The Golden Goose

Lately the industry news has bored me silly. (Well, maybe I was already a bit silly.) Have you ever sat back and watched someone make a big fuss about nothing? That's about how this eBook stuff strikes me.

Hullo? We live in a digital world - or at least we need to get up to speed that technology is catching up to the original StarTrek. There are five million-zillion eReaders (or a few less) - pick one. I'm just not there because I've seen it (and so have you) with videos - Beta, VHS, DVD, BluRay...and whatever is next.

I'll get excited when there is a universal or multiversal (made-up word) format. Until then, I'm sitting back watching everyone scramble to win our affections by aligning their catalogue with this reader or that one, and don't forget the app, thank-you-very-much. In the meantime, I'm not interested in reading about the price issue because if I don't like the price, I'm not buying it (whatever "it" is - including eBooks and their readers).

The same goes with the GoogleBookscan question that has been in and out of the news for years now. It's simple. Non-writer people got excited with their ability to digitalize printed matter and went off like "a house-a-fire" copying books like they were there for the taking. Just because a kid leaves their bike in the front yard doesn't mean it is free for anyone who wants it, it means the kid left it there and plans for it to be there when they return (not likely, but that is the expectation).

I don't buy for one minute that the bookscan project has anything to do with preserving our literary history - it has to do with making money off of writers' imagination and ability to do something talented with it. I don't really think anyone at GoogleBooks project came from a novelist background. The part that bugs the heck out of me is that libraries condoned this without regard to the fact that they own the book, not the content. How dare they! I'd have thought they knew better. I would have thought they had more respect for the craft.

While every other industry news item is about one of these, in one form or another, here we are writing our hearts out. (And laughing our butts off.) "They" don't seem to get it. All of this is about the business of making money off of our craft.

(Here's the silly part.) So I was thinking, what if we kept working in our cottage industry (that's what this is - a craft) but for SIX months didn't submit any queries? What if [also] all of us stopped selling our books - on our websites and shipping to the online retailers? Sure I know there are far too many writers who would cross the imaginary picket line, but wouldn't it be something to get everyone's attention that they are nothing without us?

Blizzard.

It was 22 hours without electricity up on the Mogollon Rim this week. With the fireplace going it was below 50 degrees F indoors. Two and a half days with no internet. Phones still out. I'm glad I'd written a week's worth of blog posts as the snow began. Smart! I'm replacing the one scheduled for today with this - below. Please read.

This is really important for everyone to read. I'm hoping to hear lots of comments.

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/adam-penenberg/penenberg-post/viral-loop-chronicles-part-6?utm_source=twitterfeed

the price war...

Believe it or not, I am not surprised with Walmart, Amazon, and Target's action to devalue best sellers - called 'lost leaders' and books are the perfect choice.

Amazon surely knows how the publishing industry works, but the other two are probably clueless, like most people on the outside of the industry. I understand that Amazon reacted to what Walmart did. That's business. It isn't my philosophy, but most people aren't like me. (Thank God?) I like to make my own business decisions, rather than let others define me.

This is a quick publishing industry overview, certainly I can't write how the industry works in one blog post - nor would I be fool enough to try.

There is a long and complicated process involved in acquiring books. But let's say that has been done. There is THE LIST. At the top of the list are the best selling author's new works. They usually pay handsomely for those books, but the books earn their keep. What else they do is cover the cost of the books that aren't great earners. Some of the mid-list and bottom list are fillers; stuff you have to have to make a well rounded list. Some are slow, but steady earners.

The list pays the salary of all the people it takes to make a book, royalties to the author, contracted services, like printing, shipping, and warehousing. Besides the people any business would have, there are book industry specific people: Acquisition editors, line editors, cover artists, marketing, advertising...blah, blah, blah, who are paid by the earnings of the best seller books.

Money spent on advertising, marketing, and PR is proportionate to the expected earnings of the book. Sometimes the publisher is pleasantly surprised. Sometimes they lose their shirt.

So when Walmart (are we not surprised this company did that?) sells expected best sellers at a loss, the worry is that 1) the public will devalue books and come to expect books to be that price at their local bookstores; 2) that publishers will be forced to reduce their list price (the price on the book cover) because of the changed perception of value by readers; 3) small bookstores will be hurt the hardest and many long standing family businesses will close (Watch the movie "You've Got Mail" with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan).

The worry about the small family owned bookstores is the one that I think is the most likely to happen, if this pricing war continues. These stores (Walmart, Amazon, Target) can afford to sell the 10 or so best sellers at LESS than they paid for them because they hope in the process other purchases (marked up per usual) will be made at the same time. The small bookstore, or Indie bookstore, is banking on those best sellers to do what they do for the publishers -- cover the cost of less selling books.

If you read my newsletter then you know my trilogy is on Amazon.com. When those three books sell I will make minus $3.13. Yes, I will lose $3.13. As you can see, I can't really afford to do that for long before I write more books that cost me less to print and ship. I do have a plan to fix that bleed and I could suck it in and compromise quality by putting the books on amazon another way than the way I am.

I don't think readers will believe that best selling books can be had or should be had for $9.00. Besides readers trade books with each other and read them for free. Same with borrowing them from a library - free. Same with garage or boot sales - nearly free. It isn't like the author is getting royalties on anything past the first sale.

So what is the bottom line? Well, it is likely not going to last. Sure some people will go for the deal, others won't. Most likely people in the industry like me won't shop those places for those books simply on principle. But I do shop those stores regularily.

There is still lots I omitted: coops, sell through numbers, and remainders for example. You can google those. If you want to know more about this, google something like: book pricing war. I had links, but you're capable of researching this, if it interests you. If you are a writer, this should interest you.