As for the the $9.99 price point, there is absolutely new competition in the marketplace. Google is (according to them) serious this time. Apple will launch new devices better suited to reading. It’s questionable that they’ll enter the bookselling marketplace. I’m not the only one who half-jokes that they don’t want to deal with publishers. But the real factor in price points is the consumer. If they won’t spend more than ten dollars for an ebook (and in some ways publishing should thank Amazon for creating this mental barrier), then who loses? There seems to be a conviction that readers will accede to publisher pricing, when the truth is that readers have choice. There are very few books I *must* have. There are many books I *want*.

And if the price I believe is reasonable coincided with the price the publisher sets, then that want will be fulfilled. I written a lot recently about the savviness of the ebook consumer. Readers are talking and making good points. Publishers aren’t listening. Not all of them anyway. Those who do, they’re responding to the people who buy and read books.

Unfortunately, with few exceptions, publishing is a business, and decisions are made with the bottom line in mind. Even if today’s big publishers fail (and I imagine there will be at least one huge implosion in our near future, though the optimistic side of me thinks things will turn around), the big business aspect of publishing will continue to be very much bottom-line oriented. Amazon is not fuzzy teddy bear (yeah, written about *that* for years as well). Neither is Google. The business is changing. Rapidly. I’ve predicted we’ll see great things from small publishers because they are better able to weather change in economics and consumer behavior.

I’ve been accused of focusing too much on digital publishing, and it’s true (I plead the Fifth on stirring pots, but, yeah, getting people worked up is part of getting them to speak up). It’s something that fascinates me on many levels. Not only for the possibility it brings to readers (one particular fascination is the fact that devices and software make it easier for disabled persons to read books. You want fury from me? Ask about the boneheaded actions of the Authors Guild to turn off text-to-speech in the Kindle 2. That killed access for so many vision and mobility impaired readers.), but also because changes in technology — and by this I mean workflow — can create cost savings for publishers.

I have a vested interest in this technology from the publisher perspective, but I have a far deeper interest as a reader. I am the child of a librarian. The child of a librarian who has, over the decades, seen budgets cut while demand for services has increased. My mother has paid for so much out of her own pocket and has worked long hours, again out of her own pocket, to make sure people can read. I am not starry-eyed about the Kindle technology (see: oh, rants against the proprietary system), but I am very hopeful that advances will help bring books to people who don’t have the kind of access I take for granted. And I do take it for granted.

As for the focusing on the negative review over the love letter? Proof you’re a writer. Now to respond to TonyA…yeah, thoughts there too.

(By the way, the blog delete policy is very simple: it’s cool to attack or argue with me, as long as said attacks are not person or egregiously offensive; it is not okay to insult other commenters. I’ve only banned one commenter since this site went online. I don’t mind dissent or debate — my mind or position can be shifted by compelling evidence — but I do mind when commenters do not offer other commenters the validity of their opinions. Given that only one person has violated this, I’d say my readers are pretty awesome.)

I’m not one who believes there will be an iPod moment for ebooks. I think it’s more likely we’ll look back in five years and see that ebooks (and ereaders) have become part of our reading mix (we’ll also see today’s technology as primitive). I prefer digital because I am in transit far more than I’d prefer. And since I’m generally in the middle of three or four books simultaneously, I like having them all with me. Oh sure, 9 times out of 10, I’ll choose the fun read over the work read, but still, it’s with me. (And the storage issue is a big one for me. It turns out there is no such thing as bookshelf fairy. I’ve checked.)

The international question is huge, and I’m curious how it will be resolved. Territorial rights were a burning topic when I started BS, and they’re going to be a burning issue in the not-too-distant future. Today’s readers simply don’t wish to adhere to restrictions that (probably) made sense in decades past, especially when the conversation goes international immediately. I get that there are issues surrounding wireless access (telephony being one of those legacy businesses that seriously impacts distribution of information) in addition to existing territorial posturing, and I worry that these stances will lead to what I think of as piracy-by-frustration.

I know publishers do consider readers as they make decisions, but I am not sure they have fully considered the long-term impact of current business decisions on a readership that recognizes different boundaries.