Dear e-publishers: Think about the readers, please!
By Ficbot
I have read several posts recently, both here and elsewhere, from people in the publishing industry explaining where they want the e-book industry to go.
These posts carefully outline why the current model is the way it is, and what steps publishers are, or should be taking to get readers on board with the way they perceive things to be going. They are also completely missing the point.
Here is a new way of looking at things. Instead of deciding what you want to sell and at what price, then endeavoring to convince people why you have made these choices and what a good idea it is, why not ask them what they want, and find a way to offer them that instead?
For example:
You want a higher price point and the reader wants a lower one. Instead of explaining to them why the price point is where it is, why not lower your costs through cutting out some middlemen or doing some other restructuring to improve efficiency?
Instead of wasting money on trying to increase perceived value through “multimedia” content or other needless additions, how about spending on get your back catalogues out at bargain prices to sell more e-books and stimulate new interest in authors already in your stable?
Instead of complaining that e-books are cost-prohibitive because you need to establish an infrastructure, how about relinquishing some of the control and letting an on-line vendor like Fictionwise or Books on Board handle the back end?
Instead of lamenting that e-books represent too small a market to be worth the bother, how about doing away with outmoded concepts such as geographical restrictions which prevent existing, paying customers from buying your stuff?
Instead of devising cumbersome DRM schemes to “protect” your content, why not focus on making it so easy and affordable for people to get it for real that the average person won’t need to think about where to get their stuff?
I know there are reasons why in the past, things have been done a certain way. But customers are not thinking about that now, and publishers should not be either. The average customer is using plain and simple logic; they don’t care about the fancy reasons. They just need someone to come up with a solution that meets their needs. I as a reader have written to an author many times to ask why I cannot buy the book, or why I can’t but it in the format I choose. The authors always say there is nothing they can do about it. I have written to tech support addresses at on-line vendors I shop at. They too say it is not their fault.
So, to the publishers, here is my question: which would you rather invest—your outdated business model, or your actual, paying customers who are waiting for you to meet their needs?
May 26th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
And how about doing away with those ridiculous 40%-60% percentages that go to the seller (Amazon is more draconian than most). This is especially lopsided in regard to ebooks.
When I read stories about an author who is making more profit by selling an ebook on Scribd at $2.00 than a pbook sold conventionally at $15.00, it makes me angry. This is just as bad as the music industry.
May 26th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
The basic problem with the book industry as it currently stands is that it is filled with many layers of middle men, only a few of which actually add anything of value to a book. Many of which could probably be removed for even a paper book if the industry from top to bottem was willing to toss our the old publishing model.
Ultimately, in the modern world of ebooks, the number of people needed to produce and distribute any books is a tiny fraction of what was needed even a few years ago for a paper book. Until the industry is willing to take a hard look at their costs (and I mean a really hard look, not just cutting out the fancy lunches the publishing industry is famous for) and to cut ruthelessly, they are going to continue to overprice books (especially ebooks) and are going to increasingly enourage people to go to the dark net.
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Bill
May 26th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
It’s my hope that publishers will see greater sales of reasonably priced books and lesser sales of books at the prices they want to impose on readers and that they will be forced to wise up. I’m a rabid reader and have never turned to the dark net. Pricing is making me do more and more sampling of reasonably priced indie authors. For well known authors, if their ebooks aren’t reasonably priced, there’s always the library, which means instead of getting a reasonable return, the author and publisher get nothing. Same result as the dark net, different path.
May 26th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Good ideas in the article and comments. There are more that crop up from time to time. The idea of listening to the user-base is the common ground. How do we get them to the publishers aside from writing each one individually?
They have control. We do the buying, or not.
Sharing isn’t a bad idea.