Don’t ignore the reader: E-book pricing models and theories of value

By David Wilk, owner of BookTrix

David Wilk, owner of BookTrix. is among our newest contributors. Welcome, David! His bio is at the end. – David Rothman

Publishers and independent thinkers in many areas of the book business are beginning to look at digital versus print reading in terms of the value proposition for readers, libraries and publishers themselves.

The perception and behavior of consumers will determine values in e-books and digital reading environments, and publishers ignore this reality at their own peril, as I’ve learned from Mark Coker, founder of the e-publishing platform Smashwords.

Evan Schnittman, who works for Oxford University Press and writes the excellent blog Black Plastic Glasses is one of those who feels differently and writes compellingly on publisher economics. Meanwhile, Andrew Savikas of O’Reilly Media recently suggested that readers who buy print books should be given a free e-version of the books they purchase, which is a compelling position. Why not recognize the reader’s desire to read in multiple formats, and why make them pay extra for that privilege? In some cases, like this, why not let readers get “free”?

It’s been widely reported that the fastest growing app category for the iPhone is e-book readers, and some have said the e-book is the “killer app.” The iPhone is a tremendously exciting development for authors and publishers because it is so cool to find new readers and how they are creating new reading experiences.  It’s pretty obvious that iPhone users are younger and hipper than Kindle readers and what they think a piece of e-reading content should sell for should matter a lot to publishers and writers alike.

This discussion of values in the digital environment has got me re-reading the great essay The Economy of Ideas by John Perry Barlow, former lyricist for the Grateful Dead and founder of the Electronic Freedom Foundation. Written long before the latest era of the Digital World, this essay is a seminal piece of writing I can recommend to anyone interested in content and value in a digital world:

“Throughout the time I’ve been groping around cyberspace, an immense, unsolved conundrum has remained at the root of nearly every legal, ethical, governmental, and social vexation to be found in the Virtual World. I refer to the problem of digitized property. The enigma is this: If our property can be infinitely reproduced and instantaneously distributed all over the planet without cost, without our knowledge, without its even leaving our possession, how can we protect it? How are we going to get paid for the work we do with our minds? And, if we can’t get paid, what will assure the continued creation and distribution of such work?”

The above is from Barlow’s “The Economy of Ideas: A framework for patents and copyrights in the Digital Age” (in Wired Magazine).

Searching around the web for further discussion about values and writing, I found this wonderful quote by French poet Paul Valery in Paul Valéry, Pièces sur L’Art, 1931 Le Conquete de l’ubiquite:

“Our fine arts were developed, their types and uses were established, in times very different from the present, by men whose power of action upon things was insignificant in comparison with ours. But the amazing growth of our techniques, the adaptability and precision they have attained, the ideas and habits they are creating, make it a certainty that profound changes are impending in the ancient craft of the Beautiful. In all the arts there is a physical component which can no longer be considered or treated as it used to be, which cannot remain unaffected by our modern knowledge and power. For the last twenty years neither matter nor space nor time has been what it was from time immemorial. We must expect great innovations to transform the entire technique of the arts, thereby affecting artistic invention itself and perhaps even bringing about an amazing change in our very notion of art.”

I think we are ready for his “amazing change.”  As for myself I’m going to start publishing inexpensive e-books on Smashwords soon.  And a cool app for the iPhone will certainly follow that.

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David Wilk is a publishing veteran with broad experience in book publishing, sales, distribution and marketing. He has been active in alternative and independent publishing since 1975, helped to create social initiatives and many businesses, and is active in social and political change movements.

He operates Creative Management Partners, providing content owners with a full suite of publishing services. Ongoing projects include booktrix.com (book marketing and consulting), livewriters.com (video sharing for authors and books), writerscast.com (author book industry interview podcast), chptr1.com (online book excerpts), readiac.com (curating enthusiastic book reviews) and rvive.com (digitally republishing lost American classics). He writes about book industry matters regularly and is the Director of Marketing for Good Business International (good-b.com).

Working with writers and publishers to help them connect with readers is his primary work. Writing and editing words in any media remains his primary passion.

Image credit: CC-licensed photo by Rochelle Hartman, who has written for TeleRead.