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No need to drop ebooks altogether, simply support the ebookstores that sell DRM-free ebooks.

A great example of this is Baen Books. They jumped on the ebook bandwagon quite early on and actually took it a step beyond selling books: They offer a lot of them completely free. Eric Flint pushed for this and convinced Baen it was a great idea. The Baen Free Library introduction is written by him and describes the reasons behind the whole movement (the BFL came online back in late 2000, definitely not a late-comer).

They have continued to uphold the DRM-free ideals and offer their ebooks in many different formats. The Free library project offers many books and new ones get added all the time. The financial idea is pretty simple: If you give away the first (or more) books in a series you've written... if they don't suck, folks will want to buy the rest of the series and a good percentage will buy the original ones simply to support an author who has the temerity to do such a thing as sell books without DRM.

At any rate, take a look at the project. The purchases are done via Webscriptions. I'm a long time supporter of them, but have no affiliation.

Have you ever used one?

As a grad student myself and a very prolific reader, I love my Kindle 6''. If I was still taking literature classes, instead of Library School classes, I would make heavy use of it for readings that don't involve secondary materials specific to editions. As it is I read the hell out of Gutenberg, Baen's Free Library, and books bought through http://webscriptions.net./

Granted, I couldn't have afforded to buy one myself; but if I had the money, I would have, and I probably would have bought specifically the Kindle, because the other readers available had a variety of hardware or pricing issues at the time I got mine.

As someone who's used one extensively, I'll say this - the Kindle isn't great for flipping back and forth in large works, which is a problem that needs to be solved. Being text searchable makes up for this somewhat, but the balance is moderately tipped toward paper textbooks.

On the other hand, for articles assigned that are available in full text (or, with the DX, PDF - the 6-inch Kindle isn't really suitable for most PDFs), the Kindle is amazing. Being able to take assigned articles on the train, or just to read them on my bed without having a laptop crushing my chest, is pretty great. The eyestrain benefits are also very significant, although to someone with less terrible eyes than me, it might be less so.

Ditto. I bought my first e-book from Baen.com in 1998 to read on a Palm VII (monochrome); since then, I've used a VIIx, i705, T3, T5, TX, Nokia 9300, 9300i and E90 smartphones, plus about a dozen laptops with Win 2K-XP-Vista-7 and Ubuntu Hardy-Intrepid-Jaunty-Karmic. Baen made it easy with the Baen Free Library; the first six dozen e-books, are free, little boy (he he he).

Maybeso a Nook be better, but I *always* have my smartphone with me, and spending $500 on a reader equates to buying 105 e-books.

Plus, e-books have probably saved me from scoliosis, as I no longer have to carry a dead tree book in my hip pocket to have something to read wherever I am.

And, what is this DRM of which you speak? Baen doesn't cripple its e-books, and every time I change platforms, I can redownload my e-library in the new format. For free.

I've been reading books with my iPhone and its great at bed time. read with the lights off so I don't disturb my wife, and it powers off if I fall asleep and stop flipping pages. I also have it with me everywhere, so I 've got thought books faster as I can read it anytime.

I've been using my old Clie (PalmOS based Sony handheld) that way for the past 8 years. :)

But content, I cant just loan a copy to my friend, and I cant just mail them a link to the book as hey need the software I use.

E-books need a common format with tags for meta data like MP3s and work on all platforms.
I'd like an e-copy with every paper copy I buy, but copy protection will never allow this freedom.

Check out http://www.webscriptions.net/. Baen has pioneered eBooks as far as I'm concerned. They were one of the first SciFi/Fantasy plublishing houses to release them, and they offer every one of their books in several electronic formats with no DRM (as well as offer a large "Free Library" of older books and their famous "CDs" which are usually chock full of the rest of a given author's backlog of books.

The mobi-book format is supported on both the iPhone and Kindle and the iPhone even has a "BookShelf" app that will let you buy and download books wirelessly.

Granted, its a small portion of the market (SciFi and Fantasy books), but I'd imagine that, for Slashdot readers at least, its a large-ish portion of the books they buy/read. :)

The best part (to me), is that they provide the books both in mobi-book format (for an eReader), as well as .rtf, and html. Heck, with a little bit of knowledge you can even use the plain HTML version to turn a PSP (or any other hand-held device that can retrieve locally stored html), into an eBook reader, just fine. :)

I've been reading books with my iPhone and its great at bed time. read with the lights off so I don't disturb my wife, and it powers off if I fall asleep and stop flipping pages. I also have it with me everywhere, so I 've got thought books faster as I can read it anytime.

I've been using my old Clie (PalmOS based Sony handheld) that way for the past 8 years. :)

But content, I cant just loan a copy to my friend, and I cant just mail them a link to the book as hey need the software I use.

E-books need a common format with tags for meta data like MP3s and work on all platforms.
I'd like an e-copy with every paper copy I buy, but copy protection will never allow this freedom.

Check out http://www.webscriptions.net/. Baen has pioneered eBooks as far as I'm concerned. They were one of the first SciFi/Fantasy plublishing houses to release them, and they offer every one of their books in several electronic formats with no DRM (as well as offer a large "Free Library" of older books and their famous "CDs" which are usually chock full of the rest of a given author's backlog of books.

The mobi-book format is supported on both the iPhone and Kindle and the iPhone even has a "BookShelf" app that will let you buy and download books wirelessly.

Granted, its a small portion of the market (SciFi and Fantasy books), but I'd imagine that, for Slashdot readers at least, its a large-ish portion of the books they buy/read. :)

The best part (to me), is that they provide the books both in mobi-book format (for an eReader), as well as .rtf, and html. Heck, with a little bit of knowledge you can even use the plain HTML version to turn a PSP (or any other hand-held device that can retrieve locally stored html), into an eBook reader, just fine. :)

I didn't see any mention of Baen in the first most-of-a-page of comments, so I'll just mention they have a great free e-library and reasonably priced ebook program, as well as a science fiction e-magazine.

The other site I'd like to recommend is one to bookmark and check back every month or so: Alexandria Digital Literature, or AlexLit, used to have a truly marvelous collaborative filtering engine, where you'd tell it what books you like and dislike, and it would tell you what books you haven't already read that you're likely to enjoy. I found some of what are now my most favorite books that way. But the site is down right now and they promise a revised version "sometime in 2008." So keep checking it.

(I interviewed Dave Howell, the guy behind AlexLit, on one of the episodes of my Biblio File podcast.)

Baen have put quite a few SF books online ( here and then choose Free Library). Read them online or download them to pretty much any e-reader out there. It certainly allowed me to get into a few authors I might otherwise have 'overlooked'. I prefer the dead-tree variety so after sampling some of them like here, I Amazoned them.

Take a look at Baen's E-book publishing ( http://www.webscriptions.net/ ).

They've been publishing their entire catalogue since 2001, the prices for the books are pretty reasonable, and the ebooks are available in several unencrypted forms.

They even have a whole bunch of their older titles available for free ( the first dose is always free :) ) http://www.webscriptions.net/c-1-free-library.aspx.

Take a look at Baen's E-book publishing ( http://www.webscriptions.net/ ).

They've been publishing their entire catalogue since 2001, the prices for the books are pretty reasonable, and the ebooks are available in several unencrypted forms.

They even have a whole bunch of their older titles available for free ( the first dose is always free :) ) http://www.webscriptions.net/c-1-free-library.aspx.

cdguru wrote:
Let's say you work for a book publisher. Today it is impractical to redistribute a book that you buy in a book store. And books in digital form aren't generally sold or not sold without some kind of protection.

Since you mentioned books, if you read sci-fi/fantasy, you might be interested in www.webscriptions.net. They sell electronic copies of books in convenient, DRM-free formats. You can also find the first few chapters or even entire books (with the author's permission) free of charge at the Baen books free library. If you like the author's writing, they likely have other books you can buy (in electronic or paper form). I appreciate being treated like a responsible adult by these authors and publishers, and have spent a fair amount, buying books by authors I normally wouldn't have tried.

I know some musicians are trying the same thing (They Might Be Giants, IIRC). I think the recording labels could learn a few lessons from them. Most likely, they'll continue sueing their customers, though.

You might find the following site useful: http://www.webscriptions.net/ - lots of e-books in HTML, at prices below hardcopy versions.

eBooks...

Microsoft Reader was one of the things that Microsoft was hyping to us Palm users as a killer feature of the Pocket PC over the Palm.

The problem was that the DRM in Microsoft Reader was really annoying, and the user interface was trying to emulate a paper book on a tiny screen.

And where there are DRM-protected and unprotected versions of the same books, the unprotected ones cost under $5 and the protected ones cost around $20. It makes the choice really easy...

http://fictionwise.com/

http://webscriptions.net/

Oh, and I'm using PalmOS to read my eBooks these days. :)

Baen rock. Their Webscriptions service is a great way to get books online--they've taken a fair chunk of my spare change that way. And the Baen Free Library is what introduced me to the works of Lois McMaster Bujold.

A web based re-creation of the serialized novel using Science Fiction published by Baen Books. Each novel will be published in three segments, one month apart, beginning 3 months before the actual publication date. Each month 4 books will be available.

Another inovation of Baen Books is the Free Library where complete eBooks can be downloaded at no cost. (Free Library)

There is already Fictionwise and Baen Books, where I have bought oodles of DRM-free e-books, and now pepole in the music industry are joining in.

Bravo! The clue is spreading!

And that is why Baen offers 4-6 books for $15? We are talking somewhare under four dollars per book. That is half the price of a paperback. BTW, jplucker is great for converting html to something useful for a handheld.

Some of your conditions are almost reasonable, but others are less so.

I would buy ebooks if:

1. The ebook readers looked and felt like a book. Meaning they would have the same shape, size, and weight of a book (perhaps with different sizes ranging from small paperback size to 8x11 hardcover size, depending on the preference of the customer), with a cover that looks like a book. When I open the cover, I should see two screens, similar to how I would see two pages when I open a book. That way I'll be able to relax and read it on the sofa just like reading a regular book.

You do realize that the LCD screen for PDAs and ebook readers accounts for something like 90% of their cost, right? How much do you think it would cost for such a device with two? Maybe when digital paper comes out in a few years we might see something like that...

It doesn't seem to make much sense to me to want a two-page reader anyway. You're only going to be reading one page at a time.

2. Ebooks would cost at least 30% less than their paper counterparts. They aren't going to sell much if the savings in printing and distribution aren't passed on to consumers.

Some ebooks do. Baen Webscriptions, for example. And Palm Digital Media typically marks its ebooks down over the cost of the paper version (though in some cases, that paper version is the hardcover...but their prices generally do go down when the paperback comes out).

3. Ebook readers would cost less than $150.

You can get some of the low-end Palms and Clies in that price range, and they make great e-readers.

4. Ebook readers could hold over 100 average books. I really wish I didn't have to have bookcases that took up so much space. When I was in school I would have really preferred to carry one ebook reader instead of lugging around a backpack with 40 pounds of books.

Two words: Memory Card. I've got a 64 meg memory stick in my Clie that will hold at least a couple of hundred average-sized books (depending on their size).

5. You could highlight a segment or page(s) of text and transmit it to your computer or a standard printer.

With Baen's ebooks and a web browser, you can do that from your computer. It'll probably have to wait a few years before that capacity comes to a handheld within your price range, though.

6. An industry standard format existed for ebooks or at least a small number of standards that could be implemented by every ebook reader.

My Palm and my desktop computers do every single format I care to mess around with--Palm Reader, HTML/iSilo, PalmDoc. I could even do MobiPocket or Embiid if I wanted to, but I don't want to. Of course, I couldn't do Microsoft Reader on my Palm...but I have yet to see any MS-Reader-exclusive title I cared enough about for that to feel like a problem.

There are a few readers that do satisfy one or more of the above, but I don't find ebooks worth it unless all the conditions are met.

A few more years, and maybe we'll see...

In electronic format, support The Bean free library, which offers many free books in multiple formats.
Also Webscriptions, which is a great way to get books early and cheap.

I think the problem is the authors are more concerned abt creating series which thay can then sell to make a show ;than abt telling a story. e.g Asimovs Foundation series started out as a series of short stories each one powerfull in itself. Only later did it become one series.

On the other hand authors like David Webber try from the start to make each story a universe in which they(or their assistants) can keep writing endless series (serii?). (On the positive side Weber does write abt the Future though all his futures have the US as the victor ;))

This problem is common to both novels written with an aim at the television market as well as those serialized on websites like Webscriptions

The clever move would be to offer the content on-demand via the Internet. Include the commercials embedded in the content. No one is going to strip the commercials and put it back up; who'd waste their bandwidth when the program was available on demand in all the desired encodings? (See BAEN webscriptions.net for an example of how this actually works for another media type, right now, today)

Then, rig a number of versions of the download which stash the commercials in different places. Each 30-minute show has at least the following places to stash commercials: Before the title, after the title, planned mid-show break, before the credits, after the credits. Given that each spot can hold 1 or more commercials of variable length, you'd make it relatively hard to archive all of the breakpoints for all possible variations. Especially if the commercials change from month to month.

Folks could still skip the commercials by hand or strip them from their personally downloaded copy, but that's OK... by hand gives you a chance to capture their interest before they skip it just like with the modern remote control. Double the chance really, because with a remote the commercials are usually over before you click back from another station but with a PVR you'll scroll back to find where the show restarted (and scroll back into the tail of the final ad).

Or better yet, try this or if you want free try this . No reason to pirate books when there are quality works available for free or low cost.

Pretty sure he's talking about Webscriptions

from the site:
What is WebScriptions?

A web based re-creation of the serialized novel using Science Fiction published by Baen Books. Each novel will be published in three segments, one month apart, beginning 3 months before the actual publication date. Each month 4 books will be available. The intent is to use all Frontlist book for that month. If less than four books are published, or if one or more of them are unavailable, books from the backlist will be used.

What do I get?

For each month purchased, you will receive internet access to a directory containing four books.

Three months before publication subscribers receive the first half of all 4 books.
Two months before publication subscribers receive the third quarter of all 4 books.
One months before publication subscribers receive the last quarter, completing all 4 books.

and about two weeks after the last quarter is delivered, bookstores around the country will begin to stock these titles.

WebScriptions does not require subscribers to purchase every month offered. Purchase of an individual month will deliver that months complete books whether other months are purchased or not.

I'm a regular purchaser, 30+ ebooks purchased and happy with them. it's $10 for a month (4 books)