DOWNER ALERT: not a fun read. or maybe it is.
So I spent an hour trying to write my blog yesterday and then deleted it I was so tired. And annoyed. So here's why I am annoyed.
I love my kindle. I love my audiobooks. I am appalled that I went to buy a book for my kindle and realized that the publisher, who set the price, was charging more for my electronic edition than for the mass market paperback. I can't begin to tell you how mad I was (am.) This is ludicrous. So I did what any right-minded person would do, I sent the company an email. I posted on my facebook and twitter accounts and now, I'm adding it to my blog.
I buy a lot of books. Frankly, since owning the kindle I've probably bought a much wider variety of authors simply because I can sample the goods. I love being able to read a chapter or 2 and realize that yes, I like this (although that doesn't always work out) or gee, no, not for me. I probably doubled the number of books that I've bought. Kindle has probably created more business for more authors than any single factor in the last 100 years.
I realize that people need to be paid for books. I do not advocate selling books at a loss to anyone. I believe in capitalism. I believe that authors should be paid good money for their ability to entertain.
I realize that there are a lot more people, other than authors, that go into a book. There is the agent, the editor, and people who make the actual paper and binding materials. Oh yeah, but with an ebook you don't have to pay them. Hmmmm. And doesn't the author pay the agent? OK. So who desperately needs this e-money?! The author is getting a bigger percentage even though there are no materials to buy.
This is simple greed. I will be listing, as I discover, publishers who do this. My intent is to do my best not to buy books from these publishers. They have shown me nothing but contempt. Eventually Steve Jobs will put them out of business and until then, I will eschew them.
For those interested yesterdays capitalist pig (by the way, not ALL capitalists are pigs!):
Hachette Book Group distributes books for the following:
Chronicle Books
Filipacchi Publishing
Guinness World Records
Hachette UK
Harry N. Abrams Inc. ...
Innovative Kids
Octopus Publishing
Oxmoor House
Phaidon Press
Time Inc. Home Entertainment.
This is per the Publishing house website of Little, Brown and Company that had the book on Kindle that cost MORE than the print edition in mass market paperback. I'll be only getting these books at the library.
Happy reading. Watch out for sharks....:)
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I slowed my book buying a few years ago. I have two great libraries in my area which I love. If I like the book, it goes on my list to buy. If I really like it, I hunt out the hardcover. I check out used book stores. I was buying everything I read but now I am more selective. I like having the actual book but realize that I will be saving lots of shelf space owning a Kindle! It isn't fair that that the ebooks cost more than the paper books. That's wrong on so many levels. Greed is not good!
ReplyDeleteThe paper and binding are a very small part of the cost of a book. Look it up.
ReplyDeleteIt's fascinating to get a comment after so long. So, to respond, I understand that the paper and binding may be a small part of the cost, however, there are the machines that create the books, the overhead for the space (electric, oil for gears, etc.), people to run the machinery, shipping, storage, and of course the cost of printing more books than may be sold.
ReplyDeleteAlso, as noted the authors are not generally getting more, and frankly, if you've read a kindle version, many are not getting the editing and proofing that they should be. Haddam's novel, Glass Houses, was a wreck.
I maintain that publishers are gouging the ebook readers. At the very least these books should be available at the cost of a paperback.