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| Hearsay: |
I wanted to pull these articles out from the news roundup:
Amazon appears to be trying to lure authors to bypass traditional publishing structures and sell straight to the Kindle by offering a 70% royalty rate. I think this is great, except that Amazon’s involved, which instead makes it skeezy, even if I can’t think how yet. But what I can think of is how clear the slush piles will be! And 70% of $100. Man, that’s like 50 bucks or something! Score! I’m so definitely going to upload my fantasy novel there.
Also, Moby asks whether the publishers trying to punish Amazon for their monopoly by delaying the release of ebooks have done themselves any favours. Answer? No.
The risks here are manifold, but the central fear is that of monopsony—control of a market by a single buyer–wherein Amazon would emerge not only as the only retailer of e-books, but, eventually and far more dramatically, the only buyer. As a result Amazon would potentially be able to dictate prices (pushing wholesale rates below $9.99), build a near-monopoly market share, and–in a true innovation in Amazon’s selling of cheap e-books–make money. And there are of course other risks: parts of the book industry could disintegrate as a result of the quick rise of Amazon as a mega e-book retailer, leaving big publishers without their tried and true methods for creating print blockbusters.
But the large publishers’ chief strategy for preventing such a disaster—delaying of some e-books until months after their print release, a step taken by Simon and Schuster, HarperCollins, Macmillian, Penguin, and Hachette–fails to account for something else altogether: that some consumers are very willing to wait. “Some 30 percent” of those surveyed in the BISG study said they “would wait up to three months to purchase the e-book edition of a book by their favorite author.” Some consumers have always opted to delay buying (paperback releases are the obvious example, but think also of second run movies, as well as cable and rentals, as well as bargain bin LPs). But here consumers have said that they are willing to wait three months, even for books by their “favorite” writers. One wonders how long such consumers would be willing to wait for these books.
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January 22nd, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Agreed. What the publishers are missing is that book readers are becoming ebook readers as soon as they get a kindle.
I know, I got one at Christmas. Can’t imagine reading fiction on paper anymore.
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Once the print publishers have all folded, Amazon will offer slightly more than nothing to the writers.
January 22nd, 2010 at 7:01 pm
“Can’t imagine reading fiction on paper anymore.”
What’s wrong with paper? And what about non-fiction?
Incidentally, has anybody stopped to think what a world of nothing but self-published e-books would actually look like? I imagine a million voices talking at once; some are intelligent, some are stupid but you’ll never know which is which because they’ll all drown each other out.
January 22nd, 2010 at 9:15 pm
The novelty can wear off, Simon. I find that I read both paper books and my Kindle, now. (But, then, since my main form of socialization is going to bookstores, if I didn’t, I’d be even sadder than I already am. *sigh*)
January 23rd, 2010 at 12:46 am
I’m not so sure the novelty will wear of BN. I think the recording industry thought the same thing about MP3’s and look where they are now. Seriously. I think if the publishing houses/industry expect to survive in the future, they need to figure out a way to make the digital age work for them.
Even if Kindle-like ebooks only end up accounting for 30 or 40% of the market, that’s still 30 or 40% that needs to be dealt with.
January 23rd, 2010 at 2:24 pm
There are always predictions about the dire, confused state into which the world would fall if self-publishing were an option; I’m kind of doubting it. These days, talented musicians can get their songs out into the world without waiting for a record deal; there’s a lot of chaff but still ways of hearing the good stuff (local music blogs and alt-weekly journalists highlighting standouts in their cities, which trickle up to national outlets and DJs in other areas that still have decent public & college radio, etc.). A few have even used this route to gain prominence (Yeasayer and Black Kids come to mind as two bands I heard before they were signed that have since become prominent).
I think this is a great opportunity for book critics/journalists to offer us something we can’t do ourselves, and I think word of mouth probably means more now than however much e.g. Border’s shoves certain books down our throats (did anyone actually READ that “women of ames” book–or whatever it was called–they were required to try to sell everyone who came into the store, regardless of what they were looking for?)..
I’m sure good editors are invaluable. But I have a hard time pinpointing what exactly it is that publishers do to benefit the reader, especially when I read such depressing things as “leaving big publishers without their tried and true methods for creating print blockbusters.” Think your industry/business has an inherent right to survive forever churning out predictable products and not adapting to external changes because, hey, it worked 20 years ago? Bzzzt.
And they’re forgetting the ways a lot of people get their books these days if they’re willing to wait–libraries and used bookstores. Publishers: stop assuming that every ebook you sell is a hardcover book you don’t sell, and that it should be priced accordingly, and look at maximizing your total revenue.
January 23rd, 2010 at 4:27 pm
Dire predictions have a way of coming true, especially when there’s a lack of foresight at the top. The problem with chaff is that it tends to bury good work. In a world dominated by self-publishing you would see a deluge of Twilight fan fiction, Harry Potter fan fiction, Dan Brown fan fiction, plus any variety of miserablist memoir and unicorn porn you could possibly imagine. There were would be no way, EVEN WITH word of mouth, to find a path through the jungle.
Publishers can continue to exist by giving the work the best thing they’ve always given; their endorsement. The publishers stamp means that someone else has read this and finds it worthy of your time and your money. That’s how publishers can continue to exist.