
Location:
Posts: 25

Here's a great idea:

You buy a book on a springboard that is encrypted. That is, you put the board in and you can't read the book - except for the first chapter or two. You are able to read the first chapter to see if you like the book enough to buy the rest of it. For this you are charged solely for the price of production of the actual board, which can also be returned if you choose not to keep it. Then if you do want to read the rest of the book, you email a registration code on the board to the publisher and they send you the password to unlock the rest of the book. They also charge you for the rest of the book, and it cannot be returned after this.

The book will also be copy protected so that it can't be copied. In closing, this system will allow customers to preview a book electronically and have the ability to decide without being charged for it, while booksellers will be protected and will be able to market their products without having people read and return the entire book.

Just a thought.