Comments

Fabulous Cathy - thanks for posting. Maybe Dr. T. could do a "business as a ecosystem/environmental/conservation model"!!!

Posted by Freeman at December 6, 2004 7:07 AM

Wasn't sure where else to post this "rant." You can move it somewhere else if you decide to put it on the site.

I was quite taken with the slides summarizing the work of Juan Enriquez ("As the Future Catches You"), so much so that I went to Amazon.com to download the book. I downloaded it and found I couldn't print it, meaning that I have to read it from a computer screen (Aghh!!!). I notice that many e-books do not allow the user to print the book. This is maddening and insane!!! If the music industry could come to terms with iTunes and allow us to make CDs from music that we purchase on-line, why can't we make a paper print-out of these books??? This would make e-books much more practical and accessable opening up enourmous opportunities for authors to share their work globally (I order ebooks because I live overseas).

The Tom Peters web site is exemplary in publishing slide presentations that can be printed and downloaded. It brings me back to the site regularly to see what is new and it's a great source of information and inspiration. When is the publishing industry going to "get it?" As Enriquez says, the informaiton gains value when it is shared and the fastest and easiest way to share information today is electronically (but people still like to read from paper). Suggest that Enriquez speak to his publisher about a more enlightened approach to rights on e-books.

Posted by S Detmer at December 6, 2004 8:47 AM

Freeman, I'm sure Tom has seen your suggestion by now. He's off on health care these days, so I don't know if he'll act on it.

S. Detmer, I'm glad you took this opportunity to bring up your topic, whether it follows here or not. Tom's committed to the ideal of providing a great deal here for free, thank you for your appreciation.

Many magazines and newspapers allow me to get printable online articles for a nominal fee, and I gladly pay. It works just like iTunes. I can pay for only what I need, and I get access to the worldwide range of newspapers that Tom is likely to quote from. I couldn't possibly have subscriptions to them all. Advantage to the newspaper: vast good will, previously untapped revenue. I'd be curious to know how profitable this service is to, say, the New York Times.

We did a Cool Friend interview with Seth Godin, right after his book The Ideavirus had come out. He told us he'd given it away online, printable, for two months prior to its release in traditional book form. 500,000 people took the offer. Everybody said he'd destroyed the market for the book, so he released it in a special souvenir edition--costing over 30 dollars with the amazon.com discount. On its second day for sale at amazon.com, it was ranked number five in sales there. Read the whole interview, if you like:
http://www.tompeters.com/cool_friends/content.php?note=005910.php

I think it was Seth who said that the Grateful Dead never really took off as the huge phenomenon they were until they started urging concert-goers to steal their music. People who heard bootleg tapes went out and bought the commercial versions. I do that: If somebody gives me a copy of a CD and I really like it, I want to own the nicely packaged commercial edition. I imagine you will buy hard copies of ebooks you've read that you judge worth owning. This is what the provider of the service you describe doesn't get: If you were very happy about your purchase, you'd tell everybody. You might give the printout to somebody else, but then that person might buy the hard copy, too. Instead, you are here on tompeters.com telling the world not to use the service.

It is time for everybody to catch on to this--the viral effect of giving it away for free, or allowing people to buy part and not have to go in for the whole package deal, is excellent business.

Posted by cathy at December 6, 2004 6:48 PM