A few days ago, Eric Felten published an interesting essay in the Wall St. Journal on the value of the publishing industry. His take is that the publishing industry primarily serves as gatekeepers or bestowers of quality labels. This function allows the book buying public to have some confidence that the book they’re buying is up to the acceptable standards for quality publishing.

In comparison, self-publishing is the Wild West. Or as Mr. Felten calls it “American Idol” for authors. I agree there are a quite a few poor quality books in the self-publishing world. The worst being people who don’t even write their books, but essentially steal material from other people then publish under their own name (book spammers, in Mr. Felton’s lexicon).

However, I don’t believe the entire self-publishing arena is bad. There are books that have a small audience that can’t be profitably produced any other way. For example, some years ago I worked on a book (nonfiction) on a medical topic. I dutifully sent it out and eventually found an agent to assist me. However, the word came back that the target market was too small. I put the book aside. But, what if it could have profitably been published? Wouldn’t people concerned about this condition have been able to learn from my knowledge? Maybe felt better able to handle their condition or even to avoid developing it? No one will know since the book wasn’t published. But, now, in the crazy, wild world of self-publishing, maybe those type of books can have a home.

Where publishers need a large staff and have considerable overhead, self-publishers can publish with a small coterie of freelance assistants. The reduced overhead means that books with lower sales can be profitable since the creation and production cost is lower. Thus smaller, niche audiences can be served.

Yes, in the Wild West of self-publishing, much sifting is needed. However, there just might be other Amanda Hockings out there. Plus what is one man’s dross could be another man’s gem.

It’s official, last week e-book sales surpassed those of paper based books for the first time.

The Financial Times (April 15, 2011 by Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson) reported that in February 2011, e-books sales tripled reaching $90.3 million compared with adult paperback book sales of $81.2 million. That means 9.1 million more e-books were sold than paper back books.

The numbers also showed that in January and February, e-book sales increased 169% compared with a decrease of 24.8% in paper based book sales.

The trend looks firmly entrenched especially given the ever increasing types of devices that readers can now use to view e-books including new tablets as well as the Kindle, Nook and others. RIM just announced a new tablet to compete with the iPad and a Sony tablet.

These changes will ripple throughout the publishing industry and all book related organizations. Even libraries are struggling to keep up. My library just sold off their entire CD collection in a move to digital. One wonders if books are next and if so, how will libraries transform?

Any change is sure to be gradual. One road block is that Amazon allows only limited sharing of books on the Kindle. Thus libraries can’t share books for the Kindle currently.

Even if books are eventually primarily digital, I think libraries will survive because they are so much more than book lenders. My library, like many others, is a community hub. Students meet with tutors, citizens come to hear lectures by authors or attend computer training classes, or teens just hang out.

For authors these are roller coaster times. The challenge is to adapt to e-books. Yet still profit. Perhaps e-books can even improve profit for authors. Perhaps authors will simply be lost in a tsunami of content. It seems too early to tell. The exciting part is to be in early on change and hopefully to shape change into a helpful, rather than mischievous sprite.

Yes, it’s that time of year again…Banned Books Week. The Net is full of festivities. For example, visit the American Library Association for information, activities and souvenirs. http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/index.cfm

However, as a recent Wall St. Journal article reveals, banned books may be the least of our worries. With the slow dissolution of the current system for bringing worthy novels and books to the public’s notice, there may be few books to ban. Books will join the maelstrom of “news”. There is now so much “news” with much of it of dubious origin and veracity that one is overwhelmed and in the end pays little attention to most of it. With the upsurge of e-books, novels and non-fiction are headed in a similar direction. E-books allow for a huge quantity of books (even those posted directly by authors), however, many are likely to be unvetted by professionals and of unknown quality. Even for e-books of excellent quality, breaking through the noise of all these newly available books will be extraordinarily difficult.

That’s the initial view. In the long run, many authors may rethink their dedication to story-crafting when they realize the rewards may be slim to none. According to the WSJ, e-books offer authors half or less of the money they make from hardcover books. At a revenue of only a couple dollars per e-book, with sales of debut authors being only a few thousand copies, it’s easy to see that devoting a few years (say 5,000 to 10,000 hours) to crafting a great story could easily yield anywhere from a dollar or so to pennies on the hour. Federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour so one can see writing, for debut or lesser known authors, could easily fall far below minimum wage.

The best solution is for authors to continue to press for fair prices for their work. Other more inventive solutions include moving to a low cost of living country or, sadly, ceasing to write. There’s the rub- with low wages, all books could essentially become banned as writers can no longer afford to write.

Not long ago I posted a summary of comments on the cost of book production by Lee Child.

Here’s another source showing how little it actually costs to produce a physical paper-based book (just in terms of printing).

“Printing a 9-by-9-inch, 334-page hardcover book in China costs about 44 to 45 cents now, with another 3 cents for shipping, says Goodwin. The same book costs 65 to 68 cents to make in the U.S.” He goes on to explain that US printing obviates the need for an additional 30 days of shipping time- plus the extra 3 cents cost.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100708/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_cheap_no_more

Thus, the cheapest cost for China is 47 cents versus the most expensive cost for the US 68 cents. Will an extra 50 to 70 cents more or less  prevent anyone from buying a paper book (over say an e-book version)? Because that ‘s the real cost difference unless vendors artificially lower e-book prices by cutting pay for writers or publishers or sell at a loss to themselves. In fact, the difference is likely even less because there is still a cost for programming to develop and maintain software allowing e-books to be uploaded and viewed.

These numbers further demonstrate that most of the cost of a book is content development (ie: the writer sitting in the chair fingers to keyboard for months or years and the editor polishing the text up) plus some marketing/sales costs so that readers can find and obtain a copy of a new book and don’t have to hunt the Internet for obscure web sites to buy a poorly or non-promoted book. Thus, most costs do not change regardless of whether the book is delivered in electronic or print format.

E-books are a great option, but keep the price honest.

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).

The one issue I have with the Kindle is that it’s limited to reading black and white text primarily. I’ve been waiting for something to come along that will allow a top-notch reading experience but also provide a thrilling multi-media experience as well. The hints surrounding Apple’s secretive meeting with publishing industry giants has me intrigued. Will we finally see a device where authors can reach out to their audience with every tool at hand?

Imagine the possibilities….(no, don’t burst my bubble yet with reality like slow internet connections or dodgy Wi-Fi or faded colors- for now I’ll just dream…)

Two days ago, I posted my thoughts on the new Kindle. I enthused about the audio feature. Opps! I definitely had on my techie hat when writing that. Yes, it’s a cool feature for Kindle users. But- the Author’s Guild has come out firmly against it because of potential copyright infringement and because it could impact on audio book sales. I have to back them one hundred percent on that position.

It would be fantastic if the new Kindle could play audio books. Then there would be no copyright issues since Kindle users would be buying the audio books.

I haven’t heard the Kindle audio but it has been described as using a basic read text feature with a computerized voice such as that offered in Microsoft programs. This type of jerky, monotone reading is a totally different experience from the gorgeous audio books now available. I’ve overseen the creation of audio programs involving actors and actresses and it’s an engaging experience. These professionals draw you into the story and bring it to life just using the sound of their voice. What I’ve found incredible is the way they can pick up at any point and still bring out the correct emotion and tone for the text.

I sincerely hope the Kindle won’t impact audio book sales because many people would be missing out on the chance to be a kid again sitting at the story teller’s knees, listening to the witch cackle and the tin man squeak.

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…