Candice Hughes

The agency model for e-books is out of the gates and off and running as of yesterday. As many expected, there have been some bumps in the road. Some publishers are still working with Amazon. This is all to be expected given how quickly deals had to be put together.

My main concern is communication with customers. This morning I checked the Amazon Kindle blog and noticed a number of customers complaining about the price changes. Some felt that publishers were price-gouging, getting more because they could, etc. To quote one customer “I’m really tired of these publishers jerking me around. Ebooks are almost pure profit since they don’t have to pay anyone to print or ship…”

Very few customers posting recognized or understood that authors need to be paid fairly for their work. The focus was heavily on publishers and lawyers writing up contracts as well as the low costs of producing an e-book versus printing. The truth is that without authors sitting in a chair, fingers to keyboard for months or even years, pouring their heart and imagination out onto their hard drives, there would be no e-books (or any other form of books). The truth is that like other products (cars, jewelry, clothing) some products may have a higher intrinsic value than others.

I believe most people are willing to pay fairly for what they buy when they understand the value of what they’re buying. Few expect to buy a shiny new BMW car for the same price as a Kia.

Of course, why should readers realize or understand the monumental effort that goes into writing a book unless authors, publishers, agents and others in the community engage them in conversation? We are not explaining our side of the story. We’re letting Amazon and others put their side of the story out leaving readers feeling confused.

Yes, e-books are cheaper to produce. But they are part of the set of products an authors produces. In fact, an ever greater part. The pay (or salary, if you will) that an author receives in exchange for sitting at their computer for months and years is based on what all these products (e-books, hardcover, paperback, etc) earn. Artificially lowering the price of e-books to “one low price fits all” means that no matter how hard an author works, no matter how good they are in crafting a story, they’ll earn the same base amount.

Naturally, Amazon and other companies that make the hardware needed to read e-books want low priced content. They want to sell their hardware (e-book readers) for as much as they can. In order to do that, they need to offer customers a carrot. The carrot is low cost content. Their pitch to customers is, “yes, you’ll pay hundreds of dollars for this reader but after that you’ll hardly pay anything at all for using the device.” Fair valued-content brings up the total cost proposition of owning the e-reader. Some customers may then want to pay less for the reader.

E-readers and e-books need each other. Like any relationship, there are ups and downs as well as power-struggles. I believe the agency model is basically fair to both sides. Readers also win because they will keep getting fantastic stories to read in any format they like (print books or e-books).

Amazon’s recent anti-author stance is distressing. What they are saying in effect is “we think every author’s book is worth the same low price no matter how good it is.”

Well, here’s how they actually phrase it: “…we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book”

Note the adjective bestselling. So for example if you want a “bestselling” or in other words desirable, luxury or similar descriptive, would you expect to pay the same as for an general, run of the mill car, diamond ring, etc. In other words, should a Tiffany diamond ring cost the same as a Zale’s diamond ring? Should a Mercedes cost the same as a Kia? Should a top brand author’s books be the same price as all other authors?

If Amazon wants to start selling all products for the same price regardless of brand, I’ll be the first one in line for the Apple MacBook Air at the same price as the Dell Inspiron. In fact, I’ll take three.

Book Wars continues unabated with Target joining Wal-Mart and Amazon. The low prices have attracted re-sellers including smaller bookstores. This has forced the big 3 to limit sales.

Looking at trends in Internet chatter, Book Wars has raised the profile of Wal-Mart books the most.

One outcome of Book Wars could likely be a greater volume of sales, which could boost the sagging seen earlier this fall. In early October, sales were estimated to be 4% lower than the previous year.

The real question is will readers become used to the below market sale price. If they do, will increased sales volume make up for lost per unit revenue?

By now many of you have woken up hearing the cacophony of  Book Wars. Amazon and WalMart battling it out.

Book Wars can help authors by placing their products (books) front and center in the news and in people’s minds. Think of books, see books, buy books. At the price of $10 or $9 (or who knows, maybe the price has dropped further since this morning), readers can afford to buy stacks of books. Think about it- how many Christmas gifts can you buy that will last hours and only cost $10 (or less)?

Of course on the down side, authors may make less money with their books being sold half off (or more). But sales depend on price and volume. So selling more units at a lower price could yield similar revenue.

So, which is Darth Vader and which is Luke Skywalker? I’ll let you decide.

The new Kindle is out! I took a look at Amazon’s video of the Kindle 2 yesterday. It’s starting to look pretty tempting… I especially like the read aloud feature. This feature could be great for someone who’s older and can no longer read or for anyone who can’t look at or read a book for any reason. It might even keep kids entertained by reading them stories on a trip.

The other interesting feature is the thinness. I’m not sure how I’d feel about holding something that thin after being used to the weight of a book. Or how I’d feel about not being able to put my fingers on the pages and turn them. Since the screen is black and white, book covers will be monochrome and less exciting.

The wonderful thing about the Kindle is that books will be even more available to everyone, any time, wherever they are. If you are bored and stuck somewhere, you could order up a book and read (so long as there is wireless). The stack of books by the bed becomes a few millimeters thick. And once you go digital, a book can become a multi-media experience.

Being a techie at heart…I just might have to put this on my wish list. And start thinking up new plots and characters that can go digital…