Debating the Delay Between Hardcover and E-book Releases
When the author Douglas Preston’s latest book Impact was released on January 5, 2010 by Forge Books, it’s safe to assume that he felt like many authors do. He felt the elation of seeing a work of his own blood, sweat, and tears realized in physical form. The book was now published and readily available to the world. It’s one of the most exciting and nerve-wracking transition periods for an author. The last thing Preston expected at the publication is what has unfolded on the book’s Amazon page.
The book’s site had become home to a series of complaints and responses that are best categorized as part rational and useful question and answer, part dirt-slinging forum, and part arena of nonsensical digressions. But at the root of this raging forum is an important question, a dilemma which looms larger and larger for publishers who are adapting to a digital reading age. The matter was bound to start bubbling to the surface eventually, and it just happened to unluckily center itself around Preston’s book, Impact. The comment that started it all was left by one Richard Askenase. See below:
Kindle delay unconscionable!!, January 5, 2010
The Kindle edition of this book has been delayed until May. Guess what? I won’t Buy it.
Apparently this author endorses this delay as being good business strategy. I’ll just read one of the other 100 books on my Kindle. His won’t be one.”
This comment sparked a debate and revealed what is becoming a clear level of reader frustration with publishers for delaying the release of e-book editions of new books. In the case of Impact, the e-book is set for release on May, 4 2010, nearly five months after the hardcover release. Kindle owners are up in arms about this, throwing words like “greedy” at book publishers for staggering their titles and going so far as to indict Preston for this delay (which is ludicrous). Here are a few of the more emotional posts about the release of the e-book:
Stacy E. Burrell says:The issue is not with Amazon, but with the publisher and author of this title. The negative review relates to the book, though not the content, and should stand. People reading the reviews can make up their own minds if the issue regarding a later Kindle release is important to them. If Amazon removes the negative comment, I would encourage others in agreement to post their own negative reviews. Again, the author and publisher opened the door to this type of criticism and this review is just as valid as it does not give false information about the content of the book.Saylorgirl says:The OP is right to give it a one star rating. If we kindle owners cannot read the book then it I feel it deserves one star (I hate it)! I would have purchased this book when it came out. Will I buy it in May when they release it on kindle? NO!! For the same reason I don’t buy paperbacks I want the book now not in a few months. By then there will be many other books I will be buying as they are released. To the Authors and Publishers you will lose readers if you don’t make the book available!Eric P. Emery says:I hate the fact that they are delaying publication of the Kindle edition. This means that I start out hating the book, because it is unavailable to me. For kindle to work, it needs to offer books and other content on the same distribution schedule as traditional formats, and at a retail around $9.99 that is discounted from those other formats because at this point it is unproven technology. I hate even more that the new Cussler/Oregon Files book is not only delayed but delayed with a Kindle retail higher than Costco’s mass market book. DUMB marketing decision. I received my kindle for Christmas. It lasted five days and died. It was probably foolish of me to preorder this book until this kindle makes it past a week of use.”
The comments, all 72 of them at this point, caused enough of a stir to warrant the author joining the fray, with what I think is a very rational contribution:
Douglas Preston says:I am Douglas Preston, the author. I think this is unfair. As the author, I have no control over release dates, prices, or editions of my books. These are business decisions that the publisher and Amazon rightly reserve for themselves. I’m a writer, not a marketing or business person. I don’t make these decisions — I just write the books.Kindle readers who give authors one-star reviews as a protest against the Kindle price, or the release date, should be directing their comments to those who make the decisions. Can you believe the person above who approves of this because he can find “no other visible place” to post his objections? This is sheer laziness. Do a little research and find out who at Amazon or the publisher is responsible for customer relations and protest to them. Post a blog or write a letter. Are you really serious that you can’t think of any other way of making your objections known in this internet age besides bashing the author? And do you seriously think think Amazon cares that you are peppering authors with one-star reviews anyway? I’m just trying to write good books, earn a living and support my family like everyone else in this crazy world. Please give me a break.”
One cannot help but understand Preston’s point. He is also apparently not the only one feeling this pressure. A quick scroll of the comments left on Amazon for the new highly-anticipated book, Game Change: Obama, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime and one can read a litany of complaints about the e-book not being released until February 22, a month after the hardcover was released.
This review is from: Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime (Hardcover)When will publishers learn no one wants to read a hot topic book a month behind everyone else. I for one will not buy the kindle version in February. I surely would have bought it last week had the Kindle version been available. This withholding tactic may work on novels but will only backfire when trying to use it on current event issues, especially politics. The same with the John Edwards book (although I am not sure I can stomach reading about this megalomaniac, period) A late April kindle release when it will be in bookstores next week? Give me a break. Stop shooting yourself in the foot. It is time to give equal treatment to hardcover and Kindle readers.”
Now that readers are buying more Kindles and with the Apple Tablet on its way any day now, how are publishers going to keep customers happy, allowing them to read books when they become available in hardcover. We have always known that technology joins us and alienates us at the same time. But this should not happen with books and technology. It does seem illogical to not allow Kindle and digital reader owners to read a book when it is available. This is the chasm that now exists between sellers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble and book publishers. For the publishers, there are hardcover sales to protect. Soon enough, as e-books become more and more popular, the theory of delaying is going to make less and less sense. Does this mean e-books will become more expensive to offset the lost profit margin on hardcovers? The answer is uncertain. But it is clear that Kindle and e-reader owners who have invested a good deal of money in their devices are beginning to voice their opinions on how the system works. And sooner rather than later, publishers will have to address these voices since their reaction is tied to their support of the growing e-reader audience and the books they publish. And who loses here? The writer? The reader? It seems there are no winners, but would the losses be more severe if e-books were available right away?
via Amazon.com: Richard Askenase’s review of Impact.
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All I can say is — elitist crap. Oh sure, if you can afford the extravagantly priced Kindle, or eCrook, or whatever it is called, then by all means, use your cash to buy something far outside the reach of the average — yes, I said it — the average reader.
Whine: “Oh, I have to wait to download this onto my eCrook reader so the Great Unwashed can get a chance to buy the book at hardback prices.”
I am sick to death of these people who spent hundreds of dollars on these things, using Amazon as a way to trash the reputation of a book. I hope each and every one of them has a Kindle failure, such as, oh, let’s see, their three year old dropping it in the toilet.
What about literacy for the masses? Or are we now so totally brainwashed by consumerism, and our me me me me society, that we are shamefully unable to comprehend that the vast majority of Americans are fighting to keep their homes, not buy some fancy elitist techno-marvel so they feel important when they sit in their coffee shop, and trash the blood, sweat and tear of an author.
Bah.
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[...] few days ago I covered the news that author Douglas Preston and his new book Impact were unfortunately being put through the ringer because fans of his work were angry his new title [...]