As I sit here with a stuffy nose and a box of tissues in my hand, I stumbled across this article in the Wall Street Journal online about ebook publishing dates. It seems that two of the large publishing houses, who obviously have marketing geniuses working for them, have decided to push back publishing dates on new releases in ebook form. So anyone with an ebook reader will have to wait 3-4 months after the original publishing date to purchase it.

I read this and wanted to bang my head against my Kindle screen. Seriously? A quote from the smart guy in charge of one of the houses:

“We’re doing this to preserve our industry,” Mr. Young said. “I can’t sit back and watch years of building authors sold off at bargain-basement prices. It’s about the future of the business.”

uh huh. Just because this doofus brought up bargain basement prices I would like to bring up Stephen King’s Under the Dome. This is one book that the publishers are holding off the ebook for until December 24. However, Amazon and Walmart were selling preorders of the hardback version of this book for $9.99. Even now at Amazon the hardcover version is only $14.99. I can’t help but point out that if they were selling the ebook version of this book at $9.99 or $14.99 right now they would be making off with quite a bit more profit and a lot less bad press. (Side note: I do realize that the sellers may be taking a hit in this scenario, but shhhh my point isn’t as effective if you think about that!)

Anyway, my point is that it is obvious some publishers just don’t understand ebook readers. I bought a Kindle for many reasons, but a few of them are:

1. Space. I simply do not have space for a bookshelf of books. I live in a tiny 1200 square foot house with 2 adults and 2 very loud children. Space is a valuable commodity and no matter how much I love urban fantasy, I just don’t have room for bookshelves filled with paperbacks I still need to find time to read. Over the last year I have read more than 240 books…. that would need to be a seriously large bookcase. Because of this, even if you prolong the ebook release to boost hardcover sales…. I will not be one of those buying a hardcover. I imagine this is true of many ebook readers. Why would you spend $25 on a hardcover if you could wait 3 months and get it on your kindle for $10? All you are doing is pissing me off and doing a good job of convincing me NOT to purchase your ebook versions either.

2. Convenience. I love my Kindle because on release day I can have my brand new book to read within seconds. No amount of date pushing is going to change my love of convenience. I am not going to pack my 2 wild things up and head to the bookstore to get something on new release day. Again, all you are doing is annoying me that you care so little for my time.

3. Price. Being able to buy ebooks at a lower cost was a minor factor, but still one I considered. Even with that said, I am happy to shell out anywhere from $5 to $15 for an ebook. I don’t think that is unreasonable. I prefer to spend under $10, but if it is something I love I will put out a bit more. I wish someone out there could explain to me how the publishers are losing out so much by charging $10 on an ebook that has no shipping/distributing costs when they are willing to sell it to me for $7.99 in paperback? Surely paperback would be the lower profit margin when you compare the two? I venture to guess that most people buying ebooks are also paperback buyers, not hardback buyers.

I am curious to see how this works for these two companies. I forecast that that they will not see an increase in hardback sales, but instead will see a decrease in ebook sales as people boycott them for being idiots or look to illegal ways of finding these books or just getting them from the library. You would think that the Harry Potter books being the most pirated book in history could offer a lesson of sorts, but eh….

Additionally I think they will lose ebook sales simply because not all ebook readers are obsessed with release dates and make elaborate spreadsheets ~looking around at my fellow book bloggers~. With a hard publicity push for the hardback release dates, people notice, they make impulse buys when they hear about titles through word of mouth or blogs (especially at amazon.com). With ebook sales starting months later I think it gives time for people to forget about a title/author that looked interesting or move onto other books that are available. Unless a reader is really connected to an author or series, how many will remember to pick up that book later on? With ebooks its so very easy to give in to that impulse and hit the buy now button. Amazon seems to get it, a quote from their spokesperson:

Authors get the most publicity at launch and need to strike while the iron is hot. If readers can’t get their preferred format at that moment, they may buy a different book or just not buy a book at all.

In the end, I think I am just tired of publishing houses looking at ebooks as the “big bad”. Several reports have shown ebook readers to actually purchase more books than other book readers. Someone needs to take their thumbs out of their bums and use this momentum to figure out how to make it a win/win for all parties involved. Now, I think I need some chocolate after all of this ranting. I am curious for all my ebook readers out there… do you buy hardback version as well?