Comments on: Changing Reading Habits, Changing Bookstores, or How Soon is Now?

By: That’s When I Reach for My Revolver | Digital Book World

That’s When I Reach for My Revolver | Digital Book World — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:28:52 +0000

[...] been talking about the ebook customer a lot recently, and one thing I keep saying is that it’s never good for an industry when the customer changes faster than the business mod…. In the ebook space, this is the real challenge for publishers. The early adopters have been in the [...]

By: That’s When I Reach for My Revolver « Digital Book World

That’s When I Reach for My Revolver « Digital Book World — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:44:42 +0000

By: Caitlin O'Sullivan

Caitlin O'Sullivan — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:10:38 +0000

KatG and Kassia – I also think the lack of research on readers is absolutely jaw-dropping. I wonder why this is – all I can think of is that either a) publishers don’t recognize that as their customer base grows, it’s more difficult to understand what that base wants or b) they’re scared of the cost of research/have no idea how to research what readers want.

Do publishers honestly believe that they know what readers want, and they don’t need to ask the readers themselves? Anyone know?

By: RKB

RKB — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:20:42 +0000

I refuse to buy DRM ebooks.

I also thought this was an interesting article about piracy and copyright.

http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirates-dilemma-080108/

By: KatG

KatG — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 03:23:17 +0000

Oops, sorry, ended up Anonymous by accident. That’s my post above.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 03:22:35 +0000

“Last week, Bowker released what was billed as a first consumer-focused research report for the book industry. Did your eyebrows go up when you read that? The first? Like, uh, has anybody ever thought to figure out what the people want before this? The mind boggles.”

See, I told you! I wasn’t kidding. They don’t do market research, demographics, etc.

I won’t be at all surprised if it’s the small presses who move the e-market along into the multi-format model, whereupon the bigger publishers, retailers and such will jump on. Where upon prices should fall. And yes, it should happen tomorrow, but it won’t. The magazines will move faster than the books.

By: Kassia Krozser

Kassia Krozser — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:41:46 +0000

Rich/Ann — The SF/F argument is also well-taken! The genre customer is both willing to extend beyond the label and reads outside the genre. Win. Win. Labels are good, of course, and they make things easier to shelve, but sometimes mixing up the shelves leads to a different kind of discovery.

By: Kassia Krozser

Kassia Krozser — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:39:35 +0000

Justin — I don’t disagree with your assessment of consumer behavior. We come to new things in multiple ways. However — and I know I’m not just speaking for myself — there are consumers who need to be guided toward purchases because they don’t know exactly what it is they want, and then there are add-on consumers, people who can be talked into additional purchases (now I’m not saying that a good salesperson can get me to buy something I didn’t know I wanted, but, well, I don’t have to. History speaks for itself.). The key, in my mind, is making it easy no matter the direction taken by the consumer.

By: Kassia Krozser

Kassia Krozser — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:36:42 +0000

John — You certainly hit a key point. I’ve had conversations with ABA people as well, and while I love them, they cannot dawdle on rolling out an ebook option for customers (my recommendation re: devices would be the Sony Reader, especially now that lower-priced units are being rolled out, because it’s the most format-flexible; plus, it can be linked easily to an in-store terminal/kiosk for direct downloads). I am going to be more strident in the future (I suspect!) about this because, frankly, ebooks are not new technology. And I do believe publishers must stop pretending the world they’ve lived in for decades will exist in the same manner tomorrow. It’s not helping booksellers or consumers!

(I am going to keep my fingers quiet about the Drupal thing.)

Publishers *are* terrified by piracy, but authors are also pushing the need for DRM (this is understandable if you’ve, as I’m sure you have!, paid attention to the constant fear mongering of the past decade; it’s hard to undo the message). However, as much as it’s employed, it simply doesn’t work. I really, really wish publishers would listen to real consumers on this point. I will not buy direct from at least one favorite publisher due to the DRM being employed (plus the fact that I have a hate-hate relationship with Adobe Digital Editions). In some ways, I’m being forced to shop at Amazon for these books. The other option, of course, being not buying them at all.

I know of at least onepublisher who is looking at the multi-format bundles, and I think this is the great opportunity small press has over larger publishers. But that’s another post for another day!

By: John Mesjak

John Mesjak — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:01:09 +0000

Great points, Kassia. I’ve been talking with some of my indie booksellers who are very eager to have some solution for ebooks in their stores.

Two hurdles that stand in the way of a glorious future of ebooks served up in all formats by indie bookstores to their customers:
1. Indie bookstores are, obviously, many independent stores. No one store will be able to mount a serious challenge to Amazon’s Kindle or B&N’s Plastic Reader. ABA has shown itself to be … on the slow side, shall we say … when it comes to embracing new technologies. Also, their pace at rolling out the Drupal hosted Indiebound sites for bookstores seems to be dragging.
2. If I may paint them all with a very broad brush, I’ll say that most publishers seem to be terrified of piracy, and their dependency on DRM and limited choices in ebook formats seems to be holding back readily available downloads for sale by indie booksellers.

I’d be much happier buying book/ebook combos if they were offered by publishers.

I’d also like to not be screwed by publishers the way I’ve been screwed over the years by record labels: buy the vinyl! buy the CD! now buy the digital download!

I’d like to see an option to download a legally licensed .zip file with multiple file formats: Kindle format, epub, pdf, etc. I bought the book. Why should it matter WHICH of my various devices I read it on?