Price war breaks out in books--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.
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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.
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.
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Thanks for the info, Dave. R
So that's gotta be one more plus for the hard working writers out there, huh?
On the basis of the headline, I rushed to Amazon, B&N, and Booksamillion searching for the slashings, which were, of course, not there.
I think my book is overpriced and would be dying if I had to depend upon individual purchasers. Fortunately, the book is doing well at schools and libraries, where the pockets are a bit deeper.
After years of writing fictional stage plays with great rewards none of them financial, I switched to non-fiction. It was a good move.
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Yekdeli, that's a mixed bag, too. It might mean more individual buyers, or just fewer readers. A hardcover nets the writer $4 (approx), and then hopefully gets passed around, talked up more, and some of those people buy it and/or get others to buy it. (Lots of people want their own copy.)
With kindles, the writer gets $3. The question: when they talk it up to other kindlers, do many of those who would have borrowed the paper book plunk down the $3, thereby increasing sales, or do most of them say, "That's nice" and not try it, thereby cutting off the huge word of mouth sales?
BTW...I bought your book the day it came out...in hardcover...AND talked it up to friends a great deal. My sister lives in Arizona (I'm in Illinois)...and she bought it on my recommendation. At least 2 other friends did the same. I am still happy to recommend good books to anyone.
If you are a "book pusher"...the Kindle does what Advance Reader's copies have always done...allows avid readers to talk up their favorites. I worked for 20 years for Borders/Waldenbooks and though I got a lot of books "for free" through advance copies, I'd have to say I spent more too, and the books I liked, I always encouraged others to purchase.
As an author, I am sure you pay more attention to all of this, but it has been fascinating to hear things from your perspective.
i'm not sure how the whole ebook will play out in the end. it has both lots of promise and lots of risk.
i have seen how the web has decimated some other fields, like my other one--journalism, and music.
i appreciate you pushing my book. feel free to push it to some new people for christmas.
So I'm curious how published authors feel about libraries - is it good? After all, libraries do BUY the books and you get word of mouth. Or bad because cheapskates like me get to read your stuff for free?
Some authors seem to be resisting the Kindle-ization of their books. Is the cannibalization concern the reason why?
Whether I'll ever make a dollar in royalties off the Kindle (or any e-reader for that matter) remains a mystery. I remain hopeful. Potentially delusional, but hopeful.
It does however beg the question of being in the author's best interests. Perhaps it's time to add a clause to an author's contract about getting the market value of his or her book in these cases?
I have a friend who is living in China for two years, and her Kindle is a lifeline. If I were a road warrior or living abroad, it sounds perfect. But for now, there's no model for libraries (which I use regularly), there's no model for book sharing, which I also do a lot between friends.
I made a conscious decision a few years back that I do not need to OWN every book I read. I use the library voraciously. Occasionally I buy books, from a specific author I love, or often, after reading it from the library and then deciding I need it. The Kindle doesn't offer me that ability.
From the consumer end, Kindle doesn't equate to the iPod/iTunes model. We already have an expectation that we need a device to play music on. Anything from a record player to an iPod, it's an expense we expect. The $1 per song is great, because it's small, and allows me an impulse buy now and again. But $300 for a device to read books on, with no book? Then $10/book after that, for books I wouldn't have paid for otherwise? It doesn't add up.
I'm watching and waiting to see how this all shakes out. I think we'll be there one day. But not while specific companies (Amazon, or Barnes and Noble, or whatever) are controlling the sales and the devices. Even with my iPod, I can put any CD on it, whether I got it from a record store, from Amazon, or from a yard sale. Apple doesn't control where my music comes from unless I choose to buy from them (which I sometimes do).
As it should be.
I don't get the theory that 9.99$ is selling at a loss. Paperbacks often cost about the same, if not less.
From where I sit, the actual print cost is a small percentage of what a publisher does. The authors at my publisher are experts in their field (very small, obscure niche of nonfiction). They are for the most part not good writers. It take a lot of work that the publisher takes on to get the book into printable shape. I would invite anyone to look at the state of manuscripts when I get them--they're not any kind of quality to be publishable.
Even mass market publishing (how to train your dog, popular nonfiction like Dave Cullen writes, and fiction) takes the time of an editor. Granted, mass market manuscripts are better than what I get, but they still take work. I could bore you silly with all the steps between author manuscript and finished book, but let me assure you that there are a lot. The decision at the very very end, paper or Kindle (or both), is a tiny blip in that process. Kindle books take all the same up-front work as a paper book, and that's what you're paying for.
A publisher does a whole lot more than print books. If printing books was all we did, they'd look about like the packets we all got from Kinko's in college.
The publishers charge stores much less for paperback than hardcover--not sold at loss. Publishers charge amazon approx $13 for the typical new ebook and amazon sells for $10. That's a loss
that way, in the buyer's mind the price per book isn't so high - and from the publisher's standpoint, they probably weren't going to sell that old book anyway because ... it's old.
"Dear Writer, we no longer need to pay you. You can continue to write and gain personal fame, but we see no need to pay you for boosting your own ego and prestige. We are going to publish the best of the freely donated posts from Salon, make the money and give you none of it. Good luck with your post-authorship career. We recommend Burger King for a money-making career."
My second issue is the pricing structure for older books. 1984 is a good example; Amazon pulled it from people's Kindles because it turned out to be a pirated copy. But then they turned around and wanted to charge $10 for an "official" copy. 1984 has been out for 6 decades, and its author has been dead for quite a while. The production costs on an electronic document are far lower than on a hardcover or a paperback; why should readers be charged new trade paperback prices for an old eBook?
I don't have an answer, Dave. I just think the pricing structure for hardcopy and eBooks is in a huge state of flux, and will take a while before "market forces" stabilize it. And this price war is an example of that.
douglas, i'm not certain, but i could swear their pricing structure does go down for older books. i think they only sell new hits for $9.99, and that other new books are more, and then they have a graduated downward scale so that it decreases in price over time.
i haven't looked in awhile, but that's what i recall. anyone, correct me if i'm wrong.
On the other hand, some "classic" material can be had for quite a bit less. Hardcover copies of, say, the complete Sherlock Holmes can put you back quite a bit more than the $0.99 Amazon charges you for the Kindle edition.
My main point here is that pricing structure is in wild flux, and I believe that part of it is simply due to the fact that no-one--Amazon, Barnes & Noble, the publishing houses, the authors--has any idea what the market will bear for electronic copies, how long it will take for eBook/eReader/Kindle/Sony Reader devices to saturate the market, and so on.
My personal take is that when eBooks can be expected to sell to the majority of the book-buying public, there will be downward pressure on the publishers to charge less and accept smaller margins (partly because of the much lower cost of production), and the publishers will try to maintain their margins by squeezing their authors. And frankly, I suspect we'll see some authors publishing books directly; after all, if you don't need physical presses and publisher publicity, why use the middle-man if they're only going to skim profit?
Just one online writer's opinion.
Douglas, You CAN download the books to your computer and save them there from the Kindle...did you know that? Then they are safe from prying Amazonian pocket pickers! I know, I know, it's a spot of bother innit?
As for libraries, fins, just because someone owns a Kindle or e-book reader doesn't mean that we don't frequent them as well. I am a book ADDICT. Libraries offer so many things the average retail book store or even Amazon don't have...namely, titles that are regional; titles more than 30 years old; academic works; interlibrary loan; research facilities...and just the incredibly "real world" experience of the library environment itself. Before I ever hit a bookstore, I practically lived in the public library...and to this day, it is the FIRST place I go when I move to a new town, as I did last year. I have 10 library cards in my wallet from different city and county establishments in Colorado and Illinois...
While I freely admit I've never had an original thought in my entire life, and even the most minor of successes I have had were actually those of other people who I then killed and stole their identities, some people like Tom are saddled without even the ability to slobber coherently into their institutionalized gruel.
Rather than censor or pity poor Tom, we should band together as a community and empower him to make his own life, (regardless of how terminally limited it is,) a more productive one, by buying him a silver plated spork and instructional DVD.
Who knows; one day he may even make enough progress that the staff can bet on whether it will be lap or chin that day.
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Whoa oh, livin' on a prayer
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