Friday, October 16, 2009

Price war erupts in the book world--good or bad for writers?

It started yesterday. Walmart.com announced it would sell the top ten pre-release books for $10 each, plus free shipping--meaning they would lose more than $5 per book.

Amazon matched it and the downward bidding continued.

Today it's down to $9 per book from each, and same-day shipping from Amazon.

This is following the ebook debacle, where Amazon is selling new titles on the Kindle for $9.99, about a $3 loss outright, in addition to their costs. (ie, they are selling for about $3 less than they are paying the publisher. Plus of course it costs them to run the company.)

In the short run, this is great for publishers and writers--at least top writers, because only the biggest books are discounted. But the fear is that these companies will only take the loss temporarily and then force dramatically-lower prices on the publishers. At least that's been the fear with ebooks, where everyone is suspicious of Amazon's move to lose money on all those kindles.

In the long run, this could really screw writers, who are already scraping to get by. If it means more books sold, that would be great. But will it?

I'm very conflicted. I know a lot of writers, and nearly all struggle badly every year, and it's getting worse. And with the journalism/media markets crashing, it's much harder to make your rent that way, doing books for the love of them, as a second job--which is nearly impossible to begin with.

Tough situation. I'll keep watching.

---
Meanwhile, Barnes & Nobel is set to unveil it's big new ebook reader Tuesday, to go on sale in time for Christmas. I hope that helps.

They leaked the first pictures of it this week.
Barnes and Nobel ebook reader, leaked photos

So far, ebooks have been good to me, it seems. My publisher told me last week that they have accounted for nearly 10% of my sales, which is way higher than the 1.6% average of all books. (Though I was told by industry people in Nashville that the rate is much higher than 1.6% now for new books, my rate is still higher than most new books at my publisher, which is the third largest in the U.S.)

I make about 33% more on each hardcover than ebook, but it's impossible to know whether the ebooks are canibalizing more hardcover sales or adding to them. And more readers is a great thing--if in fact, it's actually increasing readership, versus just shifting them to a different object.
at 11:07 AM

6 comments:

  1. Sometime in the last year I've realized I really value having a bookstore I can walk through and browse in. Wal-Mart will NOT do for this. Amazon, which I buy from regularly, will not do either. This means being willing to pay a couple bucks more per book in some cases. But I'm willing to do so if it keeps a physical store open.
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  2. I am unable to get into the "ebook" craze. I need a real book with pages I can feel and turn. This is especially important if the book contains pictures and/or maps. I doubt ebooks are adding readers. I believe they are only taking away from book purchases.
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  3. Off topic, Dave, but I just wanted to tell you that my life has been irrevocably altered since Saturday when I picked up Columbine at Borders. Finished it this morning, then immediately read Susan Klebold's article in O Mag, followed by some cruising around your website and the Columbine Guide.

    The house is a mess, my email box is overflowing, I owe several clients phone calls, and manuscripts are lined up on my Kindle awaiting reading, but it all faded into the background as I read your book. It's a masterpiece, Dave. Beautifully written, painstakingly researched and documented, well-organized. I'm in awe of what you've done. Thank you for this piece of work which must have dominated the majority of your days for the last decade, but is an incredibly important document that our country needed.

    I'm a literary agent and I'm a friend of Lucille's. I saw her tweets and Facebook posts around the time the book came out and kept telling myself, I've got to get that book. Then last week I read Betsy's blog post where she wrote about reading Susan's article in O, and I said no more waiting, I need the book. Interestingly, my 12-yr-old daughter has recently become interested in Columbine (we live 30 miles from the school) and she's reading Rachel's Tears. So I've been talking with her about the tragedy, which is difficult because it can be so scary for kids.

    This past Saturday my daughter and I were in Borders and we each picked up a new book and plopped down on the easy chairs in Borders Cafe. I started reading Columbine and an hour passed without me even realizing it. This wasn't one of those books I could read quickly (although I normally do since I read hundreds of books & manuscripts a year). I read it slowly and carefully and it took me many hours. I'm sure my family will be glad I've finished the book and they can have me back!

    Just wanted to thank you for this important work you've done, and congratulate you for its excellence. This has had a huge impact on me; I never cry but found myself tearing up several times in the book. And I don't think I'll ever again look at my daughters and assume I know them, and know what's in their hearts and minds. This is incredibly scary as a parent, but I think that's the main thing I've taken away from this. As much as my heart breaks for the victims and their families, I find myself shattered at the thought of what it must be like for Eric and Dylan's parents. Susan's essay only barely scratched the surface, I think.

    Hope I get to meet you one of these days. Maybe lunch with Lucille or something. Keep up the great work and again, thank you.
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  4. I also find book stores great place to be. I can spend hours browsing and most often find books that I might not otherwise pick up. Personally, I like to curl up get cozy and get lost in reading. I am not sure if a Kindle would do that for me. As an educator however, I always looking for ways to stretch my book budget so I am hoping that electronic readers, which have many classroom advantages become more affordable really soon.
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  5. All the very best on the blog, Dave. Love it.

    I share every concern and misgiving. The problem is the emergence of a new business model that, given how well it succeeded for Google, is finding its way into every nook and cranny of the media and culture market. You know it: Make the content cheap or, even better, free. In a digital world, protecting your content is only going to get harder, so give it away and then profit from advertising.

    Believe me: I am not celebrating this. And how it will play out in the world of prose and books and the printed word is anyone's guess. (Oh Dear God: Product placements in novels? Ads between chapters?)

    Seriously, my whole world is living and breathing books. I sometimes feel like I was born in a library. But while the producers of content may eventually deeply regret their decision, many of them resist lowering prices for a while and then give in to the idea that getting their content to as many people as possible (all the better if it is in desired demographic groups of course) is really what they should be doing. They actually put off the question of how they monetize their content until later. And many have settled on advertising.

    Another response from the publishing world that I am not even slightly endorsing, but that is increasingly being tried out, is a continuing series or serial. Call it the Charles Dickens business model if you will.

    Producers of all sorts of media content, from print to broadcast, in this era of the free business model, are trying to give away the initial content, hook the consumer, and then cash in.

    The marketing for Edie Falco's extraordinary series Nurse Jackie is a great example. The first episode was available everywhere. I mean you would wake up and find it under your pillow. And it was an extraordinary piece of work.

    Now, Showtime is battening down the hatches and doing every thing possible to make viewers pay for the rest. Who knows how this will play out?

    What concerns me the most in this free-model, "cash-in-quick'" short attention span economy is that I fear it is precisely the kind of extraordinary book you wrote that might in the future have the hardest time. All the time and effort and contemplation that you put into Columbine, and the resulting book in which it's all there to see, might or might not be welcome in future economies in which speed and the quick payoff are paramount.

    I really hope your publisher knows that the result of giving someone the time they need Can be something like Columbine, probably as fine a book as has ever been written about a traumatic incident.

    Steve Gorelick
    Hunter College
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  6. What wonderful comments. I apologize for taking so long to get back here.

    Rachelle you can go off-topic ANY time for that kind of msg. Wow. I am bowled over, and grateful. Looking forward to lunch with you and Lucille.

    You guys are also much smarter on ebooks than i've seen elsewhere. I also love the physical places to roam, and read. I actually wrote parts of COLUMBINE at my huge local indie, Tattered Cover. And I go in there at least once a week, and buy nearly all my books there.

    I wish I knew, too, how ebooks will play out. The risks are huge. No one knows the right answer/approach, and the wrong one may wipe out all sorts of people we need.

    Believe it or not, some member on another blog came out PROPOSING product placement in novels--and said we were stupid not to figure out these approaches to monentizing. Like that is something desirable, even if it were enough to pay the bills, which it never will be.
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