Not Loving my Kindle so Much Anymore

OK - so it's not really Kindle's (or Amazon's) fault, but recently I've noticed that it seems like more and more book publishers are delaying the Kindle release of new books until an indeterminate time after the hardcover version has come out.  This may always have been the practice and I may not have noticed because I was so relatively new to the Kindle.  However, my impression at the beginning of the year was that Kindle releases happened pretty quickly, but paying for a new release on Kindle might cost more than paying for an older title on Kindle.  Now, it seems, publishers are giving Kindle users the option of buying the hardcover new release or waiting an indeterminate time for the Kindle release.  I've really been enjoying the convenience of taking my Kindle everywhere and not having to lug hardcover books around (or even paperbacks), but the problem is that once you start reading series of books where the next one will be coming out some time in the future, you don't really want to have to buy the physical copy in order to read it when everyone else does.  Are others suffering the same fate or is it just my own peculiarity that I want to know what happens next in the series before I forget what just happened?

Comments

[Eric Muller]

I share your concern, Jacqueline. I really want to read "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis on my Kindle ... but can't get it.

[Jennifer]

In the last issue of the New Yorker there's an interesting article talking about Kindles and iPads, and there's a discussion of this phenomenon. The example the author uses is the book Game Change. Apparently a pretty small number of hardcover copies of this book came out at the beginning of the year. They sold out, but the publishers had decided to wait to publish the e-book, so there was a stretch of time where a person just could not purchase this book. Strange, no? If you're interested in the e-book phenomenon, I highly recommend that article!

[James]

If publishers make more unit profit on hardcovers than e-copies, then they are going to adopt practices that drive consumers at the margins to hardcovers. I think it is that simple.

[Jacqueline Lipton]

But is it true that publishers make more unit profit on hard copies than e-books? I would have thought it would be the other way around because they can still charge high prices for new releases on the kindle, but the production and distribution costs must be much lower than hardcovers.

[Steven Lubet]

Only a handful of authors can make money by selling new releases at $9.99. For all of its flaws, the publishing industry has a tradition of taking risks on new authors (fiction) and significant-but-not-necessarily-profitable subject matter (nonfiction). The Kindle threatens to undermine that model, and it is not obvious how it will be replaced.

I doubt that anyone wants to see a future in which only best sellers are published. Withholding popular titles just might -- emphasis on might -- be one way to keep the industry alive.

[Jacqueline Lipton]

So that leads me to ask some other questions, Steve. Is it possible to price Kindle new releases higher than is currently the case and see if Kindle users buy them at higher price points? Also, I assumed that it would be much cheaper for publishers to release books in e-book formats as opposed to hardcover or paperback copies. Is this assumption correct? If most of the cost of production is in design and layout, then presumably the print-run of a physical book may not cost that much more than creating the e-book version? But do the relative costs of the distribution channels impact the publishers positively? Is it enough incentive to create e-book versions that distribution costs for them are so much less (presumably) than those for physical books?

[Christine Hurt]

I guess Eric and I should join a protest movement. I have clicked the "I want to read this on my Kindle" button for The Big Short about 10 times now.

[Jennifer]

Jacqueline, I have to, again recommend the New Yorker article. It actually addresses all the questions you raise in your comment, and gives an interesting history about publishers and the Amazon 9.99 price point (and Apple's proposal to raise ebook prices to 13.99). You can read the article here: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/04/26/100426fa_fact_auletta

[Steven Lubet]

The New Yorker article is excellent and it answers most questions. But for those with less time, let me respond to a couple of Jacqui's questions:

(1) Publishers cannot, for the most part, raise the price of Kindle books because Amazon has declared a price point that is intended to capture market share. The advent of other e-readers, including the iPad may change this, but for now Amazon controls market access.

(2) If publishers could make just as much money selling Kindle versions, they would not delay Kindle releases. They are stodgy but they are not idiots, so they have evidently calculated that they still make more money on hardcover books that sell for several multiples of the Kindle price. The same sort of calculation goes into releasing paperback books and DVDs of popular films.

(3) E-books are still a very immature market and it is hard to tell where things are headed. Will hard copy books go the way of CDs and, increasingly, DVDs? Or will they continue to find large audiences, as is the case for theatrical releases of films?

[Jacqueline Lipton]

Fascinating reading, Jennifer. Thanks for posting it!