E-Book Wars

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about the price and distribution of ebooks especially with the release of all the new e-readers on the market: the Kindle, Nook, Sony, and Apple’s new iPad .

With the sales of these devices on the rise (2.5 million Kindles have sold to date), publishers and retailers like Amazon are scrambling and knocking heads trying to decide when to release the ebooks (coordinating with the release of the hardcover and print titles) and how much to charge. The dispute over the ebook pricing came to a standoff this past week with MacMillan Books, one of the largest publishers in the United States. MacMillan and Amazon could not agree on terms for the pricing of ebooks. The publisher is concerned that Amazon’s current policy for pricing will devalue the price of print books.

Publishers have tried to deal with this by delaying the ebook release after the hardcovers of particular titles were released. This hasn’t gone over well to say the least with owners of the Kindle e-readers or with Amazon.

In retaliation, Amazon yanked Macmillan ebooks off their virtual shelves. Here's an article about it: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/technology/30amazon.html

I try to understand all this but my eyes glaze over as I read articles on it. I have mixed feeling about Amazon. My print and ebooks are listed there. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=kathy+kulig But I don’t want Amazon’s success to come at the expense of the brick and mortar stores I love. And I certainly don’t want to see a monopoly. That would be a crime. The traditional publishers have this new element to deal with that's causing them more headaches than they expected. Change is painful. I'm sure they will resolve this issue soon. It seems to be hurting everyone: the vendors, publishers and authors. Both vendor and publisher do have a common goal: Sell books and make money. They just haven't figured out how to meet on common ground yet.

What do you think? Or what are your feelings on this?

An aside, I like to buy ebooks at Ellora’s Cave and that’s one of the reasons why I got a Nook ereader. Even though most of EC’s ebooks are available in the Kindle format, they’re cheaper bought directly from the Ellora’s Cave site. http://www.jasminejade.com/ EXAMPLE: My new release DAMNED AND DESIRED is $5.95 at Ellora’s Cave. On Amazon it’s $9.52. The Amazon price may change according to demand or other factors I don't understand.

Even as I finish this blog to post on Sunday, Publishisher's Lunch popped up with a new update:

In summary, Amazon announced to its customers on Sunday night that although they strongly disaggree regarding MacMillan's terms to sell their ebook titles at $12.99 - $14.99, Amazon will offer those ebooks to their customers and let the customer decide if they want to pay what they believe is needlessly high prices for bestsellers. The more attractively priced ebooks from independent presses and self-published authors may be an alternative.

The story continues, we'll have to wait and see...

I think JA Konrath has a great take on all this see his posting: http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2010/01/selling-paper.html

It’s the End of the World...I Mean Publishing as We Know It

I think it's safe to say this is the year that ebooks and ebook readers hit a monumental shift in the publishing world. Ebook readers have been around for years but haven’t enticed a large group of readers up until now. Kindle http://bit.ly/6M4AsA stirred the interest but the price still kept a good number of people away. But with the Nook http://bit.ly/2xgzR3 and it’s lower price, Kindle was forced to drop it’s price.

Now, the sales on these two ebook readers are off the charts. I checked with my local Barnes and Noble and played with the Nook, very cool. The sales person bragged about hers. And told me if I ordered one today, it wouldn’t come in until January 15th.  A friend who works at B & N said they had no idea the Nook would take off like it has. The Sony reader http://bit.ly/8Z6pjw is another popular reader and people are reading books on the iPhones too. Watch for technology to continue to develop new versions of these readers in the next few years. New multimedia devices are being developed. I have a feeling this is a trend that will only get more interesting and the devices more sophisticated. Take a look at this pretty amazing media device being developed:




When to sequence book releases in hard cover, paperback and ebooks:

Publishers are now having to consider these devices and ebooks in their marketing plan. In the past, hardcovers were released first, then the paperback version. With the expanding popularity of ebooks, traditional publisher are trying to decide when is the best time to work this new format into their release schedule.

On Publisher’s Lunch, Macmillan CEO John Sargent said his publishing house would handle bestsellers in a couple ways. Some bestsellers will have ebooks released at the same time as the hardcovers. These ebooks will be enhanced with additional content for a limited time (~three months or so). This enhanced material will include author interviews and readers’ guides. Those versions will be priced slightly higher than the hardcover price.

Simon & Schuster spokesman Adam Rothberg said that, “sequencing has been a common practice in other media for quite some time.” Their house’s current policy sequences the release of ebooks between the release of the hardcover and the paperback. But knowing those who use digital media tend to want instant gratification, publishers may have to adjust their policies and release ebooks sooner.

It'll be interesting to see what happens in the next year or two.