Tagged: Kent Holloway

The B&N vs. Amazon Feud: A Reader’s Perspective

I’m a writer. But I was a reader first. I’m actually a voracious reader. I consume 3-5 books a week. I have hundreds of books on my shelves and over 600 on my kindle app. (Many of those were free as I really enjoy finding new authors and what better way to sample them than by getting something free?) That does not include all the ones borrowed from libraries or friends, donated or sold. I could not even begin to guess the number of books I’ve read. Thousands anyway.

I’m not yet published so as a writer I don’t have a stake in this. Yet. I will. But here’s what I think of the Barnes & Noble feud with Amazon as a reader.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about here’s some background:

Recently, Amazon decided to offer writers another option — their Kindle Select Program. Basically, if they agree for at least 3 months to make a book exclusive to Amazon, Amazon would put their book into the Prime Lending Library and the author would get part of a large pot of money they’d earmarked for that month depending on the percentage of downloads per author. The authors could then make their book “free” a certain number of times during that exclusivity period. For those not selling many copies elsewhere this could be a good deal. However, there’s an inherit monopoly there that doesn’t seem exactly kosher. I’m not saying I agree or disagree. I haven’t really decided myself yet. But that’s a topic for another day. In the meantime if you want to see the growing concerns about some of Amazon’s manipulations, check out Kent Holloway’s post: A writer/publisher’s concern over the future of Amazon.

Amazon in the meantime has been making a great deal of headway in publishing books themselves. According to the Huffington Post “…a deal was announced between Amazon and publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to create a new HMH imprint, New Harvest, entirely made up of Amazon-acquired titles that would be distributed to book stores. It is understood that this imprint is included in Barnes & Noble’s ban on Amazon-published books, and might prompt some authors not to sign with one of Amazons six imprints.” Read more at the link above. It’s an interesting article.

B&N then decided it would not stock any Amazon published books in their book stores, but would carry them online. Books-A-Million (BAM) and Indigo made the decision to join B&N in their print boycott of Amazon’s books.

Okay. So that’s the history. But I don’t get it. Sure I understand they’re upset and think Amazon isn’t playing fair. But doesn’t this boycott just hurt B&N and readers more than Amazon? If customers are coming INTO the stores to buy those books, it’s still a sale. Why tick off people that are still actually frequenting the book stores? After all, they say they will sell them online. Big deal. If the people want it online they can get that from Amazon. Looks like to me that’s just backwards thinking. I’d be doing everything possible to keep my in-store buyers happy with the current climate of change.

Isn't keeping readers happy the most important thing in all this? (Image by Ju_li_a on flickr)

Haven’t we been reading about the instability of brick and mortar book sellers? Haven’t many like Borders been put out of business already? Don’t you want your customers to come into the stores and find what they’re looking for so they’ll keep coming back? Why send them right back into the arms of Goliath? Personally, I think they need a better slingshot.

Maybe I could understand it if they only sold them in stores and not online or not at all. Although losing sales doesn’t really make much sense to me in the long run. It’s not like Amazon can’t sell the print copies online. But if someone wants it quicker, they’ll go to the bookstore to get it. Right?

And according to the Bottom Line on msnbc.com, Amazon is looking into opening retail stores. Yeah. So who’s going to lose there if customers want to actually walk into a store and find the books they’re looking for?

Now of course, I have  to put in my opinion as a writer just briefly. If I have a book to sell, I want it in as many locations as possible. Who am I going to give my support to? Those who make my books available to their customers? Or those that don’t?

I’m by no means an expert on any of this. But, does this make sense to anyone else? What am I missing? What are your thoughts on what’s happening?

 

The Price of eBooks

I have to admit, I wasn’t the biggest fan of eBooks when they first came out. I have always had a tactile love for books. The feel and the smell…just holding one in my hands is almost a spiritual experience. I just adore them!

However, I knew the times “they were a-changing”. Not necessarily a bad thing. Just different. I’d have to adjust.

And, have I! Now don’t get me wrong. I still love my print books. But, I find I can love eBooks too. I have a big enough heart. :-)

I have found new authors that I might not have read otherwise. Connected with them on facebook and twitter. I’ll be writing about some of them in future posts. Because they’re really nice folks and I like their work.

In the meantime, lets talk about the price structure of eBooks.  New indie authors and more traditionally established authors who are putting up their backlist (those that have gone out of print) on their own are, for the most part, pricing their eBooks between .99 and 4.99 to reach the most readers.

These are great prices (in my humble opinion) and let you sample new authors without a lot of investment. I’ve been thrilled to find great new authors (at least new to me) to follow.

And with these prices, I can buy MORE than I would have been able to buy previously. Since I devour at least four a week, that can get expensive. (Fortunately for me lately, I’ve been trying to cull my bookshelves, so have been re-reading some I haven’t read in a long time to determine if they’re worthy of my limited space. But, I digress.)

However, the traditional publishers are still selling their authors’ eBooks at prices that are the same or near the same as the print versions. Maybe I’m alone, but I just can’t fathom paying the same price for an eBook as I do for a printed one.

First, the publishers aren’t out the money for eBooks that they are for actually printing books. So, there’s a huge markup there.

Their authors do not get much of that eBook profit, either. And, there seems to be some controversy lately that these traditionally published authors aren’t necessarily being paid properly for their works. Check out Kristine Kathyrn Rusch’s blog on the subject of royalty statements where she also estimates that the authors are only receiving approx. 1.19 from a 7.99 priced eBook. Whereas indie authors keep 70% of theirs (depending on price..but that’s another topic and you’ll probably find the info on Kristine’s blog anyway. When it comes to the business of writing, she knows her stuff.)

And secondly,  if I’m going to pay that much for something, I want to have it to place on my bookshelves. And I do still buy my favorite authors like Dean Koontz, Lee Child and J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) among others (including mid-list authors) in print. They deserve to be on my shelves. They’ve proven themselves over time.

Some of my new author finds may show up there as well. Because I can afford to buy the print version of these new books since I didn’t spend a fortune on the eBooks to start with.

I have noticed though that I’m buying my new favorites and trying out unknowns more than purchasing some of my tried and true. Why? Because I can buy MORE. And when it comes to reading…I’m greedy like that. :-)

I’d love to be able to buy some of those best selling and  mid-list authors that I respect and still like to read, but don’t necessarily want to have on my shelves. But, I’m not going to pay the same price as a print book for the privilege when there are authors like Harry Shannon, Scott Nicholson, Lee Goldberg, Kent Holloway, and Mike Pettit offering the same level or better of entertainment for less.

 

 

I’m not faulting the traditionally published mid-list authors for the cost. After all, it’s the publishers that set the pricing on the books. I’ve even seen some of these authors complaining because they know they could reach more readers with a more reasonable price per eBook.

I know many of you will continue to buy the higher priced eBooks. Seriously, it’s great that you can do that. It’s important that authors are able to make a living in all forms so we can all have more books to read.

I just want to know those  authors themselves are being treated fairly, earning a substantial amount of the profit for eBooks and getting paid for all of their sales.

But, until publishers realize their eBook pricing is way too high and bring it down to a more realistic level, I’ll stick with my new faves and keep trying out authors I haven’t had the pleasure of reading before. Or I’ll buy them in print.

What do you think? Is the pricing on the traditionally published eBooks okay or do you think they should be lower than the print books? Do you have price limits for what you’ll pay for print and electronic versions?

 

Just a reminder: Don’t forget to check out Brenda Novak’s Online Auction for Diabetes Research during the month of May. It’s for a fantastic cause and there are some unique and awesome items to bid on.