James Barclay

mbagsh55 · Joined: 10 Mar 2009 Posts: 4

Hi James,
Apologies if this isn't the correct place for the question, but I am curious as to whether you have considered selling ebook rights of the Raven books either via PS Publishing or via another publisher.

I am currently reading Dawnthief and loving the book more with each page turn, but regret that unlike most of my fictional reading I cannot purchase the books for my ebook, a Sony PRS700.

Have you considered making your novels available as ebooks either for marketing purposes or preferably as alternatives to the paper books?

Regards,
Marcus

Drizzt · Joined: 07 Mar 2005 Posts: 1081 Location: Easington, UK

E-books are sooooooo wrong! Razz

Given the current climate I'd be amazed if PS/Gollancz weren't looking to get involved at some point.
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James · Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2009 10:54 am Post subject:

Well, whether they are wrong or not, they are going to grow as a separate market. They have certain advantages - like having all holiday reading on one slim data reader. But they just don't feel like books, do they?

I'm open to selling ebook rights but I have serious concerns about security, illegal copying and forwarding etc. It's odd because lending books around is a great way to share favourite authors. But for some reason, I'm not so keen on the same thing happening with an ebook file. It'll be my age.

How and when and if ebooks are made from my work isn't actually up to me. It's a market driven thing and an investment on behalf of Gollancz. I'll support it if I feel it's a secure way of buying.
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mbagsh55 · Joined: 10 Mar 2009 Posts: 4

Hi James,
Many thanks for the reply. I am pleased to know that ebooks are a possibility even if they are not going to happen immediately. You are right that they do not feel exactly like real books and maps or illustrations suffer. The benefit in addition to portability are features like search and easy referral to other books from the same series

The issue of security and rights protection is without doubt a difficult issue. As a consumer I am extremely reluctant to buy a book that is locked to a single reading device, so I tend to mostly purchase books without DRM or those that are easily converted. I also am not happy to pay the retail hard-cover price for an ebook, so am probably not the ideal consumer from a publisher viewpoint.

I would not want to claim knowledge or experience with copied ebooks but I have happened accross them when searching for favoured authors and in the few cases I have been curious they have been scanned copied in PDF or plain text rather than author-supported ebooks that have had security measures removed to allow illegal distribution.

It is difficult to see how both publisher's control and consumers needs can be met by a single secure format but I remain positive that things are continually improving.

Thanks and regards,
Marcus

p.s. Guess I will be getting my Raven-fix from Amazon... Very Happy

James · Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2009 3:21 pm Post subject:

Why shouldn't an ebook be locked to a single device, i.e., the one you use?

When you buy a book from a bookstore it is a single format medium. I don't think an ebook should be any different. Why would you need to convert it to a different device? That is an invitation to pirates if you ask me and is precisely what I'm worried about.

Sure you can scan a novel if you really want to but the investment in time is massive. Photocopying likewise and probably more expensive than buying your own copy.

Not getting at you, by the way, but I'm curious.
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'A human with a hand outstretched in friendship carries the fangs of a taipan in his palm.' A TaiGethen saying.

mbagsh55 · Joined: 10 Mar 2009 Posts: 4

Hi James,
a fair point, but a distinction between an e-book and a real book is that you can enjoy the book by iteself since it isn't dependant on another device for you to consume it.

An e-book is different and the market sees new devices being released each year and old reading devices being retired and no longer being supported by their manufacturers.

In my own particular case, I began reading on an iPaq PDA, which I replace with a Sony PRS reader which sadly broke and I replaced by a Sony PRS-700. I would not be willing to invest in the devices and e-books if the e-books were locked to a single device.

For me e-books locked to a specified device are like a DVD that only plays on a single specific DVD-player (or a single manufacturer's DVD player) and so not something I choose to purchase when alternative formats exist.

Regards,
Marcus

p.s. I have also never understood those who have the time and inclination to scan books for illegal upload, but such people do appear to exist.

James · Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 10:31 am Post subject:

That's an issue for the manufacturers. If you buy an ebook for a Sony device, say, they should make all future iterations of their device backward compatible. That isn't hard to do - it's a software issue.

Either that or offer you updated data files when you return your original. I think Sony have the right to lock the data file to Sony machines because it's protecting their income stream, but they also have the responsibility to ensure you don't have to buy the same book twice.
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'A human with a hand outstretched in friendship carries the fangs of a taipan in his palm.' A TaiGethen saying.

OLD NEW GUY · Joined: 10 Dec 2007 Posts: 129

isnt this an argument that just be played out in the music world with itunes finally agreeing that a download would not be locked to an i player MP3, ie if you pay for it from their store you can copy it to any of your other mp3 players. Why have more than one i hear you ask, well i have a small one for the gym 8gb) a bigger one for holidays 60gb and also my phone can play them...so if i buy the song why can i not listen to it on any device.

the same could be said for e books, why cant i read it on a reader, my laptop or my pc? my i phone also has the technology for e books.

Cost, i agree that the author should get the same intelectualt rights payment as a HB or PB book, but i think the publisher needs to be reasonable on their cut, they are not priniting or shipping anything so costs should not be the same as a HB.

Security...well everytime you come up with a secure method someone will crack it, you just have to accept a proportion will always pirate, whilst the mainstream will always pay for it.

James · Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 3:08 pm Post subject:

It's not the playability of the file that worries me, it is the copying of the file.

Absolutely let's have the industry standardising the file type so an ebook file can be read on any ebook reader. Just make the file secure (or as secure as you can) to protect intellectual rights.
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'A human with a hand outstretched in friendship carries the fangs of a taipan in his palm.' A TaiGethen saying.

OLD NEW GUY · Joined: 10 Dec 2007 Posts: 129

I totally agree James, i think also if your books are to ever come out in Eboom format you will have to accept that what ever is applied with regards to security, its going to get beaten, its easier to break than it is to fix/ secure.
that aside it must be frustrating as hell that you have to worry about copyright theft. It would be nice if you could just release your work in all forms and be paid a fair wage for doing it... i hope they come up with something.

On a slightly different note...what about audio books?

mbagsh55 · Joined: 10 Mar 2009 Posts: 4

Sadly I think 'Old New Guy' is right that every new secure format seems to get broken relatively quickly. That said as I mentioned previously it seems to be scanned copies of books in PDF and text format rather than ebook formats that are mostly 'in the wild'. Not something I can explain, since like James I cannot understand who would want to spend time scanning a full-length novel Rolling Eyes

Regarding audio-books I would have thought the exact same issue exists and has existed for many more years, regardless if they are released in downloadable "secure" format or on CD. One possible difference is that the size of the files is smaller for ebooks, but in a age when almost everyone has 1MB or better broadband this probably isn't an issue.

OLD NEW GUY · Joined: 10 Dec 2007 Posts: 129

oh i know audios get pirated, i just wondered if James has any thoughts on audio formats of his books?

James · Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 10:12 am Post subject:

I think, sadly, that we have to accept that scum will always try and rip you off. The same people who would be terribly upset if I wandered into their house and took money from their wallets. Hey ho.

Audio Books, well I think they're a lovely format and despite being open to piracy, I'd love to see my books in audio. They are coming out in that format in Germany, by the way. I'm not sure how rife piracy is in audio books - sure for JK Rowling it'll be big. For me, probably not so much of a problem.
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'A human with a hand outstretched in friendship carries the fangs of a taipan in his palm.' A TaiGethen saying.

Kerela · Joined: 10 Sep 2005 Posts: 372 Location: Germany