Will E-Book Readers Like Amazon Kindle Open Doors for Writers?
November 19th, 2007 (3:33am) Leo Babauta 13 Comments
While the news of Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader could signal a changing trend in the way that readers consume their information, unremarked upon is how the rise of the e-book reader will eventually change the world for writers.
If readers can download books into their Kindle (or Sony Reader), what’s to stop them from cutting out the middleman and downloading directly from an author?
What’s happening to the news media (blogs vs. newspapers) and music (free downloads vs. buying a CD) and video (YouTube or downloads vs. buying a DVD) will happen with novels: the middleman will become unnecessary.
Currently, it is extremely difficult to get a novel published. A novelist might spend a few months writing a great novel, and then submit his manuscript to a bunch of publishers (or hire an agent to do it for him). He’ll most likely be rejected completely by all of them, because publishers get thousands and thousands of submissions, and can only print a handful. If a novel is accepted by a publisher, there’s a long process of editing, layout and design, marketing, and so forth, just to get the book into print, into bookstores, and into the hands of the readers.
Consider the electronic version of this process: an author writes a book (and preferably has it edited) … and sells it to you via his website. So much easier! Sure, Stephen King experimented with this unsuccessfully in the past, but there wasn’t a market then. In a few years, there might be.
So let’s take a look at Amazon’s business model with the new Kindle e-book reader: publishers will give them an electronic version of the book, and Amazon will re-sell it for $9.99. That’ll still limit most people to a few purchases a month.
But take a look at the blogging model: we give our writing and information away for free. Sure, there are millions of bloggers giving away their writing for free, because anyone can do it. Bloggers, then, have learned that to get attention and readership, they have to learn to differentiate themselves, with quality and usefulness and value. They still make money, if they can do that, but they don’t charge the reader for each post.
Will novelists eventually give their novels away for free? Only time will tell. I’m betting that those novelists who can’t get accepted by a publisher will definitely give away their content for free. I bet there are a lot of great novelists out there who don’t get published. Soon, the publishers and Amazon will be competing with free novels, and it’s only a matter of time before major authors cut out the publishers and Amazon and sell their books themselves, perhaps for half price (still getting more than they do with the current setup).
The e-book reader removes the need for a publisher and bookstore. The author, then, becomes the only important element in the business, and rightfully so.
Ultimately, the market will determine what happens, and which business model will win out, but I’m betting on the blog model: people are less likely to pay for newspapers and magazines if they can get great stuff on blogs for free.
13 Comments Post your own comment
Download Music » Will E-Book Readers Like Amazon Kindle Open Doors for Writers? says: November 19th, 2007 4:32am
[...] You can read the rest of this blog post by going to the original source, here [...]
damiengwalter says: November 19th, 2007 4:37am
The most important thing for novelists in the e-book market will be establishing their brand and their niche, very similar to bloggers. Whilst there will still be a few Stephen King ‘mega-authors’ out there most writers will be tied to relatively small, specialist audiences that they will need to build a very strong relationship with to succeed. You can already see this model in practice in Science Fiction, which is a genre that tends to adopt new technologies far earlier than others.
http://damiengwalter.wordpress.com
Download Music » Comment on Will E-Book Readers Like Amazon Kindle Open Doors for … says: November 19th, 2007 5:31am
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liveworkbalance says: November 19th, 2007 5:54am
For a prime example of how it can work, look at Cory Doctorow. He’s an author who both gives his works away for free online (under a CC license), and sells physical books as well.
He’s had a few interesting columns on this phenomenon, and where it could be going, can’t remember where, but a search should find them . . .
MLO says: November 19th, 2007 6:48am
Actually, several science fiction houses have been doing this for quite some time - even generating sales of low-run prints and creating buzz for out-of-print books.
Harlequin has also been pushing e-books - and they have an audience which is a lot more web savvy then you might think.
Pax,
MLO
Cindy says: November 19th, 2007 9:12am
Currently, aspiring writers can publish their books on sites such as Lulu.com, which, among other things, can automatically converts and generates printer-ready PDFs. If one of these ebook readers supports PDF (possibly protected ones), then it does not take much effort for anyone to publish the Next Greatest Novel.
Leo Babauta says: November 19th, 2007 10:59am
Good points … there are publishers that have doing ebooks for some time, and self-printing books for other authors …
My point is that there hasn’t been much of a market for ebooks yet … some, but not much. But if many people eventually switch to e-book readers (and there’s no guarantee that they will), just as people switched from CDs to mp3 players, there will be a huge market for ebooks. That will change the game.
Emad says: November 21st, 2007 11:50am
How about the seiko e-ink reader??? It looks better to me. 1200×1600 resolution… WOW!!!
書的革命 « Alan Poon’s Blog says: November 21st, 2007 8:37pm
[...] Web Worker Daily - Will E-Book Readers Like Amazon Kindle Open Doors for Writers? http://webworkerdaily.com/2007/11/19/amazons-kindle-business-model-is-the-wrong-way-to-go/ [...]
Computer & Internet » Blog Archiv » Amazon steigt im e-Book Markt ein says: November 27th, 2007 2:14pm
[...] Web Worker Daily “Will E-Book Readers Like Amazon Kindle Open Doors for Writers?” [...]
uARELLE says: January 24th, 2008 6:57pm
I am considering buying an electronic book reader, I just saw some good titles for this thing HERE
- Just wondering if most or all of kindles publishings are available on this reader?!?
phuketlady says: March 13th, 2008 2:57am
Find kindle bookstore, buy kindle device here, kindle books
FREE ebooks « says: June 2nd, 2008 11:06pm
[...] Leo Babauta points out that ebook devices could reduce the need for agents, publishers, distributors, and sellers that currently convey traditionally published books from author to reader. He’s not the only one who recognizes digital formats’ potential to deliver content to readers rapidly and efficiently. HarperCollins is set to launch a Web service called Authonomy that will permit writers to publish their unsold work on the major publisher’s site in the hope of attracting readers and the attention of publishers. It’s not clear how readers will be involved, but if an online community gathers on its site, HarperCollins will be able to gauge the market for digital content as well as the growing popularity of genres that are given scant attention in traditional print media. The questions remain whether readers will object to the effort required to filter content and make recommendations to each other and whether the system will be easily gamed. [...]