Diary of a Mad Editor

Dear Mad Editor,

You can have your ebooks. For me, real paper books still rule.  A story I read the other day in the online edition of the New York Times suggests that ebooks aren’t that big of a deal. I just can’t understand all this hype about ebooks.  They don’t appear to be selling all that many off them if less than 2% buy them. I don’t know anybody who reads them.

— Book Lover

Dear Book Lover,

I’m not going to argue with you about whether eBooks are superior to paper. That’s such a silly, schoolyard debate anyway and I don’t believe I ever said that eBooks were superior to paper books — on this blog or anywhere else. And far be it for me to point out the irony of you reading an article about eBooks on the digital edition of a paper newspaper. I will start off by saying that I, too, read that article you’re referring to. I think that maybe you didn’t read the entire article.

Anyway, let’s talk about those numbers in that article. Sure, hardcopy books still account for 91% (that’s hardcover, trade and mass-market paperbacks combined) and eBooks only account for 2% of sales (I would argue that this number is a bit understated and the real number is closer to 5%). Okay, 2 percent. Consider that just a few short years ago, that number was effectively zero. Also note that hardcopy book sales have declined overall in that same period. The trend is that hardcopy book sales are declining (especially mass-market paperbacks which, if you are paying attention, represents a decline that contrasts nicely with eBooks growth over the last few years which, I might add, supports what I’ve been saying about eBooks competing with the mass-market paperback).

Now, if you just look at the numbers in the article without digging any deeper, you can kind of understand why the big six publishers are putting so much of there time, energy and money into hardcover bestsellers in the chain stores. Most of the sales are still in the chain stores like Borders and Barnes and Noble. And hardcopy sales (mostly hardcovers) to libraries still represent 29% of the market according to the article. But, here’s what the article also says, albeit not so explicitly: The market for e-commerce sites like Amazon is growing. How does a major retail chain compete with an e-tailer when one can buy just about anything — even cigars online, from the privacy of one’s own home without waiting in long lines? The answer is that brick ‘n’ mortar retailers have to offer more than books to entice people into their stores. You’ve got to give the customer a "shopping experience". You go into a Barnes and Noble, they give you WiFi hotspots, they’re selling coffee. They’ve got a jazz quartet playing in the background. Big fluffy chairs and puppet shows. It takes a lot to get people in the door, keep them happy and keep them in there long enough to sell them something. And even with all that and deep discounts, it’s still a struggle. And, like most retailers, they make their biggest sales at Christmas time. In fact, the chain stores are much more dependent on the holidays for sales numbers than Amazon is. And what about Independent booksellers? Well, they’re becoming extinct. Even before Amazon, the big chain stores were picking them off. And if the big chains stores are having a hard time keeping up with Amazon, you think the remaining chain stores are having it any easier?

Libraries. There are a lot of things happening with libraries that are either forcing them to close or forcing them to scale back. Libraries are supported by tax dollars and donations and there is simply less of that money to go around. So libraries aren’t buying as many new books. They aren’t investing in repairing old worn-out books. They aren’t maintaining as many subscriptions to periodicals and newspapers. They’re looking to digitize as much as possible. Many libraries have already signed onto Google’s massive book project. Many more will follow because it’s more cost-effective and efficient than to doing it themselves. This is problematic for publishers because now the efforts to preserve books as a cultural artifact is at odds with efforts to make money from books.

The point is, books are going digital. It’s a digital world. eBooks are just a small part of that world right now, but it’s all relative because hardcopy or digital makes no difference — the analog world is so last century. And if big publishers attempt to hold onto that analog fantasy, it’s not hype to suggest that they are hurting themselves in the long run.