Subscribe to RSS 2.0Ebooks part III
Like most publishers, our two biggest costs are wages and print costs (including returns). Wages are predictable, so they're not likely to suddenly sink the business, but print costs, especially the money that gets wasted when we get an unexpected surge in returns, is our biggest risk. It's a particularly nasty risk too because you can bank the cheque for sales, spend the money, and then many months down the line be told you need to give the money back - and pay a load more besides to your distributors to pulp stock you thought the retailers had already sold. If a publishing business dies suddenly, returns would be the prime suspect. (Granted, retailers are often to blame for this situation, but that doesn't make you any less bankrupt.)
And all that risk largely goes away if we're not maintaining physical inventory. Each additional sale of an ebook is pure profit - there are no incremental print costs - and returns are no longer a factor. Our business - if it dealt entirely with ebooks - would suddenly find that its risk profile had plummeted. And if a book really takes off you wouldn't have to agonise over whether to print a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand copies - knowing that a mistake, even with a blockbuster on your hands, could ruin you. With ebooks you can satisfy every potential sale no matter how unexpected and without betting the business on colossal print runs.
There's still the threat of unexpectedly low sales, but they're more of a risk right now, when fear of crippling returns or a warehouse full of unsold stock stops us pushing a book too hard. You'd still gamble your promotional budget in a world of ebooks, but your losses would never exceed what you spent - which isn't the case when physical returns suddenly spike. Ebooks look like taking a lot of the risk and most of the waste out of the publishing supply chain. Fewer trucks on motorways, fewer felled trees, no pulping - and any book available in seconds whenever you want it. It doesn't sound like a bad future to me.
Comments: 8
I recently started reading ebooks, and I am now hooked. I didn't think I would like them, but on demand access to a title I want to read, and the portability has changed my mind. I now prefer them!
Posted by: Julie on July 2, 2010 12:50 PM
Does this mean we'll be seeing ebook versions of Snowbooks titles anytime soon? I am a fully converted ebook reader and would love to be able to read your books on my iPad. I would prefer EPUB files so they could be used on my backup Sony Reader, but would settle for Kindle books if that was the way you decided to go.
- Neil.
Posted by: Neil Ford on July 2, 2010 01:18 PM
Interesting that you post this today. I just yesterday was blown away by this article.
Posted by: KatharineC on July 2, 2010 01:22 PM
In relation to this Rob, I'd love to know whether you think e-books should therefore be cheaper than print books, given the lower risks and costs involved? Are there new risks that would need to be mitigated in the digital market. Ideally, I'd love to see a resurgence in books due to convenience and cheap prices (kinda like the app store, which has done wonders for 2D games and 'indie' developers)
Posted by: Pete Richardson on July 2, 2010 02:22 PM
Not quite related, but s there a British equivalent to http://www.greenpressinitiative.org/
Thinking of the environmentally and ecologically minded benefits of ebooks and all :)
Posted by: Jo Thomas on July 2, 2010 02:37 PM
Bizarrely, ebooks are VAT-able, which is why in many cases they're more expensive.
Posted by: Christopher Teague on July 3, 2010 08:50 AM
Doesn't the problem lie within the system of book retail, rather than the medium? Sure, e-books fix the problem of returns, but I don't think it's necessarily the only answer.
What would the bookselling industry look like if firm sale was the norm?
Posted by: George Stirling on July 14, 2010 03:43 PM
I think eBooks are definitely a way forward, but, for avid readers like myself, who find making time to curl up with a paper or electronic book difficult to come by, what do you think of the audio book?
i subscride to Audible and listen to books for the 2-3 hours i spend driving each day.
Following on from your comments about the publishing costs for paper books and the risk that presents to the publisher, where do audible books stand?
I recently listened to The Afinity Bridge, which i got from Audible. Is it your plan to release more of the series?
Posted by: Neil on July 15, 2010 02:56 PM