John Martellaro has a good piece in The Mac Observer about the problems of trying to make ebook collections given the current format incompatibilities, drm and other ebook problems:
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While there is some cross compatibility, there is no assurance that due to technical changes, self-serving rules invoked by publishers, and the interests of middlemen like Apple that what we buy today will be usable in the future. Worse, as we buy e-books from different retailers, we fragment our collections. Some are in Kindle, some are in iBooks, and so on. Retailers want us locked in, and we want freedom.
Adding to the problem is that many paper books, when translated to digital format, lose some material, art, graphics, photos, and cover art for either the sake of expediency or technical issues related to the format and e-reader capabilities. Some customers are forced to buy history books in paper to preserve that material that is often distorted or omitted from the e-book version.
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Once again, I find myself having to conjure up a strategy to deal with the strategy of the publishers and retailers of e-books. For example, I use iBooks for lightweight reading material that I don’t think will stand the test of time. Mystery novels, politically oriented books, and how-to books that will become obsolete in time.
For more enduring material, I turn to Amazon and Kindle. Amazon will always be in the book selling business, but maybe not Apple. Plus, purchases from Amazon can be read on my Mac, iPad or a Kindle reader. For long term technical reference, I go with O’Reilly. O’Reilly has a great philosophy: no DRM. Download a book in multiple formats. Preserve it on your Mac for all time, carry it forwards. Use your favorite reader, like Calibre, for the format you chose.
Finally, if the book is very much long enduring and has complex art and photos, I’ll probably buy it in paper. For example, astronomy text books and cookbooks. Or WWII naval history (one of my interests) which tend to have a lot of historical black & white photos.
Personally, I’d like to see those ‘not cheaper elsewhere’ clauses in retailer contracts declared illegal. If that were true, I’d be delighted to set two prices for my ebooks:
1. One for ebooks in standard ePub distributed without any DRM other than social tagging of the owner. That’d mean my customers really were buying an ebook that’s like a print book.
2. Another price that’s about 25% higher for retailers (i.e. Amazon and Apple) who have their own proprietary formats and who tack on DRM that keeps those ebooks from being read in someone else’s reader app.
If enough publishers and authors adopted that two-tiered pricing scheme, selling a better ebook for less, Amazon and Apple would have to abandon their restrictive, proprietary schemes.
And yeah, like John Martello, I’m getting tired of having to remember just which retail outlet, which platform, and which app has an ebook I’ve read before and want to read again.
Strategy for Maximizing EBook Readablity
1) Strip DRM or buy DRM-free.
2) Load into Calibre
3) Multiple Calibre Library backups
4) Convert to format of choice as required.
You could even convert all your Calibre books to HTML. Even if Calibre goes away or Windows goes away in the dim future HTML is likely to be readable pretty much forever.
This is why I buy what I can from Smashwords. I don’t use tablets, so apps are not a problem. I convert what I need in Calibre to make sure my e-books are device independent.
@Michael W. Perry: I like that scheme. Selling wholesale, I could sell titles to non-DRM retailers for 60% suggested retail (they’re free to set their own) and 80% to restrictive retailers. It would be quite nice.
Michael – when comparing prices, does Amazon (and any other eRetailer using these ‘not cheaper elsewhere’ clauses) use the title or the ISBN number for comparison ? You can see where I am going with this …