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Michael Giltz: Books: The Biggest News In Publishing Since The Kindle [Updated] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/books-the-biggest-news-in_b_171482.html [4/5/2009 12:13:22 PM] APRIL 5, 2009 HOME POLITICS MEDIA BUSINESS ENTERTAINMENT LIVING STYLE GREEN WORLD CHICAGO COMEDY 23/6 VIDEO BLOGGER INDEX ARCHIVE Make HuffPost Your HomePage Get Email Alerts Twitter: Follow Us BIG NEWS : Newspapers | Facebook | NBC | CNN | More... LOG IN | SIGN UP Michael Giltz Freelance writer and raconteur Posted March 3, 2009 | 01:57 PM (EST) BIO Become a Fan Get EmailAlerts Bloggers'Index Books: The Biggest News In Publishing Since The Kindle[Updated] Read More: Amazon , Amazon Kindle, Audiobooks , Book Publishing , Books , Kindle, Publishing , Publishing Industry, Media News In the smartest move in years by the troubled book industry, the Thomas Nelson imprintannounced a series of new titles it is releasingthis year in the "NelsonFree" format. Buy a title at the regular hardcover price and you'll get afree audiobook AND free electronic book versionincluded. Imagine if you bought a DVD and had to decide at the store whether you wanted to watch it onyour TV or your laptop. If you wanted to do both,why you'd have to buy it twice. Imagine if you bought a CD that could only be played on your home stereo. If you wanted to play it in your car,you'd have to buy another copy. And if you wanted to play it on your iPod, why you'd have to buyyet another copy. So instead of paying $15 for an album, you'd have to pay $45. Crazy, right? But that's exactly how most publishers treat bookbuyers, even though the internet has made the distribution of ebooks and audiobooks wildly inexpensive for them. Do you like John Grisham? If you want a hardcover of The Associate to put on your shelf and share with your spouse, that's gonna cost you $27.95. Want to listen to it on your iPod or in your car? Well, the audio version will cost you $44.95. Is your mother living with you but has poor eyesight? You can buy a large printversion also for $27.95. Oh, but you just bought the Kindle. I bet you'd love an electronic version.That would cost $10 for the Kindle version...but it's not available in that format yet. Me, I preferreading Grisham in the mass market paperback format (the small, easily portable version sold atairports). That will be probably $8 or more -- when it comes out in a year or two. So just to readthe new John Grisham any way you want, you would pay about $120. Of course, no one is going todo that, but being forced to choose what way you want to read a book is crazy. The book world has idiotically followed the disastrous lead of the music industry, which killed the Be the First to Submit This Story to Digg Get Breaking News Alerts Share Print Comments never spam Popular Stories on HuffPost Fashion Face-Off! Michelle Obama And Carla Bruni-Sarkozy Finally Meet In France (VIDEO, PHOTOS, POLL) *Video, poll and slideshow (to... Levi Johnston TalksSafe Sex With Tyra Banks (VIDEO) ***UPDATE*** 8:30pm: People.com is reporting that Sarah Palin hasissued... Oscar de la RentaSlams Michelle Obama's Buckingham Outfit As MajorDesigners Feel Ignored While Michelle Obamahas made lesser... Verena von Pfetten 7 Lessons To BeLearned From Carla Bruni So here's the thing.There's no shortage ofarticles dedicated to that certain je ne... Huff TV Arianna Discusses MichelleObama's "Fantastic" Michael Giltz: Books: The Biggest News In Publishing Since The Kindle [Updated] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/books-the-biggest-news-in_b_171482.html [4/5/2009 12:13:22 PM] What Are You Reading? Conficker Dominates This Week's Hot Google Searches Fred Armisen Shows Up With Joy Behar... "Family Guy," "American Dad" Men Talk Hillary...single -- the cheap inexpensive way to start collecting music that turned teenagers into lifelong music consumers. The result? Collapsing album sales softened somewhat by the return of singles via iTunes (which record companies fought every step of the way). Similarly, the book industry has decided you HATE to buy cheap paperbacks at $7 and would MUCH RATHER buy $14 paperbacks in the bulkier trade paperback format, which is a lot heavier and harder to carry around. You also have to wait a year or more to do so, even though in other parts of the world the paperback is released the same time as the hardcover. The book world has sadly imitated the movie industry by haplessly trying to emulate the DVD. They thought that meant including an author interview at the end of a paperback as an "exciting" extra. In truth, Nelson is the first publisher to recognize the lesson of DVDs. DVDs succeeded because they offered far superior quality than VHS, provided extras like commentary tracks that were previously impossible and -- this is important -- were the same or cheaper than videotape. Now, taking advantage of the internet and cheap distribution methods, Nelson has dragged the book world into the 21st century. Buy the right to read a book and they'll give it to you in every format possible -- a print edition, an audio edition and an electronic edition so you can read it when and where you want. And they did it without raising the price. If Random House and Ballantine and Simon & Schuster and the rest have a brain in their heads, they'll follow suit immediately. UPDATE : In related news, Amazon -- the maker of the Kindle -- has wisely agreed to begin selling ebooks for the iPhone and iTouch. Personally, I'd never read more than a poem or very short story on the iPhone but selling people books any way they want to read them is the right thing to do --and even better if a version for the iPhone were bundled with your hard copy! Related News On Huffington Post: Jeff Bezos Promotes The Kindle 2 On The "Daily Show" (VIDEO) Amazon founder Jeff Bezos appeared on the "Daily Show" last night toshowcase the new Kindle 2, which started shipping yesterday. WhileBezos was, naturally,... KINDLE 2: New Amazon Kindle Available February 24 (PHOTOS)Paperless media keeps growing -- the second version of the Amazon Kindle is being shown off today, and will be available to consumers on February... Related Blogs On Huffington Post: The Answer for Amazon's Kindle Catastrophe Can Be Found In The Twilight Zone Amazon folded like a flimsy bookpage on the issue whether theirnew Kindle should be able to sound out words. More in Media... 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Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to View Comments: Newest First Expand All Page: 1 2 Next › Last » (2 pages total) JDM73 See Profile I'm a Fan of JDM73 permalink I heartily agree with you about trade paperbacks, Michael. There are still a couple of Raymond Chandler titles I haven't read, and I hate the fact that they're fifteen bucks a pop. The covers are nice,but not that nice! Michael Giltz See Profile I'm a Fan of Michael Giltz permalink Thx! With no one agreeing with me about that, I thought maybe I was the only person aroundwho preferred spending less money on a more portable paperback -- $7 rather than $15.Seems obvious to me. lizt See Profile I'm a Fan of lizt permalink I LOVE books. I used to have about 3000. But I downsized to my favorite 300 in my apartment. Now Ijust get them from the library for free. 3fingerbrown See Profile I'm a Fan of 3fingerbrown permalink As a fellow book-loving apartment dweller, I hear you. My solution to the downsizing problemwas to discard most of my books that are reasonably certain to always be in print. I like "TheGreat Gatsby," but I see no reason why my dog-eared copy has to take up valuable shelfspace for years until I get the urge to read it again. I can simply push a few buttons on mycomputer and amazon or ebay will send me a used copy for a couple of bucks. I see it kind of like Netflix for classic books. Women's Rights Michelle Obama Europe Newspapers Cars War Wire Video Financial Crisis Barack Obama MORE BIG NEWS PAGES » Books by this author A cabin of one's own: New England's MacDowellColony celebrates 100years of artistic utopia.And the gay and lesbianartists who prosperedthere celebrate ... (Thenational gay & lesbiannewsmagazine) by Michael Giltz Affairs to remember:Farley Granger beddedAva Gardner, ShelleyWinters, and LeonardBernstein. In hisautobiography, IncludeMe Out, Hitchcock's muse... (The national gay &lesbian newsmagazine) by Michael Giltzfuel were found in samples of... HUFFPOST'S BIG NEWS PAGES Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 10:17 PM on 03/06/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 03:04 PM on 03/10/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 12:36 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 01:04 PM on 03/04/2009This Blogger's Books from Michael Giltz: Books: The Biggest News In Publishing Since The Kindle [Updated] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/books-the-biggest-news-in_b_171482.html [4/5/2009 12:13:22 PM] See Michael Giltz's Profile See Michael Giltz's Profile See Michael Giltz's Profile Michael Giltz - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of Michael Giltz permalink You both have more self control than me. I can't bear to give up a book I've read and enjoyed. And honestly, I don'teven enjoy reading a book I've borrowed from a friend orlibrary. I'd much rather own it and either keep it or give itaway myself. That must be why I have thousands of books in storage.... There are More Comments on this Thread. Click Here To See them All markdf See Profile I'm a Fan of markdf permalink 7. The NelsonFree bundle might be a better price for what you buy---but the article is making anunderlying assumption that isn't true: that people will buy multiple versions of the same book and readthat book in each version. I don't know anyone who starts reading a book, switches a few chapters into an audio, then flips over to their laptop to finish. People don't do that not because they can't or its tooexpensive. They don't do that because that's simply not how people interact with books. Most people only read a book once--in one format all the way through, so owning multiple versions is probably irrelevant---and expensive at the hardcover price. 8. There's a contradiction in criticizing bulky, heavy trade paperbacks then praising NelsonFree for only providing the bulker, heavier hardcover---and selling it for the top price of all available formats. If theargument is you get the weightless, no-bulk ebook or audio, why bother paying the hardcover price if that's the way you read books? I think the NelsonFree edition will be interesting to watch, but I doubt it truly a silver bullet for what ails the publishing industry nor providing consumers what they want. hmmm....I guess I had a lot more to say about this than I thought I did. Sorry for the long post. Michael Giltz - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of Michael Giltz permalink Actually, the book I'm reading -- Dreadnought -- is a good example of the options that open up with ebooks and bundled multiple formats.No book need ever go out of print with ebooks, so that's great.Dreadnought is available in paperback -- for $21 -- even though it'san 18 year old title. (Somewhat understandable since it's so hefty.) I couldn't find a paperback (though it's available from Amazon) and bought a used hardcover version of it and its sequel for about $15 each, I think. The publisher got no money for this resale. I might have bought an ebook only just for ease of use at $10 and been thrilled. (No searching around for a title.) But I knew it would be good and if the paperback at $20 ALSO contained the ebook version I might have been tempted to buy that so I could put it on myshelf. Instead of a $10 sale they would have made a $21 sale they otherwise would have not.Either way, give readers as many options as possible and you win. Force them to choose andyou lose. Michael Giltz - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of Michael Giltz permalink 8. Again, I believe the multiple formats should be offered at everystage of a book's life, from hardcover to paperback. I hate tradepaperbacks compared to mass market because they're so muchheavier to carry around. I almost never carry around hardcovers forthe same reason. But there are titles I would love to have on my shelf. Currently, I'm reading a 1000 page work of nonfiction called Dreadnought by Robert KMassie. It's actually difficult to read because it's so heavy and I would LOVE it if the book hadcome with an ebook version I could read on my Kindle, even though I'd still want the hardcover for my shelf. Maybe some would just want the ebook version. That should come cheaper, perhaps at the $10 compared to the $25 I paid for the hardcover. Then everyone is happy. I don't think offering ebooks and audiobooks for free is a silver bullet but it's long overdue and NOT offering it will just frustrate readers and hurt sales. Thx for reading and sharing your thoughts! Michael Giltz - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of Michael Giltz permalink Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 02:32 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 12:01 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 03:28 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 03:05 PM on 03/04/2009Michael Giltz: Books: The Biggest News In Publishing Since The Kindle [Updated] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/books-the-biggest-news-in_b_171482.html [4/5/2009 12:13:22 PM] See Michael Giltz's Profile See Michael Giltz's Profile See Michael Giltz's Profile7. You're absolutely right. People typically wouldn't buy a book in audio and a hardcover and a large print format etc. But the Kindlemight change that, just like the iPod allowed people to carry around alot more music than ever before. I would very rarely buy just aneBook. But if I owned a Kindle, buying a book at the store would be a lot more appealing if I knew I could have the hardcopy at home and take 30 books with me on my Kindle when I went on a trip. And the flexibility of the Kindle, which allows you to increase type size for example -- perfect if I loan the book or the kindle to my mom -- makes purchasing it even more appealing. That flexibility is a huge plus that books could never offerbefore, just iike VHS tapes could never offer commentary tracks or (practically speaking)have room for bonus features like extra scenes, documentaries and so on. markdf See Profile I'm a Fan of markdf permalink 3. The analogy to CD and DVD is false. A CD or DVD is using the SAME format in multiple machines.That doesn't equate to MULTIPLE formats for the same book. The former is one product; the latter is many. 4. The publishing does not hate any format. Just because they time-release (i.e., hardcover first, thentrade, then mass market) does not mean they are anti-consumer or anti-reader. You can try to arguethat a mass market buyer is a lost buyer if only the trade paperback is available, but, really, so what? Ifthe publisher is making money via trade paperback, they would be dumb to cut their own revenuestream. 5. ebook and audio sales are minuscule compared to other ormats. Their price point is generallybetween paperback and hardcover and they sell fewer copies than hardcover or paperback. AllNelsonFree is doing is giving away something they make little to no money on in the first place.6. NelsonFree isn't "dragging the book world into the 21st century." They are bundling what allpublishers already sell ---giving away the ebook and audio version is a sales gimmick, no different thanbuy one/get two less desirable versions free. An ebook version is not an "extra" included with thehardcover--it's the same thing. Again, the DVD analogy is false---commentary included in a DVD is anactual extra thing included--it's IN ADDITION to the movie, not a different format. Michael Giltz - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of Michael Giltz permalink 5. ebooks are so new I don't think we can talk about a price point yetthough hopefully Amazon will prevail in making $10 a strong figure.Hopefully ebooks of classic titles long out of print will be say $3 or $4.But unabridged audio books are FAR more expensive, thanks to themultiple CDs or cassette tapes they needed. With digital versions, this argument collapses and there is no need to charge $40 or $60 or more for a digital audioversion of a book that costs $25 in hardcover. And sales are not miniscule: audio books are $1 billion slice of the $20 billion consumer market in the US. Nonetheless, they would be wise to trade that short term profit for the goal of making buying books more appealing. 6. Again, I'd compare the ebook to the digital download of a movie that comes with manyDVDs and allows you to watch it on your laptop or iPhone or whatever without lugging aroundthe physical copy, just like an ebook lets you do with a novel you've just bought. Nelson isn'tdoing what other publishers are doing. It's the first to see ebooks and audiobooks as multipleways of consuming a particular title, rather than forcing you to choose one format or chargeyou twice. It is exactly as if you had to buy a CD for $15 and then buy it again at iTunes if youwanted to play it on your iPod. That's crazy. Michael Giltz - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of Michael Giltz permalink 4. I have no particular argument with publishers going from hardcoverto trade over a year or two, just like movies are released in theatersand then three months down the road come out o DVD and then oncable via video on demand. However, that window is collapsing. Itused to be six months to a year before a movie came out o VHS or DVD (if at all). Now it's a matter of weeks and a number of tiny films are being released intheaters day and day with video on demand. So that's happening more and more often. And as I said below, they do often release popular books in hardcover and paperback on the same day in the UK. Making people wait a YEAR has always seemed unsmart to me. Finally,many MANY books are no longer available in mass market editions of $6-8. Now thedominant version for softcover is the trade paperback which is $14-18 or more. They'veeffectively doubled the cost of paperbacks and wonder why sales are moribund. This isespecially annoying when they want you to buy, say, 12 titles in a series like HoratioHornblower, which is 50 years old. Not a smart business tactic. They are losing sales. Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 03:04 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 12:00 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 02:55 PM on 03/04/2009Michael Giltz: Books: The Biggest News In Publishing Since The Kindle [Updated] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/books-the-biggest-news-in_b_171482.html [4/5/2009 12:13:22 PM] See Michael Giltz's Profile markdf See Profile I'm a Fan of markdf permalink I'm not sure the relevance of a 12 title series being 50 years plays into it. Cost of production does not go down simply because a book is old---or public domain. A series like that has limited appeal and making them cheaper is not going to double their sales. It might increase slightly, but probably not enough to justify the printcosts from an economies of scale point of view--which is a business decision, not adisappointed consumer one. I can see an argument for an ebook only edition, butthen you'd have to convince a publisher that it's still worth the production cost. In light of that, I think your numbers are wrong---according to the AAP website, in 2007, total trade sales were 8.5 billion, audio was only 218 million---and ebooks on67 million. Audiobooks and ebooks combined make up less than 0.5% of tradesales. The market just isn't there to sustain the industry with those formats, so I still think the NelsonFree package is just a sales gimmick. If something like the Kindle was going to have the impact of an iPod, it hasn't happened. Maybe it will eventually, but iPod succeeded because it met a real, existing demand. The Kindle hasn't proved it's such a thing because readers--who have had amply opportunity to buy ebooks prior to Kindle--still aren't buying them in big enough numbers to call it the savior of the industry. (i hope I'm not overposting) There are More Comments on this Thread. Click Here To See them All markdf See Profile I'm a Fan of markdf permalink Yes, but...movies went to video sooner due to market pressure and a way to maximize profit. For them, their video sales are maximized because they can benefitfrom the advertising dollars spent on the theater release, plus the first-run periodshrank so video is not undercutting theater. Director-to-video is the equivalent ofdirect-to-paperback with no hardcover edition. Publishers simply do not expend the same marketing dollars per book--or even any dollars on some books. Therefore, two-marketing-budgets for the price of one does not exist for paperback coming out sooner for most books. Don't forget---the glitzy marketing campaigns you see for books is reserved for a fraction of books sold. The simultaneous edition might work for them---and it would be interesting to see if a Stephen King or Danielle Steelesays sure let's try it. But there is zero marketing budget for most books other thanthe sales force calling on bookstores. Yes the cost of a trade paperback is double mass market, but I don't think it's true to say the publishers are purposely doing it wrong. Trade format is the preferred formatby consumers and absent the trade paperback, consumers do not buy mass marketversions except in genre (sf/fantasy/romance etc.) Michael Giltz - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of Michael Giltz permalink 3. The comparison to CD and DVD is I think, fair. A CD can beplayed on your home stereo, your car stereo and elsewhere. You canalso legally make a digital copy and store that on your computer andyour iPod and your phone, giving you the ability to listen to it in manydifferent ways. A movie can be watched on the disc or your portable DVD player and many of them now come with a free digital copy you can download to playon your iPhone or laptop without having to lug around the physical DVD. I think that is VERYsimilar to the ability to download an ebook version you can read on your iPhone or Kindle or laptop. Yes, the audio version must be produced, but most of them are very simply done with the author (though the talented readers can make a book very special and some audio booksare elaborate radio plays). markdf See Profile I'm a Fan of markdf permalink While I think the NelsonFree program is interesting (I read the PW article) and am curious howsuccessful it will be, your article presents several misconceptions: Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 02:48 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 07:02 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 06:44 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 02:41 PM on 03/04/2009Michael Giltz: Books: The Biggest News In Publishing Since The Kindle [Updated] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/books-the-biggest-news-in_b_171482.html [4/5/2009 12:13:22 PM] See Michael Giltz's Profile 1. The NelsonFree "version" sells at the hardcover price. Publishers sell mass market and trade paperback versions for a reason--price. Ten paperbacks at year at $80 is a significant discount from ten hardcovers at year at $250. Given the option, people wait for the paperback--the numbers demonstratethat. Paperback editions always sell more than hardcover. 2. Complaining publishers make you wait a year for a paperback is, well, complaining. It's like complaining movies don't come out on cable before theater release. Again, it's marketplace: the highly motivated reader with disposable income will buy the hardcover absent a paperback edition. The publisher does not have an obligation to give instant reader satisfaction for format (and, from my ownexperience, an ebook format is almost always available before or simultaneous with the paperback). Ifthey weren't making money doing it this way, they wouldn't do it. They are in business to sell a product,and the point of any business model is to maximize revenue. It is only a failed business model when itis not meeting its market. The current model apparently works for them. It's only a bad business modelif they make the consumer wait and the consumer doesn't buy. That isn't happening. Just becausesomeone is disgruntled they have to wait, does not make it a failed business model. Michael Giltz - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of Michael Giltz permalink Thx for reading and taking the time to share your thoughts, a lot ofwhich are interesting and good. 1. I expect and would urge publishers to keep offering the book in every format (audio, ebook and print copy) at every stage. If a yearfrom now you bought one of these NelsonFree books in trade paperback for $14, it should offer the multiple formats. I don't know if that's what Nelson isplanning, but they should. When you're buying a 10 year old book for $8, that too should offerthe multiple formats. Or at the most maybe give you the option of getting them for an extra$1. (Though I'd discourage even that.)2. As I said, they do it overseas. In the UK, books often come out in hardcover andpaperback at the same time. And why not? As you said, many people wait a year or twobecause they WON'T buy a book in hardcover. Why squander all the money and energy youspend on advertising or promotion by making people wait so long to buy a book inpaperback? Some fans will buy hardcover, some trade, some mass market. Ad ALL of themshould come with ebook and audio versions. In fact, their business is not working -- they arefacing a longterm decline in sales and fewer and fewer outlets (especially indie bookstores). They could def use a shot in the arm. markdf See Profile I'm a Fan of markdf permalink Your points show the difficult issues facing publishing, but a viable business model has to support your proposals, and from what I'm seeing of the numbers, it's notmaking sense. I agree the industry needs to do something to improve both itsbottom line and meeting the demand for consumer but, unlike the music industry,publishing is trying different formats and sales models (the NelsonFree is a case inpoint). The argument I think you are presenting is more about the cost to consumer---everything should be cheaper and readily available---than it is about the realities ofcosts and production--everything is more expensive and production should be spentwhere profit can be made. The trick, as in any business, is finding the sweet spot between the two. To your point 1, I think you're dismissing publishing as a business--a businessesgoal is to provide a product that maximizes revenue for that business---not throw allits products at the consumer all at once for the same price. We can't complain thatpublishing is losing money and complain that they're sales model maximizes theirprofit. While I think publishing does a lot of things wrong, I don't think rolling outformats over time is necessarily one of them. You'd have to convince me that, say,Random House would make more money but putting out all formats simultaneouslyyet refuses to do it simply because no other publisher is doing it. That makes nosense. There are More Comments on this Thread. Click Here To See them All MagisterLudi See Profile I'm a Fan of MagisterLudi permalink NEVER give one company control of your personal library. Especially Amazon. MagisterLudi See Profile I'm a Fan of MagisterLudi permalink Here's an astonishing solution--- cheaper books. Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 11:56 AM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 02:38 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 05:53 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 11:55 AM on 03/04/2009Michael Giltz: Books: The Biggest News In Publishing Since The Kindle [Updated] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/books-the-biggest-news-in_b_171482.html [4/5/2009 12:13:22 PM] See Michael Giltz's Profile See Michael Giltz's Profile See Michael Giltz's Profile Especially public domain authors. do I really need to pay $15 for Canterbury Tales? Here's a failed model: Step 1: release an overpriced hardcover. Step2- When the buzz is over-- and only then-- release the paperback.Step 3: Sell hardcover for $2.00 in a remainder bin. Michael Giltz - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of Michael Giltz permalink I agree completely. That's why I'm such a strong proponent of the allbut disappeared mass market paperback (which typically sell for $5-$8 dollars. I go nuts when I want to buy a classic title and only find itin trade with an "exciting" new forward that's supposed to justify mypaying $15 or $18 or more for a book that's more than 100 years old. Just as annoying is when I dive into a mystery or scifi or adventure series (like the AubreyMaturin sailing books) and they expect me to buy five or 10 or 15 books at $15 each. Absurd. GeeBee See Profile I'm a Fan of GeeBee permalink Hey, long may that model continue. The hardcovers usually go for $5.99 or $6.99 at the bigstores, i.e. a buck or two less than the paperback, which has just come out. That's when I usually buy the hardback. Michael Giltz - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of Michael Giltz permalink Yep, I just say some hardcovers at my library for $5. They buy a lot of copies to meet demand for reading copies andthen sell off the ones they don't need once desire to get itslows down. So the hardcover of Paolini's Brisinger is $5and the paperback (which will cost $13 in trade and later $8i in mass market) isn't even out yet. ESerafina42 See Profile I'm a Fan of ESerafina42 permalink I love books on audio (audible.com!) but I can see why I would have to pay separately for them, thoughnot the outlandish prices charged for CDs versions, etc, and even on iTunes, where there's no excusebecause there's no packaging. They DO need to be separately produced with a reader (and I'm suregood ones are expensive), director, sound equipment, etc. Maybe you could pay a reduced price forthe auidio version if you own the book in some other format, to cover just those extra costs. Michael Giltz - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of Michael Giltz permalink Top-notch readers are indeed wonderful. When you've got Jim Daledoing Harry Potter or virtually a radio play for the Philip Pullmanfantasy books, it's great. But many, many books are just read by theauthor or one of those professional readers who are good but by nomeans highly paid. Their services should be considered part of the cost of producing a book for consumption, just like movie studios don't blink twice at the tens of thousands if not more they spend on extras for DVDs like documentaries, audio commentaries, bonus scenes and the such. Since audio books will be mostly digital asopposed to the bulky CDs or cassettes, the argument for why they should cost twice as muchas the hardcover collapses. If they recorded an audio version for a book in the Eighties orearly 90s and it's more than a decade later and you're buying say a $6 paperback, why notinclude the ebook and audio book for free, or say give buyers the option of paying $1 extrafor either of them? LaJu See Profile I'm a Fan of LaJu permalink But people who don't listen to audiobooks or read either of the written versions willresent paying for them. They will argue that the cost of the book should be halvedas they only want half the content. And people who don't want the hard copies will Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 11:53 AM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 03:30 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 03:24 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 04:01 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 11:33 AM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 03:34 PM on 03/04/2009Michael Giltz: Books: The Biggest News In Publishing Since The Kindle [Updated] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/books-the-biggest-news-in_b_171482.html [4/5/2009 12:13:22 PM] See Michael Giltz's Profile See Michael Giltz's Profilebuy them and sell or otherwise pass on the books after they've downloaded the audio/digital versions, and then the publisher (and author) will lose out. Another issue is that only books in series or by authors that are already popular are usually made into audiobooks. Publishers already spend loads of money on booksthat aren't successful, this would be asking them to spend even more, if they are meant to record audio versions of every book. Thirdly, publishers don't necessarily buy the audio rights to the books they buy the rights to print, or if they do, they may then sell them to another company. Authors may not want to sell them, or may in some cases have sold them before selling the print rights. Charity See Profile I'm a Fan of Charity permalink to follow up on others here who mentioned libraries, one doesn't even have to go to the library to take advantage of some of its offerings since most libraries have a strong internet web site that includessomething called "net library" and "overdrive." there is even an online movie viewing application albeitwith not a great selection of films, but still, it's there for our pleasure. BTW, i've been getting my DVDs - all the popular movies one could possibly want to see - by reserving them online at the library web site, and waiting "in line" for them as they circulate around the county. iabsolutely no longer rent DVDs. i can't recall the last time i was in a blockbuster - eight years ago? lately however, i've become slightly addicted to "net library" and "overdrive." one can download audio books to listen on your computer and/or download them as mp3s for your IPOD or other device - or burn them to a CD. one can also download books as an adobe pdf and read it that way. you don't get a too wide of a selection of titles just yet; not all books in the library are available. using "net library" and "overdrive" one also has access to a selection of film titles, documentaries, old TV shows, old radio broadcasts - aside from the other film application i mentioned earlier. in these budge conscious times, i certainly believe libraries are the way to go. Michael Giltz - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of Michael Giltz permalink Libraries are great. And the more these multiple formats are seen as just different ways of making a book available (as opposed to treatingan audio or ebook as an entirely different product), the more librarieswill be able to make them available to the people who use them.Hence the move by Nelson should be a boon to library users down the road if it catches on. Vanitha See Profile I'm a Fan of Vanitha permalink Although the analogy of the publishing industry to the music industry is apt in many ways, one can'tforget the disparity in wealth between the two. The average author (and I say this as a writer with mydebut novel coming out by Avon Books next year) doesn't see much in terms of royalties per book. Forus, the money comes in the form of advances. Royalties, if we see them at all, is much better for hardcover than soft, better for trade paperback over cheap paperback. So writers and publishers push for formats that readers find too costly to buy. Until the publishing industry is revolutionized, everyonein the chain suffers--publishers, authors and consumers. It's too soon to tell yet if digital media will bethe means of making writing and reading profitable but if something doesn't change, the literary industrywill fail, to the detriment of all. www.vanithasankaran.com Michael Giltz - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of Michael Giltz permalink There are of course many differences. Knowing many midlist writers, I certainly feel for them. I also feel that what's good for readers andgets more people reading will ultimately be good for authors. I believeauthors have been fooled into seeing trade paperbacks (at $15 or$18 or more) as "prestigious" whille mass market paperbacks are Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 02:47 PM on 03/10/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 11:27 AM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 03:36 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 11:26 AM on 03/04/2009Michael Giltz: Books: The Biggest News In Publishing Since The Kindle [Updated] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/books-the-biggest-news-in_b_171482.html [4/5/2009 12:13:22 PM] See Michael Giltz's Profile See Michael Giltz's Profile seen as trashy. It's crazy when even 20 or 30 year old mystery series (with 10 titles in the series) are only in trade paperback and thus cost much more. That has kept me from divingin many times and I can't be alone to price sensitivity, especially for a title that's decades old. I don't think ebooks and audio books can jumpstart the industry or bring back indie book stores. But NOT embracing them would be a fatal mistake. A book is a book is a book and someone who buys it should be allowed to read it in as many ways as possible, be it ebook oraudio or paperback or hardcover, on their computer or Kindle or at the beach with the coverbent back. And congrats on having your first book coming out! That's a huge accomplishment. Thanks to ebooks I hope it never goes out of print (but check your contract :). nellieh See Profile I'm a Fan of nellieh permalink I enjoyed Grisham's "The Associate" about a week after it arrived at our local library. As long as Ireturned it within the allotted time, I did, it was FREE. I have taken library books on planes, vacations,to dr. and dentist appointments. Of course I'm 75 years old and have been able to do without all thesupposed conveniences most of my life. I discovered the library very early in life and have becomeaddicted to it. I am not technical challenged. I retired as an electronic technician. Michael Giltz - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of Michael Giltz permalink Libraries are great and economical. My mom (who just turned 80) isthere constantly checking out hardcovers and audio books for the caror trips. If Nelson's approach catches on, it should make it easier forthe library to provide more and more books in more and moreformats for everyone to enjoy. Megley See Profile I'm a Fan of Megley permalink I guess I'm just old. I love the way a book feels in my hands, awkward or not. I love little paperbacksbecause I can manipulate them to fit the way I read: bend the book in half, even though the pages tendto fall out after a while. (When I'm done with it, I donate it to my local library for their used book sales). Iactually welcome the neck ache I get after spending hours in a bookstore or library reading titles. ButNelsonFree may be on to something: I can get the actual book for myself, and the audio version for mybrother-in-law who commutes an hour each way to work every day--FOR NO ADDITIONAL FEE!A company that is NOT trying to gouge me!!! What a concept!!! Michael Giltz - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of Michael Giltz permalink I agree about loving to hold books in my hand. But I wouldn't mind with the thousands of dollars I spend on them getting an ebookversion I can put on my Kindle and take to Europe without filling upan extra suitcase and breaking my back. And before the publisherflips out about you giving the audio version to your brother, you could already share that paperback or audio version you bought with anyone you want. Ease of use will encourage people to buy more books. Loads of stupid restrictions that don't stop the real thieves anyway will just annoy people like you and me. David Leach See Profile I'm a Fan of David Leach permalink Here at Thomas Nelson, we think NelsonFree is very cool--and frankly--overdue. I love that it actuallyone-ups all the fuss Roy Blount, Jr. and the Author Guild made about the text-to-speech function. Justas you did the math on why NelsonFree works financially for the consumer, I demonstrated whyauthors are better off with a program like NelsonFree financially at my blog yesterdayhttp://consequentialvalue.com/2009/03/03/hit-with-a-blount-instrument/ . Also in response to a couple of comments above--1) The libraries ARE working feverishly to developways to add more platforms to their offerings. 2) McKain didn't just sign off on the audio, he did ithimself. Michael Giltz - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of Michael Giltz permalink Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 03:41 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 10:20 AM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 03:44 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 09:02 AM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 03:45 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 08:51 AM on 03/04/2009Michael Giltz: Books: The Biggest News In Publishing Since The Kindle [Updated] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/books-the-biggest-news-in_b_171482.html [4/5/2009 12:13:22 PM] See Michael Giltz's Profile See Michael Giltz's Profile Thanks for the link and the info. I wonder, do you have plans to bundle the multiple formats for titles when they come out inpaperback as well? David Leach See Profile I'm a Fan of David Leach permalink Right now, our plan is to roll out all business books with the NelsonFree features,regardless of binding. No plans at the moment to go backwards into the backlist, butcurrent hardcovers that go to paperback will be NelsonFree...or at least that's myunderstanding. JamezQ See Profile I'm a Fan of JamezQ permalink I'm not buying any books or music that wont come downloadable. If its not available for my Kindle or myIpod I wont buy it. I don't have room in my apartment for books or CDs but I have plenty of space on my Kindle and Ipod. MagisterLudi See Profile I'm a Fan of MagisterLudi permalink You mean you only read downloadable books and nothing else? You probably don't t read much. Let's see what happens to your content in about 5 years or so. Here are some scenarios:Kindle goes out of business. Lose or damage your Kindle. You gonna shell out $350 again? Want to give a fave book to a friend.Sell a highly valuable first edition you bought some years ago. Want to read longer than 2 hours? Michael Giltz - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of Michael Giltz permalink JamezQ, I know many people like you, especially when it comes to music. I can't imagine not having the actualphysical CD or book in my reach, but others don't care.IGiven the highly limited number of titles available (it'ssomething like 250,000 but that many titles get released every two years), I also can't imagine limiting myself to ebooks. I'm not a JohnGrisham fan but his latest title for example is not available on the Kindle.MagisterLudi makes some valid points but I don't think it's too pie in the sky to seecopyrights and intellectual property as having a sea change in the next 50 years. With Google's book imaging project and ebooks proliferating why wouldn't every single public domain title be available free just like you can get text versions online?I think because of digital ease of access, that 50 years from now just abouteverything from movies to TV shows to books to albums will just be out there, justlike they're in your local library and everyone will have access to everything,certainly everything made 30 years ago and back. It's gonna be great. I don't knowhow writers like me will make money, but it's coming MasterLuigi. Taurus See Profile I'm a Fan of Taurus permalink I hate mass market paperbacks: the print is too small, the bindings don't last, the package itself is toosmall. Trade paperbacks are easier to slip into luggage because they're flatter, usually have largerprint, and are simply more comfortable to hold. And that all may be why mass market paperback salesare way down. justmeinAz See Profile I'm a Fan of justmeinAz permalink I have the same preference, and for the same reasons. I'm quite curious about the Kindle, butfrankly, as long as Amazon won't budge on the price, I'm sticking with print. Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 03:46 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 11:15 AM on 03/05/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 07:12 AM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 12:01 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 03:51 PM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 05:58 AM on 03/04/2009Michael Giltz: Books: The Biggest News In Publishing Since The Kindle [Updated] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/books-the-biggest-news-in_b_171482.html [4/5/2009 12:13:22 PM] HOME POLITICS MEDIA BUSINESS ENTERTAINMENT LIVING GREEN STYLE WORLD CHICAGO COMEDY FUNDRACE ARCHIVE Advertise | Login | Make HuffPost your Home Page | RSS | Jobs | FAQ: Comments & Moderation | FAQ: Huffpost Accounts | Contact Us Copyright © 2009 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. | Archive | User Agreement | Privacy | Comment Policy | About Us | Powered by Movable Type See Michael Giltz's Profile Michael Giltz - Huffpost Blogger I'm a Fan of Michael Giltz permalink Hey guys, thanks for reading. If you prefer trade paperbacks, great! I'm glad you have the option to buy it inthat format and annoyed that I DON"T have the option tobuy the same title in mass market. You wanna pay $15 forthe same book in trade that I can get for $7 in mass market, cool. I understand why it's appealing. They last longer and are def sturdier. But mas market sales are down because very few bestsellers are released in that format anymore. JustmeinAz, I agree that the Kindle is pricey. I'm sure it'll come down to below $200, though I think $150 might be the sweet spot for mass consumption.And I HOPE they make ebooks they sell available to every ebook out there, which isexactly what seems to be happening. Page: 1 2 Next › Last » (2 pages total) You must be logged in to reply to this comment. Log in or Ads by Google Download A Free Audiobook Choose from over 60,000 titles. Listen on your iPod or MP3 player! Audible.com/Free-Audiobook Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 10:39 AM on 03/04/2009 Reply Favorite Flag as abusive Posted 03:55 PM on 03/04/2009

Books Biggest News In Publishing Since The Kindle

📄 Books Biggest News In Publishing Since The Kindle

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