On prejudice and preconceptions…
I got a link to this video today from a friend. It’s on “The Future of Publishing”. If you’ve been seeing the recent bru-ha-ha about ebooks and their various readers and the pricing of ebooks for consumers, it’s possible to get the impression that books and reading are a thing of the past. Roll this belief in with the belief that young people don’t read, have short attention spans and don’t know anything about the world around them . This set of ideas and beliefs are what seem to be driving much of today’s marketing.
I enjoyed the video. Using the same message to express two totally opposite points of view is amazingly well done. It feed into the widely held beliefs and then turns them on their head.
Publishing isn’t dead. I’ve got a Kindle and I love it. I’ve also got tons of traditional books. I say tons because in the last move we had more books in boxes to move than the total of all other items we moved from our apartment to our house. I love reading and can’t imagine a time when I won’t read. If my eyes fail me — I’ll get the Kindle to read to me with its Hawking’s voice (imagine having a great physicist read to you).
What is most likely to kill publishing is the unwillingness of the industry to move forward. The world has changed. They way people live their lives has changed and they need to change with it. I’ll still read books on paper but the Kindle is what I take when I travel. As a computer programmer/software analyst who has helped put together a book or two to be published — I know that an electronic books should not be priced more than a paperback. There’s a big difference between making a paper-book only and then using the same file to create an electronic version and not having storage and distribution issues.
I had several books on my electronic wish list at Amazon until the pricing thing happened. Now those books are too expensive. I’ll buy them at a library sale or in a used books store. Electronic would have been nice but I’m not paying nearly hardcover sale prices for an electronic book. It’s the same reason I don’t buy DVD until they hit the below $10 sales (they should never cost more than $10 anyway). Corporations should make a profit off their work but since the creative artists aren’t the ones reaping the benefits of these too-high prices — it’s the must-make-even-more-profit that’s driving the bus. People will buy your product but only when it’s useful, usable, and priced appropriately. Otherwise most of us can find other ways to spend our money.
Companies should learn to listen to their customers. You know the people who actually buy or are expected to buy the products you produce. Listen and learn.