Re: Ebook Price War Obscures Larger Problem

On Sat, 29 Sep 2012, Bill Amatneek wrote:

> So, there must be some small publishers who are only selling 
> their e-books through their own websites. It seems to me that 
> if I wanted a book and it was only available thru the publisher 
> and not Amazon, that I would go to that publisher and buy it. 
> Is it that difficult to set up e-book sales through one's own 
> publishing site?

It's quite likely that many small publishers often operate this 
way. I suspect the advice is more aimed at the large publishers. 
They, however, have probably always been reluctant to go this 
route because it places them in direct competition with the 
bookstores.

The small publishers, by contrast, may have some difficulty 
getting wide distribution in bookstores everywhere, and so will 
easily move to direct sales.

As long as paper books outsell ebooks, I can't see publishers 
willing to risk alienating the channel that provides the majority 
of their income. The corollary of course, is that if ebooks ever 
look likely to reach parity with paper, we might reasonably 
expect a sudden about face on the part of major publishers.

It also seems likely to expect - whether we like the idea or not 
- a sudden bookstore implosion at such a point. Should it come to 
pass, it would probably make the bookstore contraction that we 
have seen up to this point in time seem miniscule in comparison.

The article leans more to suggesting that customers have come to 
expect they can get all books in one place. The problem I have 
with that idea is that it isn't based on reality -- I *already* 
cannot get all books in one place. I need to have a variety of 
book and magazine stores, both physical and online, in order to 
completely meet my reading material expectations. Of course, 
there is always the possibility that although that is not the 
reality, it may actually be the publishers' perception. If *that* 
is the case, then that would imply they think their books are 
everywhere, ready to be bought -- but they aren't. In that case? 
The publishers have a really big problem, and they don't know it!

... Chris

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


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