This is a three part series, other posts in this series:
- Part 1: Thoughts from a Reader (hey, that's me!)
- Part 3: Thoughts from a Retailer (a conversation with Scribd.com, eBook publisher and distributor)
Yesterday I shared my thoughts, as a reader, about eBooks. My post was sort of a reply to Alex Day's article (linked in the first post). But we've all heard a lot of readers' opinions about eBooks. Who I really wanted to hear from were the writers and publishers soon to be embracing, or shunning, this new format.
The following came out of a discussion I had with John Green, whose latest novel, the New York Times Bestselling (and Edgar Award-winning) Paper Towns, was published in 2008. John's first novel, Looking For Alaska, was published in 2005 and won the Printz Award. His second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, was published the following year, in 2006. John is currently working on two new titles; he's co-writing the novel Will Grayson Will Grayson with David Levithan (co-author of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist) while working on a new novel of his own entitled The Sequel.
John focused on the economics of the eBook format more than anything. Here is what he had to say:
eBooks aren't heavy, don't require shipment around the world, and cost almost nothing to create. But there's a huge disadvantage to them, which is that people don't buy them (at least not yet). It's important to remember that the book business is very small. Unlike music or movies, books have always been a niche business aimed at a small percentage of consumers. As we transition to eBooks, we have to find ways to make the math make sense. Right now, it's almost impossible to sell 10,000 copies of an eBook, and it's almost impossible to justify the cost of labor with anything less than 10,000 copies, even with the huge royalties authors hope for from eBooks.
Example: Let's completely ignore marketing and publicity, and just focus on the work required to make a book: It takes me two years to write a novel. In those two years, I work closely with my editor, who also edits 20 other books in that time. The book also requires reads from a copyeditor and a proofreader. In the current market, 1/10th of an editor's salary plus reads from the copyeditor and the proofreader would cost a total of, say, $8,000.
(Some people will say, "I don't need an editor. I don't need a copyeditor." To which I say, F. Scott Fitzgerald needed an editor, and so do you.)
You sell the eBook for $10. Now let's say that somehow, magically, you are able to reach out to ten thousand readers and convince them to pay $10 for your eBook without special placement on Amazon, without advertising, without marketing departments who can reach out to libraries and schools to generate sales, and without a physical book to offer in exchange for the 10 dollars. The seller takes (say) four dollars from each sale. (Bookstores take a full 50% of a physical book's sale, and even with that full 50%, they are in big trouble. But let's charitably assume they only take 40% of eBook sales.) In this rosy (some would argue miraculous) scenario, you net $52,000 from your book, which works out to $26,000 a year before taxes.
That's why I am not yet a convert to eBooks. When I run the math, I dislike the numbers I see.
Comment Questions:
1. Are intangible works of art (like an eBook or YouTube video) "worth" as much as tangible works of art?
2. eBooks don't require physical retailers, but hardcover and paperback books do. Where do you buy most of your physical books? (ie. bookstore, Amazon.com, author's website)
PS. There were some amazing comments left by readers on yesterday's post, some as long as my original post. Even though most disagreed with me, I encourage you to read about others' experiences with eBooks.
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9 comments:
Let's just hope Daniel Biss helped John with that math.
1. Another analogy.
I pretty much single-handedly designed our school's made-from-scratch literary magazine, with a program I'd hardly worked with and with very, very limited resources. That work was intangible, and while it was on the computer, it was still intangible. We could have bought a domain, put everything up online, with the right kind of design. I could have spent hours on that project. But would I have been as happy as seeing the finished, published, ready-for-tangible-distribution literary magazine in my hands? Heck no. There's something so indescribable as seeing your hard work take a tangible form like that. So while the website may have, "technically," been equal in worth, I think everyone involved in creating the magazine, as well as everyone holding the magazine, would be much more pleased with the final product.
Besides, anyone can post videos on youtube and get "famous." It takes a certain "quality" to talk to big-name movie producers, to talk to publishers for a book, stuff like that. You know you're getting the "best" of the applications when you see a printed book or a widely distributed movie.
I mean, not always. There are still Miley Cyruses and crappy novels. Not a perfect comparison, but I think it stands.
2. I don't buy books on Amazon a lot, because I'm a bit of an impulse buyer. I prefer going to bookstores and looking around for hours, waiting for something to catch my eye. If I like it, I'll buy it. I find Amazon too hard to just "browse," you know?
kay done.
I think the jury's still out on the first question. To me personally, its worth just as much.
2. I get most of my books from Barnes and Noble and Half Priced Books. B&N has a monopoly on bookstores in my area, so that is where I go for new books. I don't buy online because my parents still paranoid about buying things online. Half Priced Books is where I get "classics" or books for required reading. After all the money I spend on books, HPB is a good option because books are so expensive.
I do think that authors have an advantage with bookstores, because the average, occasional reader is going to skim the bookshelves before making a choice. People who buy books online have a tendency to be more 'hardcore' readers who have select tastes and know what authors cater to their needs. Buying books on Amazon has become increasingly popular, but I think the instant gratification of going to the store still keeps people from going the online route.
1. Are intangible works of art (like an eBook or YouTube video) "worth" as much as tangible works of art?
I desperately want to say yes; I think in principle I believe yes, of course, they're a different type of art but art has always evolved. Everything logically moves me to say yes. Nonetheless, as commenter Katy pointed out and something that will perhaps lead to a Wall*E earth is the idea of something tangible. I don't know. I really want to say yes, particularly as I've seen some fantastic videos, for example, but there's definitely some kind of difference between the two that's stopping me immediately saying that yes, they are of equal worth.
2. eBooks don't require physical retailers, but hardcover and paperback books do. Where do you buy most of your physical books? (ie. bookstore, Amazon.com, author's website)
Independent bookshops as much as possible. The recommendations and general expertise I receive, especially in Charing Cross Road bookshops (in central London), is wholly unrivalled. Second to that, I get them from charity shops or if it's a text I need for school, I get it from Waterstones or Borders. Amazon.co.uk is absolutely a last resort, and used mostly to get books from abroad (mainly foreign language, US books and Australian books).
- Rosi
I think an eBook is worth as much as an actual book. And I would pay for a really awesome YouTube video if I didn't almost always have internet.
When I buy books, I usually do a search to see where I can find it cheapest (online, that is). A lot of times it ends up being from Amazon. However, someone who is currently in the honors program I'm about to start recommended a few sites that sell used books for fairly cheap, so I think I'm going to start doing that. But for books that I want my own, new, special copy of, I find the cheapest internet store. But there are no good book stores in my town, anyways. We have a tiny B. Dalton in our tiny mall and the tiny Waldenbooks in our tiny mall closed.
Realistically, an eBook is NOT worth as much a physical copy. I say this because it costs less to create. Would you say a car that costs half as much to manufacture is worth the same as a normal car? It just doesn't make sense to me as a buyer. Why I would pay the same amount for something that costs significantly less to make. I'd pay $5 for an eBook, not $10.
I buy books at bookstores, Borders or Barnes & Noble.
1) Depending on the video and the equipment/software/etc that went into making it, I think they do have as much worth as tangible art. Though there is often less spent on them than the tangible things b/c of the lack of physical issues to deal with in getting it out to the public/audience. On that same note, an eBook's monetary worth/price would be less than a regular book's, but as far as other connotations of "worth" I'd say they're the same.
2) I get most of my books from a physical store (B&N mostly, but sometimes Wal-Mart), and a few (more recently) from online places (B&N, Amazon, and a few from e-bay). The latter are mostly pre-orders or books I can't find at the stores I know.
1: I think the quality of the work itself itself determines the worth, so yes, I think intangible pieces can be worth as much as tangible pieces. However, I think it takes a much stronger idea to reach that status since the product is dependant completely on the idea and not at all on the physical context, which I still maintain is a valuable part of reading a book.
2: I do get most of my books off Amazon because it's cheaper, and my family's philosophy is to always buy the cheapest option possible, as long as the product is identical. However, in becoming more knowledgable about the benefits of independent bookstores and such, I will try to shop at those more. Now to just find one nearby...the only bookstore I know of within walking distance of my dorm is Borders.
I don't know what I think about ebooks. I've only bought one within the past couple years and honestly, I forget I have it. As someone who rereads constantly, this isn't helpful. So I prefer at the moment because ebooks still aren't "mainstream" physical copies.
I do most of my book shopping at stores (BN, Borders), however, I sometimes shop online for them as well (BN.com, Amazon)
I think there will be retailers and marketing for e-books, and that there needs to be a transition period where most books are available in both formats - so actually a large part of John's argument doesn't really appeal to me as anything to worry about. It's a good idea for why not to switch completely right now, though.
People will still want to browse through categories and buy from a place they trust, so there will still be retailers as always when a switch is made. Probably there will also be stores where you can buy a physical copy on a disc/card/something that can then be loaded onto a device. I'm actually kindof surprised (but also, in a way, very glad) that e-books aren't being offered on cards the way video games for, say, a Nintendo DS are.
Also, I think eventually people will figure out that the physical cost of a book is very small and therefore the price can't change radically. At some point we have to all make the transition of understanding that we're really paying for the work put into something, not the physical materials. This applies to all digital media.
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