Pubilshers and EBooks

The publishers say they want a universal format, but they don’t work together. That’s problem one. Problem two is that most people say they hate DRM, but that’s not the issue. The issue is that if I buy a book, like Drive, it needs to be portable. I bought it from Barnes and Noble yesterday and it’s on my iPhone. I can port it to my PC, or my iTouch, all of which share the BN reader. But if I moved to an Android device, what then? What if I had a Kindle?

The issue is that publishers ought to be setting up accounts for users, and getting sales information back from retailers. Then if my Kindle dies and I get a Nook, I can easily contact the publisher, and have them send me a Nook version, or have BN do it. Heck charge me some nominal amount, $0.25, to get it in a few format. It’s my account, make it a purchasable account so I won’t be tempted to give the account info to other people, and we’d have this problem solved.

I can’t believe that Amazon or BN think their their devices are where the money is. It’s got to be in the content, which means you need to make it more valuable for all devices, not just your own. Especially as you are getting into hardware wars for no reason.

I’ve noted it before. Amazon has a great headstart, but if they sold books for the Nook and Sony readers, they’d double their market. If BN sold for the Kindle, same thing. Heck, make it possible for in store transfers. Work to make things more open and you’ll all benefit.