Technology

Brendan sent me this article: Two Major Publishers To Hold Back E-Books

Yet another industry failing to get with the program…

First up:

“The right place for the e-book is after the hardcover but before the paperback,” said Carolyn Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS Corp. “We believe some people will be disappointed. But with new [electronic] readers coming and sales booming, we need to do this now, before the installed base of e-book reading devices gets to a size where doing it would be impossible.”

The right place for what? for you to make the most profit while desperately clinging on to the last remaining shreds of your ancient and outdated business model?  Aaaaand you need to do this now because soon it won’t be an option? If you really think it’s going to stay an option because you switched now you should find a new job that’s not effected by the digital world.  Perhaps working as a farrier because I doubt that’s going to change much…

Next we have some more nonsense:

David Young, chief executive of the Hachette Book Group, said that Hachette, beginning in January or February, will delay the e-book publication of the vast majority of its titles for three to four months.

“We’re doing this to preserve our industry,” Mr. Young said. “I can’t sit back and watch years of building authors sold off at bargain-basement prices. It’s about the future of the business.”

At least this guy doesn’t sounds like he believes his own hype about preserving the model.  Instead he tries a creative spin, throwing in the word authors to make it sound like this is going to effect the authors.  The only thing that’s going to effect the amount these authors get paid is these jackasses slowing down sales to sell more books that have a higher profit margin.  The author will still make the same amount (most authors will anyway that have a standard contract).  If they were embracing the digital market they would probably be making even more money as the number of books they sell would be higher…  I’m not 100% sure on today’s ebook contracts with authors but I’m willing to bet they’re in favor of the publishers… And what is the deal with “bargain basement prices”?  You know, if you’re selling me an ebook that costs zero dollars to manufacture then yes, yes I expect a significantly reduced price.

And now for some quotes from the sensible crowd:

“In the Internet age you don’t enjoy the same degree of control,” said Eric Garland, CEO of BigChampagne, LLC, an online media measurement company in Beverly Hills, Calif. “You can’t create artificial scarcity by withholding content in one form and making it available later.”

An Amazon spokesman said, “Authors get the most publicity at launch and need to strike while the iron is hot. If readers can’t get their preferred format at that moment, they may buy a different book or just not buy a book at all.”

Thank you Eric (and nice name btw) and unnamed spokesperson of Amazon; the only thing this model is going to do is drive people to pirate the ebook and then they’ll never end up purchasing your product AT ALL… ebook or otherwise.  I’ve got an idea, let’s release music albums on CD and then 4 months later we’ll sell the electronic copy!  There’s no way that would effect the number of people who acquire an illegal copy OR effect the sales numbers across the board.

The final piece or retardation in this article:

Mr. Garland suggested that just as consumers now pay 99 cents for a song they want instead of $15 for an album, they may come to feel the same way about $25 hardcover best sellers. Once they become accustomed to paying $9.99 for a book, they won’t go back, he said.

Wow, analogy fail… CD album price is to digital track price as hardback price is to ebook price? First of all, there’s no fucking way I’d pay $25 for a new book and obviously I’m in the majority here.  Book prices have been increasing at a much faster pace than inflation and you’re offering the same damn thing you were 15 years ago.  I started buying used books almost exclusively because of the massive price difference.  I remember when softcovers were $4.99 and I used to read all the time.  Now they’re over three times that and I don’t read nearly as much as I used to.

So what I got out of that article is a few book publishers (so far) are flailing about, crying a lot, and trying to save their entire market instead of taking a few hints from… I don’t know, every other fucking industry that’s been effected by the digital age.  I can hear them now because they all sound the same, “but our industry is different, we’re not the same, whaaaaaaaaaaa”.