According to the little count-down functions I have built into my “Read and Review for Dragon Con” spreadsheet, there are 21 days left for me to get the job done, and I will need to read and review an average of 294 pages per day. That's a LOT, and I'm pretty sure I never worked this hard, even when I was in graduate school.
Only 24 hours ago, however, I was pretty sure I was NOT going to have to work that hard. The reason? 16 of the books nominated were not available to me through my usual sources. Last year, I was able to obtain all but six of the finalists, but it was looking pretty dreary for my prospects this year. I addressed some of that in my blog post on Thursday.
Unexpectedly, a wise and beneficent individual, and one who REALLY wants some reviews turned in, arranged for me to get quite a few e-books, and I'm given to understand that some paperbacks are in the mail. It's pretty amazing, actually, and I'm very grateful.
At the same time, I'm aggravated by the lack of access. Now, in THIS case, I'm not talking about my personal access. I already addressed that issue the other day, and I'm not gonna do so again. I'm talking about the lack of access to the reading material to everyone in the universe.
If You Have To Ask: You AIN'T Authorized!
This is NOT one of those “information wants to be free” rants that hackers use to justify stealing other people's stuff. I absolutely believe that people who produce goods and services deserve to be paid for those goods and services, and that a reasonable marketplace is going to make that happen. It's just that I don't think we HAVE a reasonable marketplace right now, because of some archaic business practices, which I shall now enumerate.
First: I took the list of Dragon Award finalists, in the four categories I review: SF Novel, Fantasy Novel, Military SF/F, and Alternate History. I looked on Amazon to see what these items would cost to access, in ONE (only) of four different formats: Kindle e-book, Audio-book, Paperback, and Hardback. These are, by the way, what may be the best-case scenarios; if a book was on sale, I picked the sale price. I ALSO picked the price that was listed for ME, and I am an Amazon Prime customer. I did it that way, because I just wasn't sure if some of the discounts were available to everyone, or just to Prime customers, and I didn't want to make the outcome any worse.
I emphasized that the prices are for ONE (only) of the formats. The reason for that is that there are special deals available for audio books for people who have a Kindle copy. It's a pretty deep discount in all cases (as in, $7.49, instead of $25 -$35); in one case, the cost of the audio-book is a semi-bizarre $1.99, instead of $29.99.
I also included ONLY the Kindle purchase price. However, I DO want to comment about Kindle Unlimited separately.
Finally, not every book is available in all four formats. All offer an ebook and a paperback edition; two offer no audio-book, although I understand from the publisher that those are in the works; eleven of the 24 are not available in hardback.
And now, I rant. A bit.
I think we all expect the audio-book prices to be elevated, they DO require some significant work. And we are accustomed to paying higher prices for hardback editions of books. But e-books? Heck, they ought to be cheap. You have one single set-up for the entire thing, and that's pretty much it. Storage cost? Nope, no warehouse needed. Distribution costs? Fiddlesticks. Inventory control issues? Management of returns? Additional print runs? Strike through ALL of that stuff.
I am NOT an expert in the publishing business. I DO, however, know some people who ARE experts in the publishing business, and they are selling e-book editions for ONE THIRD (or less) the cost of their paperback editions, and they are making money doing it.
SURELY, percentages aren't the entire story. If you are selling a paperback for $10, it's not unreasonable to charge $7 for an e-Book, and that's 70%, so I don't see that as an issue. You might disagree, and bless your heart for doing so!
But what possible justification can you use for charging MORE for an e-book than you do for a paperback? That's the case for SEVEN of the books on this list. And TWO of the books on the finalist list have e-books that sell for more than the hardback edition.
(Errm.. the Kindle Unlimited thing I wanted to talk about? Out of time. But I wish to point out that LAST YEAR, there were eleven KU selections among the finalists; this year, there are only five. And that goes to access, which I discuss now.)
Forgive the rant, if you can. It's just that I see this as limiting access to science fiction, in at least TWO ways, and it bugs me.
Decades ago, I was one of the pre-teens reading under the covers with a flashlight when I should be asleep; now, I'm reading on my iPad when I should be asleep. How is the field going to attract new readers if the next generation has to pay through the nose for the privilege? That's limit one.
You read until you use up all of the oxygen.
Then, you stick your head above the covers, and breathe
Limit two is maybe more subtle, but I am of the opinion that it's the more insidious. In decades past, Traditional Publishing controlled access to an intellectual property with a physical presence. With the advent of e-commerce, MUCH of that structure is obsolete. If they can just get control of the market, though...
Okay, I'm stopping there, because I may transform into a werewolf if I keep going. Please do not take this as a criticism for any of the books, or any of the authors. Unless they are indie, or with a small publishing house, it's not likely they have anything to do with book pricing. I PROMISE I will be reviewing each book on merits, insofar as it is possible for me to do so. I just had to get this off my chest.
Which appears to be getting furrier...AAARROOO!!
Translation: Peace be on your household.
No comments:
Post a Comment