He's a pirate!

I reached last post's link through another one, sent by a high school teacher (I said I wasn't joking about those attitudes WRT young readers; not hers, but...). One other link in that collection is this.

Basic recap? Very first paragraph:

Economic crisis, e-books' VAT at 21%, drop in textbook subventions, less investment in libraries, lack of book awareness policies and, above everything else, piracy

Above. Everything. Else.

VAT of the main modernization of reading habits at 7 times the tax of ordinary books pre-crisis (still over 5x). EU mandatory TAX, so it's not quite the fault of the national politicos. Who, nonetheless, risk EU sanctions WRT the energy market but won't even dream of touching ebooks.

But the fault is pirates.

Ebooks were the only area with growth, at 8.1% [...] second highest in Europe, but insufficient considering the effort and cost of digitizing and putting that content at reader's reach

Bullshit. Getting ebooks in Spain is above and beyond the nightmare I ranted about here. Way above and beyond. Digitizing is publisher speak for "I pushed a button on the Wordpro". Unless you still keep old metal plates you haven't digitzed since the 60s. Also, yes, single-digit growth is way too low. Which means it's starting... going to be fun. Let's see what certain seller says around Christmas.

Another touchy subject at the event has been what measures can be taken to stop the allmighty Amazon

Eisler and Konrath have been having enough fun WRT religious overtones in amazon-bashing. I won't go further there. Right after the previous...

who in the last weeks' conforontation with Hachette has even offered 100% of its sales to writers, for as long as disputes last. A standing Mallafré [publishers' rep] considers "unsustainable" and bordering "unloyal competition"

I'm not sure about the wording, but some actions around "unloyal competition" are illegal, here, and trigger something similar to what "unloyal opposition" could trigger in politics in the US. See what he's playing with? Also "unsustainable"? To whom? Again, check Author Earnings. Economically, amazon could ditch Hachette today. Legally, could have done it in March.

Hachette? I do hope you're joking. You are, right?

And, mind you, he does reach some sort of self-critique. Not much, but it's there, right at the end. But...

Amazon! Piracy! Poop!

Also: Agency pricing saves the day!

Take care.