Why publishers should give away e-books with hardbacks—or maybe even trade paperbacks
Pulped-wood newspapers enjoyed a burst of glory this week.
Thousands of Americans snapped up souvenir editions with big headlines reporting the Obama victory.
People wanted to buy History and connect with Obama. And old-fashioned paper was the way to do so. It mean a lot more than just stashing away files—from electronic editions—on hard drives. This may change somewhat as E catches on. But now is now.
The power of paper
In fact, maybe it’s time for publishers to apply the same logic to e-books and include them for free with hardback and even trade paperback editions—at least in some cases—as a way to spur p-sales. The very smallest publishers could offer autographed versions of the trade paperbacks.
One way or another, the results would be the touch of P, mixed with the convenience of E. Ideally the electronic editions would be non-DRMed to keep down publishers’ costs and guarantee that the E editions would be truly permanent and readable on everything from a Kindle to an iPod Touch. Here’s to words counting more than formats! Let readers enjoy books on their own terms.
The economics of the bonus E
But what about the costs? This is a recession, bear in mind; people will want either lower prices or more for their money. Bonus E would be one way for the latter to happen. If the E costs can’t be be low enough, perhaps the double-edition approach would be simply an option rather than the default.
But the default approach might indeed be a possibility in some cases, now or in the future. Publishers keep saying that editorial costs don’t change regardless of the medium. And they’ve already made the investments for the paper editions. Once ePub catches on—with new software tools and other help available—the costs of digitization should decline.
Distribution issues
But how to distribute the accompanying E edition? No, I don’t envision CDs or disks in books—too expensive. But maybe the purchaser of the p-book would receive a password to a unique URL generated automatically. I’ll leave the details to others, but one way or another, I’m confident that costs of the bonus E could be brought down. Remember, in some cases the industry is experimenting with giving away e-books as previews of the paper editions. My proposal actually is less radical since the E would be part of a commercial transaction. The key is to keep costs low so this system doesn’t eat into the industry’s margins. This is where the economies of ePub and the absence of DRM hassles could go a long way.
Note: I’m hardly the first to suggest free E with paper books, though I don’t have citations handy. In fact, the hardback edition of Bill Gates’ The Road Ahead came with a CDs. And of course, zillions of paper computer books have included CDs and floppies, though not necessarily offering the full texts in digitized form.
The piracy angle: I’m convinced that the added value of the bonus E, and the resultant sales, would more than make up for losses to piracy. The present system, under which many paper books either aren’t available in P or come with fiendish DRM restrictions, actually promotes piracy.
Credit for image of New York Times: CC-licensed photo from Rebecca Pollard.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:22 am
David, publishers are correct: editorial costs do not change with the medium; production costs, however, do change. Unfortunately, editorial and production costs often get merged into a single term (either editorial or production) when the costs of publishing a book are discussed even though they are different.
November 7th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Thanks, Rich. Let’s hope people can get the accounting right. If the cost of digital production and distribution can be low enough, then it would be a shame of the publishers didn’t try the bundling arrangement I proposed—at least for interested customers. David
November 7th, 2008 at 11:57 am
A couple of thoughts;
1. Including a CD probably could be done for about $0.25 a book. More over, they should include more than just a copy of the book being sold. Frankly, if I buy a paper book, I see darn little need to also have an e-book copy of the same book. The only way I would consider that a bonus was if I was planning on giving the book as a gift. The publishing house Baen other hand, figured it out years ago; a number of their hardbacks come with a CD that includes a number of novels (including often enough earlier books in the same series as the novel). It gives the buyer of the Hardback edition a real bonus and at the same time, can be used to promote other authors that the publisher is trying to develop.
2. As for piracy, the industry is not going to stop it or even mitigate it by continuing to push DRM and charging high prices for their e-books. Production and distribution costs are far less for ebooks; the prices charged should reflect that. A lot of people illegally download books because what they want is either not available legally or they don’t believe they are getting value for their money. Its hard to justify an e-book that costs the same as the hardback edition of the same book especially when it costs less to produce than a paperback.
November 7th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Bill, if CD prices can be that low—hey, this is fine by me, although a lot of people would find e-books more convenient (for direct downloads into Kindles, etc.). Totally agree with you about DRM! Thanks especially for the CD info! David
November 7th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Hey!
Didn’t I propose this myself only yesterday at bookseller.com?
What gives? It’s almost word for word
Marky
November 7th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
http://www.thebookseller.com/blogs/66330-the-one-dimensional-reader.html?p=84&a=66330
November 7th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Many thanks, Marky, but you’ll notice I went out of my way to say I was not the first with the idea—and that it actually had been carried out in the past. The hardback of the Bill Gates book came with a CD, after all. “Almost word for word,” moreover, is overdone.
That said, it’s wonderful to see other people thinking the same way. May the book industry pay attention to us both!
Further detail: I’m a fan of The Bookseller, but at least cannot recall reading your piece. At any rate, it’s great to see you addressing the issue of buying the same book twice, even it’s an old one with us “early adopters.”
Keep commenting, even if we may disagree on this one! And hello to the rest of the good people at TheBookSeller.com!
Thanks,
David
November 7th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Not critical. Just surprised. I have been thinking all day about this and the download option is probably the easiest for publishers to follow on. Those who already supply the book in ePub format don’t need to do any extra work, just provide the link to their website. If they have to add a couple of euros, pounds or dollars to a hard back book costs then I’m sure this coulod be absorbed by purchasers.
November 7th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Oh by the way…don’t yet have my reader, but hoping to pick up a burgandy one tomorrow
http://www.johnlewis.com/230511737/Product.aspx
November 7th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Congrats on your Sony purchase, Sir Marky! That’s terrific. And no problem about the overlap; we’ll both have a good laugh over it.
If the Bookseller folks don’t mind, I hope you can at least briefly share with us your further thoughts on pros and cons of the reader once you’ve owned it for a few weeks. Sorry about the duplication with your existing library, of course!
Re ePub downloads: Many publishers might want readers to key in a password and go to a unique URL. But that should be minor stuff compared to the hassles of DRM. Of course, there’s also the CD option. If the cost is really as low as has Bill says—I have no reason to doubt him—that’s another option.
Thanks,
David
November 7th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Twenty-five cents sounds small, but it’s a significant percentage of total costs. If you’re talking about a trade paperback, you might be talking about a 25-30% increase in production costs. For hardback, obviously, it would be a lower percentage.
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksforABuck.com
November 7th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Excellent point, Rob. but making the bundles optional could help address the problem. Even if the E editions weren’t absolutely free, they could be very cheap as part of the bundles. Meanwhile it’s important to remember that production costs are just part of the cover prices.
Thanks,
David
November 7th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Keep in mind that including a CD with hardbacks has been done successfully by Baen for years! They have done it with at least a dozen of their books. Of course Baen also puts quite a few of their books up on their website for free download. In the whole, Baen has found the experience to be more than worth their effort seeing an increase in sales of their paper books and I think also they have one of the more successful publisher run ebook stores as well.
–
Bill
November 8th, 2008 at 2:19 am
Including a companion e-book with each p-book is a great idea.
Several years ago I was given a “Page-A-Day Calendar†in paper form. The exterior packaging of the calendar said “Free second calendar via e-mail or on the webâ€. To access the electronic calendar a purchaser must visit a designated website and use the code that is inside the packaging. This method is still being used today and is one implementation of the idea suggested by David Rothman and Sir Marky.
The Page-A-Day company is Workman publishing, and I think their strategy of using a code to obtain an electronic calendar is ten-years-old or more. (However, there is an interesting difference. The purchaser of the paper calendar selects an electronic calendar from “dozens of titlesâ€. He or she is not required to select the same calendar.)
For a paper book the code could be placed in a sealed envelope or on a scratch-off ticket inside the book jacket. Unfortunately some people might compromise the packaging to obtain the code without purchase.
Another system for giving away a companion e-book would place a code on the purchase receipt during check-out when a paper book is acquired. This system would require some effort from the retailer and book publisher.
The software in the check-out register must be supplemented to contain a trigger so that when a book is scanned during a transaction the register will generate the appropriate code on the receipt. (Note that many check-out registers already contain more sophisticated software for activating individual gift cards of many types. So the software should be easily doable.)
November 8th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Super-useful specifics, Garson, thanks! I hope others will comment on them and add their own. David