According to the Wall Street Journal (link below) S&S will delay ebook releases of 35 titles coming out next year by four months. The Journal reports that Hachette has similar plans.
The Journal quotes an S&S executive as saying that ebook releases should be after the hardcover, but before the paperback and that, with the popularity of ereaders booming, now is the time to take a stand before it is too late.
Hachette is quotes as saying that this is necessary to preserve the industry and prevent authors from sold off at “bargain basement” prices.
This is excellent news! Even though it may irritate some ebook readers it is great that the industry is finally deciding to set a plan and a strategy for ebooks, instead of just acting on an ad hoc basis. Many ebook enthusiasts forget that the reader and the publisher are, in a sense, partners. Once a reasonable and consistent strategy is adopted it can only benefit both parties. With a declared strategy the reading public knows what to expect and prices will begin to adjust themselves naturally.
I view this as a great step forward in the building of a new industry. Adjustments will be made due to consumer demand, and author/publisher needs, and in the end a rational structure will finally be revealed.
This is ok if the list price for the delayed ebook is less than the hardcover. The list prices probably won’t be less, because the publishers are relying on Amazon discounts even as they try to undermine them. It will be interesting to see if a hardcover bestseller can become an ebook bestseller four months later.
The way that it seems to be working on Waterstones site in the UK is that new ebooks out at the same time as hardcover only releases have a price similar to the hardcover. This is then reduced when the paperback is released. This seems reasonable, but they are obviously afraid that people will buy the ebook at hardcover prices instead of the hardcover. What a dilemma for them – people giving them money. Better put a stop to that.
Since they are supposed to be selling “content” and not “paper”, I still think it would be smart to release the e-book a month or so before the hard cover at a price higher than what the hardcover would sell at the normally discounted price. Then lower it to the hard cover price when that comes out, then to the paperback price when that comes out, then to an even lower price when they return all those coverless books to the dump. People that want access to the early release should be willing to pay for that and those that are willing to wait can same some money on the price. Publishers don’t owe us anything, but they are in the business of maximizing their profits. Why they are hell bent on committing suicide I don’t know.
“Many ebook enthusiasts forget that the reader and the publisher are, in a sense, partners”. Proof? In no sense are we partners. Publishers don’t view us as partners, or they would listen to us. Instead they look at ebook readers (the people & the machines) as something to be feared, shackeled with DRM, not text to speech, and if possible, avoided. They think that an ebook sale is a hardback sale lost (not true) and they think we are so dense we will accept anything they tell us about the costs of ebooks, including that they should cost more, and come out after, the hardcover. If they were my partner I’d be looking to cash out now while our business still has some value, because the future donesn’t look very good. Delaying the publishing of the ebook is a misplaced solution to an imaginary problem and a free pass to pirates to fire up their scanners.
I think this is terrible for the book industry and will cost them sales. I have never bought a hardback in my life, even before the e-days. I won’t start now. What I *will* do is get the print copy from the library. By the time they get around to releasing the ebook, I’ll have read it already and won’t buy at all.
If they are truly concerned about the hardback sales, they should still release the ebook but price it at hardcover price for the first few months, then lower the price after. But to not make it available at all? That’s ridiculous. Maybe instead of trying to preserve their outmoded business model, they should work on capitalizing on the news business model.
Al: Interestingly, Baen does something like that with their “E-ARCs”, selling them early for $15, 2 1/2 times the price of the finished e-book—though even the price of the ARC is substantially less than that of a hardcover.
I still think anyone who buys one is crazy, but other people seem to like it.
Stupid strategy, all they have to do is release the e- version at the same time as the hard cover, with a commensurate price, then reduce prices gradually to keep pace with the paper editions, i.e. first trade paperback, then mass-market paperback.
Call me a cynic, but I smell suit-wearing jackasses overthinking the issue….