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Not All Major Publishers Reportedly On Board With Agency Model for eBook Pricing
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I used to date a senior book editor for a major publisher, and you wouldn't believe the amount of editorial work and help that goes into a text or reference book.
Everything from normal editing of text and flow, to custom graphics.
Everything from normal editing of text and flow, to custom graphics.
I was just thinking, seeing as the iBook store won't be coming to International customers in the immediate future, does that mean we can't read .epub books at all, or just we have to download them from elsewhere, such as Waterstones?
Who is it that puts movies on iTunes? Is it the production company of the movie who sets the price (like in the App store) or do Apple have more of a say (like iTunes' tiered price system)?
Well, anyway, the rest of you have it lucky even talking about eBooks. Here in Australia the publishing industry is doing everything humanly and inhumanly possible to block it's very existence. There will be no iBook Store here for years to come if they have their way.
Actually, it's not really the publishers, it's the cartel of 4 or 5 brick and mortar retailers (our versions of Barnes & Noble etc) who control the industry here and they have zero presence on the web so far so you can understand why they don't like the very concept of it.
The latest news article I read was about their ground-breaking cncept of having eBooks published in-store. Yes, you walk into a store and buy an eBook and download it there. In the store. On one of *their* eBook readers. This amazing wonder of modern information technology (ie, walking into a shop) will be coming to Australia sometime in 2010 or 2011. We lead the world I tell you! Bloody luddites to the nth degree controlling the future here.
Actually, it's not really the publishers, it's the cartel of 4 or 5 brick and mortar retailers (our versions of Barnes & Noble etc) who control the industry here and they have zero presence on the web so far so you can understand why they don't like the very concept of it.
The latest news article I read was about their ground-breaking cncept of having eBooks published in-store. Yes, you walk into a store and buy an eBook and download it there. In the store. On one of *their* eBook readers. This amazing wonder of modern information technology (ie, walking into a shop) will be coming to Australia sometime in 2010 or 2011. We lead the world I tell you! Bloody luddites to the nth degree controlling the future here.
I don't think they have set that up already. I mean, can I build my own production/distribution video movie house on itunes?
Just the threat of that would make the publishers nervous, but how many writers would be willing to abandon dead tree all together? How many would want to do or finance their own editing/proof reading, cover design, and vetting?
One solution is for Apple to become a publisher, or buy a publishing house. Of course then the other publishing houses would walk away from the iPad.
It's pretty simple to get stuff onto iTunes. You can have any one of a number of services handle the actual work for you for a small fee (<$50) and you collect 100% of the sales (minus the distributors fee, 30% in the case of Apple). There's tons and tons of this sort of music on iTunes, you just don't see it because you aren't looking for it and it doesn't sell enough to displace anything on the top 100 lists in the iTMS.
Given the option of selling 1,000,000 tracks at $.05 each (getting signed) and selling 10,000 tracks at $.70 each (staying indie), well, the math is still in favor of the music studios because of the way music marketing (i.e., the radio) works.
I think books might be a little different though as there is relatively little advertisement in the book world. If you are a big name author already, I think you might have the same shot at sales as someone with a publisher (given the willingness to work at your own self-promotion).
The question is "who is this somebody"? You have to be a major? Or mister nobody can put his own movies on itunes? that would be amazing...
Sounds like a monopoly. It seems that Apple aren't rolling out iBooks (and I don't mean the ancestor of the MacBook) at launch anywhere except, you guessed it, the US of A
I think you're really on to something there...
The question is how long will it be before any average Joe will be able to write his masterpiece and get it onto a reader like the Kindle or the iPad in the future? With the iPad and future devices that will follow, it probably won't be that long... As you point out, the situation today is that the Publishers are still the "gatekeepers" who get to decide what is worthy to be consumed by the masses. In the world where eBooks are king, the Publisher, at least in his current form, is not going to be very important.
We may be rapidly approaching a world where authors are being discovered based on short-stories that ended up on some "YouTube" equivalent for writers, leading to floods and floods of submissions. The up side is that everyone gets motivated to give it a go, the down side is that, like on YouTube, there will be so many really bad submissions that it will be relatively hard to find the good ones (come to think of it, the App Store is kinda like that too)
One element that is beginning to emerge as a new "gate" of control, however, is the distributors themselves (i.e. Amazon, Apple, etc.) and it will be interesting to see how they use their new position... Will they refuse to sell certain books or content? Will they take on the role of editor, etc.?
I wonder how long it will take before any content can be loaded on these Ebook Readers, effectively undoing the need for official distribution channels like "iBooks". With an app-oriented OS and rumors of a workable file-system coming with the iPad, there may be a market opening up for a host of new "distributors", both legal and not, to get eBook content onto digital readers.
This would, of course, be very bad for Apple's new eBook based revenue stream... especially since, by definition, it's going to be a lot harder to prevent copyright infringement on text (at least compared to video/audio).
Could we be approaching an era where people actually start reading again? Even young people?
One thing about the youtube comparison... No matter how creative I am, I simply can't make the next Avatar with my home video equipment. I need a studio for help with that. But, if I'm a talented writer, I could write the next great novel with minimal help.
There's always going to be a need for middlemen, but their role will be much smaller and different than it is today. You won't need a giant publishing house in New York with hundreds of employees making big salaries. These are the people who are trying to argue that "they matter". Actually, what will probably become more important is an agent/manager, who can handle all the boring stuff like your schedule, booking dates, contracting with a marketer, etc... once you achieve a small amount of success so that you can actually afford such an agent/manager.
I see what you mean, I think it's probably like the iTunes store, where it's basically a case of whoever owns the copyright is the only person who can allow Apple to sell it.
what's wrong with consumers
i don't understand how so many people feel that an artist or a musician or a writer should be expected to lower the value of their hard work and creativity. just because something is going to contribute less to man kinds eco footprint, it shouldn't change the value of the creative persons hard work. should your boss pay YOU less because they do an instant deposit of your paycheck to your bank online??? of course not. how is this any different? i am SO very tired of hearing people complain that they have to pay $9.99 (.99 a song) to download an album when records and CD's used to be $18 (& in some cases still are) in the record stores and you didn't even have the option of hearing if you liked it first. be HAPPY that people are still trying to get their work into your hands and that you have choices and different styles and new stories and music to hear. NOTHING is free!!!
i don't understand how so many people feel that an artist or a musician or a writer should be expected to lower the value of their hard work and creativity. just because something is going to contribute less to man kinds eco footprint, it shouldn't change the value of the creative persons hard work. should your boss pay YOU less because they do an instant deposit of your paycheck to your bank online??? of course not. how is this any different? i am SO very tired of hearing people complain that they have to pay $9.99 (.99 a song) to download an album when records and CD's used to be $18 (& in some cases still are) in the record stores and you didn't even have the option of hearing if you liked it first. be HAPPY that people are still trying to get their work into your hands and that you have choices and different styles and new stories and music to hear. NOTHING is free!!!
It has for some musicians, but not many... yet. I envision a world where there are still middlemen, but their role is diminished. You won't need hundreds of middlemen, just dozens.
I think a monthly subscription would be a good way to start; a new author or new story every month for something like $3.99 would be a good business model.
It's not about eco-footprints, it's about the fact that surely if you remove the costs of printing, storing and shipping a book, it should be cheaper, no?
I don't know if anybody remembers OMNI magazine, but I used to love reading the science fiction short stories they published every month. Some of the best sci-fi and original ideas I ever read actually. Book publishers just don't release short stories except as a volume of anthologies, usually by the same author. I for one would be happy to pay 99 cents for a sci-fi short story by up and coming or even just one-off independent no-name authors which the publishing industry just wouldn't bother with as no worth their time and effort under the current system
well you've got it backwards, they'd pay more for lessening their costs...and while that's not the case for me, I have many a loan that are discounted because I pay through direct deposit and a few credit cards that charge less or some added incentive for me getting my bills sent electronically instead of through the mail.
Why do they do this? Because I'm saving them the cost of postage, and envelop, paper, and extra administrative work, and they're rewarding me for lowering their costs.
Great example, thank you.
Embraceable technology and the marketplace always win!
Folks, step back and take this all in! This is a case study in the making! This is what textbooks (no pun intended) call “cultural resistance to change” and it is playing out right in front of our eyes!
There are hundreds of thousands of dollars in strategic consulting fees being paid by publishers to figure out what their future holds and how long they can protect their current model. However, technology (as an agent of change) and the marketplace will determine the future … it always does.
For example, look at an earlier post on MacRumors today, “Warner Music Group (WMG) said this morning that it has seen unit sales growth at Apple's iTunes (AAPL) decelerate since the price increase.” It makes the point that the market will ultimately dictate what technology and the price.
Yes, there will be a role for publishers as there continues to be a need to provide editorial, formatting, and marketing services going forward. Plus, there will be printed books for many years to come (however, there will likely be a consolidation in physical presses and outsourcing by most publishers).
But, make no mistake embraceable technology (i.e., technology that people “want” to use) and the marketplace will ultimately set the course. So, make sure you set some time aside to sit back and see if today’s publishers have learned from their predecessors in the “buggy whip” industry.
Popcorn anyone?
Folks, step back and take this all in! This is a case study in the making! This is what textbooks (no pun intended) call “cultural resistance to change” and it is playing out right in front of our eyes!
There are hundreds of thousands of dollars in strategic consulting fees being paid by publishers to figure out what their future holds and how long they can protect their current model. However, technology (as an agent of change) and the marketplace will determine the future … it always does.
For example, look at an earlier post on MacRumors today, “Warner Music Group (WMG) said this morning that it has seen unit sales growth at Apple's iTunes (AAPL) decelerate since the price increase.” It makes the point that the market will ultimately dictate what technology and the price.
Yes, there will be a role for publishers as there continues to be a need to provide editorial, formatting, and marketing services going forward. Plus, there will be printed books for many years to come (however, there will likely be a consolidation in physical presses and outsourcing by most publishers).
But, make no mistake embraceable technology (i.e., technology that people “want” to use) and the marketplace will ultimately set the course. So, make sure you set some time aside to sit back and see if today’s publishers have learned from their predecessors in the “buggy whip” industry.
Popcorn anyone?
Good point...
Though I didn't specify, I was thinking more of how YouTube has become a means of finding musical artists, not filmmakers...
A "writers" version of YouTube would, admittedly, not be as popular as YouTube, though, since our society has become more comfortable with media consumption that goes along with our "fast-paced" lifestyles... a 5 minute clip here or there is fine, but to sit and read a 400 page novel?
At any rate, it seems clear that we are on the cusp of eBooks hitting the mainstream, and it will be very interesting to see how it all develops.
Who's talking about lowering the creative value? Someone even gave an example of an author selling 1,000,000 copies @ $0.05 from via a publisher versus 70,000 @ $0.70 as an independent. $50,000 versus $49,000 in income to the author.
The author gets more in total from the publisher, but his actual work is *valued* at 14x *less* by a publisher. Just a hypothetical.
So it depends how you value 'value'.