If someone can explain to me how a hardcover book (or paperback) is equivalent to an exhibition, I’ll bite. Otherwise, this doesn’t work.

A movie at a theater is an experience — like a thrill ride at an amusement park. People go to movie theaters for that ambiance. If they don’t want that ambiance, and they only want the content, they wait for the DVD. Yes, this practice protects the theater market, but it also stays true to the historical spirit of movies, which were meant for, and generally play bigger and better on, big screens. In effect, a DVD is a crippled version of the original product.

None of this applies to a hardcover book, or even a paperback. Books are objects, and have always been objects. They have always been owned and possessed by the end user. There is no experience a book owner can have separate from the purchase of the portable object we call a book. A digital book is simply another kind of portable object which provides the exact same content experience. A digital book may lack physical properties that one finds enjoyable, but it is not a crippled version of the original product. It is an electronic version of the original product.

I sympathize with the motive behind the formulation of this argument. But the argument fails.

You love hardcover books. I am less fond of them because I find them physically uncomfortable to read, always have. Why is that you get the format you want when you want it while I have to wait? What is it about your money that’s better than mine? Let’s say I were a blind reader and used text-to-speech functionality to read, something not possible in a print book. What is the justification to make me wait for the accessibility window? What is the reason for one customer being favored over another?

There really isn’t one. Except the fact that my money highlights the fact that the industry is facing hard change. I’m serious about these questions, and the answers point to protecting a business that more likely than not needs serious revamping. The hardcover market isn’t going away because I buy ebooks. It’s going to change, without a doubt, but it would have changed regardless. The economics would indeed dictate the change. With ebooks, at least there’s a chance to introduce new authors and new experiments into the marketplace at a lower overall cost (which is not to say there are no costs associated with producing an ebook, there are).

Ebooks have been the next big thing since forever. Right now, though, they really are the next big thing, and they’re a growing segment of the market. Amazon accelerated this market, but publishers didn’t help themselves by sitting on the sidelines. There was every opportunity for publishers to take the lead on the development of this market, especially after they saw the experience of the music industry and Apple/iTunes. Amazon clearly learned from Apple, and they stepped in. And like Apple, they are exerting market muscle. Even now publishers aren’t doing much to create competition for Amazon because they insist upon structuring the ebook marketplace just like the print marketplace. Only Barnes & Noble can compete, and given their relative market share, they may be far more formidable.

Price is the main battle here, and Amazon is certainly forcing the hand of publishers (they are not alone). While the industry was focused on Google, I was wondering why nobody was worried Amazon, a company that made no bones about its goals and how they’d be achieved. They’ve created an extremely customer-friendly infrastructure, and that is attractive to people who buy and read books. However, despite all the hype, hardcover remains the preferred format (in the specific situation we’re discussing; the mass market paperback and trade paperback markets have their own dynamics). My ebook purchase is not eliminating your hardcover purchase, and right now, the overall ebook customer base is small enough to let the industry transition with some grace (there will be good, bad, ugly, surprising, and unexpected bumps).

A year from now, everything will be different, and either the publishing industry is prepared to face that or it’s not. Maybe that’s where my real source of disagreement is. Your proposed window doesn’t really protect your hardcover books and doesn’t really punish Amazon, it doesn’t even offer possible solutions. It does mask the fact that publishing needs to rethink its fundamental economics for a bit longer, but that leads me wonder how long this can continue before the industry faces true disaster. There’s a point where kicking the problem down the road makes things worse. Is that point now?

No, I don’t know what will be happening a year from now. But there are many indicators about the health of the industry, and they are not pointing to recovery if business as usual continues.

From where I sit people who read e are the first to twitter, FB, blog and otherwise write about a book and so each ebook sale is an ad for the book . No faster way to get WOM going than this.

There’s more but I’ll be blogging about it next week in the meantime congrats KK on a cogent argument.