Aaron Pressman
on Aug 3rd, 2009
@ 6:23 am: 

I think you may be off-base here on your assessment of what Amazon is up to by not including results for dead tree versions of books when you search the KINDLE STORE either from a Kindle or the Kindle section of Amazon’s web site. Originally, Amazon did display print versions available on the Kindle pages for books. From the point of view of customers, there’s both a good and a bad reason explaining why Amazon changed the layout and neither is really about losing sales. Amazon is not in business to forgo any sales. They constantly change and tweak everything on their web site to maximize sales.

First, the positive. Almost always when I’m on my Kindle and I want a new book, I want a Kindle ebook to start reading. I don’t want search results showing me non-Kindle books because I’m looking for something to read on my Kindle. It’s actually annoying to click through to a search result that isn’t available on the Kindle. When I’m on Amazon’s web site and I go to the trouble of limiting my searching to “Kindle books,” I REALLY only want a Kindle book. In a minority of cases, when I’m looking for a specific book, it’s trivial to broaden the search by clicking on the “any department” line.

I think there is also a nefarious rationale for why they changed the policy. Amazon has been creeping up the prices of ebooks and frequently displaying a made-up “digital” list price. With some older books, they’ve actually priced the ebook edition above the price of available paperbacks. By “hiding” the prices of those competing, dead tree editions, Amazon is hiding information about relative pricing and doing a disservice to its customers. This is tilting a sale towards digital and away from print but only in cases where there’s a Kindle edition available. It’s not forgoing a sale completely, as you suggest.

You final point about the coming wave of competitors is right on. I think the growing and, hopefully, heated competition will improve things for us customers.

[Reply]

Scott
on Aug 3rd, 2009
@ 12:20 pm: 

Great post. I too have noticed the absence of other versions on the Kindle side of the Amazon store. I wonder if it is an attempt to show publishers/authors that if a book is not in Kindle edition then it won’t be seen (and therefore won’t be purchased) by a growing set of consumers. While some consumers (those who know exactly what book they want) will then search and buy on the print side of Amazon or search for the book elsewhere, others may simply find an alternative book in the Kindle format.

[Reply]

Anthony S. Policastro
on Aug 10th, 2009
@ 12:34 pm: 

I would have to agree with Evan’s assessment of Amazon. Now wouldn’t it be nice when you searched for a book on your Kindle and it said not available in Kindle format you could order the print edition right from you Kindle and have it delivered anywhere you want?

Because of the small and slower access to the Kindle catalog on a Kindle, I would keep the catalog with Kindle books only. But, if the book was not in the Kindle format I would have just those books presented as print books and be able to purchase it from the Kindle.

[Reply]

Dan Holloway
on Jul 20th, 2009
@ 3:51 am: 

I’ve come across this topic a lot in the past week. It seems that whilst the e-book is in its relative infancy we have a chance to get things sorted out properly so as to avoid falling into the endless problems that beset paper book pricing. Of course, there’s a problem, because “sort out” will instantly smack of cartels and price-fixing like the ludicrously protectionist Net Book Agreement. In fact, therefore, the only thing that can really sort the issue out is the market.

And what that means is that we have to debate lots, and try lots, and see what readers respond to. Thsi is the one thing that’s missing in this whole debate – a real focus on readers – on what they want and how they behave. I think the people who really engage with readers in the bottom-up market of e-culture are the ones who will succeed quicker.

To throw my opinion in as a writer – I give e-books of my novels away for free, and I always will. I am thoroughly committed to the 1,000 true fans model, and am also committed to my readers. I want as many people as possible to read my work. And I genuinely believe that if they read it and like it, enough will buy the paper book to help me earn a living – eventually. And if they don’t like it enough to buy the paperbook – at least I gave them the chance to find out before they spent their cash on something they really do want – which has to be good for them (and as a writer, my first thought is always for my readers), and for me, because I haven’t hacked someone of by getting them to shell out for something they then don’t enjoy. Win-win.

There is currently a lot of fear in the industry about e-books being free. I am at a loss to think of any reason other than the good old protectionism at which the industry is so good (always done in the name of the author, ironically – listen up, I don’t WANT someone fighting my battles; I’m gnarly enough to stand up for myself, thank you). If free books are no good, people won’t come back – so established authors have nothing to fear. If they are better than the works of establihed authors, then those authors don’t deserve their slice of the pie.

Thank you, Evan, for another very informative contribution to such an important debate. My blog on the matter is at: http://agnieszkasshoes.blogspot.com/2009/07/free-is-not-four-letter-word.html I will watch the discussion here with interest.

Very best
Dan
http://www.danholloway.wordpress.com

[Reply]

Karen Syed @ Echelon Press
on Jul 20th, 2009
@ 6:00 am: 

The solution here is to understand that each business works on its own model and there will never be a solution to the problem that fits every publisher or retailer.

Amazon can work on a loss with their eBooks because it makes up it’s lost revenue in big ticket items like computers, cameras, other electronics, etc. They don’t bottom line those items, because they are tangible.

There is no middle ground when you have different publishing houses with different needs and requirements.

The eBooks I sell at http://echelonpress.com average $6.00 and they are every bit as good as the best sellers, in some case, I think better. That price works for us and we make money. But we don’t have the overhead that a much larger publisher might have.

It is difficult for anyone who does run a business to understand a businesses needs.

As for the demand. People also need to realize that there is a 90% chance that if a reader buys an eBook they never intended to buy the hardback so there is actually an increase in revenue, not a loss.

Karen Syed
http://klsyed.com

[Reply]

Phil
on Jul 20th, 2009
@ 8:48 am: 

You’re reading your Amazon/Kindle publisher contract incorrectly, Evan. They are paying publishers on net, not list. The contract I’ve seen is 35% of net, or $3.50/sale. Even though the publisher is not incurring PPB, inventory and warehousing costs, none can survive on $3.50/Kindle copy sold.

[Reply]

Aaron Pressman
on Jul 20th, 2009
@ 10:21 am: 

Phil – that’s the self-publishing term sheet. Major publishers are not selling to Amazon on those terms. They are collecting a fixed percentage of the retail list price they themselves set, and it’s been reported that it varies but is usually around 50% of the retail list price. That means on many $9.99 Kindle ebooks, Amazon is paying out more to publishers than it collects from the customer.

[Reply]

Jussi K
on Jul 20th, 2009
@ 12:20 pm: 

This is a bit of a waste of time, isn’t it? Everyone with an eye to the future understands that all e-books will be pirated and distributed for zero dollars. Even if you set the price to 99 cents or whatever you are WISHING for.

Meanwhile, all the 5-to-10 dollar pricing strategies are just a marketing opportunity for the not-big and not-published writers and/or publishers to have their share of the limelight.

[Reply]

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on Jul 20th, 2009
@ 7:57 pm: 

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[...] Schnittman of Oxford University Press disagrees with the delayed [...]

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on May 21st, 2009
@ 2:58 am: 

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Gary Arms
on May 11th, 2009
@ 5:43 am: 

As someone who teaches the Online Generation, I think it will happen the way it did with music and the way it is now happening with movies and TV shows. People with no ownership stake will put content on line so that others can “share” it. And so the dike will be breached. I agree completely with Evan’s analysis of the Online Generation and his prediction that they will increasingly ignore anything not in the cloud. Anyone who teaches knows it is increasingly difficult to get students to read books. There is a small but significant young audience for books, but a distressingly large portion of the younger generation will not read entire books unless required to do so by professors. When the online generation does research, they do it almost entirely online. Publishers and authors will continue to squabble. Again, I agree with Evan’s analysis; they will never come to general agreement. Meanwhile, the cloud will expand, gobbling up everything that exists in digital form. In music, it appears that artists will continue to make money but most of their revenue will come from live performance, the sale of tee shirts etc. To a considerable degree, the music industry has lost control of its product. “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” The success of Hulu suggests that TV and movies can make money selling ads on their own site, a site that is easy to use, reliable and free of viruses. A huge amount of print (especially periodicals) is already on line; the magazines sell ad space too. This is the single most important problem facing all content providers. The future will belong to those able to adapt to the new environment.

[Reply]

Another copyright reshuffle that’s in the cards - The Shatzkin Files
on May 12th, 2009
@ 5:11 am: 

[...] Schnittman at Black Plastic Glasses posted the final chunk of a 3-parter yesterday that contained a real shocker (to me) at the end. The 3-part post shows through [...]

MikeShatzkin
on May 5th, 2009
@ 6:48 am: 

Evan, I think just about everybody buys less music as they get older. Two reasons.

1. You get introduced to music much more readily and frequently when you’re young and single and music is inextricably bound to the discovery of social opportunities with those of whatever sex interests you.

2. As you get older, your stash of stuff you KNOW you like gets bigger, and you never stop listening to it. So your NEED for new new music diminishes.

I bet if you checked you’d find that the pace of adding new ARTISTS has slowed even more than the pace of adding new music.

None of this applies to the other forms of content because they don’t tend to be reused the way music is.

[Reply]

Evan Reply:
May 5th, 2009 at 8:07 am

Mike:

One could make the argument that as you get older you wind up reading more books, watching more TV, and seeing more movies… which isn’t reflected in my experience.

Its not just about music… it’s about everything.

[Reply]

Generation On-Demand « Black Plastic Glasses
on May 6th, 2009
@ 2:52 am: 

[...] On-Demand is the second of a 3-part series.  The first installment,  Disruption, explored my personal content consumption over the years and ended with the observation that [...]

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on May 11th, 2009
@ 3:28 am: 

[...] first two parts of this series, Disruption and Generation On-Demand, explored my own personal content consumption disruption and traced it [...]

Miico » Blog Archive » Tommy
on Apr 26th, 2009
@ 11:46 pm: 

[...] the rest here: Tommy Tags: covers-album-, early, ever-wrest, first, first-track, liverpool, nachos-cases, national, [...]