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Kindle ebook sales have now eclipsed paperback sales at Amazon.com which means the way people consume books has fundamentally changed. Even if you haven't embraced the ebook revolution yet, you must admit it's becoming a growing force in publishing.
I have talked before about how my reading habits have changed since I bought my Kindle. Essentially, all my consumption type reading is now on ebooks. By that I mean all fiction and most non-fiction that I will read once and then am unlikely to revisit. I still buy a few print books per year, but maybe one tenth of what I used to.
If you're interested in the future of print, you will need to inspire buyers with something more than they can get in an ebook i.e. it needs to be more than the content itself.
Cory Doctorow is known as a great digital publisher with Creative Commons licensing who focuses on providing information for free in order to sell his work. So it was interesting to hear him talk about this topic with Mur Lafferty on the fantastic I Should Be Writing podcast. In the interview, Cory talks about producing limited edition physical books that cannot be replicated. They would be hand-tooled, made of materials that are individual and not mass market. The words themselves would be the same as those on an ebook but the physical book would be a work of art and a collector's item for hardcore fans. The author would be able to make a profit by self-publishing a limited number of these and pricing them highly. Cory also spoke of this gorgeous artist's collective where he was going to work with the physical materials himself. It sounded like an idyllic creative haven in London and it sparked romantic notions in me to learn book-binding and create my own art forms.
Here are some of the other physical books that have inspired me lately.
The Red Book – Carl Jung. I am a huge psychology nerd and Jung has always been a specific interest. The Red Book is his personal diary of writing and paintings from a breakdown he went through between 1914 – 1930. It was only published in 2009 after being kept secret by his family for years. I bought the over-sized full reproduction of the book which I also featured prominently in my thriller, Pentecost. You can see it right with a small book for contrast. It is full of gorgeous reproductions of the paintings and calligraphy from Jung's hand. The text isn't particularly inspiring for general reading but the physical book is a masterpiece.
Tree of Codes. Jonathan Safran Foer took a book he loved, “The Street of Crocodiles” by Bruno Schulz and cut it up to make another story by removing specific pieces of the text with die-cutting. Check out the video below. It's a brilliant idea but definitely more art than book.
For biblioholics who want more, here are 10 visual artists who make art with books.
Do you buy limited edition print books? What are your thoughts about the future of print?
Image: Flickr CC Broniart
I so prefer a printed book that I can hold compared to an e-book. If I printed off the ebook then I am happy – but if I was to read off the computer it would become too much for me!! I would lose my train of thought, and get too bored easily. Have not tried a Kindle yet so I am not sure how that compares – guess I am a little old fashioned that way, but books from bookstores are for me 🙂
Cheers
Lisa
The Kindle is like a book really Lisa. Let’s revisit this in 1 year and we’ll see if you’ve tried a Kindle or other ebook reader by then!
The Kindle is not like a book, God love ’em, it is handy for reading fiction & popular items for which you might not want a reference– but I bought the complete poems of Rimbaud this way & quickly found there were no reference points for going back and re-accessing the poems I wished to study or even read through a second time!
Bottom line then: Kindle is great for light readings– & the crap the publishing houses seem to be putting out these days– but for more serious study you need a real book!
Re Kindle and ebook sales growth, check out this wicked infographic
http://www.passwordincorrect.com/2011/01/27/how-e-book-market-grows-2002-2010-predictions-for-2011-infographic/
BOOM!
I just switched to my first e-reader. For the most part I plan to cut actual hand-held books out of my life. I don’t have the space and I’m allergic to dust. However, from the first month with my Kindle I expect that I’ll end up buying more e-books than I bought paperbacks and hardcopies.
I go to the library for a lot of my reading. Its more conveniently located than the bookstore. I can check and see if they have what I want online before I leave home (and see where it’s shelved). I can request books and have them located at the preferable library within the local county system. Honestly the convenience of the library outweighs the convenience of the book store.
But with an e-reader I don’t even have to leave the house. So there will be times when I’m wanting a new book and I can buy it immediately and have it almost as quick. There is no calling or visiting the bookstore to see if they have what I want (there is only one bookstore in my town). No ordering and waiting for it to be delivered. Nope. If I want it I have it, easy-peasy.
I’ve not done any research on the matter (at all) but part of me wonders how much paperback sells are dropping compared to how much e-book sales are growing. If there are more people like me who prefer the convenience of the library over the bookstore (and the kindle makes it even more convenient) then there might be more e-books sold rather than just paperbacks dropping off.
You’re right Cassi. I’m reading 3x as much fiction now on the Kindle as I was in paperback/hardback. The books are a lot cheaper and I can sample and buy easily. It is a reading style change for the better! You’ll love your Kindle!
Oh, yes. There is a great print market for these types of books – until a tablet can replace a nice decorative cover on my coffee table. Art books are part of the ornamentation (ooh that sounds posh) of my home, just like great art is for my home.
Photobooks are definitely up there with art. I have a number of oversize photo and art books too. Anything highly visual that you want to keep as more of a momento isn’t in the category of “consumable” books.
I hesitate to jump on the Kindle and Nook bandwagons because I just don’t enjoy reading off the screen as much as I enjoy reading off paper. Maybe it’s the glare, the contrast, maybe it’s the idea that I don’t physically hold the words in my hand… Whatever it is, I know I’m behind the times already.
Great thoughts on how to market paperbacks in a tech-savvy world.
With e-ink on Kindle and Nook the glare isn’t a problem like it is on say an iPad or iPod because the screen isn’t backlit.
It took me awhile to decide that I wanted a Kindle and I have not been disappointed.
I’ll keep that in mind. It would be nice to read more, and if that is something the Kindle might encourage, it might be worth a try.
Thanks!
I second Cassi on this Alexis. The screen doesn’t glare on the Kindle. It is very relaxing. I read mine mainly in bed, it’s marvelous! and you can hold 1500 books in your hand 🙂
Interesting!
We have a musician here in Brazil called LOBAO. He tryed to save the CD records industry by using limited editions of his work. But he failed. Thousand of his albuns were signed one by one with his hand, but for everybody, even wih a “deluxe” edition, it’d be better o have all for free and igital. Some other artists were trying to figure out how to make something similar, but it never happened. Years later, the company Deck Disk started to rebuild an old vynil company to offer a different format for the albuns of their actual artists, and its working! People started to buy more vynils, and somehow, create a movement around the quality of sound and the good artwork displayed.
Maybe we should get inspired by Guttenberg again, and print the books with old iron types. I dont know if it would work, but i probably would start to buy print books again. 🙂
I know people who love collecting vinyl records as well. It’s a retro growth thing! so you’re right, maybe books will be the same.
Great article and images. The future of books is about as mysterious as predicting the stock market on any one day. The trends may be there over the long term, but right now it is very uncertain.
Likely the market will evolve into 3-Formats: e-books, print-on-demand copies, and the speciality hard cover “art” books that you discuss. The price points of these books can be much higher than anything in the usual range. And they really are pieces of “art”.
If you want more on this, I wrote a piece on The 3-Format Future of Books (http://www.highspotinc.com/blog/2010/06/the-3-format-future-of-books/), found some new evidence a few months later (http://www.highspotinc.com/blog/2010/09/new-evidence-for-the-future-of-the-printed-book/), and Jennifer wrote about the “ultimate” author contribution to a book (http://www.highspotinc.com/blog/2010/12/the-ultimate-special-edition/).
We’re living in interesting times…
Thanks for all your great contributions to the discussion.
Thanks – I agree with your 3 future formats. I’m not sure what physical bookstores will have in them though 🙂
Great – there will likely still be physical bookstores for a long time and for a couple of key reasons:
1) there are a lot of printed books in the world and the used market will continue to lend itself to bookstores (likely smaller independents)
2) the switches from vinyl to 8-track to cassette to CD to MP3 online all took a long time and we still have most of those formats – books will be in a similar evolution
3) nostalgia rules – even Nathan Bransford’s survey results have many people holding on to p-books until they get pried from their cold, dead hands
4) the Book Espresso Machines have to go somewhere!
Back in the very old days of liquor sales here in Ontario, Canada, the stores all had one bottle each of what was sold and the rest of the stock was locked in the back.
Physical stores could have a single copy of many, many books which we could look at as samples. Then we could either purchase the e-book version OR have a Book Espresso version printed to go (happens at McMaster U Bookstore all the time).
So no worries about having physical bookstores, just many fewer than we’ve been use to in the past. Good news for the independents that survive though. Not so good for the big chains…
Let’s not all get ahead of ourselves regarding the Kindle and ebook sales. The numbers don’t lie. One thing of significant note in Amazon’s sales figures regarding ebooks is that they are counting all ebooks downloaded in their estimates. All books does include FREE ebooks. Amazon has been called to the mat by the SEC and financial analysts on this issue (they have even missed earnings estimates and upside surprises are much thinner than ever before) and remain “officially vague regarding exactly what they are counting in sales figures. With this said, missing estimates is a very good indicator of the overall business at Amazon, but not necessarily their book business.
Remember Amazon is in the business of selling and right now Kindle is their main product. Much of the ebook buzz and official press releases is geared towards moving Kindles. Our house recently added a Kindle to its list of devices in November 2010. An Amazon gift card in the amount of $50 was received for Christmas, and to date only one book has been purchased, Larson’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. That book was purchased on sale for $5. Our new Kindle is also loaded with more free Indie books that I will ever be able to read.
Electronic books and the Internet may certainly change consumer habits, but it remains to be seen if profits improve. One consumer habit that will definitely change is the attention span of readers. Free Indie books only encourage the habit of download, but not the habit of download and read. In my opinion Amazon has done a brilliant job of selling the Kindle to what marketeers call “early adopters”. Right now Indie authors have been one of the are the biggest customer bases captured by the Kindle. Indie authors unwittingly through their offer of free content, have been the biggest salespeople Amazon has garnered. The Kindle is on fire and the habit of search Amazon and download free content is growing through the most powerful marketing, word of mouth.
In every product cycle the early adopters will create buzz and what is called “pull through”. In other words, early adopters sales will confirm the initial marketing campaign through sales creation. It’s the land grab portion of the sales cycle, the early phase past launch and that’s where e-readers are right now. In my opinion ebooks are still lagging even this stage. Indie authors and their content are pushing the ebook forward, but to where is still in question.
Indie authors would do well to heed the words of the famous writer Harlan Ellison, “Don’t give your shit away for free” (loosely quoted of course). All artists and creators must create then find paying markets for their work. This is marketing 101. Never give anything away for free without a commitment. Right now many Indie authors are creating massive amounts of content and driving sales without reaping a single cent of compensation.
Sumner Redstone put it best, “Content is KING!” Indie authors need to concentrate on creating the best content they can then seek compensation commensurate with that level. If that’s a dollar, it’s a dollar. If its five complimentary copies of the publication, then that’s it. The cream always rises, sometimes you just have to churn a bit harder. Amazon is driving the Kindle, not ebooks, and Indie authors are way too happy providing content to feed that drive.
Hi Percy,
I mainly use myself as an example here. I have tripled my fiction reading consumption since getting a Kindle. I buy 99% of those books for between $2.99 – $14.99 depending on how much I want the book. I regularly pay $9.99 for new fiction. New fiction in Australia costs $30-$40 hence I had pretty much stopped reading paper. So I can see the profits for Amazon. I may be an early adopter but I am convinced and I’m not a market of one.
I’m also an indie author and will be selling for $2.99 as this is a great price point. We’ll see how it goes. I currently have 4 books on the Kindle and receive cheques every month, so I am pretty happy with the process. I receive a fraction of that for print book sales.
Thanks, Joanna
Percy,
Agree with you about writers needing to charge for their content. Right now we’re still trying to figure out how to buy the “right” content, in the “right” format, at the “right” price for each of us. The new digital market (see The Long Tail by Chris Anderson) has the potential to make a very individualized market – which can be great.
And the new formats of “art books” that Joanna is talking about are a great example of how artists can take something and make it different and new for us to consume. Much as writers have changed how we engage with information.
And Amazon may be leading the charge, but they are followed closely by many competitors. Just as the first MP3 players, cell phones, and even cars were provided to the market at one time. These things have a way of working themselves out. The issue, to quote a friend of mine, is that “it’s always messy in the middle”.
Jung’s RED BOOK is a work of art. There is but one original, of course, but the closest thing to it are the 199 copies of the DELUXE EDITION. These were made with the intent of 100% true reproduction of the original. There is also a 5000 copy 1st/1st edition. The DELUXE EDITION was provided by the Philemon Society to those who contributed more than $2500 upon publication of the RED BOOK. Copies, even two years later, are worth well over $10,000. 1st/1st copies have sold for as high as $5000. It is a remarkable work, and to hold the DELUXE EDITION, to view its art, to read its insights, is a spiritual experience. It is unique the in the world not just of Psychology, but in the world of art. My guess is that, within 20 years, the DELUXE EDITION copies will go for six digit sums. If Chinese wealth were to get wind of the opportunity available today, investors would buy up all 199 copies for $10,000 and resell them for $30,000. It is a really amazing thing.
GREAT article on 5 fantastic die cut books http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/08/29/die-cut-books/