I’ve been a fan of Stephen Fry since A Bit of Fry & Laurie. He’s written a biography, and his publisher, Penguin, has decided to “go to town” on it. They’ve added some digital bits that enhance the book. Readers can now watch videos, view slideshows, and click on links.
Personally when I’m reading I want to be reading. I think videos and links would take me out of the story. The price of the book is 12.99 British Pound Sterling, which is like $583.23 US dollars. Or something like that.
Another author weighs in on e-books. Vincent Zandri published his first three novels through Random House, but is now with a smaller publisher and focusing on e-books. From the article:
“Zandri, who says he has never owned an e-book, was skeptical, but he published his fifth book, a horror-suspense novel called “The Remains,” through Amazon’s Kindle months before it came out in print. The novel landed on the Kindle’s best-seller list in June.
“I’m super pleased (with sales),” he said. “E-books are blowing things wide open for authors.”
“Now, he’s convinced more authors will do the same.
“I get paid more through e-books as opposed to the profit margin to paper,” he said.
“When it comes to advertising for a book, Zandri said a downside to print books is they quickly get taken off bookshelves at major book stores to make room for the next big thing.
“But if your book isn’t selling on e-books, your book will still be online for someone to look up and purchase,” he said. “You will always make a profit.””
I remember when my first book, Chickens in the Headlights came out, it was at the front of the store, in the window, on the shelf, and sometimes even playing through the speakers. The stores really pushed it for about three months, and then it was replaced with other books. A very large majority of my sales came in that first three months.
E-books will likely see a more steady sales. Books that are just okay might see small and steady sales, while books that are exceptional will likely trend upward as word of mouth gets around.
Right now the publishers and book stores still control the distribution, but I think over time we’re going to see that shift. As authors, you’ll want to have a good e-book marketing strategy under your belt.
When the iPad came out, a lot of folks said it was likely a Kindle killer. And who knows, maybe if Amazon hadn’t dropped the price of the Kindle to $139 it may have been. But more and more it’s looking like the iPad and the Kindle are two different devices.
An article over at MarketingProfs talks about how people find the iPad more ‘compelling’, in part because it does so many different things. There are tens of thousands of apps. How can you argue with so much variety?
But when it comes to just a dedicated e-reader, the Kindle appears to be king. And in fact, 16 percent of those surveyed had both an iPad and a Kindle. They use the iPad for games, video watching, surfing the web, but turn to the Kindle when they just want to read.
Both platforms appear to be doing well. We’ll see what happens in the long-term.
E-books in education? Thoughts in favor. Thoughts against.
A look at the inside of a Kindle 3.
Speculation that more apps, including games, might be coming to the Kindle.
Amazon offers refurbished Kindles, but are they worth it?
E-Books for kids? Those of us who write for a younger audience say, “yes, please.”
First Target, then Staples, now Best Buy will be selling Amazon Kindles later this fall.
I wanted to get down a few more thoughts on the wisdom of crowds.
When I first signed up for Facebook, I noticed a trivia game on the right-hand side of the page. It asked fairly simple questions about movies, and you answered them. Then it showed your ranking against your friends.
I answered maybe a hundred questions over the course of a few weeks. It wasn’t that fun to answer, but it was fun to see how I was stacking up against my friends.
However, the most interesting thing I noticed was when the game displayed the answer to the question. It showed you if you got it right, and then it showed you how everybody else had voted. So for example, what percentage chose A, what percentage chose B, etc.
What was most surprising was the fact that every single time (and I kept track for over 100 questions), the crowd chose the right answer more than any other question. So even on the difficult questions, 35 or 40% of the people had picked it.
If you think about it, it’s not surprising. Let’s say you’re given a hard question. You don’t know so you pick at random. Statistics tell you that if everybody did that, you’d end up with each question getting about 25% of the vote.
But any time somebody actually knows the answer, they won’t pick random. They’ll pick the right one. So the right answer ends up with a larger percentile.
James Surowiecki, in his book The Wisdom of Crowds, tells the story of Francis Galton. Galton went to a county fair where somebody was asking people to guess the weight of an ox. The one closest to the right weight won some kind of prize. Galton went up after the completion of the event and asked if he could have the guesses. Most were very far off, but when he added up all the votes, he was surprised to find that the average guess was closer to the true weight than any single entry, and also closer to any single entry from several ‘cattle experts’.
How does this relate to writing? I wrote a few days ago about how we might be able to wade through all the self-published works that will come out, as more and more authors realize that publishing their work is getting easier. I suggested one way we’ll be able to find good books is by using ratings systems (like the one Amazon employs for all it’s products). Sometimes these systems can be ‘gamed’, but often they are a great way for the good stuff to rise to the top.
A few days ago I came across an article written by author Roy Connoly explaining why he’s embracing e-books and self-publishing. It’s a good article, and I recommend reading it all. From the article:
“I’m now Ray Connolly, writer, editor-in-chief and head of marketing of Plumray Books, and any one of the 2 billion computer-owning people in the world who wants to read my new novel, The Sandman, can do so at the click of a mouse. It’s being serialised chapter by chapter on mywebsite where, over the next 10 weeks, it will build like a part-work. In the words of a friend, I’m “doing a Dickens”.”
The article didn’t go unnoticed, and within a week there was a response from Ursula Mackenzie, chair of the Trade Publishers Council.
I have to admit that I’m biased, but Mackenzie’s arguments seem pretty thin. Her arguments are basically:
For whatever reason, I think it’s human nature to find the need to pick sides. We have to fall into the e-book camp, or the traditional camp. I probably sound like I’m coming from the e-book camp simply because I talk about it so much on this site. However, I fall firmly into the ‘there is room for both’ camp. Yes, the publishing industry will end up going through some pretty drastic changes, but we don’t have to fear e-books. There is room enough for both.
I’ve been following a few of the trailblazers in the e-book movement, folks like Seth Godin and Joe Konrath. But I’m always interested to hear from other people. Sometimes all the attention ends up on a few authors who do very well, but that success doesn’t trickle down to the rest of us.
Which is why I found this blog post by Vincent Zandri, sent to me by Daron Fraley, interesting. The author gives 8 reasons why e-books are good not only for him, but for his publisher and agent as well.
You really should read the entire post, but here are the first two reasons he gives for his love of e-books:
“1. I make far more money per unit sold. So does my publisher and so does my agent, and so long as they’re happy, they will want to continue working with me. And my novels are EBook bestsellers so that means my work is popular.
“2. I have more control as an author. My rights aren’t locked up in some NYC vault for ten years. Also, I don’t have to wait a full year for a book to be published. EBooks can be edited, proofed, delivered, and published within a few short weeks, increasing their earning capacity by leaps and bounds. And once they are published, they will always be published and always be making money. If one day I decide to start publishing my own books, I will make twice the money per unit I’m earning now.”
I thought about starting a drinking game that involved taking a sip of water (boring, I know) every time I read an article that contained the phrase “smell of paper”, or “smell of a book” while reading articles on e-books. The end result? I had to pee after about 45 seconds.
There is an article in the New York Times, and the phrase is used by the second paragraph.
I can’t help but wonder if people talked about the ‘feel of the needle’ when discussing records and the move to the ‘newfangled’ cassette tape.
Anyway, a few interesting tidbits from the article (which I thought on the whole felt like they were really stretching to make a point) by the end of this year an estimated 10 million folks will have e-readers of some kind. That is a pretty decent market, especially when you consider that number was 3.7 million last year.
The article also mentions last year 30 million e-books had been sold, and estimates for this year are at 100 million.
We’ll see how things shake out in the coming months.
Lots of reviews about the Kindle 3. I won’t post them all here, suffice it to say that most are positive.
Is the Kindle 3 really an improvement over the Kindle 2? Check out pictures here, and here.
Several stories about LG producing a flexible e-reader by the end of this year.
The Amazon Kindle will be offered in Staples. Are they trying to keep up with the Joneses? Er…I mean the Nook?
Borders, desperate to stay relevant, drops the price of their Kobo reader to $99.
However, Borders also sees a sharp decline in prices. Is this the beginning of the end for the book chain? The article notes that Barnes & Noble also is reporting a loss.
Apple reports they’ve had over 35 million ebook downloads. This includes, I would assume, freebies. This sounds impressive, but at least one author says he sells 60 books on Amazon for every 1 book he sells on Apple.
Good list of Kindle reviews in one place.
Finding free books on Amazon’s site isn’t as easy as it should be. This site gives you directions on how to find plenty of reading material, all for free.
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