Will book publishers learn from music and newspaper industries?
Sometimes I lose all faith in the world of book publishing. And after I read the article Steal This Book from the New York Times, I just wanted to bang my head against my desk until I stop caring what publishers do. The article details Amazon’s $9.99 price point for a majority of ebooks and the consequences it might have on the publishing industry.
For one, publishers (and a few authors) fear that if us readers get too comfortable with lower prices for ebooks, it might be the end of literature as we know it. Well, not really, but that’s how they make it sound. And the sheer stubbornness that some publishers and authors view ebooks with is frustrating. But what gets me the most is that some in the book industry have not really learned a single lesson from the music industry, or even our county’s dying print newspapers. Here’s an example:
“The concept that because a book is an e-book it should automatically be priced significantly lower than a paper book is one we don’t agree with,” said Carolyn Reidy, chief executive of Simon & Schuster. “What a consumer is buying is the content, not necessarily the format.”
With all due respect to Ms. Reidy, she is dead wrong. The music industry tried to argue the same thing when digital music began wreak havoc on the market for CDs. Instead of adopting a new business model that embraces digital music, they fought it every way they could and ended up suing their own customers in what is probably one of the biggest public relations nightmare in the history of the business world.
Furthermore, the article also points out that publishers feared that mass market paperbacks would ruin publishing, just as they fear ebooks will. What happened? Mass market paperbacks ended up increasing demand for books and business really began booming.
If Ms. Reidy really believes that whole “it’s not the format it’s the content” line, and thinks ebooks should not be priced differently than print books, then she has no business being the CEO of Simon & Schuster. They need to have someone at the helm who is forward thinking and can see the potential that ebooks offer to readers, authors and yes, even publishers. If I was on S&S’s board after reading a stupid statement like the one Ms. Reidy made, I’d be calling for her walking papers.
A big part of the problem, however, is that people like Ms. Reidy seem to be in the majority in publishing. That’s why change is so slow. And predictions are starting to roll in about “doomsday” scenarios for publishers:
The doomsday scenario for publishing is that the e-book versions cannibalize higher-price print sales. Publishing houses, already suffering from the recession, could be forced to cut author advances or lay off more editors.
If publishers keep resisting change, then yes, I can see a scenario where publishers start falling like dominoes. But I also think this is where authors – the ones who pour their blood and sweat into the books they write, can step up to the plate. Authors should be pressing their publishers to get an ebook version of their books out as quickly as possible. This would keep most pirates out of business (as J.K. Rowling fears), and it would probably increase overall demand for their books.
The publishing industry is at a crossroads right now. They can either go down the same path as the music industry and newspapers and resist change and technology. Or, they can integrate ebooks into a newer business model and reap the rewards in the not too distant future.
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Read More: Publishing News, Technology, eBooks
I don’t see that ebooks and print books are necessarily in competition (at all times). They tap into different markets and a person who loves their print book, is going to buy a print book, regardless of cost, and the people who like ebooks will buy those. I don’t understand why an ebook should cost anywhere near as much as a print book, because all of the extras (paper, ink, stoarge, transport, etc) are removed from the publishing process. All you really are paying for is the author’s work and the editing and formatting. There needs to be a cost, as these people (especially the author) deserve to be paid for their work, but certainly the cost is minimised compared to printed books.
Ultimately, I can see this being a headache for many years to come, made worse by people unwilling to even consider alternative positions on the argument.
darkened jade’s latest blog post..Writer’s Lag
@darkened jade – I would argue the reverse of what you say. Ebooks and print books are in direct competition with each other more often than not, and it is the rare reader who is buying a book for the tangible form.
The book industry is at the same point in its life cycle as the music industry was in 2000, where MP3s were really starting to take off and Apple had yet to develop the “killer device,” the iPod.
What the author is arguing is that the publishing industry needs to take a hint from what the music industry went through and deliver the content to their users in the format and at the price point they demand.