It seems like there are a gazillion ways to make and market an e-book these days. Okay, maybe not a gazillion, maybe something more modest like a hundred, but you get the idea. In business and technology something that comes along and shakes up the status quo is called a disruption, and e-books are a disruption to the publishing industry. Frédéric Filloux considers himself an e-book convert and in the Guardian yesterday mused on Ebooks: the giant disruption.
In order to prepare for an event in which he was asked to lead a roundtable discussion on e-books, he spoke to most of the French publishers to find out what they were doing and found that most of them were still operating as if e-books were only a minor blip on the landscape. Filloux found that publishers think because they can line up a list of great authors they have nothing to worry about. But they are wrong because e-books are going to disrupt publishing as we know it. It is already happening thanks to Amazon and the ability of anyone to self-publish an e-book without the help of a publisher.
Authors, even established ones, are already starting to wonder whether publishers are even needed anymore.
When one considers the history of book publishing, this is not such a silly question. We have come to rely on publishers to be a kind of gatekeeper, trusting them to separate the wheat from the chaff. And we still trust them to do this in spite of decades of well publicized errors of judgement. In the history of books, publishing houses are a fairly recent phenomenon. In times past, authors would work directly with printers and booksellers to get their books published and the author with the help of his or her friends had to do all their own marketing and publicity. The cost of book printing was one the author risked. There was no such thing as an advance and the author took home quite a bit more in proceeds if the book was successful because there were fewer hands dipping into the pot. E-books have the potential to take us back to that time.
I have nothing against publishers, I think they generally provide a good service to their authors and to readers. But when it comes to e-books they seem to turn into ostriches with their heads in the sand.
Not all publishers are ostriches though. A good many interested in creating a new publishing model showed up at the Tools of Change digital publishing conference. The conference also attracted a number of entrepreneurs and innovators. The people in attendance tended to see e-books as a way to democratize publishing.
That got me thinking about the internet and blogs and how journalism went through a painful period when non-professionals began breaking news and writing stories that the big gatekeepers of news ignored but that turned out to be things that the public wanted to know about. There are still a few kinks but overall I think news organizations have worked it out, but they had to scramble because they refused to see the direction news was taking.
The music industry was also disrupted by digital. Now it has arrived at the doorstep of book publishing and it is as though they haven’t been paying attention. Big publishers are making e-books more complicated than they have to be, adding more restrictions than are necessary for fear of piracy, and trying to cut libraries, their biggest customers, out of the e-book picture entirely.
I still love my print books, but I like e-books too. I believe a lot of people feel the same way. If publishers don’t start dealing with the e-book disruption soon, they will discover their writers and readers are going elsewhere and by then publishers might find they are too late to be able to do anything about it.
Word.
I think a publisher as gatekeeper is still an important role, not to mention the importance of good editing as mentioned in the Anthony Horowitz article. In the age of television and the internet, the written word struggles to compete sometimes. I like it that there are publishers separating the wheat from the chaff. I know they still publish a lot of garbage. If there’s one book that made think I could be a published writer, it’s The Da Vinci Code. I kept thinking “Really, this is all it takes to write a bestseller these days?” I know it’s enticing for writers with a lot of rejections to go ahead and publish electronically (vanity press), and that’s fine, but I’m still need the houses to discern what might be worth my time.
As for ebooks, it’s a format issue. I’m a huge Kindle fan. The immediate gratification is a factor too. Sometimes I don’t want to wait even two days for Amazon to deliver. There are some books that still don’t do well electronically. Anything with pictures that are important to understanding the book (history for me) don’t do well on ereaders yet. That will change though. People used to argue that digital photos didn’t match the resolution of film. That clearly has changed. Print books will be around for a while. As Steven King pointed out, you can drop a print book in the toilet, fish it out, let it dry and your back in business. Can’t do that with a Kindle!
Well said Stefanie. They do need to get on the front foot. I think they have a lot of skills and a role to play but they need to take a few risks and realise they are in a new world rather than try to apply old models to new technology. I’m not sure what they answer is but some creative thinking (and action) is surely needed. Bookshops are starting to give it a go, libraries are giving it a go, but publishers are, from my admittedly superficial look, making it hard rather than easy.
Ah now you have me curious. How many self-published ebooks do you currently hold on your kindle? I hear a lot about how it will change things for authors, but have been wondering when reading self-published books would actually become a common reality for kindle users.
Pingback: Book Printing News: February 2012 | Ask the Book Printer
Sylvia,
Tom, oh yes, I think publishers do provide important work. I appreciate the gatekeeping for the most part as well as the editing when they manage to do it well – I’ve read some books by well-known writers in which the editor obviously and unfortunately did not do much and the copyeditor, spellcheck is not copyediting. Some books that should be taken up by a publisher aren’t and get self-published and make a splash and then get picked up but these are admittedly few and far between. It is mostly a format issue, I agree, and yeah if I dropped my Kindle in the bath I’d be out a Kindle. But I think publishers need to start looking at digital differently and instead of making it so hard for everyone, instead of charging the same price or more for an e-book as a print book, instead of not allowing libraries to lend e-books or putting ridiculous restrictions on them, and the fact that e-books are not owned but only licensed which means I can’t lend it to a friend or resell it, these are the biggest frustrations I have with publishers that I wish they would change.
whisperinggums, thanks! I agree with you, and if they did start thinking more creatively it would sure make things easier for bookshops and libraries as they keep running against the brick wall that is the publishing industry.
Litlove, I have only three books on my Kindle that I have bought. One of them was self-published by the author. It is an extended essay by Alan Jacobs the author of The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction. He published it himself after he received lots of inquiries from readers about his personal reading history/ background. I think his ability to publish the essay as an ebook is one of the really good aspects of ebook self-publishing.
I *just* ordered a Kindle (the smallest, least expensive one) for my trip — I’ve decided that I’m very excited about it and am looking forward to figuring out how it’s going to work best for me.
As these changes comes, everyone freaks out and then adjusts. I think it’s going to be interesting to see how things grow and develop. Just as everyone found a way around digital music sharing, they’ll find a way around digital book-sharing (one way or another) and it will all smooth out sooner or later. (is my guess…)
Daphne, yay! I know you will like the Kindle for your travels. have loading it up with books! I agree that it will be interesting to see how things develop, there are lots of people out there with interesting ideas. I imagine you are right about the book sharing. Where there’s a will there’s a way!
Some publishers definitely do ebooks better than others. I think too many of them put too harsh of restrictions on them, which is a pity and I hate that I can’t buy an ebook published in the UK here. Of course as much as I like my Nook–I still find that almost always I still grab a paper copy. I just like the feel better and being able to flip through the book and it is nice having that first filter, too, that publishers give. I guess it is growing pains–they’ll have to catch up or suffer the consequences like Borders did.
I know, it’s crazy that we can’t buy ebooks published in other countries. I love my Kindle for taking to work but at home I always grab a paper book. I still do prefer them because even though they are sometimes heavy, they are still so much easier to navigate than an ebook.