Buzz - iText, therefore I Am
by John Wolf
I've been rattling about ebooks as of late and this information is focused on the same theme, but much more has happened in recent weeks. Major publishers verses Amazon verses Apple, it's like a three-way Sumo wrestling match going on in our industry. The salt is in the air, the squat stance has been done, look out for impact, it's coming soon.
Where is the ground shaking? A little catch-up background... This starts and ends with independently published books, whether that be from PODs, self-publishers, author-initiated, independent published or just plain old pirated, the point is the major publishers in New York had a new center reamed out, the earth shifted, they started bleeding red ink.
First it was the smear campaigns and bogus blogs about the trashy books that were being thrust onto the poor innocent public. Then it was the rash of shady, so called quickie publishing agencies springing up to gather in the loose change from wannabe naive writers, desperate to get anything in print. Okay, so that's still the case, but the bad houses have been weeded out and legitimate small publishers have arrived and some very nice books are surfacing, much to the chagrin of mainstream publishing and distribution. Let's not forget the rapidly decaying brick-and-mortar stores. I wonder if there is going to be great book shelving bargains on eBay soon...? I digress.
This boiling pot was put under pressure by Amazon coming out with the Kindle reader that all the pundits were saying wasn't going anywhere, then was wildly popular, and now the pundits are all saying, "I told you so, first." If there was any rash, trashy publishing going on, it was put in print by pundits trying their best to damage legitimate journalism.
So, where are we in this diatribe? Since this last Christmas shopping season, ebooks have ruptured all expectation of sales. The numbers sold surpassed their paper cousins, not in dollars, but volume. It's hard to count when these little gems reach out to iPhones and Blackberrys along with Sony readers and the Kindle. Amazon has sold many, many Kindles. So many ebooks are being sold, the majors are pissed and want in on the action, and they have now drawn battle lines.
Here's what blew the lid off. Amazon has been undercutting the price of e-sales and recouping costs from the Kindle sales. The major publisher Macmillan called them out on it. When selling major publisher's books as ebooks, the price needs to be $12 to $14 bucks to cover editing and marketing in-house costs to produce the content in the first place. Amazon was setting the price at $9.99 or lower. Us independents are taking a free ride! I told you this story begins and ends with indies. More pressure. Indies can circumvent the publishers altogether and sell ebooks on Amazon upwards to $9.99. Amazon pays 35% royalty. That's $3.50 a sale for something that cost you nothing to upload! No postage, no handling, no marketing, no begging customers roaming aimlessly around book fairs like drugged zombies. This wasn't a biggy to Manhattan publishers until Kindle sales topped 3 million and counting!
There are more than 350,000 ebooks on Kindle and not all those are from the majors, let me tell you. In fact, every day, the indies are filling the databases and people are buying based on earlier buyer's ratings with 4 or 5 stars, not the publishers brand name. It has nothing to do with all the big marketing campaigns in New York papers or Big Box Store's window posters. This bleeds red ink in Manhattan. Any sale makes Amazon money, so they are driving major publishers off the table. Tongue in cheek, I ask myself, is Amazon just a bad boy? Yes, if you study this from a business economic PhD level, it's genius. I don't pretend to understand it all, but if Harvard is reprinting texts for next semester's classes, something big is going on here. Amazon has a habit of turning over apple carts - but more about Apple later.
Macmillan threatens to boycott books to Amazon. Amazon counters by banning Macmillan. Tit-for-tat, da-da-da-da-dah. Sound like high school? No, this is the industry shifting, cracks are forming, indies are smiling. So who's your daddy now! The other majors are nervous and the stakes are very high, no one dare blink. Should they follow suit and screw Amazon, or should they discount to Amazon and screw Macmillan, one of their own? The problem is they are all losing money hand over fist by stopping the flow of goods people want to buy. Something has to give and soon.
In comes Apple with the iPad, not in a nice way, but dripping with blood from a fresh wound to the publishing industry. They want to drive the market now and use content as ammo. It's not just books, but video, music, and video-games that make up the whole market. Lots of leverage when you own iTunes, one of the largest distributors in recent history that targets replacement of Big Box Book Stores. Ouch.
Oh, but this gets better. Apple offers this uber-sales machine to the majors for only 30% of the $15 bucks that they want to sell ebooks for and is perfectly willing to place the price at $15 or higher. Screw you, Amazon, I have a new friend. See and knives flying through the air?
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Can Amazon counter? No, because the majors, led by Macmillan are going to hold off supplying Amazon "real" books (that place where they make the big bucks) until the ebooks run their course generating front money Amazon can't afford to lose. Now, they gang up on Amazon. The rest of the herd is making the same threatening rumblings.
This just gets better and better for the indies. The prices we can sell for is going up, and I'm just standing here. Okay, I'll move from $10 to $15. Why fight progress?
Oh, but those guys at Amazon are quick to dump another Apple cart, no pun intended. Amazon, who once was the scourge of self-published people of all types, is now glowing in the light of epiphany. They are poised to offer those of us standing on the corner watching the bricks fly by a direct discount, undercutting mainstream publishing and sell on Kindle! Don't buy the champaign yet. I told you these guys were tricky.
Once the power players are clearly recognized, and let's not forget Google - they are a hungry wolf as well, the trump card is always the copyright, and this will be the suit played next. Who ever wins the high ground after the paper pulp settles out of the air will demand to own the rights or keep you off the playing field. Oh, how I love laissez-faire, democracy, and all the flag-waving hype. Sorry, you lose indies, unless you sell your soul. The centers of power will be independent editors, not writers. But there is a chink in the armor.
Enter Adobe and a free ebook reader. Enter worldwide open-sourced software standards. Enter grand acceptance to the new technology, supported by the likes of the US Air Force, soon to be followed by all the services of this golden orb - EPUB. It's owned by society at large. All the tree-killing documents published by the government will soon only be obtainable in .epub format. Hallelujah, brothers of the pen! All the expensive, one-time-use before obsolescence sets in, electronic chain bobs will be circumvented by a simple protocol.
This means that all computer screens be they laptops, desktops, or palmtops can read ebooks directly, unencumbered by high profiteering. Well, you say, the price of the ebook will still be in the hands of the greedy. Oh, but let us not forget the green eyes staring from the forest. Do you remember when Author House, iUniverse, Xlibris, WordClay and who knows how many others disappeared under the cloak of Author Solutions?
Author Solutions is owned by a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, venture capitalist, you know, those kinda guys that made Apple possible in the first place a few decades ago. They haven't been sleeping. Check out Smashwords.com. This is a tip of the iceberg of electronic distributors of ebooks without the trappings of Amazon, Google, or any other industry controlled ogres what play with your literary life by dangling your copyright over a fire. They have excellent guidelines for streamlining your book-copy into a nice digestible format for their converter that places your book into an ebook format for all the readers, including Sony, B&N, and Amazon.
Here's how to check it out for yourself:
1. Go to http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/?promoid=DTEIO
2. Download Digital Editions (free reader app)
3. Download a few free ebooks of classics while your there.
4. Check out the reader. I'll think you'll find reading on a screen isn't so bad.
5. Go to Smashwords.com and notice they have already uploaded nearly 400 million words into their database. Get an account and go to http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52 to read the guide on how to make a clean upload copy of your book.
6. Publish to their site. File out a nice profile page and your all set to join this revolution. Do nothing and you'll miss all the fun. Here is my profile page:
http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JohnWolf
While you're there, you can buy Benny Plays the Blues! Better yet, if you want to read it free, write me and I'll give you a coupon code, another cool feature offered by Smashwords. You can discount to whoever you want, to include a 100% discount to book reviewers! This is all under your control. You set the price, you set the discounts, you can upload corrections uninhibited by overseers. Why not have a perfect, editorial error free text for your readers. This only happens in electronic media.
Just remember, And in the end, The love you take, Is equal to the love, You make.
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John keeps the kennels clean at the Fox&Quill Hunting Club. Move along. There nothing to see here. |
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John Wolf |
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