The Muse

When you hear the term DRM, you most likely think of music. That connection has been reinforced by the digital rights wars of the past couple of years. While Amazon has a fair shake at online music sales, Apple’s domination of the pay-for-play music market has made it a major player in DRM negotiations with content providers. Between the iPod and iTunes (proprietary devices that incorporate their own licensing model), Apple has become the premier digital music outlet.

But what of digital books? E-books vary in definition from an unsecured PDF on a website to a DRM-protected work on Amazon’s Kindle. In between is a myriad of proprietary licensing models and content management solutions, the most prominent of which are Adobe and Mobipocket. Neither offer a solution solid enough to bet on in five years. Publishers must step in, says Bill Rosenblatt in Copyright and Technology:

If publishers don’t act quickly, they face two alternatives, neither of which is very pleasant.  In one, Amazon succeeds in emulating Apple’s success in music and takes control of e-book business models.  In the other, excessive fragmentation leads to confusion, frustration, angry pieces from the blogosphere about the evils of DRM, and a limited market.

But is DRM even worth pursuing? Imagine downloading a PDF from an emerging author’s website. You pay a modest fee and are given a password to access the content. Excited about the read, you share it with friends. You bought a paperback before and did that–why not do it with a PDF? What’s stopping a friend from buying his own copy if he likes what he read? On the flip side, though, what’s stopping him from emailing it to all his friends?

Rob Beschizza, of Wired.com, predicted this dilemma way back in 2007:

Book publishers, scared of the ease of cut, paste, send, demanded it. Understandable. But few customers wanted locked-down devices, or bizarre file formats that offered nothing over plain text, Word documents or Adobe’s PDF.

In short, free copies are acceptable risks. As an emerging author, unless you’ve got enough cash to sink into publishing hard-copy books or setting up sales through Amazon.com, you’re probably going to post an E-book on your website. Be prepared to take the loss. Readers of new authors aren’t going to pay big bucks for someone they’ve never read before, so your first e-book on the market should probably be considered a free sample. If you get paid for a few copies, fine. Just promote your site and e-book until you are blue in the face and get your readers hooked. Then move to a more secure sales solution.

If you don’t bend a little, you may wind up killing your potential sales before they’ve had a chance to start. Eric Lai of Computerworld has a solid analogy, from the perspective of the potential consumer:

Imagine bringing home a music CD from Best Buy and discovering that it will only play on some of your stereo equipment. Moreover, you’re limited in the number of times you can switch the CD from one stereo to another.

Bottom line? In the interest of building a reader base, don’t get bogged down with DRM. Be snobby with your e-books when you can afford it.

        

fowlerjk business, sle, writing

As a fan of Craigslist, I browse the writing & editing gig sections often. There’s always at least one post asking talented writers & editors to do the work without pay, or for peanuts.

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fowlerjk business, commentary business practices, craigslist, customer service, fairness

Life circumstances have kept me away from the blog. My apologies.

A few posts ago, I wondered if the new iPod Shuffle would become Apple’s own version of the MemoryStick. Proprietary technology has its place, but when you’re dealing with memory or headphones, it’s best to play nice. In the last issue of MacWorld, Dan Moren has similar misgivings:

Alas, no more. The decision to put the controls on the headphones means that unless Apple opens up the controls to third parties, you can’t even play music on the iPod without using Apple’s own earbuds. What happens if, as is also not unheard of, Apple’s stock earbuds break? Your iPod is completely useless until you get another pair of approved headphones. This is not Sparta, this is madness.

        

fowlerjk business, commentary apple, usability

I didn’t bother with Facebook (or facebook, as it is properly named) until grad school, at the urging of my classmates. Since then I’ve had on-and-off periods. But for the past month, I haven’t spent more than five minutes there. Why? The redesign is horrible.

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fowlerjk business, commentary facebook, technology, usability, websites

Jim Wang at Bargaineering has a concise guide to the popular social lending networks. When I first became involved with social lending through Prosper, it was the only shop on the block. Now there are competitors, each offering their own twist to the social lending business model. (One not mentioned in this review is Kiva, which is a charitable lending site. You don’t earn returns on your money  but it’s a good way to help people off their feet.)

I financed our back yard work through Prosper and got an outstanding rate, far below even the local credit unions. I’m considering dropping some money into LendingClub and earning a nice return when the time is right. In either case, I’ve saved (or earned) myself the difference in what the banks would charge (or yield) by borrowing (or lending) directly.

Given the current worries over bank instability, I’m curious to see which way these P2P lending sites go. Will individuals be less likely to trust other individuals, in fear of loans that will default, or will the distrust in banks fuel a rise in P2P lending? Only time will tell.

        

fowlerjk business blogs, lending, money, p2p

In the last of a 4-part series, Penelope Pince provides pointers (not a bad run, eh?) on being a good customer and helping businesses keep costs down. That ultimately saves you money. For example, returning grocery carts to the holding pens–or better still, inside the store–reduces the risk of damage by runaway carts and potential store liability. A few extra seconds of your time could prevent a chain of events that would ultimately cost store customers more.

        

fowlerjk business business, courtesy, money, saving