It is easy to buy books on the Kindle. I actually like the reading experience, because I can read what I want anywhere.

Sometimes I feel like nonfiction, so that's what I read. Other times I want an entertaining thriller, so I pick one up.

The point is that I don't have to bring a backpack full of books with me. In fact I even have the iPhone app so that I can read while waiting for attendees to show up to meetings.

Yes, I have a website. Yes, I am on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Shelfari, and blog about books, and yes, I think booksellers should be interested in selling to me. I know that sounds arrogant, and it probably is, but I do buy a lot of books.

twitter.com/thenextwriter
http://www.douglasLperry.com
douglasLperry.wordpress.com
adventures-in-creative-writing.blogspot.com

I agree. Publishers should be doing more to court high-volume readers. They should also be bundling things like hardcovers/e-books/audiobooks, when possible to give value to the consumer.

– Michael

I'm sure they're out there, but I haven't seen any blog posts saying the opposite.

But I am the ereader type. I have three books going at any point in time. One print book for places like the bus, the bus stop, and my bed before night-night, one audiobook for the car and the dishes and the yardwork, and one ebook on my laptop or netbook for reading while I'm waiting for some code to compile at work.

And, yeah, I blog about books and talk about books a lot.

What I'm saying is that Godin's idea can be applied more broadly. By going beyond print, not only to eReaders, publishers can make it possible for big readers to have more opportunities to consume their products.

Plus there's the simple sense of expecting fairness among consumers. Whatever the costs of acquisition of titles, and the cost of converting to non-print media, consumers are well aware that electronic media, electronically distributed are WAY WAY cheaper than print media. And they expect a cut of the savings. And they should. And you will alienate them, the way the music industry did, if you don't cut them in.

I, for one, get all of my audiobooks from the library or from an Audible subscription, otherwise I can't afford them. The retail audiobooks are severely overpriced.

A couple of things:

1.) I think the idea of voracious readers helping to market a book (via their blog, etc) is spot-on. I can't see somebody championing the Kindle version of a book…

2.) I don't buy CDs – ever. It is too much of a hassle. I can go to iTunes, listen to what I want, and then download it immediately. It's cheaper, easier, and – of course – faster than having to deal with going out. If anything, it seems like e-books would increase the sales of a particular book (not to mention the sales coming from actual books). Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like that is a good thing? 😉

3.) Re: inferior work. I don't know if I buy this. You can just as easily pick up a book at a bookstore and read a couple of chapters – I just did this with Libba Bray's "Going Bovine". I liked it, so I bought it. I don't know if you can say somebody isn't aspiring to create excellent work in this context…but, I may be wrong (it's happened…once.) 😉

Anyway, thanks for this…it makes me want to consider buying an e-reader….gasp! (you know, if my wife will let me…)

Thanks, as always, for your thoughtful response. I think I read what Godin's saying a bit differently. He's saying that e-book readers can be a book's biggest advocate. When a Kindle user blogs about how great a book they just read was, I don't think they're going to mention that they loved the Kindle edition in particular. By appealing to these high-volume folks, they're arming them to be advocates for their books.

If Amazon and Wal-Mart are willing to drop the price on hardcovers BELOW the price of e-books, maybe Amazon is willing to use the top bestsellers as loss-leaders on the Kindle, giving publishers time to figure out how to adjust their business models (not that they were really working all that well, anyway).

– Michael

I'd say the Kindle app is responsible for me tripling my reading.

On the other hand, if you're publishing books that are relatively expensive (mainly for publishers to acquire and for consumers to buy), then no matter how much sense it may make in the long term to embrace ebooks, in the short term, the transition to 9.99 books might be really rocky. I don’t have an MBA, but in what consumer product sector does moving your best customers from a high price, high margin product to a low price, low margin product not result in serious turmoil? The trick isn't so much getting the consumer buy-in or selling the actual books, it's staying in business while you do it.

Are there ways to navigate this transition? I’m sure there are (and it will be an exciting time to work in books), but I have no doubt that there are as many wrong answers to the question “How can publishers transition to ebooks without going out of business?” as there are right ones. And I’m pretty sure many of the wrong answers are fatally wrong.
It seems like Godin is saying "ebooks will make your business stronger!" but he's neglecting to mention that this is only if they don't kill your business in the process.

You make an excellent point and it's been my experience, too. Pirating, whether music, books, movies, whatever, offers exposure to people who wouldn't have sought out that stuff in the first place. And in many cases, this has led to sales, not only to the person who originally downloaded the item for free, but to their friends and family, who then get them recommended. I'm all for paying artists and authors — I aspire to be one– but I'm far more likely to support an artist or author whose primary goal is to create excellent work than those seeking to profit from mediocre work. If publishers want us to buy, they'll publish quality (and take risks on something new) to sell.