Dear Publishers,

[zacheryjensen]

Originally Posted by kwjones

Before I purchased an ebook reader, my reading experience was something like this:

The newest hardcover was just released by one of my favorite authors. At this point I have a few options.

Option 1: I can go to a national bookstore chain and immediately purchase the hardcover. Sometimes the store offers the book for 20% off and if I have a membership card, I get another 10% off. I go home and enjoy the book. If I found a chapter was missing, or something happened in the printing process and a page was completely not readable, I can take the book back to the store for an exchange or refund.

Option 2: I can get my name put on the waiting list at my local library. I pick up the book from the library, then go home and enjoy the book. If I found a chapter was missing, or something happened in the printing process and a page was completely not readable, I can take the book back to the library and let them know. Once I read the book, I can decide if it's something that I might read again. If it is, I can purchase the hardcover, or wait until the paperback comes out.

Option 3: I really like the author, but I'll just wait for the paperback. A few months later, I go back the the national bookstore chain and buy the paperback, go home and enjoy the book. If I found a chapter was missing, or something happened in the printing process and a page was completely not readable, I can take the book back to the store for an exchange or refund.

All in all, not a bad system. I can lend the books out if I really wanted to, but since I don't even trust my wife not to dog ear a page or crease the spine, I just don't lend out my books. If the bookstore didn't have the book I wanted to purchase, they could order it for me and let me know when it was in.

So last year I bought an ebook reader. I was really hoping that ebooks would mirror my past experiences with paper books, but they don't. The industry seems to be rife with double standards.

Here's what I want in an ebook, and this is where you failed: price, back catalogs and formating. If you failed at any level on one of these issues, you've failed on all of them because they are all linked together.

I would pay $15 for an ebook released the same day as a hardcover as long as I could be guaranteed that the content was the same. I've downloaded several free copies of books and the spelling and formating errors are terrible. If I had bought a hardcover or paperback with these errors, it would be going back to the store for an exchange or refund.

I would pay $5 to $8 for the ebook equivalent of a paperback, but there is no way I am going to pay for an ebook that costs more than the paperback already sitting on my shelf. I know I'm paying for convenience, but seriously, this is just stupid.

Back catalogs are a problem for me. Some books I want to replace just aren't available in ebook format. I want to purchase them...really, I do. I even have a budget just for personal entertainment. The only place I've seen some of the books I want are only available through "illegal" file sharing sites. Someone has taken the time to scan one of your books and transform it into an ebook. Some even take extra time to proof read everything and correct all of the mistakes from the scanning process. Why did they bother to take the time to scan your book? Maybe because you don't make it available for purchase. How is it that a single person can put out a better quality product than you can most of the time? Maybe you could hire one of these criminals to scan your back catalogs and make sure there aren't any formating issues. Or you could just download them yourself and repackage them so you can sell them.

I'm not going to discuss DRM, because frankly, there are so many ways to get around it, it's not even an issue anymore for most people. You might consider saving me a few minutes of my time by not forcing it on me. You might even find that if you save enough people the time and effort of circumventing your DRM schemes, you might sell more books.

So purchasing ebooks has been a source of frustration for me. Thankfully, sites like mobileread.com have a wide selection of free public domain books. The formating is great, and if I notice any major mistakes, I can let the person who created the ebook know, and they will fix it. I've also purchased a few ebooks directly from the author. They seem to appreciate it a lot more than you do.

Sincerely,

Consumer of books

I'm with you on all of these. The only thing I would add is that it would be nice to see some more business models that leverage technologies and better reflect real usage habits. I'm okay with paying for eBooks but I wouldn't mind a subscription option as well.

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by CopperTrail

Great post. I get my books from 2 sources: New releases from my local library by requesting them a month or more in advanced and paperbacks from a great used bookstore in my area. I will gladly pay the their prices because of the personal service and recommendations I receive when I stop in.

I do own a Kindle but it's been sitting unused in a drawer for over a year.

If everyone did what you do is it fair to say Author income would drop and we would get less books as more authors have to work a second job to support their writing?

[Bremen Cole]

Originally Posted by stustaff

If everyone did what you do is it fair to say Author income would drop and we would get less books as more authors have to work a second job to support their writing?

And it would not take long until those authors demanded the companies change, or they change companies. The companies would ether change their business model or go out of business. The authors could refuse the next contract, or sink with their chosen ship. Authors are not pure and holy in all this. An author sighs with the publisher that offers the most money. They are not idiots. The authors are part of the process to deliver a product to consumers, and need to be aware of the marketplace.

The fact is the publishers/companies/authors would change pretty quickly if this kind of customer action was applied. It is ALL about money, to all parties involved.

[zacheryjensen]

Originally Posted by Bremen Cole

And it would not take long until those authors demanded the companies change, or they change companies. The companies would ether change their business model or go out of business. The authors could refuse the next contract, or sink with their chosen ship. Authors are not pure and holy in all this. An author sighs with the publisher that offers the most money. They are not idiots. The authors are part of the process to deliver a product to consumers, and need to be aware of the marketplace.

The fact is the publishers/companies/authors would change pretty quickly if this kind of customer action was applied. It is ALL about money, to all parties involved.

Let's not forget that authors can sell directly via the same agency-model distribution channels, assuming more outlets move in that direction. I'm fairly certain Apple will allow it as they have with the app store already, and you could already sell your books as individual apps in the app store, or in-app purchases in an eBook reader or something. So it wouldn't make sense to block-out indie sellers.

So in a way this trend, if it should come to pass more broadly, will make it more feasible for smaller shops or totally independent authors to compete more evenly with larger publishers.

[Bremen Cole]

"So in a way this trend, if it should come to pass more broadly, will make it more feasible for smaller shops or totally independent authors to compete more evenly with larger publishers."

And that of course is the real fear of the big publishers. Much like the music industry the big players are used to a monopoly, and the brave new digital world scares the hell out of them. They are used of a business model in which that have complete control. I would like to see indies be the wave of the future. Better for the consumer, and the author.

[zacheryjensen]

Originally Posted by Bremen Cole

"So in a way this trend, if it should come to pass more broadly, will make it more feasible for smaller shops or totally independent authors to compete more evenly with larger publishers."

And that of course is the real fear of the big publishers. Much like the music industry the big players are used to a monopoly, and the brave new digital world scares the hell out of them. They are used of a business model in which that have complete control. I would like to see indies be the wave of the future. Better for the consumer, and the author.

Genius! Except that it was MacMillan pushing for amazon to do this. Do you think that they also demanded that individuals NOT be offered the same deal? I wouldn't put it past them, but still... it was their requirement.

Actually if you wanted to take the iPhone App store as an example again, it seems that the very large companies are co-existing with successful indies rather well, at least in the gaming section which is the largest section. EA is topping the revenue charts week after week, but all the buzz is about indies, and they're both making serious dough with this channel for distribution.

Obviously, not everyone is striking it rich, but there are lots of little aggregation portals that serve as interest-specific views into the large world of the app store. I read toucharcade.com daily for games interests and they give a lot of lip service to the undiscovered quality indie games. The same kind of ecosystems could crop up around genres or subgenres for authors with iBookstore. In fact, I really hope it does.

[sony_fox]

Is there a thread, already, where people have listed authors who sell-direct, such as this fellow, J.A. Konrath, etc

Don't know. CJ Cherryh does also at her closed-circle site. She's gradually working on uploading all her old stories.

[astrodad]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

If you're going to download from the darknet and still want to compensate the author, your best option is to buy the dead tree book. That way the author gets paid and the sale counts on the books (which is important for getting the publisher to support the NEXT book in the series).

I do this quite a bit, but only for books that are not available as ebooks. If it's not a book that I will want to keep for a long time I will donate the brand new book to my library or to a local organization. I will also make sure and write a good review from Amazon (where I tend to buy most of my pbooks).

[Bremen Cole]

zacheryjensen said "Actually if you wanted to take the iPhone App store as an example again, it seems that the very large companies are co-existing with successful indies rather well, at least in the gaming section which is the largest section. EA is topping the revenue charts week after week, but all the buzz is about indies, and they're both making serious dough with this channel for distribution."

Agreed, but they co-exist because the major corporations do not have a choice. If the big player could, they would not allow the little guy to even get to the table.

Just as an aside..... I'm old enough to remember in the Com-64 days, when EA was a handful of creative artist sailing the then new world of computer software. They were successful, and quickly were bought out and became big fish in the industry.

[astrodad]

Originally Posted by sony_fox

Don't know. CJ Cherryh does also at her closed-circle site. She's gradually working on uploading all her old stories.

How do you know this? There are lots of books from Cherryh that I would love to get in ebook form.

[Lemurion]

Publishing houses do two things: first they help get a manuscript into publishable form, this includes both substantive and copy edits, as well as proofreading as well as things like typesetting and cover art; and second they get the book into the trade distribution channels. All of this takes time, so if the author does it they will end up writing less.

As a reader, I consider that a fail.

Publishers do important and valuable work, and they deserve to be compensated too. The vast majority of authors who do well with self-published low-cost ebooks are ones who already have a fanbase. People already know who they are. You can find JA Konrath in the bookstores, and I first ran into Michael McCollum's books about 20 years ago in paperback.

It's a great option for midlist authors to keep their backlist available, but not quite so useful for people just starting out.

Publishers are necessary, and they're not evil. I've met several and all the ones I know are book people. They do however, want to make enough money to keep the books coming.

[Tim32127]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

Publishing houses do two things: first they help get a manuscript into publishable form, this includes both substantive and copy edits, as well as proofreading as well as things like typesetting and cover art; and second they get the book into the trade distribution channels. All of this takes time, so if the author does it they will end up writing less.

As a reader, I consider that a fail.

Publishers do important and valuable work, and they deserve to be compensated too. The vast majority of authors who do well with self-published low-cost ebooks are ones who already have a fanbase. People already know who they are. You can find JA Konrath in the bookstores, and I first ran into Michael McCollum's books about 20 years ago in paperback.

It's a great option for midlist authors to keep their backlist available, but not quite so useful for people just starting out.

Publishers are necessary, and they're not evil. I've met several and all the ones I know are book people. They do however, want to make enough money to keep the books coming.

You might also think about the fact that you wouldn't hear about most authors without publishers promoting their work. or the fact they pay them money before they write the book so they can write the book. I wonder how many of the people crying about the price of an ebook would send the authors checks so they could spend the next year writing that next best seller.
Tim...

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by MikeRo

I think the best form of protest is to only support those publishers who understand ebooks, produce them properly and price them accordingly. We could start a list here of ebook-friendly publishers.

I'd suggest a Wiki page. A forum thread will get lost over time...

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by jplumey

How do you know this? There are lots of books from Cherryh that I would love to get in ebook form.

Check out www.closed-circle.net. Not a tremendous amount there yet, but she's said on her blog she wants to bring in more of her backlist.

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

It's a great option for midlist authors to keep their backlist available, but not quite so useful for people just starting out.

Agreed, absolutely (although it's a potential gold-mine for publishers too).

Publishers are necessary, and they're not evil. I've met several and all the ones I know are book people. They do however, want to make enough money to keep the books coming.

Agreed, with provisions. Patrick Nielsen Hayden, big cheese over at Tor? He's a great guy, very much a book person, cares about books and writers. His boss, John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan-US? He's in the business of moving widgets and on the record as saying that publishing is a dead-end business. The partners who own Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH (which owns Macmillan, which owns Tor)? They don't know Patrick Nielsen Hayden exists, and the number of widgets being moved by one US subsidiary is nothing more than a dot in a curve in a Powerpoint presentation at the board meeting.