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I like a lot of Baen Books's policies regarding electronic works. They offer free books, copies in DRM-free forms of the early books of many of their authors and series. With many series, if you buy a later book in the series, you receive a CD with (again DRM-free) copies of the books that came before in the series. Lastly, they've been running Webscriptions where you receive advance copies of books as they're being developed. Someone later in the thread says you're paying thrice-over for this, but that's not the case. Basically, you pay per month. In any given month, you're getting about a fourth of 8-10 different books currently in progress. Paying for four months, about the price of a twelve paperbacks, nets you 8-10 full books, and partial copies of another 24-30. Personally, it's not my cup of tea, but for those who have a wide variety of interests, and particularly for those who like ecxlusive early access, it may be worth it.

Well how come that Baen Books have had great success with a similar business model.
They convinced some of their authors to let them release some of their books as ebooks for free -
The result was a much higher sale, both of the authors other books, but also of the "free" books, since a lot of people prefer to read on paper.
Check out the site, there are some great stuff.
http://www.webscription.net/free/
The key to selling stuff to people is to get them hooked, and a free sample is the best way to do that.

Does NOT publish all their books online for free...
just a great many of them at the author's choosing.
They do however, have the rest for SALE at webscriptions

Well everybody knows there's nothing like a short, victorious war for raising a little colonial cash and keeping the ignorant masses entertained and supportive.

I have to say, Webscriptions is a really good deal. You get a month's worth of releases for $15, and you can get most of the books months before that particular set of books is released. So, for example, if you were dying to get your Rats, Vats, and the Ugly fix, after getting hooked by reading the sample chapters that they have online, you could read the rest of the book, RIGHT NOW.

Baen operates on the "rats pushing levers to get crack" model of publishing - they give away free product because once you get addicted, you'll gladly pay to buy dead-tree and e-book versions of new stuff. Not everybody can do this, but Baen has been getting it right so far...

I have to say, Webscriptions is a really good deal. You get a month's worth of releases for $15, and you can get most of the books months before that particular set of books is released. So, for example, if you were dying to get your Rats, Vats, and the Ugly fix, after getting hooked by reading the sample chapters that they have online, you could read the rest of the book, RIGHT NOW.

Baen operates on the "rats pushing levers to get crack" model of publishing - they give away free product because once you get addicted, you'll gladly pay to buy dead-tree and e-book versions of new stuff. Not everybody can do this, but Baen has been getting it right so far...

As mentioned in slashdot before, Baen publishing puts out Webscriptions and also gives away ebooks for free on the net and they also provide a CD in several of their books with a large number of novels included. All of the free ebooks in the free library and on CD can be shared but not sold.

Here are several ISO images of Baen's free science fictional goodness, please leave up your bittorrent client for others to share.

As far as reading an e-book, I prefer them for fiction, but prefer paper books for tech subjects. Probably because novels are read in a linear fashion, but tech books are more random access. It's easier for me to flip back and forth in a paper book than on a PDA. That might be different on a laptop, though.

The other reason I like e-books on the PDA is that I always have one with me (well, actually I have about 20 with me :)) So I'll pull out the PDA and read while in line at the grocery store or anywhere I have to wait.

My $0.02

Check that: If publishers stop wanting DRM, it's the end of popular creative arts. Not as we know them, but period. If you want to run a capitalist economy - many societies are hell-bent on it - and you want quality in your art and entertainment, your artists must be paid.

I've always found written work more interesting / inspiring than audio. If you are able to, and like scifi like many slashdotters, check out Baen Free Library and Their not-free subscription service

Once you have your device, check out the Baen ebooks. I buy these. They are all science fiction and fantasy.

Here are some free ones to get you started:

http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm

And you can buy more here:

http://www.webscription.net/

No DRM. Just ebooks. They are trusting you not to be a pirate, and charging a fair price, and for that I reward them by buying stuff and recommending them.

Let me say that again. No DRM! No serial numbers, no registration, no limit on the number of cards you can copy it to. No DRM.

Even the ones they want you to pay for have a few chapters online for free. This is to give you a taste of the book, hook you in and make you want to finish reading it. If the book is a collection of stories, often one or more complete stories will be available for free reading.

steveha

I get 5 sci-books a month - and get to download them in normall HTML.

webscriptions.net - from the publisher Baen. There's some free books there too to get you hooked.

Baen's books are generally light reading - usually fun and interesting.

My one suggestion to my family is a magazine subscription. Preferably Asimov's or Analog. Good stories, and updates monthly, and it doesn't cost much more than a book.

If you really want memory cards, power cells, and a backlight, you can get a subscription to Baen Books. Four books a month, and previews of their upcoming catalog. No DRM either: just open formats.

My family has given up on giving me books: I've usually already read anything they find...

If you like to read scifi or fantasy, one publisher already did all this.

Go here and check Baens webscription: http://webscription.net/

Or check their free library where you can read ebooks for FREE: http://www.baen.com/library/

All their books are DRM free and available in several different formats, including HTML (which obviously can't be DRM'ed).

I bought lots of ebooks there primary because it is so easy and I get the book instantly. I wont touch any ebook that has DRM as those always try to limit the number of devices I can read them on. Today I am reading those books on my iPAQ PDA, but in a year I have most likely retired that device for something better.

Contrary to what others seem to be saying here, ebooks really works for me. I almost completely stopped reading ordinary books, always prefering to use the light ipaq over a heavy real book. The display is clear, bright and does not strain my eyes. The battery lasts about 10 hours when reading. The only times where the battery live is a problem is when I am home, and there I just hook it up to power when it runs out.

It is not perfect, but it is more than good enough. At least for fiction reading anyway - I might not want to use it for a science text book, or any other book with tables, pictures and the like. Some of my ebooks contain maps, which are completely unreadable on the ipaq (but you can read them on the computer of course).

...for Spider Robinson to be saying this. I don't really consider him a sci-fi author, and I don't much care for his books. Indeed, to the extent that there is a decline in sci-fi, I've always thought of him as a prime exhibit. His stories are so...soft. Fluffy. Fantastic (in the very litteral sense).

That being said, I don;t think there's really any crunch coming for sci-fi. What Spider is saying is that the type of sci-fi he likes (and that he writes) is disapearring. This is true! But sci-fi is the reflection of tomorrow on today, and is constantly changing. In times past, post-apocalytpic wastelands, or psi powers, or laser printers, or time machines, or Martians, or portable phones almost as small as your fist were fantasies that appealled. Sometimes the world moved on, sometimes we learnt they weren't plausible, sometimes they happened - but in any case, they're now no longer suitable for sci-fi.

There's plenty of great sci-fi being written today (Baen Books publishes several good authours (and should in any case be supported for pioneering a content distribution model that doesn't rely on DRM. They give away some titles on their website, sell others cheaply, and include CDs with some hardbacks with dozens more.)

But it's not the same kind of sci-fi as was being written 20 or 30 years ago (and it would be pretty worrying if it was). For some, that puts it beyond the pale - it isn't "real" sci-fi. It's space opera, or military sci-fi, or too soft, or too hard, or whatever. For these people, intent on living in the past, I suppose the appeal of Fantasy isn't too surprising. But that's not the same thing as saying sci-fi is declining. Sci-fi is where it's always been - slightly on the edge, asking question some people would rather ignore.

Baen Books does well with ebooks. They have a "webscriptions" page where you can purchase ebooks individually or a month of ebooks on a serial subscription model. There are even freebie books available.

With the month of ebooks, you get about 5 or so books for $15. Two of the books are usually new, and released in parts. 3 months before paper release, you get 1/2 of the book. 2 months before paper release, you get 3/4 of the book. 1 month before release you get the entire book in ebook format.

Many different formats are provided including HTML, Microsoft Reader, and RTF.

I've purchased a number of books and month "subscriptions" from them. I find it handy to have the books on my laptop when I travel. Not as good as paper, but handy when I've run through all of my paper books or I'm waiting for something to finish. Of course, sometimes, I just can't wait to get the latest book from some of my favorite sci-fi authors.

Baen Books has an electronic publishing program that works for them and their authors. For $15 you get all of their books for a month (generally 6 titles, although 2-3 are usually reissues or the paperback release of a previous hardcover). If that's too much of a committment, individual books are available for $4-5. You can download the books in HTML, Palm Pilot, Rocketbook, RTF, and MS Reader formats. There's no DRM involved - Jim Baen figures that if he makes the books available at a reasonable price, people are generally honest and will pay for them rather than pirating them. They even give away electronic books in the Baen Free Library, and their authors have reported that they're seeing increased sales in their backlist, even from other publishers, that they can only attribute to appearing in the BFL.

It means that the transaction costs (pure economic waste) of "secured" bits get even higher, pricing "secured" bits even farther out of the market relative to rational systems like Baen's WebScriptions.

And that's a Good Thing.

Baen has experienced a mysterious 50% increase in gross dollar sales in the previous year. Also, our "sellthrough" (percentage of books placed in the market that sell to end-point customers) has improved from the rather startling 63% to the truly stunning 74%. I'm tentatively blamiing this on my wacko e-net proclivities. (Insert a Crazy Eddie ad pastiche here)

Baen has experienced a mysterious 50% increase in gross dollar sales in the previous year. Also, our "sellthrough" (percentage of books placed in the market that sell to end-point customers) has improved from the rather startling 63% to the truly stunning 74%. I'm tentatively blamiing this on my wacko e-net proclivities. (Insert a Crazy Eddie ad pastiche here)

Because you're buying it from leeches (it's the same at Amazon, BTW).

Go to fictionwise, for example, or (cheaper but limited to a single publisher) Baen's webscriptions.

Well if your willing to give up the CD-ROM, then just purchase the book from baen in electronic format. Webscription is where you can do it. I was able to buy about 2 days before it hit the newsstands. Price is about $6 or $7.

They also have other, new releases on sale too...

BWP

i can only recommend to read the introduction to the Baen Free Library. It's good to see, that not every one who depends on selling content wants to fleece the customers like sheep.

Living from content and a fair use policy are no contradictions. They explain why and how. And it works. I keep buying WebScriptions and the books ;-). That I love to read John Ringo (Gust Front), David Weber (Honor series) and Lois McMaster Bujold (The Vor game) may explain it.

Yours, Martin

P.S. Has anyone already written a simulator (Perl prefered) for the starships in the Honor-Universe? I would like to check some battles :-).

Baen Books, who are known on Slashdot for their Free Library, and who also offer their WebScriptions, all of which in several formats including e-books, do not to use encryption in the e-books they publish. Roughly, their argument is that it's costly, useless and unfair.

From the 6th Prime Palaver: The Library's track record shows clearly that the traditional "encryption/enforcement" policy which has been followed thus far by most of the publishing industry is just plain stupid, as well as unconscionable from the viewpoint of infringing on personal liberties. (...) the fundamental obstacle to the success of electronic publishing [is] the industry's obsession with encryption. I suggest you read the whole document, it's quite interesting.

Now if only they will do the same with Lois McMaster Bujold's "Miles Vorkosigan" series (also publish by Baen), I'll be a VERY happy girl.

The early Bujold works (including the books Falling Free and Ethan of Athos that others in this thread have mentioned wanting) are available at www.fictionwise.com. Combine this with several of the newer works that are available on Baen's www.webscription.net site, and there's just a few in the middle that are not currently available in ebook format. The latest WebScription setup even lets you buy individual books instead of a monthly bundle of books, if you prefer that.

I'm certainly hoping that the gaps in the Bujold ebook availability will get closed in before too long has passed, but I haven't heard if this is planned or not.

For those that haven't read any of Lois's work, you can get one of her short stories for free at the Baen Free Library -- The Mountains of Mourning. I heartily recommend it.

Cost? $15 a month for the books that are started that month. And, you only pay for months you want something from.

Could this be the fiture in publishing? Maybe... might just be a flop, but hey, at least it's getting tried.

I would venture to suggest that the main reason dedicated e-book devices haven't taken off is that there isn't all that much you can do with them other than read an e-book...and in some cases, you can't even read any e-book you want, only the ones you buy from the manufacturer. Thanks, but no thanks.

Now PDAs, on the other hand, have a zillion uses...including e-reading. And those have shot right through the roof sale-wise, and there are apparently enough people who enjoy e-reading on them to keep at least a half-dozen major and who knows how many minor PDA-compatible or PDA-only e-book vending sites in clover.

For instance, I've been in correspondence with Lee Fyock of PDA-only e-book site Palm Digital Literature (nee Peanut Press), and while he can't reveal figures, he can tell me that business has been very good. Note that Peanut has been around for several years now, is adding new titles and authors constantly, and has been viewed as such a desirable property that it's been bought out not once but twice, the second time by Palm itself! That doesn't sound like strictly a publisher's dream to me.

I don't see Peanut, or Alexlit, or Fictionwise , or Baen Webscription, or any of the others as being in any danger of shutting down soon. So, clearly, there's more to this e-book thing than some people seem to think.

(Oh, and as for e-books being strictly a vehicle to impose content control, that's not necessarily entirely true either. See the Baen Free Library, Prime Palaver #6.)

Now to wait until Diplomatic Immunity comes out in May.

This is Slashdot! Why are you waiting for the dead tree edition? The no-evil-DMCA-protections WebScription edition is already fully available (and loaded into my Palm V...).

I've been curious about ebooks but not enough to actually investigate them further. Are many people using them?

When my Palm III died, I replaced it with a Sony Clié specifically because the screen is sweet for reading books. I wouldn't really want it for reference books, but I love reading novels and the like on it. I always have my Clié with me, so I always have an assortment of reading material with me as well -- for no extra cost in space or weight. Plus, I can read it under any lighting conditions.

But I must admit, I'm really disappointed with most ebook offerings. They're either way overpriced (More expensive than the hardback? Give me a break!), or in some dippy "digital rights management" format, or both. No, I'm not going to pay $24 for a book in a format that may not survive in two years.

The absolute best publisher I've seen for ebooks has got to be Baen. They have a great ebook collection which includes just about everything they currently publish. The ebooks hit the street the same time as the paperbacks, and they're priced about the same. To me, that's a fair price. Sure, they're making some extra dough on the ebook version (no printing or distribution fees), but on the other hand I'm getting the product in a format that I prefer. I'm willing to encourage that!

But Baen's best decision was to release the books in plain ol' HTML format. They also have a few other formats, but HTML works best for me. And, even if someday HTML is dead and forgotten, I'll still be able to open these things up in a plain text editor and read them.

Baen also has a library of freebie books. Granted, many of them are the first books of one series or another, just to get you hooked. But the freebies are a great way to check out an author you've heard about, or just to play with the ebook format a little before making a commitment to it.

• Alexlit
  
• Mind's Eye
  
• Peanut Press/Palm Digital Literature
  
• Fictionwise
  
• MemoWare
  
• Baen Webscriptions/Free Library

What exactly is everyone doing with their handhelds that makes "color" and "multimedia" top priorities (other than using them as expensive toys that is)?

I bought my Sony Clié 710 specifically for the screen. I love reading books on my Palm, but my old Palm III's screen was just way too low contrast. The Clié's screen is bright and very high-contrast. The front light makes it extremely easy to see in any lighting condition. And the hi-res display gives me great text. (It's even better now that iSilo supports the hi-res screen directly!)

The other "multimedia" features can go jump in a lake as far as I'm concerned. I would have gladly bought the 610 (same specs, minus the MP3 hardware) if it had been available at the time. I watched the demo movies that came with it, then deleted them. I do like to keep photos in there; it's a good way to carry around the output of my digital camera. Actually, right now I have a large chunk of the Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet comics installed.

I also considered the HandEra 330, but I didn't like the 240x320 display. (Although the virtual silkscreen area rocks!) That makes a scaling factor of 1.5x to fit apps on the screen, which makes a lot of bitmaps look just plain wrong. The Clié's 320x320 display is double the Palm's 160x160, so anything that doesn't play nice with the hi-res display can just be viewed in 2x mode.

BTW, I'll do my karma-whoring for the day and give a plug to Baen Webscriptions. Baen books is making all their new paperback releases available electronically concurrent with the dead-tree release. (Actually earlier, if you want to read incomplete galleys.) The releases are done in HTML. No "digital rights management", no bizarro proprietary format, just the book in bog-standard HTML. (Available in other formats too, but I think the HTML is the most portable and most useful.) They also have a free library of complete books so you can try before you buy. Kudos to Baen for being a major dead-tree publisher that actually seems to grok electronic publishing as well!

AFAICT, there are only two features that e-books have over regular books:

1) You can use the same physical device for multiple content. Unless you are on the space shuttle, who cares?

2) You can download books from the Internet. Great, except has anybody here tried to use Napster/Gnutella recently? From the moment you first start looking to the moment you are able to use the (correct) file how much time elapses?

Gutenberg or Gnutella'd titles take a little longer, as I have to unwrap the text before running it through a converter--but even then, emacs makes it easy enough that it just takes a couple of minutes and a few Meta-X commands before I'm done. And if it's a Gutenberg book or otherwise freely available, I can even donate it to the Memoware free e-book library when I finish. (Search under "Meadows" there for all the titles I've donated so far.)

For me, reading books on my Visor is fast, convenient, and a sure-fire boredom fighter. But to each his own.

And Baen has some of the best SF/F authors out there these days. Elizabeth Moon, Eric Flint, David Weber, David Drake, Bujold, Robinson, etc.

Check out the Baen Free Library and Webscriptions sometime. You might be pleasantly surprised.

The author of the book cited in the article is missing the point as well. People want to read best-sellers. If there had been some publicity about his book, maybe it would have sold some as an e- or p-book. Chances are it would have sold just as badly if he hadn't listed it electronically.

Well, apparently, the publisher and authors at www.webscription.net disagree with you. New Books published in html on a subscription basis. Really cool, and some execellent books can even be had for free (donated by the authors). Don't forget to read the FAQ, that explains the whole project.

quote: Most publiers are releasing only older titles on e-books. I have yet to see a new hardcover edition be simultaneous released on e-books.

I just finished burning all 200 episodes of Sailor Moon onto 11 CDs...got them off my hard drive, at long last. I only have a few gigs, I need that space! :) I've also burned a couple fansubbed episodes of the new Transformers series, Car Robots to CD, so I can take and show them to people.

I've also archived about 450 megs in textual logs generated by a private roleplaying chatserv I frequent (and felt guilty about "wasting" 200 megs of space, if you can believe it :). I also have plans to master some personal mix CDs, maybe do a few copies of them for friends. I'll also make some personal MP3 CD-ROMs for playing at the school computer lab, since they capped my cable connection to a point where I can no longer stream them from home.

I'm not sure what else I'll do with them. Download more video eps and burn them, perhaps archive all my Webscription and other e-books . . . maybe I'll even back up my hard drive.

It's kind of sad, in a way. Now that hard drives with dozens of gigs are affordable, 650 megs doesn't seem quite so big anymore.
--

If you want to pay go to Baen's WebScription site.