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Monster Hunter International, published by Baen Books.
Though sales of ebooks and ereader devices are rising, DRM has proven to be a problem at times. In January, popular ebook retailer Fictionwise had a dilemma on its hands when one of its DRM providers terminated its contract, thereby causing many customers to lose access to their legally purchased ebooks and Fictionwise scrambling to find a solution. While it was commendable of Fictionwise to work on their customers’ behalf to find a solution, the DRM was still undeniably a problem. More recently, Amazon.com angered many customers by deleting purchased copies of 1984 from their Kindles. Though the customers were given refunds and Amazon revealed that the copies were published on the Kindle store by a company who didn’t have the right to do so, many customers were still bitter. The lingering anger caused Jeff Bezos to issue an apology and even prompted two college students to file a lawsuit against Amazon. In all fairness, it should be noted that Jeff Bezos had repeatedly stated that it is the publishers who insist on encoding their Kindle releases with DRM. He has repeatedly stated that Amazon is “DRM agnostic.”
Also, Sony has recently announced its abandonment of its proprietary BBeB format to the open Epub format. Although this will give consumers a great deal of freedom as to how and on what devices they can read their ebooks, the ebooks will still be encoded with DRM. Whether or not this more open form of DRM causes problems for consumers in the future remains to be seen.
With all this in mind, there is a publisher that is going against the industry norms regarding DRM encoded ebooks. Baen Books, a science fiction/fantasy publisher, offers DRM free ebooks for sale on its website. An exploration of Baen’s website reveals that its ebooks are available in a wide variety of formats, including Epub, Mobipocket/Kindle, and Microsoft Reader. Baen, the literary home of such popular sci-fi/fantasy novelists as Marion Zimmer Bradley, P.N. Elrod, and Robert A. Heinlin, also price their ebooks lower than the current industry standard of $9.99. A perusal of the site revealed ebooks for as little as $4.00. A download of Monster Hunter International proved to be quick, and the book was easily transferred to Sony’s ereader software. In addition, the publisher also sells electronic ARCs (Advance Reading Copies) for $15.00 each before the actual physical books are released. They also have a service called webscriptions, whereby ebooks are offered in serialized form before the actual release date. Baen also offers physical copies of its books for sale. These sales are conducted via links to third party retailers such as Amazon.com.
There is a downside, of course. If you’re not a fan of science fiction or fantasy novels, you’re not likely to find anything of interest on Baen’s website. If you are, however, purchasing ebooks directly from Baen may be perfect for you. Whether or not you enjoy these types of novels, it is interesting to see a publisher offering DRM free ebooks for little or no cost, and seemingly doing well.
Is it possible that the major publishers could learn a lesson here?
Comments
Although Baen Books certainly has the best record of selling non-DRM e-books in multiple formats, the National Acadamies Press gives them away in .pdf format. What's more, they've mentioned more than once that this policy actually helps them sell more books printed on paper. As someone who works with multiple references, this policy makes sense. It's much simpler and easier to decide that a reference is worth the purchase price after using it a few times.
Both Baen and the National Acadamies Press are niche publishers, but they have identified their niches very well, and are industry leaders in the profitable use of e-books. And make no mistake. It's profitable for both of them - they've been at e-book publishing long enough to not be doing it either as a loss-leader or strictly as advertising.
Nice article. Random House earlier this year instituted a Free Library called Suduvu, something Baen did 10 years ago. So if you see Random House one of the biggest getting into the act, you know the others will not be far behind. What's funny is that Baen's habit of having low price ebooks, a free library and sample chapters of books online is that it's just the book equivalent to test driving a car. Most people peruse through the book in a bookstore or read one free from public libraries and Baen recognized that and applied it to the internet. The kicker is that DRM hasn't prevented one book from being pirated. All you need is a paper copy of the book, a scanner and an internet connection and you can pirate that book.
Nice article. Random House earlier this year instituted a Free Library called Suduvu, something Baen did 10 years ago. So if you see Random House one of the biggest getting into the act, you know the others will not be far behind. What's funny is that Baen's habit of having low price ebooks, a free library and sample chapters of books online is that it's just the book equivalent to test driving a car. Most people peruse through the book in a bookstore or read one free from public libraries and Baen recognized that and applied it to the internet. The kicker is that DRM hasn't prevented one book from being pirated. All you need is a paper copy of the book, a scanner and an internet connection and you can pirate that book.
Laura: Thank you for your comment. I browsed the National Academies Press website, and I have to say that I was amazed at how many of their books were available as free downloads. I find it interesting that they have found this helpful in selling physical books, but I do wonder if this approach would work for all publishers. I'm no fan of DRM, but many people would be happy to download the latest Stephen King novel for free and never buy the actual printed edition, for example. I can relate, though. I myself have downloaded free ebooks from sites like Project Gutenberg, read enough of the book to see if I would like it, and then either deleted it and never bought it or went to the bookstore and purchased the physical copy to add to my home library. I've saved some money over the years by doing this. In fact, I downloaded an ebook last week (This one had DRM, but it was less than $10.00, so it wasn't a big deal) just to sample it to see if I would like it. I did, so I'll buy it.
Boballab: Thank you for the positive feedback regarding the article. You're right, DRM has never prevented anyone from pirating anything. Many people can and have cracked many various forms of DRM. (Disclaimer: I am not advocating that anyone do so. Cracking DRM is illegal.) Ultimately, I think publishers will have to go the way of the music labels and lose DRM as ebooks become more popular. I could be wrong, but I think a backlash worse than what we saw earlier this summer with the Kindle is coming. Thanks for the information about Random House. I'm going to look that up.
Jefferson Barbour: by any chance have you stopped over at Baen's Bar, Eric Flint has a number of articles showing where the money is and the publishers point of view. With real world bottom line figures, some of that info may be good for a follow up article, also you'll find most of the baen authors very approachable if you wanted interviews or quotes, and of course the main gal Toni is also very easy to chat with on the bar
I took awhile and a lot of lost customers for the recording industry to learn. If they had been smart they could have done what Napster did for a fraction of the cost and the money would have went to their bottom line and to the artists. At the same time they could have attracted more sales from people trying a new artist out. $.99 isn't a lot of money compared to having to spend $15.00 for a CD. The whole DRM fiasco actually costed them money in the long run. What a lot of publishers got to learn is that ebooks and paper books can coexist like a microwave does with a conventional stove and that just like microwaves if priced right people will buy them. Who is going to go to all the trouble of stealing something that is only worth $6 and can be shared like any other file like the ones you got from Baen and your dealing with a company that has a reputation to maintain or they lose business. Downloading a pirated version you also take the chance of getting something beside the book.
The best example I can use against DRM proponets is JK Rowlings last Harry Potter book. Ms. Rowling's publisher didn't put out an ebook version of it and less then 8 hrs after the book went on sale there was a pirated version on the web. Someone bought it, scanned it in to their computer and put it on the web. That book still went to number 1 on the bestseller lists.
Boballab: I agree. The music labels blew it when they decided to sue Napster instead of finding a way to innovate and encourage customers to make paying for downloads attractive. By the time they finally did make an attempt, it was too late. I also believe that ebooks and physical books can coexist, as long as publishers learn from the mistakes of the music labels. There are some books I'm fine buying in ebook form, but not all. I would never be satisfied with just an ebook copy of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" for example, but having a copy of the latest horror novel by (fill in the blank) is an entirely different matter. The latter I'll probably only read once and then forget about it. The former I'll read many times over the years, and I would want a nice hardcover copy to add to my library.
I remember reading about that. If the product is good enough, people will pay for it. DRM never stopped piracy. That's one thing that led to the mess that the music industry is in. Releasing CDs by cookie-cutter artists who only had one or two listenable songs on a CD didn't cut it. Hence, the advent of Napster.
Dan G: I'm sorry it's taken me so long to acknowledge your post. Somehow I overlooked it the other day. Your ideas are good. I'll definitely work on doing that for a future article. Like I said before, I'm impressed with Baen after browsing their website and downloading an ebook.
Glad to see more good press getting out about Baen - I've been reading their ebooks for several years now (though not since their implementation of same), and have made ebook and deadtree purchases of novels from them based on what I've read via either the Baen Free Library or the Baen Free CDs which have been bound into a number of new-release hardcovers over the years (and can currently be found online, as well). The CDs contain entire series of books, both by the author of the book it's bound into and by several other Baen writers as well, and per Baen's own published rules may be freely copied and given away - IMO, they are a GREAT way to hook readers on authors they've never tried before, and as I've said, I've purchased books based on reading these CD freebies. Check 'em out, I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Eric: Thank you for your comments. I was unaware of Baen's CDs, but I like the fact they're doing this. Having DRM free copies of ebooks stored on a CD would completely eliminate my concerns about possibly losing access to my ebooks at some point in the future. I also like the fact that Baen allows them to be copied and distributed, and I find it interesting that Baen's sales of physical books and paid ebook downloads haven't suffered. I'll be looking into this for a future article, once I've finished my research.
(respose Part 1)
Ok, there are a few things I would like to mention here regarding Baen for you to use when you do your future
article. Baen's attitude is guided by the following two ideas:
- They do not treat their customers as criminals
- They do not treat their customers as idiots
I wrote a whole spiel about this about this over on blogspot, but in brief:
DRM is used when the publishers just _know_ that everyone wants to steal their precious works.
In other words, they use DRM because they think you are criminals. Do _you_ want to do business with people
who start out with the assumption that you are a criminal? Neither do I.
(response part 2)
Now we all recognize the fact that it does not cost as much to produce an ebook as it does to produce a paperback book ... much less a hardback book. And yet, many publishers of ebooks will try to charge hardback book prices for them. Granted that a lot of the work is common to all distriubtion methods (editing, etc). But once you've got the final version, printing and distribution costs just do not apply to ebooks the way they do to hardback books. So ... why are they charging hardcover prices for ebooks? Because they think we are idiots. Baen does not.
Finally, aside from the Free Library, and the CDs, and the ebook "webscriptions", Baen has one more gimmick. If you go to their web site and look at their publication schedule you will find that most of the books have sample chapters available. And by that they don't mean just the first chapter. It ranges from about five chapters up to around nine. More than enough to get hooked on the story.
I'm one of the 'Baen stable' of authors and I'd like to comment.
DRM is about more than 'publishers who just know their precious book is going to be stolen.' That attitude is much more apt to come from writers (and even more so from their agents) than the publishers. People in the publishing industry, at least people who are decision makers, are really not very versed on tech. They use a Blackberry well enough but ask them how it works and they just sort of boggle.
Therefore they depend upon 'experts' to explain technology to them. And the 'experts' that have money to blow buying them lunch while explaining why DRM is wonderful are... people selling DRM packages.
Always, always, always follow the money. There is NO MONEY in being a DRM free proponent. If S&S (which Baen publishes through) goes to what is called, in the industry, the Webscriptions model, John Ringo, author, gets bumpkiss.
Despite that, I'm a strong anti-DRM proponent. Which makes me rare among authors.
John Ringo: Thank you for your input. It's always good to hear from actual authors, since they are in a position to give more of an insider's viewpoint. Having personally lost access to legally purchased ebooks due to problems with DRM, I must say that I'm no fan. Anything that causes my books to disappear and causes me to have to purchase the same book more than once is bad, in my opinion. However, I acknowledge that authors need to and deserve to be fairly compensated for their work. What is the answer to this dilemma? I don't know. I daresay that if I did know, I'd be a rich man. From what you say, it sounds like the publishers are out of touch with what the average ebook consumer wants. This isn't surprising. Thank you again for your comments, and please feel free to comment again.
Richard: Thank you for your comments. While everyone involved in the production of a book (author, illustrator, editor, etc.) deserve to be fairly compensated, many ebooks are priced unreasonably high. When both the ebook edition of a book and the hardcover edition cost $25.00, something is definitely wrong. (I saw this on an ebook site recently. I have to say, I was stunned.) Regardless of who insists on the implementation of DRM, I'm sure we can all agree that those who insist on its use don't have the best interests of the consumers in mind.
Thank you to everyone who has posted comments regarding this article. They all have been constructive and helpful. I initially learned about Baen due to some comments that were posted on another article that I wrote, and I've uncovered a wealth of interesting and positive information about the company. I will be writing a follow up article in the near future about this publisher, and I hope you, my readers, find it to be as informative and interesting (or more) as this one. The one goal I hope to achieve with my column is to cover all aspects of the book industry, from the latest releases by top selling authors to the little known independent publishers who are operating out of the limelight. If I can encourage one person to begin reading, so much the better. I plan to cover diverse topics in the book industry in the future, and I hope that all of you continue to read and enjoy.
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