Here’s an email I got from Joanna which points out one of the advantages of ebooks – immediacy:
One area ebooks really do have the advantage (as the Kobo people correctly point out) is availability. Tomorrow, a prize will be announced and physical bookstores will be scrambling to supply copies of the paper book to every customer who might want them. But there will be no ebook shortage! Anyone who wants the book can have one.
Also, I found it interesting that the Giller list is out-selling the Booker winner right now. All those who worry that Big Bad Evil Big Pub will destroy local culture, take note: Canadians apparently want to read Canadian authors! Kobo is having no problems moving the Giller nominees and the fact that they are out-selling the winner of a non-local major award is a surprising, but welcome bit of news.
From the Kobo press release:
In anticipation of tomorrow’s Giller Prize announcement, Kobo has partnered with Biblioasis, Gaspereau Press, and Thomas Allen & Sons to convert their books into eBook editions to ensure availability. Kobo has been selling the entire shortlist since October 15, and is ready to meet the demand from readers across the country and around the world when the winning title is announced.
Make the books available and we’ll buy them. I’ve been telling Michael Serbinis and Michael Tamblyn from day one. If I’m reading the Saturday book review in the Globe and Mail or the Sunday review of books in the NYTimes I’m going to check the availability of the books I’m interested in on Amazon then Kobo. What is wrong /w publishers? Can’t they understand this? Jettison those “stupid” geo-restrictions and get your books out there. If they’re not there for us to buy we’ll buy something else and forget about them in short notice.
This was another example of the vision behind Kobo management. Three of the Giller shortlist titles were not available as ebooks and last night’s prize winner has actually been out of print for some time. No kidding: it was published by a (literally) tiny press — hand-crafted editions on a sheet-fed printing press. We are talking hundreds of copies. Last year’s Giller sold 75,000 copies after the win — a huge amount in Canada. Kobo stepped up, initiated and facilitated the ebook conversions so that all five short-list titles could actually be bought.
Bravo again.
And congrats to Johanna Skibsrud for her win for The Sentamentalists.
And Kobo was on it, too: mere hours after the award was announced, there it was in my in-box, an email from them telling me who won and providing a link for me to buy it. A bit out of my price range, but even so, the mere availability is huge. Alexander makes a great point about the tiny presses—they are scrambling to churn out 1000 copies a week to meet the demand. The ebook, once it goes live, can be purchased 1000 times an HOUR.
The next step would be for Kobo to get David Berger’s 2005 winning book. I enjoyed his Giller shortlisted book so much, I wanted that, too.
I bought the book for $9.89 on kobobooks. At that time, it was listed in the way that non-agency books are–with a standard price and then a discounted price. That meant that you could use coupons, etc. A 20% off coupon made it a real bargain.
It is now listed for $14.95 with only that one price listed–generally this is the indication that the publisher is dictating the price ~Agency Pricing , which cannot be discounted.