Kindle Review – Kindle 3 Review, iPad Review

It seems rather unfair to claim that Publishers want to kill progress.

Until you consider the things they’ve done -

1. Push for high eBook prices throughout – Perhaps to kill the ebook value proposition relative to physical books.  
2. Attempt to kill off value-add features like Text To Speech and LendMe Sharing.
3. Delay eBook Release Dates. 
4. Not create high quality eBooks. 
5. Be Slow to add eBook versions for books.
6. Delay the spread of eBooks internationally.

If Publishers aren’t actively trying to kill eBooks and eReaders they’re certainly managing to create the impression they are.  

Why would Publishers want to kill eBooks?

eBooks take away all the advantages Publishers have.

Have written about this in the recent past. Publishers are very wary of eBooks because -

All the advances that are happening i.e.

1. Reduction of inefficiencies.
2. Democratization of Publishing.
3. Use of technology.
4. Empowerment of readers.
5. Larger share for authors.

Are things that either hurt Publishers’ hold or their profits.

There’s a very revealing article in Ars Technica that shows this isn’t the first time Publishers attempted to stall the growth of eBooks. They succeeded the last time and they think they can win this time too.

Things Publishers will do to kill eBooks

Things that are already working

Let’s start with the things that are already working -

1. Delay eBook Release Dates. Macmillan have made it clear they want to delay $9.99 eBooks by 7 months.  
2. Delay the international spread of eBooks. The international expansion of eReaders and eBooks has been painfully slow partly due to Publishers.
3. Keep killing off eReader features i.e. restrict text to speech and so forth. 
4. Be slow about adding eBook versions of their backlist.
5. Push for high prices.

Publishers’ Main Strategy against eBooks

The main strategy at the moment seems to be to make physical books more appealing than eBooks.

That involves -

1. Giving users the option to either pay really high prices i.e. $15 or to wait for 7 months.  
2. Playing off Apple against Amazon to implement the $15 prices.  

It’s not a bad strategy - However, it’s not guaranteed to work. It’s worth looking at what else Publishers might have planned.

What will Publishers do in the future to kill eBooks

There are lots of options Publishers have. Some of these are a bit out there (they are doable though) –  

1. Divide and Conquer i.e. play off the various companies against each other. 
2. Promote the 3rd and 4th eReader companies or new entrants to fragment the market.
3. Promote warring formats. The biggest sign of this will be if they start promoting any format other than Adobe Digital Editions DRMed ePub.
4. Block international eBooks. 
5. Slow down the rate at which they add eBooks.
6. Make some Books available only in physical form.
7. Make the ‘windowed ebook release’ concept more outlandish. Probably a $14.99 for first 2 months, $12.99 for next 5 months, and then $9.99 approach.
8. Start pushing for higher prices for the ability to change font size (to ‘protect’ large print books).
9. To push for an end to Text To Speech (to prevent the livelihood of people who read audio books).
10. Try to limit family sharing.
11. Try to limit the number of devices you can simultaneously read eBooks on.

That’s not the tough part. The tough part is to do this without making it painfully obvious that Publishers just want to stall progress and kill eBooks.

How will Publishers play off their attempts as good for Books

These are very interesting -

1. The big argument is we need a certain amount of money to create quality books.
2. The next big argument is that authors deserve a fair living – Which would actually be better achieved by Publishers giving them a better share and focusing on increasing sales.
3. Have authors plead in favor of Publisher initiatives. 
4. Claim that $15 prices and other measures that damage eBooks are necessary to sustain Physical Books. 
5. Keep the physical book publishing process very opaque.
6. Claim that trivial costs are actually very high and make up costs – Every eBook has an eBook Fairy fee that adds $3 to the cost. 
7. Try to throw a cloak over the eBook production process.
8. Beat the drum of ‘we take big risks to publish 100 books of which only 5 succeed’. 

In a way it’s a game -

1. Can Publishers come up with really good excuses? 
2. How well can Publishers distract users from the actual facts?

An Exercise – Assuming Publishers want to kill eBooks and eReaders

It’s fascinating to put aside whatever beliefs we have about eBooks and do an exercise -

1. Imagine the current eBook and Book landscape. 
2. Put ourselves in Publishers’ shoes. 
3. Exercise #1: If we could kill eBooks – Would we?
4. Exercise #2: If we decided to kill eBooks – What measures would we take? How would we disguise them?

The answers might surprise you.

In a world where no one knew what was going on and people gave Publishers the benefit of the doubt Publishers could have assassinated eBooks while pretending to save the world (and books).

That world is long gone and Publishers are only succeeding in fooling themselves.