I love to beat up on Amazon’s DRM, but Jeff and friends are also up to some good things. The diligent Gary Price of Resource Shelf passes on this tidbit from PC World—something that could apply to books and e-books, if Jeff’s smart about it:
“Amazon has unveiled a ‘limited time only’ promotion called Disc+ On Demand that has the potential to change the way we consume media. Now when you purchase select DVD or Blu-ray discs, you can download a digital copy of your film for instant viewing via your Mac, PC, Roku, TiVo, and more. This promotion is the perfect way to get a little more out of the Christmas gifts you buy for others; you can watch the movies first.”
Despite catches—read the whole PC World item—this is a Good Thing. I agree with PC World that the offer should be permanent, not just a temporary promo, and should apply to other media such as music and books.
You can buy online access to some Amazon titles when you buy the paper editions, last I knew, but not the actual e-files for the Kindle. For the future, let’s hope that could also include ePub files for other machines. Ideally the e-book would be included for just a little extra with p-books or maybe for free, depending on the title. Bundles, anyone? I’ve been pestering my own publisher about a possible e-book/p-book deal for shoppers, on The Solomon Scandals. Opinions welcome. I’ve discussed this issue before, but it’s worth revisiting.
My only concern about this is that we may be positioning the eBook as inferior…the give-away. I’m a big supporter of multi-format and love the idea of people reading my books on their PC, their reader, and their phone/pda so I have no problem with them reading on paper as well.
On the other hand, I’m not so big on buying a book that you can give away and also keep. Seems to me, if you want to read it, you should buy a copy for yourself.
Rob Preece
Publisher