Kennedy’s Memoir: A ‘True Compass’ for E-books?

Currently occupying the number two spot on Amazon’s bestseller list: Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s memoir, True Compass, which the publisher Twelve released today.

The book True Compass is trailing? Dan Brown’s new thriller, The Lost Symbol, which won’t be released until tomorrow. It seems a little unfair, cosmically speaking, that Kennedy hasn’t stolen the number one spot, especially given that Brown’s book hasn’t even been released. But there are a few possible explanations as to why the late senator’s book occupies the number two spot: Not everyone loves Teddy. Many readers are politically indifferent, and many Teddy fans aren’t readers. Even many—or most—Kennedy fans aren’t interested in shelling out money to read his book. Add to that Brown’s loyal following and the weeks—months, years—of hype surrounding The Lost Symbol, and you’ve got a pretty hefty Amazon pre-order payoff. (That said, Kennedy’s death was its own sort of publicity for the book.) It also doesn’t hurt that Brown’s book has an initial print run in excess of 6 million books (compared to True Compass‘ first run of 1 million books), which means more books to pre-sell.

But here’s another factor that could be hurting True Compass, however slightly: Twelve isn’t releasing an e-book version of Kennedy’s book. At least not for now. The Kindle version of Dan Brown’s book will be available tomorrow, which has made it possible for The Lost Symbol to benefit from both print and digital pre-orders. As an added bonus: Digital versions of the book cost $9.99. A print version of Kennedy’s book runs $19.25 on Amazon and $35 at stores that charge retail.

According to the Associated Press:

The head of Twelve, Jonathan Karp, said Thursday that the delay was a “business decision” and added that the pictures and illustrations in “True Compass” cannot be duplicated in e-book form.

“It (the delay) does not reflect any larger corporate policy,” said Karp, whose imprint is part of the Hachette Book Group. “We publish each book individually and we felt that this particular hardcover edition of ‘True Compass’ deserves to be the first and pre-eminent format for the book.”

Will Twelve’s decision to stick to print hurt sales of Kennedy’s book? Maybe a little. After shelling out a couple hundred dollars on a Kindle or Sony Reader, some people may refuse to buy any book that’s not available in digital. Twelve may have also been taking a calculated risk based on the book’s likely audience: older Americans, Kennedy’s contemporaries and the generations that saw his brothers get killed. In other words, readers who don’t rely solely (if at all) on digital technology for their books.

I’d also gamble that, regardless of generation or one’s side on the print/digital divide, most people who really want to read a given book would rather opt for the paper version than forgo reading the book altogether. Maybe they’ll wait for the release of the cheaper paperback version or for used copies to make their way onto Amazon and other book resale sites, but they’ll read it in print at some point if that’s the only option.