Kindle, Anyone? Wicked Witch of Publishing Predicts End of the Era of “Used & New Books” Online.
I have seen the future and it is the end of “Used & New” purchases on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.
I feel it. I sense it. I know it.
All it took was for me to activate my new Kindle and download Jeannette Wall’s The Glass Castle for $7.99 and have it delivered digitally in 60 seconds, count ‘em, from Amazon for me to hear the death knell for all those subterranean, bottom feeder, entrepreneurial booksellers online who have been making money by reselling advanced reader copies, tag sale finds, and entire inventories passed to them out the back door of warehouses. And I say this as a book purchaser who always prefers to pluck books from the “Used & New” option online.
So if you visualize me now, après Christmas and my Capricorn birthday, see me in your mind’s eye as sitting in front of the computer, cute new wool socks on (thank you!); wearing a new red beret and red leather gloves (thank you!); resting a coffee cup on a stack of “wish list” new books that includes Thomas McGuane’s Gallatin Canyon, Marisha Pessl’s Special Topics in Calamity Physics, William Trevor’s Cheating at Canasta (thank you, thank you, thank you), about to switch on my birthday Kindle and place another order (THANK YOU!).
Yes, I am about to download, through the magic of wireless connection, the second book I have ever purchased digitally. Don’t tell anyone, but it is Stephen King’s Duma Key: A Novel. I’m going to purchase this book for $9.99 and to say to hell with “Used & New” online. And by the time I go to the kitchen to top off my coffee cup and return to my desk, Duma Key will be waiting for me on my trusty Kindle.
I remain amazed.
Folks selling “Used & New” books should be afraid, very afraid.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Don’t forget that publishers have just established their budgets for new book acquisitions in 2008. So now is the time to get your book proposal in front of an agent or editor before all that money gets committed. Click over to my Get Published website and see if you want my help with your submission package. Love those testimonials!
January 27th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
I keep hearing the death knell for booksellers from ebook readers (Lynne, I certainly hope you’re not lumping
traditional booksellers in with the “bottom feeders”), and yet books are still here. The Kindle, cool in some fashions though it may be, is not going to be the slayer of the traditional book any more than the Sony reader was. Oh, and if you’re planning any trips from the city, better download your books before you go…I’ve heard there are huge areas of no coverage outside of populous areas.
Note from the Wicked Witch: Park Road Books is an independent bookstore located in Charlotte, North Carolina.
January 27th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Frazer, I’ve also tested the Iliad e-reader. Dunno, there is something really appealing about the Kindle. Maybe its simplicity….
And, no, I don’t include traditional booksellers in the bottom feeder category, though I suspect they try to unload pulseless books in “used & new” as well if booksellers can no longer send the books back to the distributor/publisher.
Lynne
January 27th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Oh, I would love to believe that. I like that the Kindle downloads books wirelessly without having to turn on the computer. I like that (so I understand) it can download blogs and newspapers. The thought of sitting at the breakfast table with the Dear One and read my blogs (instead of sneaking down to the office, boot up the computer, hum and fidget for 15 minutes and THEN read), is delicious.
But I can’t spend the money, and I hate being unable to get e-books from Gutenburg, and a previous experience with Microsoft’s Reader (which locked up and refused to let me access all my books, period), has not lured me to your promise land.
I hope you’ll come back in a few months and let us know how you feel about it, once the shine wears.
January 27th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
As a mother of both middle school and high school students, I can really see Kindle as an advantage with textbooks. Currently their backpacks average about thirty pounds. Please keep us posted.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Brenda’s publishing credits include Solander Magazine – The Magazine of the Historical Novel Society, Wildchild Publishing with two Editor’s Choice Award wins, Charlotte Parent Magazine, Copperfield Review, Penwomanship, Bygone Days, Mid-South Review and Emerging Women Writers. Her poetry has been published extensively in the U.S. and abroad and she writes book reviews for Midwest Book Review. She is the managing editor of The Scruffy Dog Review, an online literary magazine and a member of The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
January 27th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
I made my book “To Truckee’s Trail” available as a Kindle edition, on the off chance that the Kindle Reader might just yet be the written-word version of the ipod, and help me get around the fact that as a POD book, the dead-tree version just cannot be offered at a deep enough discount to tempt any of the big-box bookstores… or indeed, any bookstores which don’t have a special interest for offering it.
It was a long and exasperating process, the cover picture never did load on the page for the Kindle edition, etc cetera, et cetera. Obviously there are still bugs the size of labradors in the whole system.
But I can’t help hoping that when the bugs are worked out, and the price comes down… that the darned thing may just be the the new ipod. It makes so much sense, especially for things like textbooks, often updated and replaced at great expense. Think of how it would work for a college student to be able to download the latest edition of textbooks, and how simple it would be to update those textbooks. The whole cost of printing and maintaining stocks of hard-copy books just melts away.
January 27th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Wow, Brenda! I didn’t even consider text books on the Kindle. Whoa, that would make a tremendous number of text book publishers near-hysterical. I have to think about this aspect.
It is true when I was a student, I lugged a HUGE briefcase around. The Kindle-idea might revolutionize the text book industry; might destroy it, actually. But believe me, they won’t go quietly.
Lynne
January 27th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
What is a Kindle?
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: An e-reader. Are you on another planet? Too funny. You can now download entire books–cheap–wirelessly, meaning like a cell phone, into a hand-held device. See the photo.
January 27th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Wellington Leg remains outside the coverage area despite the move by Amazon to pipe Curtis Mayfield tunes through a utility smokestack that would otherwise be useless now that the Industrial Revolution is over.
Still there is hope. We have the Kendle which is a pastel colored device with toggle switches and very readable though entirely blank screen. You can’t read anything on it but the Kendle is a babe magnet.
January 27th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
I can see e-readers being a boon to college students, but as an avid reader, I love the feel of a real book, and I like to browbeat my husband into creating more oak shelves in the library when I run out of space *snort-giggle*.
I’m one of those people that doesn’t even like reading a book on my large computer screen let alone that smal screen. I think is will be beyond our years before paper books are banished forever!
January 27th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
The new and used book sellers continue to survive in spite of sending the wrong books, books that are in worse shape than described, or not at all.
Regardless, I’d rather get a hard copy of a book for five bucks than buy a $400 gadget that needs recharging–and then pay ten bucks for the same book in the little computer version that I can’t put on my bookshelf.
January 27th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Interesting thought-especially for text books. However, what about
sharing? Can I give my book to someone else to read without buying a
new one? Corporate America just figured out a way to double its
revenues……
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: According to my chat with Teresa at Kindle support, you can share books with up to six other Kindle users as long as those six Kindles are registered at Amazon to YOUR account and you used your credit card to purchase the Kindles and any books you or they might download. And go here to You Tube to find out what Harlan Ellison thinks about not getting paid for his work.
January 28th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Geez, WW, as a reader, I hope you’re wrong. I love the “new and used” sections of Amazon and B&N. I also want the
feel of a book in my hands, and can’t stand to read anything lengthy online. And as the daughter of an author, I also love being able to find my father’s out-of-print books through this wonderful service. Good for you for sticking up for authors, but I would think some of them would be happy to have a source for readers to find their out-of-print books!
January 28th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
By the way, Lynne, it’s Park ROAD Books!
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Whoops. Fixed! Thanks.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Much of what I’ve read about the Kindle suggests that its true market is in fact the textbook market, and
that Amazon’s wasting its time trying to sell the Kindle to book lovers. As a textbook reader, the Kindle could be massively useful to a lot of people, and the elegant (if unreliable) download features set it apart from other e-readers. But how textbook publishers can crunch the numbers to their liking…I dunno. I’ve had a little experience in the textbook market, and it’s wild and woolly, with many many factors (new editions, used copies, course adoptions) affecting a publisher’s bottom line. This is the interesting part of the Kindle story to me, not whether I should worry about its effect on my business. The economy is giving me plenty enough to worry about already, thank you.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
What a shame for all who love books. I can’t imagine Kindle can possibly satisfy me; and I depend on the used books available online to locate Zane Grey books for our collector son!
Grace
January 28th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Change takes a little while.
The younger the market, the quicker. The older, the slower. Given recent
indications of reading habits under — what, thirty? — I’d say the tangible book business has quite a way to go. I suspect it’ll be non-reading that’ll wound the tangible book worse than any technology. We’re all guessing, just like Jeff Bezos. Only, he has everything to gain by guessing, er, innovating. Meanwhile, the number of reading machines grows. They may have kind of laid there, but they’re still lying there. We’ll see.
January 28th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Being the Luddite I am, I’d never heard of “Kindle”. At first read I thought the Wicked Witch was referring to some witchcraft tool, to be used with faggots. Now I am much wiser and shall ask Santa for one next year. As always, you’re so on the cutting edge of publishing Wicked Witch. Another good article.
January 28th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
I suspect that most people who buy the used books from Amazon do so because they are
1) frugal, or are
2) looking for an out of print book that’s only available used.
At $400, the Kindle won’t be for the frugal and most books are forgotten by their publishers after they’re remaindered. I suspect only a small fraction of op books will ever become available as ebooks unless their authors see to it.
So the Kindle is for affluent readers who compulsively buy nearly every new book they hear about.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: I’ll bet the Kindle could be written off as a legitimate business expense for book reviewers, writers, agents, editors, bloggers(?), etc., any and all who are involved in the business of books.
January 28th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Buying a Kindle to save on the price of books is like driving 100 miles to a gas station to fill up because
their price is a few pennies less per gallon. The economics makes no sense. Assuming you save $10 per book using the Kindle, you’ll have to buy 40 books before you can justify the Kindle’s cost.
The real appeal of the Kindle is for people who want the latest ballyhooed book with the thrill of instant gratification.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Beg to differ, Peter! I’m rarely reading books on the hardcover bestseller lists. (Well, I did download Stephen King’s Duma Key, but got to do it on the sly with my Kindle!) I do like the instant delivery/download.
January 28th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
“l bet the Kindle could be written off as a legitimate business expense for book reviewers, writers,
agents, editors, bloggers(?), etc., any and all who are involved in the business of books.”
Except that most of them already get galleys, arcs and review copies aplenty. Even I, with my lowly little blog, have received email solicitations from major trade publishers, including some in Britain, offering review copies, and I have yet to review a book on my blog. I wish I had a scan of a page from Time Out New York my sister gave me over the holidays. It had photos of all the freebies their reviews section editors got in a slow week. The books were in several waist-high stacks.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: And these same review copies wind up in “Used & New” books online, where I’m not going anymore if the book can be downloaded on my Kindle for a good price.
January 28th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Lynne,
What I love about the book is that its basic design has pretty much stayed the same for years. I even have some 100-year-old books that I can still open and read! I doubt the Kindle, or any other ebook reader, will ever be able to make that claim. While the technology is interesting, I don’t trust the hardware to always deliver. Besides, how can an ebook ever replace my first editions of “To KIll a Mockingbird” or “The Land Breakers”?
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: I love books. I love the smell and feel of them. That said, I think I love my Kindle. (See me later when I’m off my romantic high and notice the stinky socks in the corner!) And here’s a neat little trick Amazon pulled off. I don’t know if they intended it, but when you’ve got your Kindle in its protective “book cover” (that’s what they call it), you bend back the front cover when you are reading the Kindle and you feel like you are holding, yes, a book.
January 29th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Frank Wilson, book critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer, linked to this posting and two people have written in to comment about how FABULOUS the Kindle is for the elderly who have trouble seeing. Yes, you can increase the size of the print at the touch of a key.
Go here and scroll down to read the comments: booksinq.
January 29th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
The e-book reader can’t replace the physical books that sit on your shelves, testaments to the journeys you’ve
taken over the course of your life. When I look at my bookshelves, remembering where I was when I read the books and gazing at the notes in the margins of the books, the shattering odyssey of self-discovery can begin anew. Moreover, the books are not just for you…. When I walk into the home of my deceased father-in-law, pull old history books from his shelves, and trail my fingers lingeringly over the pages with his underlinings, the sense of pleasure and transcendence I receive would be hard to replicate in an e-book. Additionally, books also function as monuments to our achievements. Yes, it is indeed an achievement to have read the books – an achievement often no less worthy and arduous then a journey through the equatorial rainforests of New Guinea. When a person finishes the last line of Proust’s epic series, and has the books on his shelves to remind him of his intellectual and spiritual adventure, this, I feel, would be difficult to replicate with an e-book reader, sitting like a chrome toaster on the kitchen table.
Given this background, we can see that both books and e-books will exist for some time. E-books will not replace books, but rather they will exist side-by-side with traditional books just as the various species of primates coexist on our planet. One need not replace the other. — Cliff (pickover.com)
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Dr. Pickover has published over 37 books! Check out this special Web site Reality Carnival. It’s fabulous! Full of all sorts of unusual links.
January 29th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Lynne…please post again and let us know how you like the Kindle after reading a book or two.
I thought I’d wait for a second generation model. How can they justify the lack of a “search” or “find” function. If the device had it, I’d make the purchase in an instant.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Paul is the author of the bestselling Jake Lassiter novels, which have been published in 23 countries. TO SPEAK FOR THE DEAD, the first of the series, was honored as one of the ten best mysteries of the year by the Los Angeles Times.
January 29th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
I just got my Kindle, too. LOVE it.
And I love what it may make possible for the small presses of this country. The economies of scale that are still left in the book business are mostly connected to the physical movement of books. E-books might level the field for those types of books where the reader wants the content more than the physical object. (In other words, gift books will probably always be in print, but romance or science fiction novels? Not so much.)
Over the next decade or two, as we readers become more used to searching and receiving our reading matter electronically, the total number of books read MIGHT increase, but the variety almost certainly WILL. We publishers may find that to be a very good thing indeed.
January 29th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
I’m not convinced, and here’s why.
The big issues: the selection isn’t wide enough yet, there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to access Kindle books in five years, and the user interface is too primitive. We’re in the pre-iPod mp3 world, which isn’t to say that the iPod won’t come, but we’re just not there yet. The Kindle or something similar is the future, not the present.
January 29th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
I’m guessing Apple’s long-awaited tablet computer would do the trick, especially if tricked out with this e-ink tech they’re using on these dedicated gadgets. I mean, why would I buy a one-trick (lotsa tricks in this post) doodad for 400 smackers when for about twice the price I can get a complete computer. And if the ‘puter is MacBook Air-like, but more like a tablet, like, voila.
January 29th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Dr. McCoy hands Mr. Spock his tricorder. They read a medical report, a science report and find out how many life forms are within spitting distance of them. That’s a 1968 Kindle put to a most excellent and practical use.
Today, cell phones go dead, computers crash. If you accidently drop the cell phone in the toilet, it’s a gonner. I doubt I’d be reading the Kindle on the Throne.
I think I’ll wait awhile. If I drop a book in the toilet, it’ll dry out and all my other books are just fine. However, I don’t have an iPod or a Blackberry. I guess I’m an old fogey stuck in the 20th Century.
January 30th, 2008 at 10:11 am
I too have seen the future. It is the end of author royalties, once an ebook reader is embraced by readers like the iPod has been by music fans.
Then $7.99 for a download will be too much, especially when you can “share” a download for free.
Once the distribution network goes digital, authors won’t need publishers. If the majority of people are downloading, why bother with printing and shipping?
Impossible? Hardly. Have you noticed there aren’t any record stores anymore? The music industry never thought CDs would be replaced. They were wrong.
The question is: How will authors earn a living in a digital world where the consumer downloads books without paying?
I ponder about this a lot, and think I know the answer. Time will tell.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
I don’t know, JA. As an author AND a publisher, I can understand the concern to some degree. But I think we are
looking at two different markets, for the present anyway. There are way, way too many people out there who simply want a real paper book in their hands to worry about book sales stopping altogether, at least for a long time.
I’m really more concerned with resale of review copies, used books and the like.
It’s sad. People seem to want to berate publishers for not keeping titles in print and available for a longer time, yet when they plug into Amazon or walk into a bookstore, where do most people head? The used books section… the remainders tables… etc. What incentive is there for an author to continue writing OR for a publisher to keep a title in print, when buyers pick up the used books/resold ARCs/bargain books instead of buying the new item?
(And don’t tell me books are too expensive, especially if you’re reading this with a double-shot latte in your hand.)
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Wolfmont Press is a small-press publishing house located in Ranger, Georgia.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I own one and love it. The issue I have is that I am heavy marker and note writer and typing is a little slow in Kndle and therefore frustrating to some degree. The upside is that Kindle gives you a summary of all your marking and notes.
Also, you can browse the book they way you would normally do and find something interesting that will catch your eye.
For pure fiction, less marking oriented and less intense books this is a great device.
We early adopters are paying dearly for the novelty though.
January 30th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Before one spends bucks on this thing, read what BoingBoing.net says about it. I’m not so inclined to buy one:
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/11/20/amazon-kindle-the-we.html
…but maybe someone else will come out with a product that is DRM-less, won’t spy on you, and is not crapped up like the Kindles will be. Hmmm, maybe Sony, or Apple, or Samsung…somebody, anybody… It’s a technology whose time has come, but not with Amazon’s stipulations, thank you very much.
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: I clicked over to the link. I think Cory Doctorow’s info about sharing e-books is incorrect, not that Amazon makes it easy for you to share, but you can, in a limited and tightly controlled way. As an author, the less sharing that goes on the more royalties I get. When I spoke with the Kindle folks, they talked about copyright and the need to have readers PAY for product. In case you missed it in a previous comment, did you see this link to Harlan Ellison’s tirade about not being paid?
January 30th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
WW:
personal preference, I am big on reading in bed — alas, only at night — and a book is a much better companion than an electronic devices . . . though I’m told they have their advantages too. Anyway, I’m still trying to figure out my new cell phone, so a Kindle won’t be found under my tree any Christmastime soon.
I don’t disagree with you. Inevitably, everything we read and watch will be wireless communication. However, as a
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: Tom Clavin’s and Bob Drury’s book, Halsey’s Typhoon, reached #15 on The New York Times’ Best Seller List last winter.
February 2nd, 2008 at 2:38 pm
A little Kindle satire here:
http://101reasonstostopwriting.com/2008/01/27/breaking-news-amazons-kindle-recalled-due-to-small-risk-of-fire/
Note from the Wicked Witch of Publishing ™: I think that the person who created this had just a little too much time on his or her hands!
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I have now read two books on my Kindle: The Glass Castle: A Memoir and Duma Key: A Novel. I have just downloaded my third book (recommended over at Park Road Books’ Web site–an excellent source for recommendations, I have found), The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
I’ve downloaded three books for a total of approximately $27.00 over about a week-and-a-half. I’m happy with my Kindle thus far. Very convenient.
Interestingly, I downloaded a sample chapter of another book, read the chapter, and decided the book wasn’t for me. I just simply deleted the sample chapter from my Kindle.
February 3rd, 2008 at 7:50 am
I don’t see why anyone has to have hysterics - surely there is room for all. Music can still be bought in a huge variety of ways and the try-before-you-buy is excellent.
Incidentally - just found a used out of print book on Amazon that I’ve been after for ages - it arrived yesterday and it smells gorgeous.