Scribd put on a white hat?

[andygates]

Scribd, the ebook host, has started doing a profit-sharing downloads-for-sale deal with authors.  Given that their previous entry into my thunkosphere was "waily waily, some ass has uploaded my magnum opus" from minor authors, this sounds pretty cool.  Anything that isn't device-locked and fitted with a killswitch is a big win in my (e)book.

Would you writery folks use it? 

Comments

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Books will run and run; there's a parallel for book printing on demand that needs to get affordable. I'm still waiting on the reader that shares a paperback's size, shape, readable area, weight and robustness. That would be a killer.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Ooh, he's gone Emeritus.

[carldem.livejournal.com]

Books have much going for them.
I do love having digital files that I can search quickly for a phrase, and having scans of rare or out-of-print stuff. Although the latter is making a serious dent in the re-sale market IMO.

Most noticable are either small print houses (which happens in the occult circles, some genius actually has something exciting and can only afford a ego-run of 2-500 copies or else get the books heart cut out for mainstreaming) or really old stuff (which is either rare or in some foreign lingo w/ translations that you would use for dunny paper).

Find the digital stuff a pain to read on screen though. Need at least two screens to actually work with it as reference.

[thudthwacker.livejournal.com]

Aside from the DRM nonsense, how do you rate the Kindle? The readable area seems a little low (well, unless you consider the DX, but that runs afoul of the size constraint), but otherwise it seems not so bad.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Seems okay, but alas, the DRM nonsense includes region-restriction nonsense. I haven't seen one in the flesh!

[estaratshirai.livejournal.com]

I like the hardware but not the possessiveness shown in the execution. Which is to say that I own one and am all about putting docs and pdfs from non-Amazon places on it, so, go Scribd.