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Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book: The E-book ProblemApril 9, 2009
And that’s when I discovered e-books – loads of them, libraries of them – being added by the 01010101-load to the appiverse. Fully two-thirds of the new apps on the market seemed to be books – from the Koran to Shakespeare — most costing around 99¢ per download, though in truth most of those titles can be had for nothing. (More on that later.) Suddenly I had instant access to pretty much anything in the public domain – for a small fee or for free. This felt like riches, largesse, Alexandria. Never read the Upanishads? Well, here ya go! Want The Complete Sherlock Holmes in 30 seconds? No problem! And look – plenty of shelf space. I’d always dismissed e-books as handy tools for business travelers. No one would really want to read fiction in pixels, would they? Book lovers love the artifact. I even said as much, all calm and confident, to a customer last month. No way, José. Not for me. Not for anyone who loves the feel and smell of paper and ink, the textures of matte covers and deckled edges, the heft of a heavy tome or the personal goodness of a little smooth square hardcover.
Fellow readers, if a fierce book purist like me—someone who actually ate the page corners of my books as a child—can be lured into liking e-books, well, then, I suspect pretty much anybody can.
E-books are a hot topic in the industry right now, and there are many actual experts out there writing thoughtful articles on the topic who know a lot more than I do. Like all of us booksellers, I want to know how this tiny revolution will affect my store. For one thing, it will add yet another lasagna layer to the deep dish of competition for book sales. From my humble perch on the Flying Pig stool, it seems to me that apocalyptic prophecies are premature, but there will be some fallout. People will always want and need real books, and as long as there are trees, books will continue to be made and sold and read and loved.
And herein lies the problem. Mobile phone e-readers are free, and easy [update: as of April 27, the e-reader Stanza has now been acquired by Amazon, so the top two iTunes apps are now owned by the online mega-store] . You just download them onto your cell and presto – you have access to hundreds of thousands of books – 50,000 alone in the public domain and available free of charge, as well as new and bestselling titles. The money, of course, is in the selling of the book content. So what's in it for indies? Publishers offer options; on one site I visited, a bestselling title offered in e-book format leads to a long list of possible vendors—but guess how many of them are independent bookstores? Right. Everyone is getting into the act, it seems, but us. There are moves afoot to allow us to sell e-books to customers (most likely online), as in the program here, but if readers are tech-savvy enough to use e-readers, are they really likely to use an intermediary? As one of those tech-savvy-ish types myself, I’m torn. I love the instant access to obscure books I’ve always wanted to read, the security blanket of having the complete plays and sonnets of Shakespeare with me everywhere I go, the unexpected delight of reading Alice in Wonderland on teensy pages. But as an independent bookseller, I'm concerned that, with more and more competition, a difficult economy, and less and less market to share, we are looking at a very steep mountain. Yet none of these other layers in the lasagna do quite what we do: notice and champion the treasures, both small and large; build blockbusters not by hype and hope, but by word-of-mouth; write thoughtful reviews to share with colleagues and customers; and put books directly in the hands of children and adults, teachers and librarians, saying, "You’ve got to read this!" How can booksellers convert our handselling expertise to have a role in recommending and distributing e-books, too, so that instead of losing sales to publishers and online vendors, we might earn a small piece of this ever-growing pie? What do you think? I really want to know. Especially if you have solutions, or any e-book confessions of your own. And bonus points if you can identify the 1974 first edition I chewed on as a kid -- but don't post the title! Just the endearment the character at the end of the book exchanges with her sweetheart upon first meeting. Posted by Elizabeth Bluemle on April 9, 2009 | Comments (19)
April 9, 2009
In response to: Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book: The E-book Problem Keny Brechner commented: For Bonus Points, ---[Editor's note: title deleted for upcoming players, but Kenny was the first to get this one immediately!] Bonus Lake Champlain chocolates to Kenny!
April 9, 2009
In response to: Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book: The E-book Problem Kenny Brechner commented: In terms of your central question, "How can booksellers convert our handselling expertise to have a role in recommending and distributing e-books" that question pertains more to proprietary ebooks, rather than the sort of public domain downloads you discuss here. As Dick Harte has cogently pointed out, artificially reduced, or 'deviate' pricing is being requested from publishers by electronic device and media vendors selling downloads of copyrighted material. Regular pricing of copyrighted ebooks would be much more in line with the cost of traditional books. A 9.95 ebook download of a simultaneously published 27.95 hardcover undercuts both the publishers product,and the independent bookselling community. Two things are needed. Equitable pricing, which our trade organizations should be advocating for, and an in store delivery system for downloads which would allow a handselling moment to culminate with a download in your store.
April 9, 2009
In response to: Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book: The E-book Problem Carol Chittenden commented: Sure is gonna be tricksy giftwrapping those little electrons come holiday season.
April 9, 2009
In response to: Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book: The E-book Problem Inderjit Deogun commented: Elizabeth, as a book lover, I'm not ready to make the switch. I, like you stated, need the artifact in my hands. However, I must admit that you have presented a solid argument.
April 9, 2009
In response to: Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book: The E-book Problem shelftalker elizabeth commented: Kenny, absolutely, I wasn't thinking of the public domain stuff. But hey, why not? Everyone else sells or gives those away. We could do versions with our little store logos as ornaments along the tops of the pages, and annotations on our favorite passages, maybe even add photos of our dogs, and our loyal customers could brag, "I read the DDG special-edition version of Bleak House," etc. Branding, baby. It's all about branding.
April 9, 2009
In response to: Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book: The E-book Problem Kenny Brechner commented: I don't know Elizabeth, I'm not one to miss an opportunity to immortalize my dogs, but isn't the impulse to write all about fixity. Memories distort and fade. Our identities shift and alter. Writing and loving books satisfies the need to preserve, to make something tangible and above all immutable, a permanence which is otherwise beyond our reach. Digital books are inherently mutable. The ability to brand and personalize them undercuts the integrity of the whole process. To me the nature of our relationship to books, and to other readers, is linked more to the concept of branding knowledge, information, and personal service, than it is to branding the books themselves.
April 9, 2009
In response to: Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book: The E-book Problem shelftalker elizabeth commented: Kenny, you know I was kidding in that comment, right? I was snarkily sending up our society. You and I are, literally, on the same page. Or at least in the same book.
April 9, 2009
In response to: Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book: The E-book Problem Cathy C. Hall commented: I'm already worried about the iPhone taking over the world...and now I have to worry about people DRIVING and saying, "I was just trying to finish this last page!"
April 9, 2009
In response to: Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book: The E-book Problem Karen Gray Ruelle commented: Hmmmm. Curiouser and curiouser.
April 10, 2009
In response to: Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book: The E-book Problem shelftalker elizabeth commented: Inderjit, believe me, I'm not ready to make a switch! Just surprised to find that the experience wasn't as different and disappointing and just plain WRONG as I'd fully expected it to be. Cathy: I have customers who actually read books and newspapers at stoplights. Even I have never gone that far. I'd like to live. Karen: would love for you to elaborate....
April 10, 2009
In response to: Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book: The E-book Problem Rachael commented: My question is how long can those low prices really last? If ebooks become the dominant player (and I don't know when that will be), isn't it realistic to think that publishers will eventually have (or choose) to increase prices to pay for marketing, editorial, distribution, etc, costs?
April 10, 2009
In response to: Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book: The E-book Problem PATRICIA FOWLER commented: On Itunes on my IPod, I have a ton of podcasts coming in- Diane Rehm, Fresh Air, news & politics, cooking shows, even videos.
April 10, 2009
In response to: Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book: The E-book Problem PATRICIA FOWLER commented: This is part 1- I have a new Ipod Touch. I downloaded Shakespeare, eReader, Stanza, BookSelfLT, Wattpad and yes Kindle readers just to look at their features. Obviously, I could also pay for and download e-books from ITunes. Some scroll, all have public domain titles and many offer e-book purchases. Odd to be reading on a 2X3" screen, but yes, Elizabeth, it is great for those times when you wake up & can't turn on a light to read (Alan starts muttering & perhaps kicking if I do) but you can burrow under the covers with your backlit "book".
April 10, 2009
In response to: Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book: The E-book Problem Francis Hamit commented: As someone who has published e-books since 2004, I can tell you that the market is very small so far. New books have to be priced high to compensate authors for the five to ten years it takes to create one. Public domain titles at 99 cents each actually hurt sales of new books and are pure profit for the providers. Smashwords.com, unlike Amazon.com, does not control retail price, but it does encourage authors to set prices low to generate sales. Where there is a print edition that generally does not happen because no one wants to damage those sales. Since books are unique products, competing on price alone is not necessary. Quality does count for something.
April 10, 2009
In response to: Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book: The E-book Problem Kenny Brechner commented: I agree with Francis' assessment. Both the flood of 0-99 cent downloads, and the pressure being put on publishers to sell their proprietary titles at perceived rather than real value, undermines the last great bulwark against book industry monopolization, standard proprietary publishing. Selling ebooks online is a red herring. We need to support the value of traditional publishing, of filters, and of quality. The idea of pod and digital publishing serving "
April 10, 2009
In response to: Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book: The E-book Problem Kenny Brechner commented: (part 2) serving "the millions of deserving unpublished authors" is a sham. The book industry needs filters. Publishers and Independent Booksellers provide that in different ways. We need to support traditional publisher from being pressured into providing artificially low ebook prices. That’s the bottom line.
April 16, 2009
In response to: Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book: The E-book Problem May Anstee commented: I am an avid reader, not associated with the publishing industry at all. Here are my two cents. I have my new Kindle 2, first ebook after my rocket e-book crashed to the floor. I am sorry to say, I love it, and prefer it to traditional books (and I love books)
April 16, 2009
In response to: Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book: The E-book Problem Laura B. Lucas commented: Am really enjoying the blogs, Elizabeth.
April 29, 2009
In response to: Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book: The E-book Problem shelftalker elizabeth commented: Update -- Mediabistro's GalleyCat reports the acquisition of Stanza (the e-reader app this article linked to) by Amazon: tinyurl.com/cupyrc : <br>
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