‘We don’t need new gadgets. We need a new publishing industry’
By Paul Biba
What’s wrong with eBooks? is Mike Elgan’s article over at Computerworld with the above subhead. He offers publishers six ideas for change. But first he discusses the new hardware and then goes on to say:
…hardware innovation is not the same thing as eBook innovation. All this change is happening around the book publishing industry. Publishers themselves have circled the wagons, and are waiting for innovation to go away so they can get back to business as usual.
They think they sell paper, glue and ink over here, electronic documents over there, and way over yonder, audio recordings. They spend an inordinate amount of time trying to protect this media from that media. Publishers have forgotten what a book is.
Continued resistance by the publishing industry to change will soon be registered by the Internet economy as damage, and the world will route around it. Books are on the brink of revolution. Publishers won’t be able to suppress progress for long.
Thanks to Michael Pastore for the link.
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September 20th, 2009 at 9:04 am
An excellent article. Mike Elgan takes the perspective that the current print publishing industry is dysfunctional. Many print-publishing insiders, such as Jason Epstein and Andre Scriffin (who have written whole books on this subject) agree that corporate publishing is not serving the needs of the reading public, and therefore needs to change.
It would be foolish for ebook publishers to follow the unsatisfactory model of the print publishers: but that is what major print publishers are doing: they are attempting to squeeze ebooks into a very small box.
With high prices, and DRM, and yearly updates (instead of more frequent updates), ebooks cannot realize their glorious potential, or reach the widest possible audience.
Some of Mike Elgan’s six suggestions for transformation are similar to the “Ten Tremendous Trends” chapter in my book. These reflect a very clear division in contemporary publishing. The “big” publishers are trying to keep ebooks locked away; they are trying to sail with one foot on the dock. The independent publishers — and a handful of the larger publishers (such as O’Reilly Media and Pan Macmillan) are experimenting with new models.
I have no doubts that in the very near future the new paradigms will joyfully replace the old.
Michael Pastore
50 Benefits of Ebooks
September 20th, 2009 at 10:38 am
I disagree completely about the usefulness of the article except as the zillion-th reiteration of publishing is outmoded – the rest is just clueless
You can listen to audiobooks from libraries for example – yes drm limits the devices, the selection is limited and so on, but that’s true of ebooks also, while the only thing that now is sort of abundant as e, legal and otherwise is music and that is due to easy piracy and nothing else
Bundle pricing – good luck
Audio books have a totally different audience that regular books – not necessary in terms of people per se, but in terms of consumption – good audio books are comparatively hard so expensive to make as anyone having the most limited experience reading aloud to someone else, like for example your children, will know, so while they have a clear market in car commuters and such, I doubt people will pay for casual listening
Deliver e and later p for the same higher than each price – if I am interested in the e, why should I want the p later for any book; maybe for selected books true but again that does not make an industry
Updates – that’s a tricky issue and outside corrections of factual mistakes or typos I am against – books are not journals or magazines and if we want only info, we do not need books so to speak
Social networks – they are there from forums to Goodreads and similar places; maybe like with audio books the article writer is clueless about them since he is clueless about books, but I read 200-300 books a year and I reviewed maybe 100 the last year as well as contributed tons of commentary and mini-reviews so the scene is lively; could be better sure, but “official” sites is not the way to go for various reasons
So again I am surprised that such drivel is taken as “informed” – better watch what Bezos and Google do to see where publishing goes at least as e goes…
September 20th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Mike Elgan does not like the price of audiobooks and does not want to “fork over more than $30 for the full book”. He believes “you can sell an audio book for $9.99.” He is correct. I pay less than Elgan’s target price at Audible; however, this discount is possible because I purchase in bulk. The Platinum Annual Plan provides 24 credits for $229.50. Almost all audiobooks at Audible cost one credit, so the effective cost is $9.56 per audiobook. If the consumer is willing to commit to buying 12 audiobooks in a year then the Gold Monthly Plan yields a price of $14.95 per audiobook billed monthly.
Mike Elgan says “what we really need is to be able to borrow or rent audio books directly from our cell phones.” Many people can already borrow audiobooks from Overdrive.com and/or Netlibrary.com. Check with your local library in the United States to see if they have contracted with one of these websites to provide audiobooks and/or ebooks. Many of the audiobooks available are in MP3 format and are unencumbered with DRM. You might be able to download these using your cell phone directly. Alternatively, you could download them to a PC or Mac and transfer them to your cell phone. Sadly, many of the audiobooks are in WMA format and are encumbered with DRM. The pathway to the cell phone would be tortuous and might involve stripping DRM.
The collections offered for download by the libraries close to me are available via Overdrive.com and Netlibrary.com. The selection is rather small and impoverished (e.g., 1,900 audiobooks), but they get credit for trying.
September 20th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I agree that Mike Elgan’s suggestion of a bundle including audiobooks doesn’t work. Still, it made me think: why not sell the ebook at a lower price standalone or include it for free with the hardcover at the normal hardcover-price. After all, who is going to buy the ebook version after having paid premium for a nice bound book? There would be no lost sales in giving the ebook away and it would not force customers to decide between the convenience of reading everywhere and having a nice edition for the bookshelf.
Furthermore, if a buyer of the ebook standalone decides he likes the book so much that he wants to get the hardcover too, he can be offered a discount.
A nice and easy solution that’s customer friendly, doesn’t cannibalize sales and doesn’t cost a dime.