John Grisham speaks out on the future of pbooks and ebooks

[edge777]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

MobileRead does not allow links to pirated books, you should remove your links.

Oops, didn't know that - not my links though, lol. Just wish author's (or their publishers) would actually understand how the business-model actually works. I don't condone piracy, but perhaps a point needs to be made for them to figure it out (although, it did take the music industry a LOOOONG time to figure that out).

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by edge777

I see you have a lot of Karma numbers on your profile - do know that's just a tiny little meaningless number on the side of your screen, lol.

Don't know what that has to do with this thread.

[Dr. Drib]

MEMBERS:

As the discussion continues, and we intellectualize upon the pros and cons of the situation in this thread, let's try not to post links to illegally obtained ebooks.

Thank you.


Don
(Moderator)

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by charleski

You fight piracy with convenience. If you only need to tap a few keys on your Kindle to read the latest John Grisham book right now, then people will pay rather than hunt out a torrent, wait for it to download and then try to figure out how to convert an amateur PDF file to something your machine will read properly.

Absolutely true. You also fight it with a quality product, fair pricing, and customer service.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Downloading a copy off the darknet is not greed?

No doubt it is, if the book is available for your reader at some ebookstore. But there are other reasons having nothing to do with greed, unless it's the greediness of wanting to read read read. In that respect, there are a lot of us gluttons, aren't there?

[DD1509]

Originally Posted by Solicitous

But by the same token would we not have seen a similar scenario when digital music was introduced? People are buying single songs or individual albums on iTunes, as well as still going and buying full CD compilations from shops. 99c per song makes a CD worth about $12. Here in Aus the average CD price for new CDs is about $24. I haven't seen any CD stores close down because of digital music.

Most have closed down. In the San Francisco area, the largest and oldest Tower Records went away a many years ago. All of the speciality record/CD stores are gone. Only the few mass merchandisers are still there because they don't have to live on the proceeds from music-only.

If the same applies and logically it should, most of the small, independent book stores will go away. Maybe some of the specialty, used-book stores will get by for awhile. But only a a few of the largest may survive.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by DD1509

Most have closed down. In the San Francisco area, the largest and oldest Tower Records went away a many years ago. All of the speciality record/CD stores are gone. Only the few mass merchandisers are still there because they don't have to live on the proceeds from music-only.

If the same applies and logically it should, most of the small, independent book stores will go away. Maybe some of the specialty, used-book stores will get by for awhile. But only a a few of the largest may survive.

This is assuming that the reading public moves entirely to digital. Otherwise the comparison is not really valid.

[DD1509]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Bill: I agree with you one hundred percent ... and I make my living as a publisher. A publisher's role is (secondary to the author) as creator. We're approaching the point where we can cut out the non-creative ancillary workers and get straight to the reader. When folks moan about high street bookstores going broke, I always remember how change bureaux cashed in on selling money in Europe before the Euro put them out of business. I don't weep for those who take a ride. Book sellers are shopkeepers. That's all. They offer a few inches of shelf space and demand four, five, six ... whatever ... times more than the author in return. Bloody cheek. A disgrace! Neil

Yes, I would agree the retail bookstores days are numbered. Some speciality will live on but what we will likely see is only a few major chains will live on and all of the smaller, more localized shopkeepers will have to shut the doors.

This is not a new thing. It happens in every major market segment at one point in time or another. If there is a quicker, cheaper method to deliver the product to the marketplace it will eventually force the change.

When eBooks capture a larger percentage of book sales things will change rapidly. It will be the usual bell-curve outcome with the time length of the curve to be about 3-5 years before it reaches the upper portion of the curve.

[DD1509]

Originally Posted by Format C:

Retailers and distributors, like printers and truck drivers, put some work in every single copy of the book being sold.
Authors, editors and cover designers don't.



Obviously, if an author like John Grisham puts up a site to sell his (e)books directly to the public, he'd double his income.
And if he goes DRM-free, multiformat and with bundle offerings like Steve Jordan does, he can do even better.

I really don't know why big names don't follow that path...

I wonder as well. I guess it is the fear of the unknown and fear of the eventual dismantling of an industry in which all authors have grown up with and into and they hold it special in their heart. Unlike most other industry it has its charm. It is steeped in tradition and always seemed to be a gentleman's (or gentlewoman's) industry. It is inter-twined with acadamia and is an art-form. To see all of the trappings of the charm sort of go away is likely a big a bitter pill to swallow.

[DD1509]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I got a feeling....

Me too..oh plllease. I am so sick of being bombarded by advertising. I am beginning to really despise it and try hard to avoid it. Last thing I need is a new medium which can bombard me further.

Bit off topic but we had some business acquaintances visit us in the US from England. They were appalled by the constsnt streaming of advertising on US television.

I don't travel abroad and had no idea that it was not the same everywhere!

[DD1509]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Rowling isn't, but my friend who's a mid-list mystery author has stopped making sales, because her books on Amazon are offered right next to used ones for $2.00 + shipping.

The mega-selling authors aren't who to look at; the real issues we should pay attention to center on how the new e-trade and used industries change things for the authors who aren't going to become millionaires.

I feel her pain, really. "The system" certainly is not kind to midlist writers. But don't say it too loud as the next thing we will see is some invention to DRM a used book.

[DD1509]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

On the flip side, how much badly-written incoherent narcissistic drivel have you not wasted time on, because a publisher had the sense to recognize "this will never be fit for human eyeballs?"

We still need editors & publishers--we just don't need them quite as much, and don't need much of the current production & distribution chain.

Many would not agree on the role of the publisher. I don't need nor did I ask to be "protected" by publisher. I guess one could say that the publisher is only protecting their reputation and albeit their ability to sell books. They are not saving the world from poor-crafted writing.

Poorly crafted writing is a self-fufilling prohecy even in the self-publish business. I guess the only bad part is that a lot more of it will need to be sifted-through to find the jewel you want. In the electronic world it will be more user reviews and all of that and less marketing unless the author sees the need for a lot of promotion to become relevant and noticed.

But who knows? Maybe there are a lot of talented authors who could become noticed more quickly or could at least make some what of a living who could not break through the glass ceiling of the past???

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by kennyc

This is assuming that the reading public moves entirely to digital. Otherwise the comparison is not really valid.

There's another reason that the comparison might not be valid. What happened with music was not merely a shift from physical cds to digital, but from album sales to single song sales. There's no comparable shift in the book world.