Why I would worry if I was a book publisher

by John Einar Sandvand on May 10, 2009 · 4 comments

There has been a lot of discussion about the decline of newspapers and the challenges of record companies. But what about book publishers? After testing an e-reader for the last week I see plenty of reasons why book publishers should worry about their future.

Amazon’s Kindle has been a great success in the American market. Unfortunately Kindle has not been for sale in Europe, and e-readers are still not widely used in this part of the world.

During the last couple of weeks I have had the chance to test an e-reader from iRex.  With a 10,2 inch display it is about the same size as Kindle 2, which was announced this week. The display is in black and white.

There are a number of features I am lacking on this e-reader. I am actually not that impressed with the hardware. However, that is not the topic of this article. Rather I would like to describe how the experience have had me thinking about the future of book publishers.

And the reason is this: It is just very convenient to read books on an e-reader. To some extent the experience is even superior to reading the book on paper. My guess is that some form of e-readers eventually will replace the paper books.

That, of course, should concern the book publishers. As I am sure it does.

Here are some of the advantages for me as a book reader:

It is very easy to read on the e-reader. The digital ink technology makes the experience very close to reading on paper. Even sitting in the sun worked very well.  The reader remembers how far you have read – and you can adjust the font size to your own preference.

Books are immediately available.  I read about Jeff Jarvis’ book “What would Google do?” and decided that I wanted to read it. 10 minutes later I had bought the book and had started reading it on iRex. Wow! A great experience. Before I would need to wait for days to receive the book from Amazon or would have to go to the book store to pick it up.

All my books are in one place. No longer will I need to carry along heavy books. Instead I can bring my whole library with me on vacation. Imagine how great this will be for students.

Books can be much cheaper. The costs of printing and distribution are taken away – and I should be able to buy books much cheaper than before. That, I think, will make me read even more.

This convenience for me as a reader poses a big challenge for publishing houses. And it is a challenge they need to address quickly.

Basically a publishing house has the following roles when a book is produced:

  • Editorial quality control.
  • Taking care of printing.
  • Distribution to book shops.
  • Promotion of the book

A big portion of the cost is associated with printing and distribution. In addition book stores take a healthy commission.

In principle almost all of these costs are obsolete with e-readers.  That fact could potentially produce a whole new business around books, cutting potential prices to a portion of what it used to be. And it may very well encourage authors to think in a completely different manner when writing their next book.

For sure the technology offers authors a chance to take much more control of their books than before. No longer do they need publishing houses for printing and physical distribution. Also authors are less dependent on publishing houses for promotion. At hands they have new tools like social media and blogs  to selfpromote their work. There will still, of course, be a need for editorial quality control.  Yet that could be taken care of by independent editorial consultants or by purely digital publishing companies.

In short: A bigger portion of the value chain can be held by the author.

I am no expert on the book business and I am not saying there will not be any need for publishing houses. But it seems obvious to me that if e-readers eventually become a dominating platform for reading books, the business will need to change. It opens up for other players to compete with the traditional publishing houses, and for authors to think in new ways about how to publish their books.

These are just my personal reflections. Any comments? Do you agree?

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  • http://intensedebate.com/people/fmandal Fredrik Mandal

    Very interesting points here, and I agree on most of them – even if I haven't tested an e-reader myself yet. And the point about us students – imagine! And there is another interesting fact to this point, which merges it with the point of lower cost. When I was to buy a book I needed for a class I took last year, it would have costed me about NOK 1200,- in the local book store on campus. I ended up ordering it from Amazon, costed me NOK 300,- or something – including postage. Add the savings of getting it electronically, and I'd be a happy student.

    But there is one key factor that still remains, namely, the start cost. Today, the start cost of a good e-reader is quite humongous as well, making it a big investment. But then again, we're at an early stage of the technical development, and I still remember that the first 486 my family bought costed us some NOK 16.000,-. Pay 16.000,- for a computer today, and you'd get a monster. (Or a Mac, which I prefer. Anyhow.)

    But there are some issues here. There will most likely be less action for the publisher business, and that might as you point out be a bad or a good thing. It might be more money to the author, but it might also be less quality to the reader, thus less money to the author in the long run. The editors are often essential, as is promotion to most authors. Thus I do not believe the publishers will run out of business any time soon, but they will eventually have to rethink their business models. The times they are a-changin'.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Sandvand John Einar Sandvand

    Fredrik,

    I think you are right about the need for editorial quality control, and that will be the main value added by publishing houses in addition to the "brand" and promotion. But to some extent it depends on how the publishing houses act in this changing landscape. For instance: If their main strategy is to protect the existing product, by keeping digital prices high and distribution difficult, they are going to loose. I am confident that customers and authors will find alternatives then.
    On the other hand they have a good chance of success if they take proaktive action and embrace the new platforms as they emerge.

    Regarding hardware: I am sure prices will drop significantly. The e-reader I have tested costs about 5000 NOK (USD 750) in the Norwegian market. I don't think many people will buy it at that prices. But if we are talking USD 300, for instance, it is a different situation.

    John

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