Why Harlequin needs to try DRMless e-books
Again and again I’ve urged big publishers like Harlequin to drop DRM—both a sales and literary toxin. Yes, people do pirate, and I won’t cover that up. Still, what’s more important? Piracy prevention or making money? One reason I went with Twilight Times’ Books for The Solomon Scandals was that its publisher dislikes DRM as much as I do.
Now, from DearAuthor, comes a nice reminder of the perils of using DRM. Jane wonders if Ellora’s Cave and other successful e-publishers would have thrived if they’d insisted on locked books. She tells of the horrors that DRM has caused a sister of a friend of hers. This technology victim owned a Sony Reader and wanted to read books from Fictionwise. Jane futilely tried to educate her in the use of a conversion program that would strip the DRM away. Of course, that wouldn’t even have addressed another problem—namely, that the DMCA says it’s illegal to circumvent DRM in the first place.
Just when will publishers catch on? "It’s probably safe to say that epublished books, free of DRM, are pirated at a higher rate than other published books yet both sides parts of the publishing side of the equation are making money." Jane writes. "If there is one company that could undertake to experiment with DRM free ebooks, it would be Harlequin. It’s contracts, I believe, are all encompassing in terms of the rights it acquires when it buys a book. It could release some percentage of e-books with DRM and without and track the comparable sales. Harlequin is so innovative in other ways (releasing books early, digitizing its entire frontlist, enabling the one click bundles) that it could really be a leader in this regard." Exactly.
Related: Some earlier TeleBlog items mentioning Harlequin and DRM.
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