WAS MACMILLAN WISE TO DEMAND

HIGHER PRICES FOR ITS E-BOOKS? 

In the humble opinion of this writer, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has one of the keenest minds in the publishing world on issues related to marketing  and sales. And that, of course, includes pricing as well. He’s proved it time and again with the remarkable success Amazon has experienced. 

The executive team at Macmillan too can be proud of its long history of success with print books. But how well do they understand the digital marketplace, an arena in which Bezos shines? 

The real question in my opinion is whether short-term profits blurred  Macmillan’s long-range view when they used their “monopoly of content” to force the bookseller to agree to higher e-book prices. 

The Wall Street Journal stated the issue very simply, “It’s no doubt gratifying to publishers…to see Amazon affirm their (the publishers’ ) control over their own products. But it won’t help publishers if they raise prices so far they kill the burgeoning market for e-books.” And that is the fundamental problem. 

It is generally believed that consumers feel e-books should cost less than print because production, storage and shipping fees are so much less. That apparently is Jeff Bezos’ opinion as well. Macmillan’s CEO John Sargent argues that profit at Amazon will increase with the new pricing policy. What he doesn’t stop to consider is that it can only happen if sales remain strong, and as every retailer knows, rate of sale is directly dependent on pricing levels. Mr. Sargent is taking a helluva risk. 
 

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INDIE BOOKSELLERS TELL PUBLISHERS,

“DON’T TAKE AWAY OUR  FIELD SALES REPS” 

I certainly don’t want this edition to have a negative tone to it. But sometimes, it’s necessary to issue a wake-up call to alleged experts who make decisions  that actually make little sense. Once again, has short-term profit blocked an understanding of the way a decision can affect long-term success? 

Eileen Dengler, Executive Director of NAIBA (New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association), recently sent this open letter to publishers. Knowing the close rapport between all of the regional associations in the U.S., I suspect a similar piece will be issued by Dengler’s counterparts out west, down south, etc, pointing out the obvious mistake of eliminating field sales reps from the publishers’ sales divisions. 

Dengler, who is an impressive and aggressive thinker when it comes to protecting her indie bookseller flock, calls the move “draconian,” and gives sound justification for that accusation by pointing out to the publishers their key role field reps play. 

She explains out that telemarketing can never replace the in-store activities of field reps “who take the time to know our stores, what our customers like and what is on our shelves.” Dengler sees the reps as an invaluable source of sharing information and ideas between stores, resulting in greater sales, a benefit to the publisher. 

Leaving no stone unturned, this feisty letter offers several budget-cutting alternatives to reducing the field rep force. Dengler suggests cutting multiple ARC mailings, doing away with “promotional gimmicks that go from mailbox to garbage can, reducing the number of titles and hard covers and taking a hard look at celebrity advances.  

That’s not just a remedy for the field rep situation; it’s a package every author can readily support.  
 

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PRIZE ANNOUNCED FOR NEW NONFICTION COMPETITION:

A MONTH’S RESIDENCY AT NORMAN MAILER’S HOME 

How is this for an inspiration? GQ announced a nonfiction writing competition for students with a  very different prize, 1,000 British pounds plus a month of living at the Provincetown, MA home where Norman Mailer did much of his writing. Undergrads and post graduates at universities in the United Kingdom are eligible to apply. 

The derivation of the contest is rather interesting.  Mailer once stated, “If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer and his hands are too shaky to perform operations, he becomes a journalist.” 

Frankly, as a journalist for many years, I find that quotation offensive, but the GQ Editor Dylan Jones, said, the award was designed as an antidote to continual predictions about the state of print journalism, and added, “We at GQ believe, as do our friends at the Mailer Writers Colony that there will always be a need and a place for brilliant narrative nonfiction, whether that’s journalism, criticism or memoir.” 

Entries should range between 2000 and 4000 words and be sent to gqmaileraward@condenast.co.uk. Deadline is May 1 of this year.

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WAS MACMILLAN WISE TO DEMAND

HIGHER PRICES FOR ITS E-BOOKS? 

In the humble opinion of this writer, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has one of the keenest minds in the publishing world on issues related to marketing  and sales. And that, of course, includes pricing as well. He’s proved it time and again with the remarkable success Amazon has experienced. 

The executive team at Macmillan too can be proud of its long history of success with print books. But how well do they understand the digital marketplace, an arena in which Bezos shines? 

The real question in my opinion is whether short-term profits blurred  Macmillan’s long-range view when they used their “monopoly of content” to force the bookseller to agree to higher e-book prices. 

The Wall Street Journal stated the issue very simply, “It’s no doubt gratifying to publishers…to see Amazon affirm their (the publishers’ ) control over their own products. But it won’t help publishers if they raise prices so far they kill the burgeoning market for e-books.” And that is the fundamental problem. 

It is generally believed that consumers feel e-books should cost less than print because production, storage and shipping fees are so much less. That apparently is Jeff Bezos’ opinion as well. Macmillan’s CEO John Sargent argues that profit at Amazon will increase with the new pricing policy. What he doesn’t stop to consider is that it can only happen if sales remain strong, and as every retailer knows, rate of sale is directly dependent on pricing levels. Mr. Sargent is taking a helluva risk. 
 

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PRIZE ANNOUNCED FOR NEW NONFICTION COMPETITION:

A MONTH’S RESIDENCY AT NORMAN MAILER’S HOME 

How is this for an inspiration? GQ announced a nonfiction writing competition for students with a  very different prize, 1,000 British pounds plus a month of living at the Provincetown, MA home where Norman Mailer did much of his writing. Undergrads and post graduates at universities in the United Kingdom are eligible to apply. 

The derivation of the contest is rather interesting.  Mailer once stated, “If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer and his hands are too shaky to perform operations, he becomes a journalist.” 

Frankly, as a journalist for many years, I find that quotation offensive, but the GQ Editor Dylan Jones, said, the award was designed as an antidote to continual predictions about the state of print journalism, and added, “We at GQ believe, as do our friends at the Mailer Writers Colony that there will always be a need and a place for brilliant narrative nonfiction, whether that’s journalism, criticism or memoir.” 

Entries should range between 2000 and 4000 words and be sent to gqmaileraward@condenast.co.uk. Deadline is May 1 of this year.

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INDIE BOOKSELLERS TELL PUBLISHERS,

“DON’T TAKE AWAY OUR  FIELD SALES REPS” 

I certainly don’t want this edition to have a negative tone to it. But sometimes, it’s necessary to issue a wake-up call to alleged experts who make decisions  that actually make little sense. Once again, has short-term profit blocked an understanding of the way a decision can affect long-term success? 

Eileen Dengler, Executive Director of NAIBA (New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association), recently sent this open letter to publishers. Knowing the close rapport between all of the regional associations in the U.S., I suspect a similar piece will be issued by Dengler’s counterparts out west, down south, etc, pointing out the obvious mistake of eliminating field sales reps from the publishers’ sales divisions. 

Dengler, who is an impressive and aggressive thinker when it comes to protecting her indie bookseller flock, calls the move “draconian,” and gives sound justification for that accusation by pointing out to the publishers their key role field reps play. 

She explains out that telemarketing can never replace the in-store activities of field reps “who take the time to know our stores, what our customers like and what is on our shelves.” Dengler sees the reps as an invaluable source of sharing information and ideas between stores, resulting in greater sales, a benefit to the publisher. 

Leaving no stone unturned, this feisty letter offers several budget-cutting alternatives to reducing the field rep force. Dengler suggests cutting multiple ARC mailings, doing away with “promotional gimmicks that go from mailbox to garbage can, reducing the number of titles and hard covers and taking a hard look at celebrity advances.  

That’s not just a remedy for the field rep situation; it’s a package every author can readily support.  
 

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PRIMIR STUDY CLAIMS PRINT BOOK SALES

REACHED THEIR PEAK IN 2007 

In its study “Trends in Books 2008-2012, Primir, the Print Industries Market Information and Research Organization, cited 2007 as the year in which print book sales reached their apex. A combination of the economic malaise and the growing strength of digital books were principal causes of the current slippage. 

The study predicts that by the time the economy stabilizes, the book industry will be much smaller and very different from its present composition. 

However, it does point out that book content in paper/printed form will continue to be a major factor during the forecast period that ends in 2012, although sales levels will fall somewhat. With book content spreading to multiple media channels, potential fall-off in sales at traditional bookstores will undoubtedly occur.  

However, the study states that it will “take years for e-books to penetrate all aspects of the traditional print book market. It points to the economy as the prime driver of change in the short term.  Not a thrilling  forecast, but one that seems more and more likely as the challenge of the

e-book grows more robust and the economy continues  its sluggish return to normalcy

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ANALYSIS OF THE E-BOOK MARKET

PRODUCED BY BOOK BUSINESS MAGAZINE  

After reading the Primir study, I thought this examination of the e-book market published recently in Book Business Magazine would be of great value to our readers.

The E-book Price Wars 
The average prices of the top 100 e-books on the Amazon Kindle best-seller list and the Sony best-seller list for the first half of 2009 were $8.26 and $10.38, respectively. For the second half of 2009 (up to mid-December), the average price for the top 100 Amazon Kindle titles dropped to $6.76, while Sony's average price dipped to $9.25.

How Much Do E-book Readers Read? 
Among e-book users, 63% have read between one and five e-books in the past year.

Who's Reading and on What?

• The largest group of e-book readers are in the 18–25-year-old age range, making up 25% of e-book readers. (The percentage/group size drops as one moves into the older age ranges.)
• Four out of five e-book users read their e-books on PCs or Macs (mostly PC). About one in four read e-books on a device other than a PC or Mac, including dedicated reading devices or smartphones.

Read vs. Buy:

About 90% of the U.S. adult population has never 
purchased an e-book.

About one in five (20%) adults has read (not necessarily purchased) at least one e-book in the past 12 months.

A Manly Format? 
The e-book format is the only reading format statistically known to draw more men than women: About 12% of men bought an e-book in the past 12 months compared to almost 9% of women. 

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RECLUSIVE SALINGER TOUCHED A CHORD AND

NEVER HAD TO PROMOTE HIS PERENNIAL BESTSELLER

One wonders what it says about the continuous need for promotion that we usually hear about. J.D. Salinger produced a masterpiece that now still sells approximately 250,000 copies every year despite the fact that he led so reclusive a life, avoiding personal contact with the rest of the book world and the millions of readers that made Holden Caulfield, the teenage hero of The  Catcher in the Rye, a legendary figure in American literature.

It certainly stands as an inspiration to all of us writers who dream of resonating with the reading public. 
 

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KINDLE ANNOUNCES NEW ROYALTY PROGRAM,

FOR E-BOOK AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS 

Ebooknewser.com reported on a new program released by Amazon that would increase revenue for authors and publishers whose books are being displayed on the Kindle Digital Text Platform (DTP). Under the new system they will receive 70% of the list price, excluding delivery costs. Those costs are based on file size. Authors and publishers can opt to stay with the standard royalty plan and not convert when the new plan goes into effect on June 30. 

Estimates indicate that revenue for a $8.99 book is $3.15 with the existing standard plan, while the new option would produce $6.25. 

I guess the increasing competition, especially the unveiling of Apple’s tablet, has motivated Amazon to worry just a bit. This new royalty plan sounds quite similar to the tablet’s. 

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