eReaders and eBook players like the Kindle 2, Kindle DX and Nook are suddenly enjoying unprecedented support from book publishers, authors and retailers alike.
Why the recent shift? Given what analysts say is the increasingly depressing reality of old-world print business models, today’s publishers and booksellers (who’d once adopted a largely adversarial stance) are increasingly approaching this digital development with an “if you can’t beat them, join them” attitude. Mark Cull, publisher of Red Hen Press, admits that he’s gladly partnered with Amazon, giving the online mogul permission to digitize and reprint their books. Cull says that his company, a small but highly acclaimed literary outfit, is enjoying keeping up with the latest technological trends and advancements. “The entire printing world is leaning toward digitized publication with fascination,” said Cull. “We [at Red Hen Press] are actually very interested in the direction the publication of books is going.”
Paperbackswap and ebooks
Paperbackswap.com is a site where people can do what the name of the site implies. The site maintains a list of the top 50 books swapped. Currently the top book on the list is The Memory Keeper’s Daughter and it has been traded on the site 5,193 times. The 50th most traded book is “Loved Walked in” and it has been swaped 1779 times. The top 50 books have been traded 135,000 times on the site.
If every book trade was the loss of a sale there would be 135,000 sales that did not happen for these 50 books. Clearly not every trade is someone that would have purchased the book anyway; but even if we half the number it still is large. A potential of 60,000 sales lost for these 50 books. Other than the origianl purchase of the book the author and the publisher are not earning any money on these 135,000 transactions.
A few observations:
These transactions were not free. To get a book on Paperbackswap you have to mail someone a book so that you have a credit to swap with. Sending a book media mail cost around $3 when you include postage and packaging. Credits can also be purchased at the website for $3.45 if you want to get a book but do not have a book to swap. At least $405,000 were spent to move these 135,000 copies around the country. I think this has an implication for ebooks. The users of Paperbackswap are not complete freeloaders. They have pay at least $3 to get a book. If these top 50 traded books were available as $3 ebooks that were readily available and people had ebook readers would there have been 135,000 sales?
What can publishers do to get in on this action? They could lobby congress to end the “First Sale” doctrine. This doctrine allows for the resale/trade of books without compensating the copyright holder after the first sale. When you buy a new book in the U.S. the author/publisher makes money on the first sale of a book but if that particular copy ends up on the used book market no additional money can be earned. It is very unlikely that congress would mess with the “First Sale” doctrine so we can dismiss this idea.
Another solution would be to get used copies of books off the market. How could that be done? Make every book a coupon for a discount on your next book purchase. These coupons would probably have to be publisher specific. If you had a Penguin paperback you would get a dollar off another penguin if you traded your copy in. Clearly not eveyone would trade in their books to get a dollar off but they might be less likely to swap them. If you didn’t want to use a book as a coupon you would likely be keeping the book and this would keep the book out of the secondary market.
This would also be good for bookstores. Because if physical bookstores were the place that you could use books as coupons you have an incentive to go to your local bookstore to buy books.