In the eBook Business, Authors and Readers Are Necessary, Publishers Are Not

Publishers Panic!

History repeats itself, especially if people do not learn from past mistakes.

The publishing industry [by that I mean the old, big house publishing model - not the new digital, streamlined model :)] is going down the same mistake laden path that the music industry did a few years ago.

And what's worse, I believe the publishing powers to be (or should I say mental midgets) were warned of this.

When the new digital tech RE publishing exploded on the scene and leveled the playing field, big publishers tried to maintain ebook prices at or close to print book prices.

Well, the book loving public (smarter than they realized --- as with their music loving cousins) revolted by pirating the ebooks in one way or another, e.g. getting them free from file-sharing sites.

Publishers should listen to their customers! When they think a price is too high they will go elsewhere or pirate it.

'Once record companies put a reasonable price on their products, the vast majority of buyers gave up piracy and started paying for their music. The same can happen with eBooks.'

Ed Hardy, writing for Tablet PC Review, says:

Book Publishers Must Learn the Same Lessons Music Publishers Did


Last week, the U.S. Justice Dept. sued some of the world's largest publishers as well as Apple, accusing them of eBook price fixing. This lawsuit wouldn't be necessary if eBook publishers would learn the lessons that music publishers did a decade ago.


As it stands now, publishing companies like MacMillan, HarperCollins, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, and others want to charge more for the digital versions of books than most of their customers think they are worth. These companies frequently price eBooks the same, or just below, the printed versions. Few of their customers see the logic in this -- publishing a book electronically removes the costs of printing, shipping, and storing a physical object.

The argument the publishers make in response is that the majority of the cost of a book isn't in printing it, but rather in their overhead of paying authors and editors, advertising, etc. The answer this this is clear: if they don't find ways to significantly lower their overhead, these companies are going to be out of business in a few years.

Learn from the Past

There is another industry that was in a similar situation a few years ago: the music business. Around the turn of the millennium, the Apple iPod had made the CD obsolete, and consumers wanted to buy MP3s. The music publishers didn't want to sell these -- they liked being able to force people to buy a whole CD in order to get the one or two songs they actually wanted.

Consumers felt they were being ripped off, and turned to pirating songs instead of buying them. The music industry struggled for years... until record companies finally bit the bullet and started selling songs in digital formats at reasonable prices. Now, people are buying more tracks than ever and the music industry is healthy again.

History Repeating Itself

Book publishers must learn from music producers. Currently, when their customers complain that eBooks are too expensive compared to the security of owning the printed version of a work, the publishers tell them to buy the printed book -- as if that was the only other option.

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Merely Digital Authors May Not Have Clout To Establish Big Name In Writing

GAME-CHANGING technologies are upon us 

We all realize, of course, change is in the air RE publishing. Written content is being delivered by new tech media formats, content itself is morphing into a 3-dimensional entity containing videos, interactivity, real-time updates, graphics dripping with dynamic reality, new biz models are rapidly replacing older ones, etc., etc., etc. ...

But, big house publishers are fighting the tsunami change tooth and nail ... AND they still retain a big bargaining point:

"The technology and the devices are with someone else but the publishers have the content and the authors."

For how long though?

Here is an insightful view by Indian author, Binoo K John, in Tehelka, India's Independent Weekly News Magazine:

A new world of books is upon us

Indications are that the book in printed form is nearing an end. The wonders of a digital world and its commercial lure may be too much to resist

GAME-CHANGING technologies are upon us before we can adjust to their presence. We dread them and often we pretend that the game would not change. Closing our eyes to change is an old human habit. We have no answers so we remain smug. This is happening to the publishing industry worldwide. Technology has changed, the devices have changed, the economics has changed, the rules have changed and so has the scale.


So will the book, the printed and bound book, be a thing of the past?

Can the digital library, the Kindle store, the Apple Store, the many e-readers and tablets finish the book and the wooden bookshelf that decorated our studies and occupied our minds?

It’s possible. The only reason why the printed book might survive for a while is that publishers do not want the traditional model to vanish so fast. The brick and mortar world of publishing is too quaint and too good to be closed so fast and forever. Also, reader habits do not change that quickly. But the change is upon us. How do we cope? When Julian Barnes, while accepting the Booker Prize, sounded a clarion call to keep the bound book alive, he was pointing once again to the imminent danger: the printed book is no longer viable. That is why he wrote a short novel and was duly awarded. This year’s Booker Prize was a business award as well for it wanted to tell publishers the 1,000-page novel is over in printed form.

So, how will it pan out? School texts, either subsidised by the state or privately, would survive for many years. That is a huge number and form the majority of all books printed. The hardcover has almost disappeared. Fiction and nonfiction, including comics and graphic novels, would be printed in small numbers just to give it a physical feel. Actual sales would be in digital bookstores.

The pattern in India would be the same as in the West, because devices used for reading or downloading books are available here though not all books are. So, books would be bought digitally. Libraries in India too would have access to huge digital warehouses. The cost of digitally downloaded books would be lesser than printed books even if the payment is in dollars. Books are bought by the elite or educated classes in every society so they would have easy access to digital sources and have the money to pay as well.

PUBLISHERS WOULD still retain a big bargaining point. The technology and the ...

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U.S. Publishers Dove Deeper Into Digital in 2010

This year big house publishers have experimented with video ebooks and complex content, digitized their older titles and made their new publications available in both digital and print.

They are accepting and learning to utilize digital e-formats instead of fighting the new trending technology...And, that's good if they want to adapt, survive and ultimately thrive again!

As a result of this digital acknowledgment, U.S. publishers' profits are up and looking brighter.

This report by Julie Bosman of the New York Times through the Stateman.com, an Austin, Texas news site:

U.S. publishers expanded digital offerings in 2010

Industry embraces electronic books, sees big jump in sales, but hardcover concerns linger.

The publishing industry used to be afraid of electronic books. In 2010, it embraced them.

Publishers expanded their digital divisions, experimented with video-enhanced e-books, worked on digitizing their older titles and made sure new books were available simultaneously in e-book and hardcover editions.

Now, having laid the tracks for digital growth, they are waiting to see what their efforts will bring in 2011.

"Is it going to be cause for celebration because it takes us to another level and makes books accessible and popular in new ways?" said Anne Messitte, publisher of Vintage/Anchor, a division of Random House. "Or will the story be different?"

E-books now make up 9 to 10 percent of trade-book sales, a rate that grew hugely this year after accounting for less than half that percentage by the end of last year. Publishers are predicting that digital sales will be 50 percent higher or even double in 2011 what they were in 2010.

January could be the biggest month ever for e-book sales, as possibly hundreds of thousands of people download books on the e-readers that they receive as Christmas gifts.

The anticipation of that jump in sales, and a feeling that the recession might have loosened its grip, has dissipated some of the death-of-print malaise that has lingered in the publishing industry for years — and helped soften the blow of a significant drop in hardcover sales this year.

"There's definitely less doom and gloom," said Peter Ginna, publisher and editorial director for Bloomsbury Press. "Most of us publishers have seen big gains from electronic books this year. We've seen some tailing off of the print sales, but for most companies, the growth of e-books has been so great that there's a lot of revenue coming from that side that's sort of gravy for us."

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