Over the past couple of months we've seen two major rulings that were related to the book publishing business. The first was the Department of Justice ruling against Apple in a price fixing case. The more recent decision just announced the other day was that Google can continue to scan millions of books for the purpose of making them searchable. So far they've scanned over 20,000,000 books and their goal is to scan every book. Of course both of these decisions will be appealed.
In the DOJ case the DOJ said that Apple conspired with several of the major publishing firms to fix ebook prices. (BTW, Kensington was not one of those). Apple offered publishers a new publishing model for their digital business where they would act as an "agent" and take 30% of the proceeds and give the publishing company the other 70%, but the digital prices had to be at a specified price which was directly related to the price of the printed book. The publishers also were accused of telling the other ebook retailers that they would have to go along with this same type of arrangement. The bottom-line was that the price of digital books increased. Publishers thought this was a great idea because they felt that the low prices that Kindle was charging, below cost in many cases, were devaluing the content. Consumers enjoyed the benefits of Amazon's low prices and the DOJ basically won their case stating that the new business model, which several of the publishers all switched to at the same time, raised the price of ebooks.....and that's all the DOJ cared about.
Most publishers were outraged by the decision because the agency model was seen as a way for the publishers to put the ebook retailers all on the same footing and make them all charge the same price. This would prevent Amazon/Kindle from selling ebooks well below cost even though they had to pay publishers based on the digital list price. Amazon's philosophy is that they will continue to absorb this loss on much of the merchandise that they sell because they say they are giving the consumer a great value.
What do you think about this? Do you think it's fair that Amazon/Kindle sells books below cost making it impossible for any other smaller ebook retailers or printed book retailers to compete? How long can Amazon continue to do this? Do you think they'll continue doing this and gain marketshare until they wipe out the competition and then eventually raise prices? What happens when the other ebook retailers eventually throw in the towel and does Amazon then raise their prices and finally other book retailers get back into the game again? Do you feel that Amazon's shareholders are going to get fed up that the Company continues to lose money even though their revenue increases? Or is Amazon really the greatest thing to happen for the consumer since the internet really exploded?
The Google case has been going on for years now. One side wins, then the other side appeals....For most consumers this will not have any bearing on them. Do you think that it's right that Google is able to scan all of the books they want, even though they are copyrighted; just so they can make them searchable when you type in a related subject in Google? Or do you think they should be required to get the author's approvable before scanning copyrighted material?
I'd be interested in hearing your comments.
Steve
BTW, I am a frequent user of Amazon and Kindle as well as just about all of the major ebook retailers, including B&N and Nook, Apple and Kobo. I constantly try different ebook retailers to see which offers the best user experience for me. I've also had the luxury of trying most of the major ebook readers and tablets and own a Kindle New Paperwhite, several iPads in different sizes, the new Nook Glowlight and the brand new Kobo Aura. And of course everybody uses or has tried Google as the search engine of choice and it has become the defacto standard.
I can only speak for myself, and as a consumer, I don't believe ebooks should be priced the same as or even near pbooks. Pbooks, after I read them, can be displayed, donated, given away, or resold. Ebooks cannot. Ebooks cost less to make, and don't require much storage space. I believe the savings should be passed on to consumers.
ReplyDeleteThe Google conversation is intriguing. Should they ask permission? Absolutely.
Authors and publishers bust their behinds every day trying to figure out how to get their books in front of more readers. Google comes along and makes books discoverable. And gets sued. Had they charged authors and publishers for such a service, everyone would be jumping on the bandwagon for that kind of exposure.
I've discovered and bought many books--especially of the resource or textbook variety--because Google introduced me to one I hadn't previously been aware of that covered the material I was searching for. Oftentimes, I'd already searched my favorite book outlets and didn't find what I needed. Once I knew a title and author, I found it easily.
Not too long ago, Debra Dixon’s book GMC, a valuable writer and editor resource, was only available in print and at her publisher’s website. With G’s help, I found it, read a few snippets, clicked the buy link, and bought it years before I ever saw it mentioned on a writer site. While I was there, I also bought two other books I’d never heard of, but are among my favorite writer’s tools.
Why would someone in the biz of selling books balk at someone with Google’s reach increasing their book’s exposure? How much does it cost in time or promotional dollars to put a book in front of an audience as wide as Google’s? Can the average author reach that many people on their own? Do they know where to find people who are specifically searching for their topic? Authors and publishers give away whole copies of their books to people who may tell a friend or a hundred about them. What that person has to say may paint the book in a flattering light, or the opposite. Google shows a few snippets and leads readers to the buy site. For free. Why is this a bad thing?
I'm so bad at this. I had typed a long reply and then lost it.....take 2.
DeleteI agree with you about the Google scanning. Making information about a book easier to find is a good thing and I don't have any problem with that. I do think they should get permission though.
Regarding your feelings about the price of an ebook requires a more detailed response. If you're a self-published author, or digital only author; there is a very good argument as to why the price of the ebook should be less expensive. You don't have the cost of an author advance typically, no fees for typesetting and a far greater savings in editing, promotion and publicity. You obviously don't have any manufacturing fees or storage fees with a digital only book. These books could be lower priced and it helps to get them noticed.
Now if you're primarily a print author, the publisher still has the much higher costs involved in editing, typesetting, proofreading, copy-editing, marketing, publicity, manufacturing and let's not forget rent and all the other associated overhead expenses like salaries. With printed sales declining, the publishers are relying on the digital sales to offset the reduction in income. Print sales are still 70% of the business but it's changing. The biggest reason why publishers charge a higher price for ebooks is because the author advance business model has not changed. Publishers are still paying the same levels of advances to these print authors and we need to recoup our investment in the author. The cost of manufacturing the book really has very little to do with the price of the ebook. In general, a mass market paperback is about $.45 to print, while a hardcover might be $1.50. So when you look at the retail cost of a book, the manufacturing is not a big part. The biggest cost with bigger authors is the advance.
From a business standpoint, the price equality makes sense. But from a consumer's standpoint, I wonder if e-books will ever have the same perceived value. Maybe if the content is important, and the advantages of digital outweigh lugging a huge textbook around. For fiction, not so much. I know firsthand what goes into a book, how much time and energy an author and her team put in, and still my consumer side perceives a difference in value between formats.
DeleteMaybe there are futures we haven't thought of. How will it be if digital becomes the norm? Would people pay more for the portability, easy storage, and convenience of digital? Will they pass up the bargain bin, and pay more for the ebook they can carry with them? I can see my consumer self in that future, where digital has more perceived value than paper. But I'm not there yet.
Fun conversation. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I forgot to share my social media tip. If my reply is more than a couple sentences, I compose it in a doc, then copy and paste. For me, it's more a fear of public typos than losing the comment thought.
DeleteThanks for that tip. I have no idea what I'm doing here yet and I'm going to mess things up several times. You might be right and the portability factor might outweigh everything else or the convenience of being able to get any book you want in a few seconds. It's amazing technology. I guess younger generations will adapt to that even more so than us now. The times, they are a changing.
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