Tonight we tackle some issues in the very interesting New Yorker article about the iPad, Kindle, eBooks and the publishing industry. It's quite a long article, (6000 words!).. so we’ll summarize some concerning points.
Ken Auletta begins speaking with a facetious tone about how so many worshiped the iPad release. His quote, "The industry’s great hope was that the iPad would bring electronic books to the masses—and help make them profitable. E-books are booming." As he indicates, the problem is that so many in the industry were "hoping" for a solution.
But, that is the problem itself. As most successful business know, it is the publishers that should be knowledgeable of the dilemma (coming e-commerce and eBooks), and then providing a solution to that problem themselves. The iPad, while a marketing wonder, is simply an iTouch with a larger screen and battery. Seriously. I'll give details in later blog.
What the iPad won't do, is stop the publishing industry from heading toward the eBook and e-commerce chasm. It will not hold back future copying, trading, and eventually, the downfall of modern-day decision-making... which was originally based on putting the best quality books on a limited, physical "shelf space."
The article then mentions Steve Jobs taking on Amazon and the Kindle, then continues on about how John Sargent (CEO of Macmillan) played hardball with Amazon to fight for their "agency model" and price setting.
But, was it good for authors? Will it be beneficial in the long-term for publishing companies to play tough with Amazon, the very company who garnered gobs of income on back-listed books? Amazon, who has successfully sold so many novels to many around the world?
Lets look at the price. Something felt wrong about the "increased" pricing that MacMillian "won" against Amazon. Does that money really translate to profits for the authors... or just good for publishers (in the short term)? I did some research, and discovered my gut feel was correct. Michael Stackpole (a NY Times best selling fantasy author) says NO. The author is clearly loses in this. Here's his article.
Finally, near the end of the New Yorker article, he mentions how the publishing industry won their battle (so far) against Google copying and digitizing everyone’s books. I applaud this win, for I agree Google was wrong. But, Google then announced Google Editions, which will be an on-line service to download eBooks.
Yeah!... er… wait:
Quote, “the store’s e-books, unlike those from Amazon or Apple, will be accessible to users on any device.”Bingo.
To any nerd (and there's millions) "any device" means: standard format, easily copied, easily traded, easily… well you get the point. This can be wonderful for new authors, but not so wonderful for the big publishers.
But don’t just take my word on it.
A simple Google search found others agreeing with me on some and other points: MarketWatch. Harvard Business Review.
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