Minor Thoughts from me to you

The NYT’s Media Decoder blog reports that one publisher has decided that free (or low priced) eBook editions might be just the thing to get customers to buy books at local bookstores.

“We spend a lot of time lately trying to figure out how to sell books in this new world order,” said Elisabeth Scharlatt, the publisher of Algonquin, part of Workman Publishing. “And particularly to help booksellers to sell hardcover books, which seems increasingly difficult. So this seemed like one way of calling attention to a book by giving an incentive to the customer.”

Several publishers have experimented with bundling, whether by grouping several e-books together for one price or selling a print book paired with an e-book. “Consumers are starting to feel like, ‘If I’m buying the book, why do I have to buy it several times to have multiple formats?’ ” said Robert S. Miller, the group publisher of Workman.

This seems like a case of publishers coming late to the party. I was discussing this with friends and family when I bought my first Kindle, 3 years ago. We all agreed that it would just make sense for dead-tree books to come with a free (or very low cost) eBook edition.

I do question the publisher’s motivation though.

If physical bookstores continue to disappear, publishers worry, their books will not have an opportunity to be discovered by customers who wander into a store without knowing what they want to buy. Sales of print books have suffered in the last year, while e-book sales have soared.

First, I think eBook sales have soared because eBooks are far more convenient than dead-tree books. That certainly explains why my own eBook purchases have soared lately. The critical metric shouldn’t be one format versus another but rather total number of books sold. (Or, perhaps, total revenue.) By those metrics, I think my purchases are up compared to previous years.

Secondly, I think the model of browsing through book store shelves is dead. Growing up, I tried. Occasionally I found books to buy that way. But, more often, I found myself looking at books wondering “who buys this?”. I found my books through 2 primary routes: browsing the shelves of my local library and checking out what my friends were talking about. I think both of those models are easily transferred to the digital world.

My local library just started offering eBook loans earlier this year. All of the biographies and memoirs that I’ve read this year have come from the library. I enjoy browsing the website to see what’s new. It’s true that the library’s website isn’t as nice as it could be and that the browsing options could use some work. But those are issues that can be fixed. The basic model is sound.

I still get recommendations from friends too. But, today, my “friends” include the entire internet. I can easily get recommendations from Glenn Reynolds, Jerry Pournelle, Sarah Hoyt, and many, many others. Book stores are filled with books that I’ll never have an interest in, picked by no one in particular, and arranged with no particular care. Book publishers should focus less on mass market stores and more on communities organized around special interests. I’m far more likely to buy a book recommended by someone that I respect than I am to buy a book that I walk past on a store shelf.

Finally, publishers have an opportunity to become their own way for readers to discover books. Publishers, you have editors and your editors have taste (at least I hope they do). Use that taste. Market that taste. Tell readers that your imprint offers them a special flavor of reading. Then use your website to draw them, expose them to new authors and new works. Make it easy and convenient for them to buy directly from you. Make yourself a destination, for readers to find new books that they know they’ll enjoy because they know they’ve enjoyed other books that you’ve published.

I can think of three publishers that do this well: Baen Books, Tor, and Crossway. All three have a specific “voice” that the reader can rely on. All three feature recent books prominently on their home page. I can rely on all three to present books that I’m very likely to be interested in reading. If I’m bored and wondering what to read next, I know I can visit their sites and be assured of finding something interesting. That’s good for me, that’s good for the publisher’s bottom line, and it’s good for new authors that the publisher is featuring. More publishers should be like that.

Do we need bookstores to help readers discover new authors and new books? I don’t think so. I think we need publishers to realize that they’re living in 2011 not in 1950 and that bright, new opportunities are waiting for them as soon as they catch up to where their readers are.