If I Want a Soundtrack for The Grapes of Wrath, I’ll Just Rent the Movie
Published August 25th, 2011 | 
I don’t know business attire from blac label clothing, which is, I suppose, why I’m not involved in the fashion biz. But I do know the difference between a good publishing idea and a bad one. A good idea: e-books. A bad idea: adding soundtracks to e-books. Yeah, I know . . . Who the fuck wants to listen to a soundtrack while reading a book? But that’s exactly what Peter Thiel, one of the co-founders of Facebook is doing. He’s formed a company called Booktrack that will be producing and adding music to e-books.
Much like the current 3-D fad with movies, adding audio tracks to e-books is nothing but an excuse to jack up the price of an already too costly product. I suppose it makes sense to resort to gimmicks if you’re greedy and think you can make a buck, but from the consumer’s point of view, what’s the value? Be interesting to see how many of these enhanced e-books sell.
E-Paperback Writer Sells a Million, Why Can’t I?
Published June 22nd, 2011 | There’s a story in The Telegraph about a John Locke (not the philosopher or the character from Lost), who has sold over a million copies of his book self-publishing on the Kindle.
More and more the Kindle as a market for books is sounding very attractive. After all, at the rate I’m going, I won’t be able to collect much in the way of social security benefits even if that entitlement program does survive the debt crisis. So I need something to retire on. What d’ya think my odds of selling a million books on the Kindle?
Traditional Book Sales Up in 2010 . . . But Only Some Books Sales
Published May 30th, 2011 | Knew this guy in high school. Nice guy. Real cheery fellow. Loved to race around on his atv on the weekends. One day he’s racing around quite recklessly, blew up his atv power steering going up a hill, lost control and went flying ass-over-head. Lucky to be alive with only a dislocated shoulder and a few minor cuts and bruises. I was thinking about that guy while reading a blog post earlier about how traditional publisher did better than expected with print sales last year. Now, I’m not really in the “print is dead” category, but I will say that print is only doing as well as it is despite e-books and not because print is a smart and growing market.
Traditional publisher’s are like ole Randy, going about their business, pushing ahead despite difficulties. But mainstream publishing blew out their power steering a long time ago and they’ve misjudged the distance until they reach the top of the hill.
Consider the numbers: a 5% percent increase in traditional book sales sounds impressive until you break the numbers down by genre and format. Certain nonfiction books did get a bump, but fiction actually is continuing to take a nosedive. Science books are selling, but science fiction books are still literature’s unloved stepchildren. Hardback books did okay, but mass market paperbacks are on life support.
No, the whole print v. e-books isn’t Sophie’s choice for readers or publishers, but publishers do have to decide where to invest their money and so will readers.
