The True Cost of Cheap Ebooks
Self publishing advocates clamor for cheap cheap cheap when it comes to ebooks. The argument goes, basically, just look at the costs! I can put an ebook online for less than $500; in fact, I can pop it up on Amazon or BN.com for free! There’s no paper; there’s no binding; there’s no production. Why not make all books accessible to the masses, price them low as possible and make books truly a medium of the people, by the people and for the people?
Why not?
Because in doing so you destroy what you love.
Even Jeffrey Trachtenberg, in his WSJ article today about the “less expensive” nature of digitized books that is already zooming around the Twitterverse misses the point. Mike Shatzkin comes much closer to my point of view, but perhaps with less personal investment. This feels personal to me, this devaluing of the medium in which I’ve invested a lifetime.
I believe in equality and fair play in access to education, health care and opportunity. I believe in innovation and forward-thinking. And I believe that not all books, and not all writers are created equal.
Whether by natural gift or by many years of hard work and schooling, the work of those relatively rare writers once filtered through to the public only by traditional publishers** still deserve to be lauded, paid, promoted, edited and wrapped in a package that signifies something special. Cheap ebooks leave no room to pay for this, and level not only the playing field, but the stands and the bleachers and even the parking lot. Everyone plays…and everyone loses.
(Here’s my comment on the article.)
**A clarification–I also believe the large corporations that turned a lovely little industry populated by many small & mid-size publishers into the current “Big Six” behemoth landscape do indeed close the doors to many deserving authors. Self publishing and small presses are now necessities. But driving down ebook prices for all is not the answer.
Read MoreIn Praise of Rarifying Books (Sort of)
Holy smokes, have I just endorsed book censorship? Yes– and no!
Steve Himmer, in his lovely essay “Making Room for Readers” on the fab TheMillions, advocates aggressively encouraging children to read, and removing any barriers that can be seen as “rarifying” the book.
I disagree. Huh???
OK. I agree with the first part: a book-encouraging environment is necessary to raise readers—but I’m not so sure I buy the negative interpretation of the obstacles Mr. Himmer found in his way.
Because I’m all for obstacles in book publishing and constraints on reading—if those obstacles and constraints reinforce the essential value…
Read MoreSerenity Prayer for Overwhelmed Book People
Fess up. I can’t be alone. It’s just too much sometimes, isn’t it?
Because I must be informed, and it all looks so important, I subscribe to email updates from Digital Book World, Hubspot, assorted LinkedIn conversations and the TechRepublic along with PublishersMarketplace, the Observer’s book column and the requisite NYT book& other news, along with ten or twenty other feeds. It doesn’t matter whether the source is techno or literary–most of them make me feel like I jumped on the wrong bus–or, more accurately, like I was sitting on the right bus but the driver sneakily changed the route, so all of us folks happily chatting away in the back didn’t even notice we were on the wrong street.
Read MoreThe Hangman’s Daughter Makes Me Cheer
‘The Hangman’s Daughter,’ e-book hit, now out in paperback – USATODAY.com.
I love this story!
We are all guilty of bemoaning the state of book publishing today, often to the point of conflict. In the past few days, two heartfelt essays promoting what is best in both old-school corporate publishing (Adrian Zackheim in his Portfolio blog) and what is wonderful about printed books (Aaron Gilbreath in the Chicago Tribune) stood out. I scanned through the comments after each essay–so many people, so vehement, sometimes disrespectful, so convinced that both print and publishing are on the way out. The rancor is unnecessary; the issue not black and white.
There may be a best of both worlds on the way. In the tale of The Hangman’s
Read MoreHello
Well, OK. Hello. I’ve recently found myself saying, fairly often, “man, I want to blog about that!” only to discover that, much to my surprise, I didn’t actually have a blog.
Read MoreA World Without Borders
A lifetime ago, on a lovely fall afternoon as I sat, ostensibly studying, beneath a big shady tree with my college beau David on the University of Michigan Diag, a perfectly puppy-looking puppy bounded up to greet us. This brown bundle of adorable was trailed by a sad young couple, one member carrying a large bag of Puppy Chow, and the other a tiny leash and collar.
“We thought our landlord allowed dogs,” they explained. Neither David nor I had ever owned a dog, but we were smitten. We agreed to take the dog on an “experimental” basis and we held tight to the couple’s phone number, just in case, but we knew we would keep him. He had chosen us under that tree, and we couldn’t let him down.
He also wasn’t trained. At all.
So we didn’t walk straight home with the pup. Before he even had a name, we walked (the puppy trotted) into the one and only Borders’ bookshop on State Street, headed to the back of the store and up the stairs, and picked out and purchased a few key books on puppy training before heading home to face the roommates.
Step One: puppy. Step Two: bookstore.
These sweet memories come back to me now in the wake of the news of the Borders’ Group bankruptcy.
Read More