E-books first
Amazon’s claim that it is selling more e-books than hardbacks is surprising only in how quickly it has happened. It was bound to happen sometime.
First, a couple of caveats. Hardbacks represent a small proportion of book sales. E-books outselling paperbacks would have been a far more significant story. Plus, Amazon is keen to promote the Kindle (note the recent price drop) in the face of serious competition from the Apple iPad. But anyway…
For all that traditionalists witter on about how the printed book will never die (which is almost certainly true, in a highly qualified way), the transition to e-books is inevitable. And it will happen in a piecemeal fashion, affecting one discrete area of the publishing world after another.
Hardbacks are a soft target because they’re expensive. Textbooks will yield to digitisation because you don’t read them for pleasure and the many benefits of the e-book – especially search – have particular attractions here. What’s more, the current generation of students doesn’t have the same relationship with ‘books’ that typified previous generations. I’ve heard numerous professors claim that their students complain bitterly if asked to read an entire book. They are far more accustomed to getting their information online. And the e-book experience is closely related to the web – after all, ePub files are just HTML.
Other areas of publishing will succumb as the technology develops. Already, the iPad has given us a taste of how illustrated books might move to the digital world.
What does all this mean for publishers? Well, as it happens, publishers are more likely to be concerned with other implications of the e-book. They’re looking to their business models.
For example, for small presses and independent publishers it now makes sense to develop an ‘e-book first’ strategy. This is what we’re doing at WebVivant Press.
Our publishing workflow is geared around producing high-quality e-books. We produce ePub editions for publishing via Apple’s iBookstore, Lulu (and, soon, Kobo and Barnes & Noble’s PubIt), plus a Kindle edition. We also produce free e-books and samples in ePub and PDF formats. The recently published Make Do & Cook is a good example of this.
We use Adobe InDesign to lay out the books, which means that it’s simple to create a print-ready PDF too. So far, we’ve used Lulu to create print editions, but we’re moving more towards Lightning Source.
The idea is that the e-book editions are our main products. They offer the best margins while still keeping the retail cost low. But we can offer a print version for those people who want it.
With an e-book, you can make a profit with cover prices as low as $2-3. With print books, given the cost of manufacture and mailing, the customer ends up paying, say, $10 for the same book even though the publisher makes no extra profit from it.
Book publishing has always been a difficult business. And what makes it difficult are all the wasteful and costly processes that intervene between author and reader – the costs incurred and profits taken by the publisher, printer, distributor and retailer. Revolutionising that model is where the e-book will have its greatest impact. So forget the arguments about how people like to read, whether the screens are good enough, and so on. The real case for e-books is a business one. And it’s a business model that benefits small publishers the most.
Abstract (please use for linking to this article):
Small presses and independent publishers should now be looking at an ‘e-book first’ strategy. It’s the only thing that makes commercial sense.
This is really interesting about e-books. I am a member of the older generation and although I find computers and laptops very useful as an amateur writer I struggle to keep up to date. Also I have been very unlucky in the world of IT as my first lap-top had 3 new hard drives while still under guarantee and a 4th in the first month after, costing £200. See now in your first paragraph you mention Kindle and Apple iPad. I am lost already. I am guessing that these are ‘things’ you use to download (Is that the correct word?) the e-book. I think I have heard about them on the wireless, sorry, radio. (When I used to get a message on my laptop saying wireless network not connected I thought it meant my radio was switched off.)
Then to your second paragraph which I fully understood and agree with completely. I am with you in the third up to ‘ePubfiles are just HTML’. Anyway I’ll get to the point which I think is your main point and is that publishers are looking for business models. I have long maintained that writing and in fact all art in a capitalist society is an industry. I am convinced that self publishing has, to coin a well turned phrase, ‘put the shits up’ the publishing industry. (I could go on about the individuals right to creative opportunities but I am saving that for my book on that subject.)
I am an avid reader and have a book in the loo, a couple by my favourite armchair, a pile by my bed and I always carry two or three with me when travelling. I am not sure how i-pad/pod thingies would fit into this scenario. Secondly I suffer from age related macular degeneration as do many older people and I find reading on a screen very difficult so if I receive a long e-mail or want to read something carefully and thoroughly, your article for example, I print it out. And don’t get me started on printers and compatibility and the price of ink!!
Having said all that I know that the younger generation are all genned up on this (I have two sons and a grand son all in IT) and I am very interested in perhaps publishing my book as an e-book.
Your last paragraph says it all. I used to be a very small desk top publisher (in the dark ages). I published yearly a slim volume on local history which by its very nature had a small circulation and barely made a profit. Most outlets were understanding of its nature and wanted to support the community but Smiths, the national chain, wanted 50% . This left 50% for the writer, publisher, printer and distributor to share. So I guess this is the deal for most bookshops and as you say if you buy on line you still have to pay sometimes more than the book price in postal costs.
Final point and most important, I have just self published a book and would like to know if I can publish it as an e-book and if so what do I have to do and how much does it cost? Also I am not satisfied with the final proof as it contains errors and would like to correct them.
I was also puzzled about the fact that you quoted prices in dollars.
I agreed to selpublishing with author house whom I assumed were in England. They do have an office in england but most of their work is done in the US. so I was often ringing them in the morning when they were all tucked up safely in bed. It was further confounded timewise because I live in France. It was after much frustration that I discovered my/their error.
I supposed I can say that I am an internationally published author.