On The Bookseller blog, John Blake offers what he apparently believes is a novel solution to “saving” bookstores from the encroaching press of e-books: delay selling the e-book until later. He writes:
The idea of simultaneously publishing an exciting new title both as a hardback and as an e-book seems totally crazy. If only publishers could publish the book as a hardback initially, then put out the e-book some months later, bookshops would be given a sporting chance to stay in business, and the dizzying decline of book sales could almost certainly be slowed.
I was fascinated to discover that serious readers—people who buy more than 12 books a year—are fast becoming the keenest e-book customers. These, surely, are the very people who would wish to purchase hardbacks rather than waiting months for an e-book edition.
I wonder just what rock he’s been living under lately. Delaying (which is to say, “windowing”) the e-book has been tried, but not all “serious readers” are so biddable as to let themselves be pressured into buying the hardback. Many of them will submit one-star reviews on Amazon decrying the publisher’s asinine anti-e-book position and not buy it at all out of spite, and others will go out and pirate the book as soon as some enterprising pirate scanner makes it available—and then not buy the e-book when it is released.
And as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, there are those who think that the idea of “windowing” hardcovers and paperbacks should itself be stopped, because only making the book available in a more expensive form costs the sales of those who wouldn’t buy that form but would buy a less expensive one then—but lose their enthusiasm by the time that less-expensive version comes onto the market.
There’s no point in taking up arms against a sea of troubles. E-books are rapidly gaining popularity because people find them more convenient than paper books. If you try to force them to go back to the old dead-tree format for the sake of “saving bookstores,” you’re going to cost yourself sales (probably more than enough to offset the hardcover sales you’d gain), and you’re going to look like just the kind of greedy corporate exec whose works people pirate just to piss off.
Perhaps Mr. Blake’s position can be explained by what he says in later paragraphs, citing friends of his who “used to be” crazy about e-books but are now buying printed books again. He seems to believe that most people who buy e-books don’t really want e-books, and would actually just prefer paper books if they only thought about it. What a remarkably patronizing point of view.
Those new eBook reader for the most part are pretty much planning to never darken that crappy corporate owned Barnes & Noble bookstore ever again. Since true niche oriented, personal touch, independent bookstores are few and far between for most people buying an iPad or a Kindle or a Kobo means they have left the building and like Elvis they are not coming back.
Delaying books from being sold as eBooks is only going to make those pirate websites really really happy and your author poor and eventually unemployed and Walmart is just going to sell them in their bargin bins next to the salted nuts anyway.
“people who buy more than 12 books a year—are fast becoming the keenest e-book customers. ”
I’m not sure why that’s so hard to understand. People who buy 1 book a month have no need to worry about price or convenience. People who buy multiple books a month, on the other hand, tend to take both seriously.
The only thing I buy at Barnes and Noble is Starbucks. Once in a while I lure my wife into agreeing to go down to B&N to browse around and then get coffee. “Hey, let’s go to that Starbucks with the bookstore attached!”
I never buy physical books but I still like to mosey around and look at everything. She mostly shops over in the section where they have gift items and stationary and “cute” things.
I’m a heavy reader and I have a Kindle. She’s a light reader but she has one of those “cute” little Sony Readers. Neither of us have any interest in physical books although I’ll occasionally order a cookbook from Amazon since ereaders do such a poor job with cookbooks.
Every time we enter the B&N I mention to my wife that it won’t be around much longer.
I am a ‘heavy’ reader (more than 100 books a year) and never bought a hardback fiction title in my life. I could never afford to, at the rate I read. I would borrow from the library or go to used book stores (author/publisher gets $0 from that). There are tons of ebooks I have bought that I never would have bought in hardcover. It is not a choice between hardcover OR ebook; it’s a choice between ebook OR no sale at all.
Yeah really – that quote is ridiculous. I won’t buy the hardback book, I’ll just be angry with the publisher. I agree with Joanna when she says “It is not a choice between hardcover OR ebook; it’s a choice between ebook OR no sale at all.”
“…people who buy more than 12 books a year—are fast becoming the keenest e-book customers. These, surely, are the very people who would wish to purchase hardbacks rather than waiting months for an e-book edition.”
What crazy species of ‘logic’ was he taught? Like Joanna, I’m a heavy reader and I’ve never bought a new hardback novel. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I bought a new hardback of any kind. But sure, if we want to use Mr Blake’s logic, we’re just dying to spend much, much more for the books we read. Think of the book stores!
I also mosey around B & N, but only buy Starbucks. I also buy about 12 books a month. At least I used too, since the higher prices for best sellers, I’m using the library more.
I rarely bought hardbacks, and then only if on sale. It wasn’t just the price, though that was a big factor. I don’t like the size and weight of hardbacks. One can’t read a hardback one handed, and they’re a pain to carry around.
I’ll never go back to print books. I think windowing will just encourage heavy readers to use the darknet. In fact, I think all the whining the publishers do about piracy is counterproductive. It’s educating the older and non techies that ebooks are out there and that theoretically, they’re easy to find and download. One of the reasons that J K Rowling is heavily pirated is that her books aren’t available as ebooks.
It will also encourage heavy readers to try more independent authors or start reading the classics.
As usual, people talk about shutting out a legitimate product, instead of working with it… in this case, setting up an ebook-selling portal at the store and allowing people to buy ebooks at the store location, using the hardbacks as “display units” to sell the ebooks.
Like Joanna, I read more than 100 books each year. I also buy several hundred books each year. But unlike Joanna, my buying breakdown goes this way (at least since I received my first ereader, a Sony 505 in 2007): If the book is nonfiction, I buy it in hardcover and occasionally (very rarely) will also buy the ebook version. If the book is fiction, I buy it as an ebook and occasionally (limited to certain authors) in hardcover. I never buy paperback for myself; my wife will buy paperbacks and hardcovers, although now that she has my Sony 505 (I bought a Sony 950 at its release for me), she primarily buys ebooks.
For me, in the case of nonfiction, if it isn’t available as a hardcover, then it is a lost sale. In the case of fiction, if it isn’t available as an ebook, then it is a lost sale.
I suspect that there is no way to satisfy the buying habits of 100% of either heavy or light readers.
” If only publishers could publish the book as a hardback initially, then put out the e-book some months later, bookshops would be given a sporting chance to stay in business, ”
Distorting and ‘fixing’ the market solely to protect one outdated sector is an appalling prospect.
It is also against the interests of authors, because it basically holds back their product from being sold, artificially, in the interests of a business sector totally outside the ownership and scope of the Publishers. It is an insane idea and I would hope that if it were to happen, the authors associations would sue.
“I was fascinated to discover that serious readers—people who buy more than 12 books a year—are fast becoming the keenest e-book customers. These, surely, are the very people who would wish to purchase hardbacks rather than waiting months for an e-book edition.”
Well, duh. “Fascinated”? Really?
I have no interest in hardcover books at all–zero, nada, zip, no way, nope, ain’t gonna happen. Window if you want to, but there still won’t be any hardcover purchasing going on here.
Why would a serious reader, like myself, who purchases 8-10 books every month want to drive to a bookstore and then lug home several heavy book bags when I can purchase the same 8-10 books with a push of a button and from the comfort of my own living room? Besides, what bookstore is open at 2:00AM when I run out of reading material and am looking to shop for my next book?
If Mr. Blake had an ounce of sense, he would also realize that, with the A6 now charging higher and higher prices for their e-editions, they better make them available on the same day as the hardcover or they will have very little chance of catching the interest of the voracious reader that is their bread and butter.
Windowing an e-edition into a 6 month delay won’t save a bookstore–it will, however, let that windowed book fall off my radar into complete oblivion thus eliminating any chance that I will have any interest in it or even remember it half a year later.
If Mr. Blake were anymore clueless, his face would be next to the word in the dictionary.
I have been buying paper books most of my life. And guess what? I have WAY too many shelves of books in my house. Even when I try to get rid of some of them, it barely makes a dent. At a certain point, you have to stop acquiring so much stuff or you run out of room.
I still love paper, but try to reserve it for books that really call for it (picture books for my daughter, art books, cookbooks…). The garden-variety novel or current events book doesn’t need to take up more space.
Some more suggestions this guy may like:
Cars are putting horse-drawn carriage manufacturers out of business – let’s mandate that cars can’t go any faster than 5 miles per hour.
Mail-order shopping is putting local stores out of business – let’s require that people travel physically to the warehouse they ordered from to pick up their purchases.
The Internet is putting letter carriers out of business – let’s require that people print out their emails and put them in envelopes with stamps.
I’m probably in the minority here, but I still buy and read paperback and hardcover books along with ebooks. And I buy a lot: in a month, 12 + plus ebooks and new or used books is not uncommon.
What is not going to happen is what John Blake suggests. There never has been, never will be, never could be an author I can’t wait a few months to read. I have more unread ebooks and books than I could get through in a year of doing nothing else but reading.
For some books I’ll still want the hardcover, but my decision will not be effected by windowing. And I’d probably just buy it from Amazon anyway.
If bookstores are to be saved, they need to offer something I can’t find or replicate online. Rules, policies, windowing or whatnot are only patches on a leaky ship. How about making bookstores a place I want to shop in? For example, I’ll buy a few full priced books from Elliot Bay Books in Seattle because I love browsing through the wide selection of titles you can’t find at Borders or B&N.
Interesting, I’m not sure that saving something that is not thriving is good economic practice. Bookstores need to find a way to save themselves. After all, print is still by far the most part of the market so there is a market there.
@Lenne – You wrote: “Why would a serious reader, like myself, who purchases 8-10 books every month want to drive to a bookstore and then lug home several heavy book bags when I can purchase the same 8-10 books with a push of a button and from the comfort of my own living room?”
Why? Perhaps because we find it more pleasurable than playing a video game, watching TV, surfing the Interent, mowing the lawn, etc.
I consider myself a serious reader (although I’ll admit that I have no idea what you intend by “serious”) in the sense that I buy at least 8-10 books every month. Yet, I love to drive to my local B&N and “lug home” hardcover books. eBooks are great — no doubt about it; I even bought 105 ebooks during ebook week alone — but they are not the be all and end all of reading pleasure. I enjoy my hardcovers; I enjoy having a working library; I enjoy seeing my children stop in to visit my library and to borrow books for research or pleasure. I understand that some people can’t stand print publications, just as I understand that some people can watch TV for hours on end or play video games for days or surf the Internet for hours — all things that I don’t do and don’t care to do.
My point is that there is no correlation between being a “serious reader” and refusing to buy print books.
I quit buying hardcover books years ago, because they took up too much room on my shelves. Now I’m not buying paper books at all, if digital is an option, because I don’t have room on my shelves, and I’m running out of places to put shelves. In a few years, I’m likely to move to a smaller house or a condo, and I need to get rid of stuff, not add to it.
Windowing just gives me time to reconsider whether I really want that book or not. During the hardback release, I read the reviews, I hear the interviews with the authors, the book catches my interest, and I’m much more likely to buy it then, but only digitally. If the digital version doesn’t come out for months, I probably won’t notice, because there won’t be another publicity push, and I will have moved on to other books.
Sigh, he is just clueless. There is no stopping the ebook momentum now. Why does he think the indie market has heated up so much? The more the traditional publishers try to save their little fiefdom, the more ways authors and readers will find to go around them.
Bookstores only deserve “a chance to stay in business” if they are creative and find a way to reinvent themselves, just like any other industry forced to change because of technology.
Visiting B&N used to be a treat after going out for dinner and we would usually pick up a couple of books each. Now, we still do that once in a while, but add anything interesting to our Amazon wishlists through our smart phones. I may pick up a gift or a couple of magazines, but that’s it.
Oh, and I don’t buy those full-priced ebooks either. They languish on my ereaderiq.com Price Drop list until the publisher/authors gets a clue, maybe forever, while I enjoy more reasonably priced and instantly available indie books.
@Richard Adin
I don’t watch television, the one small one I own pretty much stays in a cupboard except during football season, I don’t play video games, I spend very little time on-line and I don’t have a lawn.
In trying to equate “serious”, (would “avid” have made my argument more clear?), you miss my point. Mr. Blake apparently believes, (and is “fascinated” to discover), that e-readers are killing traditional bookstores. My point is that the MAJORITY of people who purchase e-readers are not going to traipse off to their local B&N to purchase a hardcover book just because the publisher has chosen to delay the digital edition. They are going to make the MAJORITY of their book purchases through digital means, choosing the selection and convenience of digital editions over driving, (in my case the closest B&N is 40 minutes away—and I live in a major city). Windowing is not going to change that nor is it going to save traditional bookstores.
In my case, I purchased an e-reader because I live 7 months of each year on a houseboat and while it is a large houseboat, storage is still at a premium. Once I got my hands on a Kindle, it didn’t take me long to realize that my days of buying p-books had ended—with or without windowing and no matter how convenient or in-convenient a physical bookstore was for me.
Pre-Kindle, I purchased lots of paper books. One room of my (5 months a year) home is lined with bookshelves that hold over 2000 hardcover books. BUT, since 2007 when I bought my first Kindle, I doubt that I’ve purchased more than a half dozen p-books. If a publisher windows, I don’t run out to B&N: I just move on to something else. And I believe that most e-book readers do the same.
Oh, and it was Mr. Blake who actually used the word “serious”. I was just quoting him.
Lenne – great post.
Richard: having a ‘library’ is a luxury, even in this day and age, and many pundits and commentators fail to understand that. It isn’t so much the cost of the books themselves, but the real estate to store them. In my neck of the woods, even a 1-bedroom condo will run you 300k. The archetypal single-family home is completely out of my reach and will be forever, unless I move out of town. Where do you expect I will keep this library for my friends and family to browse?
I’ve definitely noticed at times that people such as my boss (who I suspect is probably about your age) seem to have a different view about money compared to myself and my 20-30-year old friends. What she considers a small amount of money is larger to us. What we consider a lot of money is nothing to her. And of course, she has a proper house for her paper books 🙂
If I were not a renter who has had to move every couple years for reasons beyond my control; if the housing market here was such that space was not at such a premium and I could afford unlimited rooms; then perhaps in would care more about maintaining paper books. As is, I save my precious bookshelf real estate for cookbooks, study books and other books where how it looks is really vital. For general fiction where it’s just words, I buy only ebooks. And in those cases, it truly is a choice between ebook or no book at all. I just don’t have the space to buy the paper.
Mr. Blake is absolutely right. Consumers should never be allowed to buy what they want. They should have to wait until people like Mr. Blake have every opportunity to sell them what they don’t want. After all I’m sure Mr. Blake is a nice guy and deserves to earn a living (selling stuff that people no longer want to buy). That’s how business works.
Windowing books was a stupid idea and it failed.
Barnes & Noble put 3 smaller book stores in my town out of business. I have no sympathy now for their struggles.
Windowing – the calculated release of a work in increasingly affordable formats over a period of time – has a functional, not just economic function. In the world of film for instance, the opening of a first-run movie in theatres serves to enhance – or reduce – the run of said movie and its availability in cheaper formats. Reviewers and word-of-mouth now have a turn to confirm or trash the marketing machine that comes before the release. Windowing gives the consumer a ‘window’ of information-gathering – a kind of quality control before spending money on the overly-hyped, the
It has always been my understanding that reviewers don’t take seriously any book released first in paperback. Libraries and collections want and need hardcover books for quality and shelf life. It used to be that all books were released in hardcover and those sales decided whether the book would be published in other formats. A book had a chance for a few births and a long life. Books that were published in mass market formats were meant for the spinners in drug stores and served a purpose. Without windowing, a book or film has only one chance to live and can die a quick and bloody death. As an independent bookseller, I have always felt that our environment will help a book find its way to its best reader.
The ebook buyers that pout and declare that they ‘will steal it then’ if they can’t have a new release immediately should not be steering the ship of the book industry. We should all be thinking of the health of the writer and the professionals that support the lifetime of their art. The real readers will follow and there’s nothing wrong with showing that books and their writers are valuable and worth waiting for.
Eleanor LeFave, Mabel’s Fables Bookstore says:
May 5, 2011 at 9:09 pm
Windowing – the calculated release of a work in increasingly affordable formats over a period of time – has a functional, not just economic function.
Eleanor…There are two problems with this argument:
1. E-book owners and readers are NOT second class readers. We are the book buyers who are the bread and butter of the publishing world, the ones who buy hundreds of books a year. Why then, should we wait for the release until after the publisher has milked the hardcover and paperback market dry? For the most part, we no longer purchase paperbooks, choosing instead not to WAIT, but to MOVE ON, in many cases never to go back to these windowed books even when and if they are released in digital form thus putting zero dollars in their coffer.
2. E-books cannot be considered an “increasingly affordable” format. Contrary to promises made by the A6 last year, e-book prices are NOT being reduced as the titles become older and as cheaper editions like paperbacks are being released. Visit any e-book blog or message board and you will find tons of examples where the e-book is priced higher than its paperback counterpart…even in books that are decades old. Even when publishers release back listed books as e-books, instead of the e-book price reflecting their back list status, they are priced at or near the price of a newly released book. There is no “increasingly affordable” format in their lexicon.
Simon and Schuster has admitted that their increased profit figures are due, in part, to the reduced production costs of e-books. If e-books are so profitable, windowing has no point.
“The real readers will follow and there’s nothing wrong with showing that books and their writers are valuable and worth waiting for.”
LOL! Oh Elanor, you kill me with these comedy routines you keep posting. “Real readers” oh that is priceless.
“We should all be thinking of the health of the writer and the professionals that support the lifetime of their art. The real readers will follow and there’s nothing wrong with showing that books and their writers are valuable and worth waiting for.”
Actually no Eleanor. We should all be thinking of the CONSUMER. The READER. Because they are the most important people here. I regret that I find your position one of incredibly patronising arrogance toward readers.
Eleanor, I think you are missing the point: ‘real’ readers are not the ones claiming they will steal the book. What they are doing is exercising their legitimate choices in the market and buying other, available books instead. There is plenty else to read these days. If one author’s book is not available to me, there are plenty of others to spend my money on. If the book is by an author I devoutly follow, I’ll get the paper from the library. If it was a potential impulse buy, I’ll move on and forget about it. What I will never do is buy the hardback. I can’t really afford them and don’t have the space to store them. I fail to see why this economic and ergonomic reality makes me less of a ‘real’ reader than anybody else! If you can afford a large house with a spacious library full of every full-price hardback you might want, then I suppose the indie book-selling business has been more lucrative for you than you are leading us to believe 🙂