To have given honest feedback to my friend

[Moknicker]

He asked for it. Said he was starting a business to sell non-fiction books over the web by the page and wanted to know if I thought it was a good idea. I said i didnt think so (i explained the reasons but prob not relevant here ). Now his wife has called up to say that I had no cause to be so negative etc etc and that he is depressed and down.

A bit of history - this guy is being made redundant. having trouble finding a job and hence looking to start something on his own.

Everyone (DH, Sis) etc are putting the guilt trip - AIBU to have been honest?

This is a potentially ok idea for academic texts etc, but yanbu as long as you were considerate in your feedback!

YANBU He asked you for feedback and you gave it.

I also don't see how he is going to manage copyright issues for all these texts. Or how he will access them in the first place as it is likely to be the more obscure texts that would be in demand. Also there are on line publishers by subscription who already provide access to e.g. legal texts.

YANBU, he did ask!

Does he have a specialist background in this sort of thing? I think e-books will increasingly offer the option to buy individual chapters as time goes on... but the contractual issues are v. complex and I can't see many publishers dealing with a one-man band when their time is taken up negotiating with Google and Apple.

Anyway, the critical thing is that you gave your honest opinion, which may very well save him from sinking his redundancy payment into an unsuccessful start up business. It's sad that he's feeling low after being made redundant, but you being over enthusiastic about a poor business concept won't make him feel any better medium term. It's always a bummer when you think you have a great idea and someone points out the flaw but you thank them in the end.

YANBU! Not a good time to be a small start up publisher - no one quite knows where e-books are going, but getting into digital publishing as a start up would be madness right now. Maybe you can find some other way of being supportive? Encouraging someone to sink their redundancy payments into a bad idea is not really 'supportive' in the long run...

I work for an academic publisher (so, non-fiction) and we wouldn't go for this; we have specialist aggregators who do this kind of work on our behalf. There are companies who already fulfil a similar role on a large scale basis and the copyright fees for individual titles would be in most cases entirely prohibitive for a start up business.