Amazon just sent out the most bizarre and hysterical, and also infuriating, letter to [I assume] all of its customers who publish on Kindle [including punctum]. Things are definitely getting weird for Amazon to reach out to its publishing customers this way. They actually want some of us to write letters to the CEO of Hatchette, protesting Hatchettes protest of Amazon for its unfair pricing practices [and yes, believe me, they are unfair -- for example, as soon as punctum lists a book on Amazon at X-price, always low, Amazon within 24 hours slashes that price, with no regard for our already very slim profit margin]. You can read their letter here: readersunited/ And here is my response: Dear Amazon -- You must be kidding me; I am the director of a small press -- punctum books [punctumbooks] -- and your aggressive discounting [including the Kindle Match program] make it extremely difficult for us to even keep our heads above water [indeed, the amount of labor required to convert just one book into a Kindle epub far outweighs any possible profit from Kindle editions priced at $2.99, unless you are in the business of publishing bestsellers, which most of us are not even trying to produce -- there is a vast audience for all sorts of books that do not necessarily become bestsellers and publishers exist to cultivate writing for all sorts of genres and niches and are not necessarily trying to capture the whole market or the whole bottom line -- yes, some bigger publishers make it their business to do this, but most of us are trying to serve smaller markets and this is where Amazons fights with the bigger publishers are really hurting people]. Books are not just shallow object commodities with a one-time minimalist use, like Kleenex. The amount of time and effort it requires to produce high quality literature [whether fiction, non-fiction, what-have-you] is immense and requires professional, highly skilled and trained talent, and that deserves to be compensated, especially when reading itself [whether a novel or historical narrative or political commentary] is a life-enriching activity. I dont mind paying more for quality shoes that help me run better and keep fit [Nike] or for long underwear that will keep me warm if I want to climb Mt. Everest [Patagonia], so why would I object to paying for a book that will enrich my mind and quality of life [similar to music, tickets to the theater, etc.]? Just because a book is available on Kindle does not make it cheaper to produce -- the delivery platform is different than a printed book, but all of the highly-trained labor it takes to produce the text remains the same [and the cost of advance print runs is a very small slice of the overall cost of producing a book], so why should it be cheaper? Not to mention that, as a reading device, Kindles are terrible, especially when compared to something like the iPad. Kindles may make up 90% of the e-reader market, but its not because they represent the best technology -- indeed, they are the worst -- but once again, Amazons bully tactics and monopolizing guarantee that customers are forced to buy Kindles if they also want to buy e-books from Amazon, which doesnt give them a choice of e-readers. Of course, affordable books matter, and publishers would never disagree with that, but saying that $14.99 is too much for an e-book, versus the $9.99 you want to force publishers to accept as a list price, completely disregards both what books are inherently worth and what they cost to produce. Thank you, Amazon, not for supporting book culture, as you claim you do, but for decimating it. And please dont frame the argument with the historical context of the arrival and rise of the paperback as some sort of corollary to what is happening with print versus e-culture. Publishers are very happy with a book culture that includes a rich diversity of delivery platforms -- hardbound print, paperbound print, digital, and beyond -- but we also need to be able to recoup the costs of cultivating this book culture you claim to care about, and in a manner that helps support the livelihood of those who have actually devoted their lives to book culture (authors, editors, publishers, bookstore owners, teachers, scholars, etc.), and who are not looking to get rich, but to merely have enough to get by and continue doing what they love to do -- contribute something of value and beauty to the world, as opposed to just greedily robbing it blind in the name of the bottom line. Sincerely, Eileen Joy
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 13:32:32 +0000
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