How long until J.K. Rowling wises up—now that Danielle Steel will be available in E?
So when will J.K. Rowling succumb and authorize legal editions of Harry Potter in E? One more holdout has surrendered, joining Tom Clancy and John Gresham in seeing the light.
The latest Danielle Steel book, One Day at a Time, along with 70 others, will be available as an e-book starting Tuesday, as Paul Biba has noted. No longer will her fans have to pirate Ms. Steel to enjoy her on their screens. Of course, I’d love to know why four titles will still not reach E. But this is still definite progress.
The end result? More e-reader gizmos and other gadgets sold—and more possibilities for e-book sales by other writers in places suffering from the dwindling number of p-bookstores. In fact, since E broadens the audience for books, could it be that it’s anti-author for the elite practitioners of the trade to diss e-books?
February 21st, 2009 at 4:30 am
John Gresham expounded the famous law of bestsellerdom “Bad novels drive out good.” He was the great-great-great grandnephew of Sir Thomas Gresham, with his famous economic dictum that “Bad money drives out good.”
No offense intended for the talented author John Grisham.
February 21st, 2009 at 5:43 am
Just go to [DMCA-dangerous stuff], Rowling’s there for free!
February 21st, 2009 at 8:59 am
Hi, Chris. For legal reasons, I had to remove that pointer. Sorry! But meanwhile you’ve come up with a terrific illustration of the risks of NOT authorizing legal editions. J.K. should get Potter on the Net for free, or the piracy will continue!
Once she succumbs, this just might be as big a boost for e-books as Oprah was!
David
February 21st, 2009 at 9:02 am
Garson: Never knew of the Gresham connection. Thanks for filling in the gap! David
February 21st, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Are the Tolkiens still idiots on this front, too?
February 22nd, 2009 at 1:44 am
Well, the Tolkiens do have some reason to be bitter about putting their work out in new formats and media. Thirty years ago, J.R.R. Tolkien sold the movie rights to Lord of the Rings for a pittance, convinced that he had put one over on the studios because he felt Lord of the Rings was entirely unfilmable. Thus, in the here and now, Tolkien’s estate (headed by the aging, rather conservative son of J.R.R., Christopher Tolkien) was entirely bypassed by the motion picture rights gravy train—a train which pulled right into the station of Saul Zaentz (who is also the man who arguably ripped off Peter S. Beagle in payment for the script he did to the animated Lord of the Rings movie, but that’s another story).
It’s hard to blame them for wanting to hold onto the Tolkien books as tightly as possible. They’re all they have left. And being of the older generation, Christopher Tolkien may not even clearly understand e-books.
I suspect that there may well be some thawing of the e-book possibilities after Christopher Tolkien dies and a younger generation takes over the estate. We’ll just have to wait and see.
February 22nd, 2009 at 4:21 am
Yeah, but it doesn’t make sense to be bitter about the money, and leave some on the table - given that these will clearly sell.
Also rather petulant, given it was his dad with the talent and the decision to do it - a smart one, too from his point of view, as if he held on to it, he would not have had the cash, and been long dead (and poorer) before it happened.
February 22nd, 2009 at 12:22 pm
On the Tolkien front, remember the Ace version of LoTR that came out through a copyright glitch with no payment to Tolkien pere at all (as I understand it). Which was why he made some small changes to the Ballantine edition and made it the official version, along with a personal note on the cover.
Copyright issues are not limited to eBooks, although eBooks make copying a bit easier.
As far as Danielle Steel is concerned, she’s living proof that different readers have different tastes. At least if they’re reading, there’s hope.
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com