Monday, January 24, 2011

This Is A Business: Redux

I first made this point a little over a year ago, gentle readers, but it bears repeating.

The other day I overheard a conversation in which one book-loving acquaintance of mine expressed the opinion that selling e-books amounts to a betrayal of the physical book.

Let me be the first to say: this a bunch of maudlin nonsense.

The book business is precisely that, mes auteurs: a business. Yes, in many instances we're selling art, but I've always been of the opinion that the art of the book is almost always found in its content, not in its form; if a majority of consumers want their books electronically, any publisher or bookseller resisting that change will likely be driven out of business. If it sounds Darwinian, that's because it is. If you're not selling what people want, you're not going to be in business very long.

This isn't at all to say that the physical book is going extinct (though hardcover fiction may, à mon avis, be more or less gone within a few years)—I'm only saying that refusing to cultivate an electronic platform or sell e-books due to the misguided notion that you're somehow betraying an inanimate cultural medium is, well, childish. Books aren't people; they don't have feelings. Those who really love them will buy and sell them in whatever format is available.

The book is very old, cats & kittens, but before we had them we had scrolls and before that we had tablets and before that we had oral traditions. The codex—a book with a cover and pages—hasn't been around forever and it won't be around forever, and the sooner publishers, booksellers, and other industry insiders realize this and not only accommodate but embrace the changes that are revolutionizing the way people read, the better.

18 comments:

  1. You make a very good point. I'm one of the romantics about books, and haven't quite given in to the eBook yet, but it has its uses, for sure. Thanks for a great post :)

    Sarah Allen
    (my creative writing blog)

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  2. Nice post! I've always loved "dead tree" books, but I have to admit, my love affair with them weakened this summer, when I moved, after hauling 16 very heavy crates o' books up to a second story apartment, and realizing I was only half done. I bought an e-reader (Kindle) and... I like it. More than I thought I would.

    Books are books, and there is no One Right Way to enjoy them - the point is, that you do!

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  3. E-reading rocks! (If you can avoid eye strain...) And it costs less too. (More money for us/struggling publishers.) Here's to out with the old, in with the new eh? Great post!

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  4. Amen to that! I'm sure there were priests still writing out bibles by hand that were annoyed by that whole Gutenberg thing . . .

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  5. Nice post. My library fits in my purse with my Kindle, so yeah, I'm on board. Plus, it's much easier to press the buy button than drive thirty minutes to the Barnes and Noble.

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  6. It's over an hour to the nearest bookstore for me. I just loaded two more books onto my NookColor this morning. I love being able to download a sample, and if it pulls you in, click the "buy now" button.

    I fear Eric may be right that the hard cover is going to be more or less gone in a few years (although libraries still like them) -- because I've got a new hard cover coming out in May. Anything I touch seems to go belly up. Sorry!

    Terry
    Terry's Place
    Romance with a Twist--of Mystery

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  7. I'm still a fan of physical books just because, well, I'm a fan of physical books. I hope they stick around just because they're my personal preference and I know some other people get eye strain. I'm happy to admit I don't have a moral high ground here. I don't think there's a moral high ground to have. We'll just have to see if there's enough people like me for the publishers to keep me happy with physical books.

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  8. Agree. Who really wants to pay $26.99 for a new hardcover in a bookstore? Amazon sells them for half that price and Kindle editions dawdle down to $9.99 for a new release. Not only is the realm of hardcover fiction becoming increasingly outdated, so are its prices, considering our society who wants it quicker, better, cheaper.

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  9. I do agree, but I am a stubborn buyer of real books. The day they can make the Kindle smell like a book I'll consider getting one!

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  10. I sometimes get a book both as an e-book and as a physical book. For travelling, an e-reader is ideal as it's light, small and can contain many books. Not to mention the fact that the bookcover doesn't get crumpled or dirty that way. I wrote a blog comparing books and e-readers here:

    http://renate-villerius.blogspot.com/2011/01/books-vs-e-readers.html

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  11. Do you really think hardcover books are going to go extinct? I think paperback books will actually become passe very soon because of e-books. If e-books become the new cheap edition of a best-seller, who's going to bother with a paperback that costs a bit more?

    But, people have emotional attachments to hardcover books. They have reasons to want their favorite authors to sign them, but not their paperbacks so much. They collect them and keep them on their bookshelves, even if they rarely read them. I think there will always be a market, although a small one, for the hardcover book.

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  12. Fifteen years ago my study was lined with bookshelves. The walls were not visible anywhere. Just books. And I loved it. Today I only have bookshelves on one wall and they only cover about a third of it. All the other walls are lined with pictures. On my desk are my computer and my e-reader and I have far better access to books than I ever had. Fifteen years ago I was a wannabe author. Now I'm a real one.

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  13. I'm almost sold, at least for traveling with an e-book thingie, but for books I'm learning from - for example my latest pursuit, screenwriting - to underscore important lines to write a note in them, or copy a page to remind me. I am growing warmer to the idea though of e-books. Now to rid myself of books in my library, bedstand, under the bed. Oh blessed be!

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  14. Love the scrolls, tablets, oral tradition reminder. So true. It's the content we love, and different methods of delivery just add spice to the mix. Thanks for a great post!

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  15. Oh technology, you are breaking my heart.

    I am old fashioned. I still miss my hammer, chisel and stone tablets.

    Ten commandments why we should save bark-books...oh wait...Moses already did that, sorry.

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  16. It's just a preference. Some people like seafood, other enjoy Italian food, while many prefer steak and potatoes. Other than personal taste I don't see an arguable reason to want one over the other. I have always argued that a physical book was better than e-books, however, within the last two months I've been thinking over the possibility of testing the e-books partially to save money and purchase more books I have on my list to read. When I looked at it from that point of view my preference seems to be changing, view along with it.

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  17. I'm surprised that the big publishers didn't see this coming. Maybe they did, but were too entrenched in tradition. As soon as I heard the phrase ebook, I knew that, in time, hardcovers would become the niche market. Publishers and the market really should have been better prepared.

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