RE: "The Elusive E-book"

On Wed, 7 May 2008, Aaron Walker wrote:

> Why should we continue to want to be the driving force for 
> paper sales? Does a paper book make it inherently more valuable 
> than an e-book? I don't think so.

Your book is as valuable as the individual customer makes it. 
Your book will be more valuable to some customers than to others. 
For customers who find it most valuable, the paper copy is a 
naturally archival form.

A selection of forms - potentially from hardbound through 
paperback to e-book, at a range of prices from high to low, where 
'low' may be 'free' - lets your customers pick the value the work 
represents to them. Perhaps you could even have a "customerized" 
version with a personalized note from the author in a hardbound 
version for even more.

I have done this as a reader. I can pre-order a plain book - a 
comics collection - for $30. Or I can pre-order a sketch edition, 
with a custom artist sketch in the front, for $40. Note that the 
comic itself is available daily for free (no registration 
required) with full archives. The book itself contains some bonus 
material - 10 percent, perhaps - on top of the original run on 
the website.

> And no paper publisher lets you return a book. Try returning a 
> book to your local Barnes&Noble after you've left the store. 
> It's almost impossible. They don't let you return software once 
> you've opened it.

You're right. They're not particularly customer friendly, either. 
I'm aware of that. That's why the question was directed at you. 
I've suggested before that one of the consequences of the way 
things are headed is that you will only be able to actually sell 
the book to people who like it or need it.

Hence - "content satisfactory or money refunded".

I take you feel that "buyer beware" is the more appropriate motto 
for your customers?

You're not being singled out, either. I think most authors and 
publishers are failing the take this factor into account.

> Why do you feel e-books should have less value than paper 
> books? The authors work just as hard writing them as paper 
> authors. E-publishers work just as hard getting people to buy 
> them as paper publishers.

I'll consider the standalone ebook reader only because the cash 
flows are easier to break out.

We'll set aside for a moment the problem of determining the 
exact value of your work to me, and call it done for this 
case. Your work has a value to me of $10.

In paper form, ready-to-read, I will pay you $10.

If ebook form, I have to have an e-reader. That costs $300, and I 
have to spread those costs out somehow. I spread them over 60 
books - for most readers, that's a lot. So, I've already spent $5 
of the value of your work to get to your work. I'll pay you the 
other $5. (I have reasonable vision, and I am just going to read 
your work. Search and reformat do not add any value for me.)

One side effect of this is my (previously made) suggestion that 
e-book readers need to cost about $20 -- fully paid, not 
subsidized. At that point, they will consume very little of the 
value of the works.

> So, why should e-authors and e-publishers not have the same 
> expectations of financial compensation as paper authors and 
> publishers?

Because you aren't selling me a ready-to-read package. The same 
value from the reader gets spread out differently.

How the e-author and the e-publisher split up their portion is up 
to them.


:: chris smith ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: nihil tam munitum quod non expugnari pecuna possit - cicero ::

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