At this year’s BookExpo America, evidently there was quite a bit of talk about the growing acceptance by consumers of electronic books.
It’s easy to see this happening. In part because of the relative expense of the books themselves.
I think we’re witnessing a transformation in pricepoint scale as much as anything else–somewhat akin to the introduction of the paperback.
What’s also interesting here is that I think we’re likely to see the publishers squeeze out the middlemen as electronic books grow in popularity. This is what happened to the computer resellers over the last 10 years as manufacturers decided to sell direct and within the music industry as more and more people wanted electronic access to their music.
I see the most justifiable switch occuring in education–particularly higher ed where book costs are through the roof. It’s not uncommon to find books over $100 a piece. Same goes for many proceedings and the like.
Now you could argue that the high prices are due to the relatively small market sizes and the actual cost of the printed book is minimal. True. But I think by going electronic and reducing the costs of the books, the market size will grow and we’ll see an even larger total market. Maybe the total numbers will never quite be like they were, but it’ll take fewer people to sustain the businesses and profit from them. So overall it’ll be a net gain.
Along these lines, the days of the school book store as we know it are numbered. They’ll still exist as campus convenience stores, but not as book stores per se. The publishers should ask themselves: Why are they giving so much profit in each book to someone else? They shouldn’t be. This is what the publishers should be focusing on, not the physical changes to the books themselves and electronic rights and the like.
It’s funny how some industries understand how this works and some don’t.