For those who might have missed it, best selling author John Grisham was on the Today show yesterday morning to plug his new book, Ford County, but he also had a thing or two to say about the recent web war with book pricing that’s been taking place amongst Amazon, Wal~Mart, B&N, and Target. He believes printed books are an endangered species and that the surge in popularity of EBooks isn’t helping. 
Here’s a bit from the article at Today at MSNBC:
And the price war is not the only challenge the publishing industry faces nowadays. E-books sold for the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader have eaten into profits of publishers and booksellers — and Grisham says the future looks bleak.
Regarding reading books electronically, he told Lauer: “If half of us are going to be doing it, then you’re going to wipe out tons of bookstores and publishers and we’re going to buy it all online.
“I’m probably going to be all right — but the aspiring writers are going to have a very hard time getting published,” he added.
I couldn’t agree more with Grisham. While working in the wholesale book industry, I’ve heard personal testimony time and time again (and again just yesterday even) that Amazon.com is killing the brick and mortar bookstore. But guilty of it myself, I’m quick to avoid a trip to my local book chain – saving time, gas, and money, and not having to deal with unhelpful retail workers – by buying online at home instead.
Grisham’s most recent book lists for $24.00. It’s 50% off at Amazon, making it just $11.99 to the consumer for the hardcover edition! It should be noted that most indie bookstores buy their stock from Ingram Book Distributing and expect at least a 40 to 50% discount off the cover price, currently the same price their customers can get it for themselves online. Most chains and some indies discount new releases by at least 10 to 20%, if not more, making their profit margins even smaller, but by doing so they hope to pull in a larger customer base and rely on those customers hopefully buying at least one regular priced item from a large latte to a book light. The non-book items are where their real profit lies!
How does Amazon get away with it, you ask? Well, it is possible that they probably receive a larger bulk discount thanks to lucrative contracts Jeff Bezos has probably worked out with distributors. Even a 60% discount from the vendor would give Amazon a 10% margin at the current price for Grisham’s new release. But that’s just hearsay. Instead, it’s safer to assume that Amazon is just like the regular brick and mortar. They can afford a loss on books as long as their customers are buying other non-book items. And face it, you know they are! With online shopping at its all time highest in popularity, Amazon is probably making a killing on CDs, DVDs, clothes, electronics, and more. Although books were first to fill up Bezo’s pocketbook with millions when he got started, they are probably last on his priority list today.
And we haven’t even scratched the service of the great E-Book debate. Currently, none of Grisham’s books are available on Kindle. But if they list for $9.00 to $10.00 on Kindle, after his agent and publishing company and whoever else get their share of the commission, Grisham stands to make only pennies from each Ebook sale which is probably what’s got him in a tizzy.
In the quote above, Grisham mentions aspiring writers having trouble getting published in the future. I think this is just another reason why self-publishing will continue to grow, even in E-publishing. Recently, LLBR opened it’s review gates to include all POD companies. We immediately got queries from authors who are only published on Smashwords and Kindle. That’s right! No physical print book is even available of their work! My most recent book, Stealing Wishes, sells for just $2.99 on the Kindle. I earn $1.05 in commission from each sale, and have no agent or editor that I have to share that with, unlike Grisham.
So, while I agree with Grisham’s argument, unlike him, I didn’t start my writing career before E-publishing was probably even heard of. I don’t have millions in the bank thanks to mass market paperback sales and 23 bestselling novels. Grisham published his first book in 1989, almost a decade before Amazon.com or Jeff Bezos was even heard of. Technology (for readers and writers) has changed, and I believe that as a society we have to change with it – like it or not. If Grisham self-published just one book all by himself on the Kindle, he’d still stand to make gobs of money, although the people depending on him for a paycheck might not like it. So, I applaud him for embracing the demise of the bookstore, but like rotary dial telephones and wholesome comedic sitcoms, I’m afraid it’s still going to become a thing of the past and disappear whether authors like Grisham bow out or not.
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Great article! I couldn’t have said/written it better myself.
Technology has caused many changes in the retail world. Growing up, there were many music/record stores to choose from. How many actual “record” stores are out there today? And does today’s youth even know what a record is? (Ha ha, guess I am showing my age here…) — Ack, not to mention the changes that credit cards & debit cards have brought about.
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I think everyone is getting upset about the future of books for the wrong reason. Everyone is blaming ebooks and platforms like Kindle for the demise of the publishing industry and of brick and mortar bookstores. But that isn’t the problem. New technology is fulfilling a need that the market wants: cheap reading material.
Publishing books is expensive for the traditional publisher because of marketing.
POD books are expensive because printing one book at a time costs a lot of money.
Ebooks are very cheap – and especially now with the current economy, people are happily buying cheap reads over the internet.
But people are also buying cheap paperbacks in the shops, too. A bin of marked-down titles will empty very quickly, even in a recession. So it isn’t that people prefer air to concrete.
I don’t know why the publishing houses don’t try to reorganize the way they find material to bring to the masses, or why they don’t provide their product at more reasonable prices, or why they don’t provide more ebooks to gain a wider readership. But we need to stop blaming online retailers, stop blaming the new technology, and stop feeling guilty about either supplying our own writing material as ebooks or downloading ebooks to read.
Instead of bemoaning the changes, those who sell books in brick and mortar locations need to start looking at other possibilities like the Espresso Book program, which would lower their overhead, lower the number of books that need to be hugely discounted, and shipping fees. They could launch their own web-based programs, things that would supplement the events going on in their shops.
Instead of banging their heads against the wall, those working in the traditional publishing houses should get their heads together and come up with fresh ideas, new alternatives. There will always be demand for hardback books. So provide the best quality hardback possible, and be sure it’s better than what a pod printer can create. And back that up with a kindle version that is cheap. It can only help sales and inspire a wider readership who, given an affordable chance to become an author’s fan, just might splurge on the next hardback novel.
Why not provide the first five chapters of a book for free on Kindle? It could only help sales.