I have to say, I’m kind of a fangirl of Hillel Italie, the AP reporter who covers publishing, books, and all things literary. His article covering the BEA over the weekend gave me a massive pile of things to ponder, from the amount of money in publishing, and how it might be redirected, to the future of local booksellers, and whether the “Literary Liberation” stickers that will be sent to booksellers will be cool.
The CEO of Penguin Group USA, David Shanks, is quoted as saying, “I think when this is over, we’re going to do some soul searching…. There are people in this hall who have spent way more than a million dollars at a time when we all should be pinching pennies.” Citing “harsh numbers” and declining book purchases, the tone of the BEA was rather grim, according to Italie.
The two parts that caught my eye: Jeff Bezos hawking the Kindle, which is to be expected. Folks at his speech were apparently hoping he’d unveil new gadgetry like Jobs at the Apple Unveilings Of Pomp and Circumstance (t-minus 5 days until 7 June, yo!) and Bezos mostly barked the evangelist script of Kindle yay, Kindle revolutionary, drink the Kindle-aid, it’s good for you.
As someone who has had a gulping bucket of the Kindle aid, lemme just say: I’ve noticed a very very odd prejudice on my part when it comes to book prices, and ebook prices. Let me start by saying I am well aware that I am utterly barmy for thinking this way, and yes, I do want authors to get paid and get paid well, but at the same time, I also suspect that I am not the only one who thinks this way, even for the moment before clicking “Buy Now.”
In the realm of books, I think matter matters. Actual three dimensional matter affects people’s perceptions of price and value – it does for me anyway. Say there’s a new book out. The hardback could be $25, or $29. I rarely, for that reason, buy hardbacks. I think of all the other things I could buy with that money and I wait out the paperback or trek down to the library to borrow it. With the added weight of a hardback in my bag, and the fact that I read while commuting, paying more for something that adds to the overall heft of my purse is not, in my mind, value. I harbor a general dislike of hardbacks. Books are all about portability. I definitely hurt the local booksellers who stock mostly hardbacks, because I rarely if ever buy them. I think the last time I bought a hardback, it was a gift, probably for my dad. Unless it weighs eight pounds and comes with a free box of Doan’s Pills, my dad doesn’t consider it a real book.
So it would make sense that I’d be eager for eBooks. They are, of all things, portable. They weigh as much as the device itself: whether the device holds 100 or 2, it’s the same amount of heft.
So why do I dislike ebook buying? Because while I have no problems paying $5-$7 for a paperback book, I find myself affected by matter prejudice, because an ebook is physically nothing. I get a little shiver of “Damn that’s a lot” when I pay $5 for an ebook. I know, I know, I am making no sense. And my little shiver of “damn” is not going to stop me from buying ebooks, so fear not, epublishers. But the fact is, when I browse the Kindle-Aid store, and the newest books and the oldest ebooks, like Kinsale’s Midsummer Moon, are over $7.00 – $7.19 to be specific – I am startled. Now, $7.19 for a paperback of Midsummer Moon? I’m down. $7.19 for the ebook, and I have to overcome an internal sense of, ‘Oh, my gosh, that’s so much, it’s hardly a deal at all.’
If I think about it economically, $7.19 doesn’t make a lot of room for the author, the publisher, and the myriad of other people whose incomes are hooked into the publication of a book to get paid and paid fairly, let alone well. So I click and buy and enjoy my book. I do make the purchase. But I blink at the price.
Ray Bradbury is quoted in Italie’s article as saying during a speech last Friday, “There is no future for e-books because they are not books…. E-books smell like burned fuel.” I disagree with him there – I’d rather avoid spending the fuel to go to the bookstore, even the one that’s 3 miles from my house, because holy shit, gas is $3.75 a gallon in NJ, and we won’t even discuss Connecticut (well past $4.20, if you’re interested) or, and say this in a hushed whisper like you’re talking about something truly awful, gas prices in Manhattan. E-books don’t smell like burned fuel to me; they smell like fuel saved, especially since I shop digitally and don’t heft my booty out of my chair.
But I do question the future of ebooks for people like me who have to overcome (I’m working on it, srsly) a sense that similar prices for ebooks vs. paperbacks is unfair, because while $7 for the three-dimensional paper and matter of a paperback is ok in my mind, because of the tangible item I’ve purchased, $7 for the digital words that transmit through the ether and then get deleted from my device (though stored at Kindle-Aid Headquarters) seems too much.
That said, I’m fascinated that at the same convention, there’s Bezos hawking the revolution away from paper, while American Booksellers Association announced the “Literary Liberation” movement that will attempt to “build communities nationwide” by shipping “cards, stickers and other materials” (all made of …wait for it… paper) to independent local booksellers. Cross purposes, perhaps? Is it possible to resurrect the paper bookstore and advance the ebook? I suspect so – though I ponder if more bookstores will have to become community centers – coffee, books, discussions, etc – in part to accommodate those who look for books and socializing, using the socialization to further additional sales. What do you think?
Take a look at the Baen Books Webscription model of electronic publishing.They release 5-6 books a month.Buying an entire month’s output costs about $15 a month.Individual ebooks cost about $5 a copy.You can buy subscriptions for several months output,like a magazine.They also sell eARCs at a premium,depending on the book,up to 3 months before dead tree editions come out.The ebooks are available in multiple formats.Oh,and no DRM.None.
I have no idea what the financials are like,but apparently it’s been successful enough that a few other publishers have made their books available through the same avenue.
The advantages,as I see them,are that the books never go out of print,are available to fans in any part of the globe with access to a credit card and an Internet connection,and enable them to keep a higher percentage of the take.
Anecdotal evidence also suggests that most of the people who patronise them also buy hard copies in addition to the ebooks.It’s a situation I expect to continue until readers get much better.
So why aren’t bigger publishers using this model?Or wouldn’t it work outside the SFF genre?
Arduous and lengthy research on the internet – clicking on the first link Google threw up – suggested that out of every $10 a book costs, $4.50 goes to the bookshop/retailer and $1 to the wholesaler.
I’ve no idea if that’s true, but it doesn’t seem impossible.
Equally, you can imagine that there must be costs in having an e-publishing division, and that possibly e-published books would need more marketing.
Still, it just seems that e-publishing ought to be cheaper, and it’s hard to see why publishers wouldn’t want to pass that saving on, and grow the market. Be interesting to know why they don’t.
Haven’t bought an e-book reader yet, but I’d love to own one. I’ve looked at them the last two Christmases. And I’m a complete Luddite, who can’t get my head round the idea of a phone that isn’t attached to a wall.
Thank you, Emmy. That’s extremely helpful.
See I think about book prices the same way I think about movie tickets – is the amount of enjoyment hours I am going to get out of this worth the price I’m going to pay? Add that to a lack of bookshelf space from moving every 2 years and e-books are just fine as the way of the future.
But it’s not just the story you’re buying when you buy a print book. You’re also buying the right to resell the book. With an ebook, you technically aren’t even allowed to share the book with a friend (unless you let them borrow your reader) because every time you send the file, you make a copy, and making copies is a violation of copyright.
Yup, when my Samhain books come out in print, they’ll cost more than twice what they do in ebook format, but I’ll make half the money per copy. Every time I see an ebook for nearly the same cost as the print version, I cringe, and wonder whether the author is still making that same 7-10% royalty off of what essentially costs the publisher nothing.
How so? It isn’t as if they have to pay for warehousing, or for actual people to pack the books. The entire transaction can be done by computers. I honestly can’t imagine ebooks account for a loss to Amazon. I would rather think that they could mark them up $1-1.50 above what they pay per copy, and still make a profit. Especially since the costs of formatting to their proprietary reader probably fall to the publisher.
Or if you live a three hour drive from the nearest actual bookstore, and aren’t interested in what’s on the spinny rack at the grocery. Last 15 books I’ve read are ebooks. Out of those, I only felt I didn’t get my money’s worth twice. Ask me how many print books I feel ripped off by, I dare ya.
I’m a very tech savvy person, but I cannot fathom ebooks (except for short stories) and ebook readers. The fact that the cost is equivalent to a paperback means that the publisher/Amazon is getting more money, not the author. Also, I don’t find reading a large amount of text on the screen very enjoyable- it is very strenuous on the eyes, and I know many people who have to print long electronic text entries to relieve eye strain. Also, the addition of yet another piece of tech equipment (laptop, ipod, cellphone, etc.) just seems like overkill.
I’ll pay for a paperback for the convenience that it’s bound, won’t hurt my eyes as much trying to read it, and the fact that I can get something back for it if the book isn’t my cup of tea.
(long post, sorry)
I’ve finally tried about ten e-books, and here are my chief complaints:
1. I don’t know the size before I buy it. Yes, I get a general word count (WTH does “over 30,000 words”- Loose ID novel size- mean? 30,003, or 300,000? no way of knowing till I buy the book), but I don’t know how long the story will be, if they fall on which side of the word count (the min or max), and I can’t flip through and see that those last fifteen pages on file are just excerpts for other books and the first seven were nonsense pages (again, until I buy the book).
2. I’m not buying the Kindle or whatever other e-reader until it accepts ALL formats and I can save the e-books on a USB or something so that I can have more room without deleting books. Also, a laptop is not the most cozy curl-up, though I think I’d be more ok with an e-reader.
3. I want to be able to share e-books or re-sell them. I don’t want to have to loan my friend- who would then loan another friend, and another, until six months pass- my laptop (or an e-reader if I had it). And let me say, sharing creates sales. Take JR Ward for example. I read her book, and (among other things) lent my friend my copy to read. She loved it and bought the series (well, I did as a b-day gift for her, but a new set of books were bought). She lent her copies to another friend, who bought her own set. And etc.
Also, I rarely buy a book without a) already loving the author or b) I need a book and it’s gotten huge reviews and the first chapter totally engrossed me. But normally I borrow a book from the library and if I absolutely adore it, I buy it in paperback. I haven’t figured out a way to test an e-book author, find out if I like him/her, and then buy their books. Out of the ten or so e-books I bought, there was four I liked (I’m taking a trilogy I had to buy in separate pieces as one book, since each story was like *thistiny* and altogether barely made a small book) and none I would have bought in print.
4. I love the feel of books. I like being able to carry them in my purse or take them to the dining hall or read during those extra few minutes that happen between events in your day.
So because I don’t know the size, can’t share or resell them, can’t test the author, and can’t feel them, the only time I’ll be buying an e-book in the future is when I am very, very desperate for something to read and don’t have the energy to pick up a book at the library. Those times will be very, very rare.
develop53: yes, it took that long to develope this post. minutes not really well spent 🙂
I can’t believe I spelled it “develope”. Bad brain, bad.
activity69: ha! i wish
I am an avid reader, work in technology, but am a bit of a Luddite nonetheless. The only cell phone I carry is for work, and my last laptop I kept for 8 years before I bought a new one. I got high speed internet two months ago – I have about 25 free book download sites bookmarked but no eReader.
All that being said, I agree with just about everything said by everyone in this thread – both pro and con.
What’s holding me back….
1. My biggest issue is the sharing issue. You buy a book, but then can’t lend it to your mom, your sister, your best friend, someone at work.
2. I’d like to “rent” or check out an e-book from the library (one of my favorite places) for a buck or less.
3. I love both instant and delayed gratification. Each has it’s place. There’s nothing like being number 25 out of 100 on the book holds list at the library! It’s coming, soon now, it’s HERE!!
4. I’m waiting for the chip implant into my brain so I can save every book forever.
😉
Has anyone considered publication of textbooks?? How about the library? There are literally hundreds of thousands of people who use the library including myself, I really don’t foresee the public library purchasing hundreds of the Kindles for public use. On a personal note I’ll probably never purchase a Kindle, I’m a graphic artist/designer. I love to feel the book in my hand, the anticipation as I turn the page can’t be duplicated by scrolling the screen. So technically impersonal. The artist in me appreciates the work that goes into making a classic tome. I currently have books on my shelves from the early 1800’s that I can open and read without fear of loosing a page. Though I’m not a snob about my books I’ll give up money for food to purchase my next book if necessary.
Jools, who believes a book in the hand is worth two on the Kindle
Unfortuantely, there is no way to “loan” an ebook. There is no way to “give” an ebook to a friend without copying it. This is a quirk of the format and is not likely to change, ever. If you email your friend the book, there are now four copies in existence, instead of the one you legally purchased (one on your computer or reader, one in your email sent file, one in her inbox, and one on her computer). And all it takes is one file to be uploaded to a sharing site, and tens of thousands of people could be reading that book at no expense in money or effort to them or the person who put it there, and with no remuneration to either the publisher or author. It isn’t even as if that person had to scan the book page by page, like they would with a print book.
Sharing of ebooks do not necessarily mean more sales. Given human nature and the ease of copying, one could assume just the opposite.
This is one reason why, IMO, ebooks should cost much less than their print counterparts do. As a consumer of copyrighted material, you lose all kinds of rights when you choose an ebook over a physical one, and there should be some compensation for that. The fact that there are no PPB, warehousing, shipping and remaindering costs associated with ebooks means the publisher (and author) can make money (in my case, more money), even considering a significantly lower cover price.
I’m fairly certain there are libraries that do this. They give you the book on a secure reader, and when you return the reader, that copy of the book is deleted. Fair for everyone.
I’ve bought quite a few e-books over the last few months and I love the fact that I have 100s on my 3 lbs laptop that fits in my purse to go with me wherever I travel. That said there are several issues that others have mentioned already (can’t trade, formats will become obsolete, lacks the feel of a book), but my biggest issue is that I get screen fatigue.
I will start skipping, even if I love the book, which means I end up not enjoying it as much. I really hope all the people who say that paper books will be obsolete soon are wrong. I’ve loved the instant gratification and I’ve read a lot of books via the TN online library, but I absolutely know that I might loved some of these stories instead of just liking them if I had read them in paper instead.
My second biggest issue is with the pricing by small e-pubs. I understand that you have to distribute overhead (editing, production) over fewer units so the price has to be higher, but I draw the line at paying more than you would for a comparable paperback.
I’ve seen many many interesting stories excerpted in the last few months that I ended up not buying because I refuse, absolutely refuse, to pay 5 bucks and upward for 20-25k stories. That is not reasonable and while I’m just one customer I’m convinced the small e-pubs are pricing themselves out of existence. And it pisses me off, because I’d buy three stories of that length for 5 or 6 bucks with potentially more sales if I like these new-to-me authors. And now, I don’t get the gratification and they don’t get *any* sales at all, because of this outrageous pricing structure.
E-books should be cheaper, because you don’t have to pay for the paper, ink and shipping. I’m sorry, but that’s an expense that e-books don’t have, and it should be taken out of the equation. Until e-books are cheaper, I don’t think they’re going to take off. I would much prefer to use Kindle and not have to store books in my house, but it pisses me off that they cost more than a paperback. That’s just WRONG. And if they were the price that they should be—probably around the $3 mark, then people wouldn’t mind buying their own copies as much. A used paperback doesn’t make an author a cent. It seems to be a catch-22. We can’t lower the price until we sell more volume, but people won’t buy e-readers when paperbacks are cheaper than e-books.
It reminds me of the music biz. In the days when cassette tapes and CDs overlapped, people still paid a premium for CDs, even though CDs were cheaper to produce. But the quality of sound and the longevity are better with a CD, so people ponied up.
Ray Bradbury, for all that he’s considered an SF writer, isn’t much of a futurist or even a technophile.
For that matter, he’s either never learned to or simply never bothers to drive—and he’s been living in LOS ANGELES since 1934!
I understand what your saying, and if it wasn’t for one thing, it would make sense.
That one thing is just that it is too easy to abuse the author’s copyright with loaning out books.
If you ‘loan’ her the ebook, she doesn’t need to buy her own. There are suddenly ‘two’ copies when you’d only purchased one and ebooks are too easily copied, and can be copied indefinitely. One file can become ten and ten can become a hundred. It seriously adds up to a lot of lost income for the author, especially if it’s one who’s primarily epubbed.
Filesharing sites and pirating have seriously hurt ebook authors over the past year or two. I know of at least two authors who no longer write ebooks, and this is a huge part of why they stopped.
The sharing was killing sales because it’s so easy to just ‘loan out’ multiple copies. Many people will just sadly take the easy way out and keep the ebook, not buy their own. I know that not all readers are like that, but as with a lot of things, the inconsiderate few can ruin it for many.
Ebooks are too easily abused and until technology and the law can meet up a little more, the only way to handle ebooks is to not allow sharing. The author has to protect their income-if they aren’t making money, they may not get another contract.
My situation was a bit different, in regards to loaning books. I would buy the books, because I can’t wait until library gets them, and after I would lend it (them) to a friend; but she would never buy her own. Since I’ve gotten my ebook reader, she can’t “borrow” them and now buys her own books to read.
I guess my experience is somewhat unique, though; and really I like being able to carry all my favorite books wherever I go.
Paper, the cheap mass market kind, costs publishers about $40 per pound. That’s A LOT of money. Better paper costs more, natch. Cartons cost money, carton labels cost money, shipping costs money. All of that cost is gone with ebooks.
Also, nowadays publishers send their printers digital files of their books to be printed. PDF and InDesign/Quark files. The printer used to get physical films of books and shoot directly from the films. Now they just use PDF files and create the plates from that.
Since publishers already make PDF files to send to the printer, it’s a built-in step. Why not just make the PDF available for download on the publisher’s website for like a buck or three? Money would actually be made, I think.
That said, I worry about what another poster said, which is longevity. My paperback books, even the cheaply made ones, can last for decades. Can ebooks? I doubt it. Digital entertainment and information is so ephemeral. Nothing on the Internet seems to stay around, and I’m thinking ebooks and their readers are the same. Add in planned obsolescence and I’m not very optimistic about how long these ebooks are going to last. My paperbacks will last much longer, provided I don’t drop them into the tub or, God forbid, my house burns down.
And that’s another issue: like others, I tend to drop things. Dropping my $300 ebook reader and having it crack in two will make me VERY UNHAPPY.
Oh, forgot to mention: the Sony eReader’s screen looks ASTONISHINGLY like an actual page from a book. Seriously, I kept on touching the screen, thinking it was a physical page underneath a clear plastic frame. It’s not backlit, so the eye strain problem is gone, and I cannot stress enough how much like a physical book page it looks like.
What about the Kindle? Do its screen pages look like actual book pages, or does it look more…. digitized?
Both Kindle and Sony have e-ink technology. I think that’s one reason they’re more expensive than, say, the ebookwise, but as it gets adopted by more manufacturers, prices will come down.
I’m waiting to see what Apple will come up with.
Down here, a mass market paperback novel will set me back anything from $15.99 (for a romance novel in one store down here) to $21.99, or more. You can get some for $24.99. This is not a hardcover book people – those retail around $40 these days. It’s horrific. I haven’t bought a single book this year so far, and hardly any over the past year. In fact, the last lot I bought was $50 for 10 of them, at a sale at that romance bookshop mentioned above. $5 a book! AWESOME!
So, for me to think about buying an eBook (I don’t have a reader) online, for $5 (US, which is probably about $5.50 Australian at the moment with the exchange rate – it would have been more like $8.50/$9 a few years back) is a bargain. However, I can’t understand why it’s the same relative price as a paperback book is in the States. I might as well buy paperback books through Amazon – buy enough and they’ll give me free shipping! There’s one thing against that at the moment – I don’t have anywhere to put them. And they collect dust. Don’t get me wrong – I absolutely LOVE all my paper books. I adore them. My partner (who has broken himself of this addiction – he used to have a room dedicated to books, kept in a COMPACTUS) pokes fun at me because of it. He also groans when I mention buying some.
I think eBooks SHOULD be less. There isn’t any paper publishing costs that go into an eBook, and the format (and I really don’t know how it works, so I’m throwing this out there) is what the book looks like before it goes to publishing. So take all the post-final-edit publishing costs away from the list price of a book, and that should give you your eBook costs. The author SHOULD get at LEAST 50% of that eBook listed price – because the publisher has limited costs. Yes, they have the editing costs, and (if you’re lucky) promotion costs, but they don’t have the hard costs of producing a paperback book.
$3 eBooks – everyone would be buying them.
(securityword: example41 – let’s make $3 eBooks examples for all!)
It can be even easier than that. My library system lets me download ebooks (for free) over the internet. I can put them on my home computer, a reader, or a phone.
Most books are available in either Mobipocket or Adobe format. When the checkout period ends, the ebook won’t open. Some of the books can even be “returned” before their due date. Some books are always available (unlimited electronic copies), some are available in limited quantities so there’s a queue like a paper book.
The only drawback is that I don’t own an eInk reader and reading everything on computer or phone really stinks. If the library would rent me a Sony reader, even as a one-time test drive, I have a feeling I’d get hooked and buy one.
I get about $1.20 royalty on an $8 paperback—before my agent’s commission. I won’t argue cheaper to produce e than paper, as I have no idea of the logistics. But, I’ve put the same sweat, time and creativity into the story however it’s formatted. So I want my buck-twenty per copy.
If the price of e-format was cut in half, let’s say, would that still leave a reasonable profit for the publisher after expenses and overhead? I haven’t a clue.
I’m all for options in reading, so though I’m not going to drink the e-ade, I’m delighted it’s there to be drunk by others who enjoy it.
Maybe not for epublishers and small presses, who have to spread costs over fewer copies sold. But for the major houses making a print book (or out of print book, heh) available in e-format, the investment in editing, cover art, marketing, the whole shebang is already done with. There are virtually no production or distribution costs beyond that. If Samhain (an epublisher with a sizable number of titles also in print) can offer an ebook for about half the cost of the print version, I don’t see why Kensington or Luna can’t do the same. As a small press, Samhain’s profit margin per copy would arguably have to be higher than that of a big house.
And speaking for my little book, cover price on the electronic version is $4.50. The print will be more than twice that, I’m sure. And I’ll make roughly twice the money per copy on the ebook versus the print. And it’s more than $1.20.
I own a Kindle and LOVE it!
I just recently did my 6 month review over at my blog:
http://junklekennedy.blogspot.com/
Ebooks are the future whether anyone really wants to accept it or not.
Economically it will pay off in the end. I’m an avid reader usually consuming roughly 10 books a month, minimum.
I’d rather purchase the Kindle Edition than drive or pay shipping to have the physical book, of which I will then need to find a home for in my house or make the extra effort of reselling to someone.
It’s just easier, faster, and will ultimately be cheaper.
Plus, I get to help save trees! Eventually publishers will start to print less copies as the need for physical books should decrease as ebooks sales are increased.
Again, love the Kindle, love ebooks, and I really can’t wait for the next version!
I would love an e-book reader that would make reading e-books physically comfortable, and would cut down on the huge pile of paperbacks I have to purge regularly, because I have no space. And I really, really miss my books that are in storage.
I’m just stuck on the whole LP -> 8 track -> cassette -> CD -> MP3 -> ??? thing. I have to buy new hardware because the old stereo craps out, then I have to buy all my music again in a format that works in the new equipment. Or I have to buy the new equipment because the music isn’t available anymore in formats that my equipment accommodates.
The thing about paper books is that you DO have a physical object, and you can make notes in the margins and really make the book something connected to YOU. In a thousand years, some hypothetical archaeologist could discover a cache of carefully or serendipitously stored novels and reconstruct them and learn a lot about ancient people, and start a cult venerating the amazing insight revealed by my marginalia. Could happen.
What if all they found was a bunch of flash drives? How would they read them?
In order to read a paper book, the only hardware I need is my brain and eyeballs (and hands, and maybe a lamp. And some munchies for if I get hungry. Possibly kleenex if it makes me cry.)
thinking14 – but not really clearly, or anything.
Shiloh, I have bad news for you….you dont have to be epubbed to have your books online. I saw LIT and PDF files of nearly all your books, several of which were never pubbed in ebook format. I saw all of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of TIme series, which I also know was never offered as ebooks. The same holds true of Nora Roberts’ In Death series. Whole thing available online.
But aren’t e-books inevitable?
I remember having the LP to 8 track to Tape to CD to MP3 conversation with my ex who is 14 years older. With each format change he thought that it would never become the new standard and when it did his acceptance was reluctant to say the least. And he wasn’t alone in his thinking.
Now he is trying to wrap his mind around the need for text messages, and he isn’t ready for e-books at all. But I think he needs to figure it out because like all other things e-books too shall become a standard.
I think that we have to remember as someone pointed out earlier in the thread that all of this technology is still relatively young to us but for teens like my daughter (14) it is all they have known.
In a few years schools will require laptops not just for high school (my daughters school is launching a pilot program next year) but for K thru 8 as well, they are already required at the college level at most schools now.
Why, in large part because they want to convert the textbooks to e-books which solves the problem of having to update books, same info less space, cheaper etc.
A generation that would have been raised to read in this medium, I already know people who can’t stand to handle paper, and I can only see this sentiment growning.
So I think that our focus should be on how and when the rest of us are going to adapt because if isn’t really a question.
Pulling out my crystal ball…
I think that most fiction will either be in an audio or an e-book format. I already have seen single MP3 audio book players complete with ear buds for around $15.
I think that the future will be some form of e-book on a SD card that you can buy at bookstores in addition to down loading.
I think that they will develop a standard file format that can be secured and read across platforms and that you will be able to copy the file a limited number of times.
So I’m drinking my kool-aid OH YEAH! ~A
I do wonder why some e-bookers can’t allow that paper books have a place, too.
The fact that I want a paper book doesn’t mean I don’t think e-books are great for those who want them. Same goes for audios. I don’t want to listen to a book either, but I’m delighted people can.
More choice, I say. In fact, I think someone needs to figure out how to combine e and audio. Now that would be something. A reader that converts from text to audio at the reader’s whim.
There you are happily reading your e-book and oops, you have to drive to work. But the book is so good! No problem, just plug your reader into your car and request audio, and it tells you the rest of the story while you fight traffic.
Sweet.
Now that, my friends, is the future.
And I’ll still want my paper book.
NR – I agree that paper books have a place, and that’s on the keeper shelf – half the ones on mine were written by you! But if you read a lot – and I do – ebooks are pretty compelling. Right now I’m packing for vacation and half of my suitcase is paperbacks. (I’m waiting for the new iPhone kool-aid.) And as you observe, the electronic format holds possibilities for a more flexible experience.
Kirsten: I may have misunderstood the NY Times article, but it sounds like Amazon is selling some ebooks at a loss:
– which doesn’t make a lot of sense, unless it’s all part of their evil Kindle plot for world domination.
Part of the marketing for Kindle has been $9.99 books. Maybe they’re selling some of these books as a loss leader and making it up in the price of the unit.
The loaning issue should be very easy to fix. It’s already being done at libraries. Audio and e-books can be downloaded with a limited license. When license period is up, the book won’t play or open. Just code a certain number of lending licenses into an e-book purchase. When someone wants to borrow a book, beam it into their reader.
Discussions about ebooks are always fun. As I’ve been part of the industry, in one form or another, for the last decade, let me address as many of the issues that have arisen as I can.
First, let’s look at “ebooks should be cheaper.” The usual reasoning behind this is that they don’t cost as much because they don’t use paper, ink, etc. The flaw in that argument is that the major costs of producing a book happen before they’re printed. How large those costs are depend greatly on the operations of the publisher.
A one- or two-person independent publisher, where the owner(s) do everything—acquisition, editing, copyediting, layout, cover design, formatting—will have lower production costs, assuming they don’t pay themselves a salary. The “cover” price they can then set on their product will depend almost entirely on how much they consider adequate profit and/or compensation for their time and work.
However, if the publisher in question can’t do everything solo, immediately additional costs arise. They may need to pay someone to do editing. Even if that person is willing to work on royalties, that cost must still be factored in when determining the price of the final result. Ditto for a cover artist. Ditto for someone to do layout, formatting…whatever.
In addition, most independent ebook publishers sell both via third-party vendors and from their own websites. So, in addition to the above, we now add the cost of a domain (or more), hosting service (being on Yahoo just is NOT an option if your goal is to be accepted as a professional publisher), shopping cart, SSL certificate and merchant account fees. If one isn’t fortunate enough to be a first-class web maven, it’s likely one will also need to hire a web designer.
The problem is precisely the one mentioned at the beginning of the discussion. When someone picks up a print book, they see a tangible object, and human nature is willing to assign value to that object. We resist assigning equal value to something we can’t touch—at least directly. The problem is that producing that intangible item may be just as high as for the one we can hold in our hand.
Next, regarding the major publishers who have joined the ebook parade, they’ve never made any secret of the fact that they use ebook sales as a way to cover the huge costs of producing print books. In other words, they view ebooks as a subsidy for the production of the hardcover; it’s why the price of an ebook used to drop at eReader.com the minute the book went into paperback. So, the “cover price” of their ebooks is identical to the cover price of whatever print format the book is in.
Amazon, knowing how the majority of ebook readers feel about paying that same price, chose to sell Kindle titles for a maximum of $9.99. One of the major publishers (Penguin, I think, but it’s been a while) point-blank refused to agree to participate. Based on what was said at BEA, it appears Amazon decided to take the hit, pay what the publisher demanded for both formats and now loses money on every sale.
Which leads to the high cost of the Kindle. With the above in mind, and adding in the fact that the wireless connection that allows immediate purchase and download is included at no charge, should we really expect Amazon to be willing to sell the reader unit cheaply? Their stockholders would have conniptions. Amazon is not now and never has been a charitable organization, although sometimes it seems those who want to use them as a vendor and distributor seem to think they should be.
I, too, have an eBookwise unit, which I actually use more for reading submissions. Most of my recreational reading I do on my Palm Zire. I’d love a Kindle, but since I do most of that recreational reading at night before I go to sleep, and since the Kindle doesn’t have a backlight, I can’t justify the expense. If I traveled more, though, I’d have one tomorrow.
Those who are enamored of the romance of printed books aren’t going to trade them for ebooks. No one expects them to. However, Amazon knew they had something that could tempt more than a few who would never otherwise have considered an ebook to try one. They did. And they were hooked. That was the market they aimed for, not the already converted. They were smart enough to know that the regular congregation didn’t need persuading.
One last thing and then I’ll shut up. Lending an ebook is not an option for, ironically, the same reason many people have problems understanding why the price is so high. Unlike a printed book, lending an ebook doesn’t mean passing an object. If I lend a print book to my sister, I no longer have it. If she loses it, and I want it, one of us has to go buy another copy. The author gets compensated. The publisher’s expenses for producing it are reduced.
If I lend her an ebook, I still have my copy. I’ve “published” a copy of that book and given it to her. The author isn’t compensated. The publisher’s expenses aren’t reduced. The author gets annoyed. The publisher may not have sufficient funds to publish that book by that promising new author.
Most of the DRM now in use with ebooks is barely noticeable. A Mobipocket book is synched to the unit it’s being read on—but it can also be read in the desktop version of the reader. eReader books are connected to the number of the credit card used to purchase them—and that can be changed if necessary. In fact, the only format I can think of that’s not particularly flexible is MS Reader, and I confess I don’t use it because I’m a Mac addict.
I have an ebook reader because (surprise!) I want to read ebooks on it. If I think I might want to read an ebook somewhere other than the reader, I purchase it in a more flexible format—Palm, usually. I can then read it on any computer using the desktop version of the reader simply by putting in the aforementioned credit card number and my name. Ditto for Mobipocket, although I grant I have to go hop on the Toshiba, since they refuse to do a Mac version.
Can I do that with a Kindle? Nope, but why would I want to. The Kindle is what it is—a compact unit for reading on—and listening to audiobooks. It has a very specific use, so how much flexibility should it be required to have? Complaining that one can’t load Kindle books onto a laptop seems just a bit over the top to me—if you wanted to read on a laptop, why spend money on a Kindle?
But I digress. Suffice to say, people who think ebooks should cost little (or nothing) need to consider that the people who write and publish them have invested time, effort and money into producing them. The price they choose to place on them reflects that.
That only works for one side of the argument.
My ebooks are on my laptop. This laptop’s predecessor got a keyboard coffee glaze and had to be replaced. All the books stored there are *gone*. I rebought my favorites. Publisher, author, and cohorts got paid again.
This laptop got cracked and had to be sent back to HP to repair. Some fucktard reset my entire computer. Books go bye bye for a second time and had to be purchased yet again.
I’ve bought multiple copies of the same ebooks because my electonics keep getting wiped. However, my original print books are still safe and sound on my shelf. I learned the hard way to back everything up on a flash drive and an online backup place. So, I technically have three copies of the same book stored in various places. Do I feel bad about that? Nope.
And, in writing this, I just realized that I can loan out my thumb drives, which contain my ebook library, to my friends, almost like a box of print books. Huh.
In the case of, say, eHarlequin, those costs are incurred regardless of whether the book is made available in ebook format or not. The cover design, content and copyediting, etc, are already factored into that first print run. The cost of making an already printed book available in eformat is virtually nil, and any potential sales pretty much gravy for the publisher.
The added value of that tangible object is more than just an implied one. You can share a print book. You can sell it. You can give it away. You can do none of these things with ebooks. Because you give up all those rights when buying an ebook, the price ought to reflect that.
As a new author with one ebook out and two more releasing this year, I couldn’t agree more, and that’s why file sharing sites piss me off so much. I worked hard to write those books, and the staff at my publisher worked hard preparing them for sale, and all of us deserve to be paid for that work.
But, when you consider the limitations copyright law places on consumers of ebooks, I feel those consumers should be compensated by a reduced cover price. That doesn’t mean they ought to be given away.
I find it distressing that major publishers see ebooks as a “subsidy” to offset the costs of print production. Perhaps the cover price of print books should more accurately reflect the actual costs involved in their manufacture. I can’t think of anything that would better encourage people to try ebooks than for the prices of both print and ebooks to be more in line with what they cost the publisher to produce and the middleman to distribute.
BRILLIANT! To be able to switch from visual to audio with the same equipment is an awesome idea. Sign me up!
I know-kills me that somebody would go to that much trouble.
And print authors are probably feeling the sting of that. But considering an ebooks royalties come from those ebooks, I think epubbed authors feel it more harshly.
The vast majority of readers still read print and they aren’t going to go looking for a pirated copy when they’d rather have a paperback. Not so much with ebooks.
Gotta agree, for a print author, electronic file-sharing probably costs them a few sales—but for an epublished author it can be potentially devastating.
Emmy,
First, there should be no reason for you to buy new copies if you have them backed up. As a publisher responsible for the “children” of more than 100 hardworking authors, I have no sympathy if your only issue is you can’t remember where you stored the storage. As for lending those libraries to your friends, no one can stop you. However, that doesn’t make it any the less stealing if when you do so you retain copies on your computer. If you don’t—in other words, if you read the books off the flash drives or whatever—be my guest.
Keep in mind: as long as you aren’t duplicating those files, there are no copyright issues involved. If you have three copies of something because you paid for three copies, then (with the caveat noted above) you can lend each one of those copies to anyone you like.
As for eHarlequin being “gravy” because the cost of production is factored into the print version, in the first place someone still has to put in the time formatting that ebook so it’s no cost-free. And the production cost of a print book is based on anticipated sales. If those sales don’t come to fruition, but the ebook version sells very well, then it’s standard business procedure to channel revenue to offset costs. I do it all the time to pay artists and editors who are working for royalties—if one title they’ve done sells like crazy and another doesn’t, even after fee for the first book is paid for I’ll continue to channel the royalty percentage from that one to cover the fee for the other.
It would be nice if it were simple, but it’s not. Nor are all publishers blessed with the coffers of Harlequin so they can afford to absorb losses from sales that didn’t happen because someone made copies of a book and gave it to ten of their friends. And bear in mind as well—authors who receive advances don’t get any additional payment until they’ve sold enough copies to cover that advance. Ebooks are counted in those sales, so every ebook someone copies for a buddy means one less sale to help the author earn out the advance and actually start collecting royalties.
As for being able to switch from audio to video, if you own a Mac you can already do that. LOL
But that kinda proves my point, which is: if you can illegally click a button and end up with the exact same product, and the only thing stopping you is the twinge of knowing it’s wrong, a $10 price tag isn’t doing much to encourage people to do the right thing.
Don’t get me wrong, I love ebooks. I would rather have them than their print counterparts, and I have never downloaded one illegally or copied any of mine to redistribute among friends. But I believe the trade-off of not having that copy to resell or lend out should come with a discount. Not a huge one, perhaps, but I ought to be able to save a buck or two by choosing an ebook.
The green argument and the longevity argument are the same – if every reader got one electronic device and used it for all the books they read in a lifetime (and some of those are big, resource intensive books – my accounting textbook this quarter weighs about 7 pounds), then that would take up fewer resources per person than if that same person bought all those books new and then nobody ever read them again. Except we know that most of the books we buy are going to get given or resold or lent to multiple readers (and writers may cringe, but I would not read romance at ALL if I hadn’t been able to pick it up at the used book store for cheap when I was younger and broker).
But you can go to any thrift store and see the stacks of LPs, cassettes, VHS tapes, various hard copies of software, and DVDs – as technology changed, people kept buying new copies of music and video. What you don’t see is the millions of junked cassette decks and CD players and VHS machines that went with them.
The ebooks people are buying today are going to be like VHS machines. At some point, if the industry picks a standard, there will be less turnover in machines, but it is going to take a heck of a lot of books read per (non bio degradeable, using metals from endangered gorilla habitat) to get that one machine ahead, in sutstainability terms. And then what will induce producers to keep them usable and not require constant upgrades to accomodate new “features”?
I just don’t buy the green argument, and I’ve spent enough money on now-useless cassettes and CDs in my life to be wary of unsettled electronic formats.
Although by this time absolutely no one will be still reading this thread, let me just say:
I live in OZ. Books here cost $16.95 for a regular paperback, and between $35 to $55 for a new hardcover (Lizziebee already covered this, I know). Books are my crack and my habit is BIG (for me anyway!), and I generally spent about $80 a week on books.
Then I got my sister to smugle me a Sony eReader, and now I spend $25 a week or thereabouts, save muchos dolleros, and get MORE books. What’s the big deal?! You get used to the page turning bizzo, and the e-ink thing is completely unlike reading a computer screen. I’m buying the world the author creates, I don’t care about the paper stuff. Half the time the paper stuff came wrapped in a hellaciously embarrassig cover anyway – this is much better! I don’t think it uses up much energy really when you think about it. Plus, because the connect software is on my computer at work, when we’re slow at work I just read a book on my computer from my quickly growing library.
Yeay for the ebook! Wish they were a bit cheaper, but so what? Still definitely worth it.