Friday News: ebook sales drop, female representation in tech already dropped, punctuation evolves, and Sociality Barbie rules
Publishing NewsAgency pricing / Amazon / Barbie / Ebooks / gender / History / Instagram / parody / publishing / punctuation / Satire / technology18 Comments
E-Book Sales Fall After New Amazon Contract – Is anyone surprised? Or rather, does anyone really think that publishers care? Given traditional publishing’s reliance on the hardcover, what, precisely, is the incentive to encourage higher ebook sales? In fact, the comment below about higher sales of paper books suggests a belief that paper and digital books are interchangeable for readers. Which is one reason I refuse to buy a new paper copy of a book I find to be too expensive in digital.
Pricing e-books is a Goldilocks problem for the book giants: For years they worried that consumer prices were too low, and now they are seeing the disadvantages of bumped-up prices. Publishers said the current pricing model involves some sacrifice but they felt it was worth it to keep Amazon in check. What’s more, they have noticed a bump in sales of physical books that is possibly related to the higher price of digital books.
To figure out how to set prices, a team of data specialists at Macmillan’s Manhattan offices in the Flat Iron building sifts through a database of 74 million transactions looking for trends. Amazon looms large in that decision-making: It accounted for 64% of the U.S. e-book market, by units sold, during the second quarter, according to Codex. –Wall Street Journal
THE 26%: WOMEN SPEAK OUT ON TECH’S DIVERSITY CRISIS – Since 1990, the percentage of women in computing has dropped almost ten percent. In a field like robotics, the numbers are even worse, as the recent DARPA Challenge demonstrated, with only 5.2% female participation. This five-minute interview with Melonee Wise of Fetch Robotics is motivating (Wise is amazing) and also frustrating as hell. There is nothing natural about the lack of female representation in tech, as Wise’s own experiences clearly demonstrate.
This summer’s DARPA Robotics Challenge finals, a major matchup of leading engineers from around the world, was designed to push forward the field and highlight its possibilities.
But it ended up underscoring a serious problem for the discipline as well: Among 24 teams composed of some 444 competitors, only 23 were women, an imbalance that the Washington Post and other publications highlighted.–Re/code
The mysterious origins of punctuation – A great primer on the evolution of punctuation, which depended not only on new technologies (the printing press, computers), but also on religion (e.g. Christianity’s emphasis on written texts rather than oratory) and cultural and linguistic shifts.
In the 3rd Century BCE, in the Hellenic Egyptian city of Alexandria, a librarian named Aristophanes had had enough. He was chief of staff at the city’s famous library, home to hundreds of thousands of scrolls, which were all frustratingly time-consuming to read. For as long as anyone could remember, the Greeks had written their texts so that their letters ran together withnospacesorpunctuation and without any distinction between lowercase and capitals. It was up to the reader to pick their way through this unforgiving mass of letters to discover where each word or sentence ended and the next began. . . .
Aristophanes’ breakthrough was to suggest that readers could annotate their documents, relieving the unbroken stream of text with dots of ink aligned with the middle (·), bottom (.) or top (·) of each line. His ‘subordinate’, ‘intermediate’ and ‘full’ points corresponded to the pauses of increasing length that a practised reader would habitually insert between formal units of speech called the comma, colon and periodos. This was not quite punctuation as we know it – Aristophanes saw his marks as representing simple pauses rather than grammatical boundaries – but the seed had been planted.–BBC News
Hipster Barbie Hilariously Mocks Being “Authentic” on Instagram – Hate the endless stream of spontaneous (aka posed as hell) selfies on Instagram? Then check out Sociality Barbie. So brilliant.
Happily, there’s a new account that is is doing a perfect job mocking the social struggle that is Instagram. Meet Socality Barbie, who recognizes the struggle that is finding those “perfectly candid” moments to share with your friends. With her tousled brown hair, thick-framed glasses and occasional heart-foam latte, she’ll make you laugh at the joke that is authenticity on Instagram.
It’s now become so complicated to simply share moments, now that those moments need to be perfectly planned out, complete with a variety of hashtags for optimum likes. There are even aggressive articles making the rounds about how you’re failing at Instagram that detail the unspoken rules of the site. –E! Online
I refuse to buy an ebook that is more than the paper version. If publishers can discount the paperbook version, why can’ they offer the same discount for the ebook? Why discriminate against ebooks? After all, it is another to provide their product to readers. My personal answer is to download the sample and wait for an ebook sale. However, more and more I am returning to the library. I think my annoyance finally hit a high, when I bought the paperback version of a romance because it was cheaper, but then the print was large. The book could have been half the size. (Personal note: I have a pet peeve with the word count of most books these days. I really really wish that authors were allowed to deliver a higher word count so that they could deliver “fuller” story. Too often I feel as though I am getting an enlarged short story that reads with a wallpaper atmosphere.)
I don’t think I’ve ever paid full price for an eBook. Most of the eBooks that I’ve bought started out at $7. If I’m going to pay that, I still want that tactile experience of petting the pages of a paper book. Though I read on my PC or tablet, it just isn’t as intimate an experience for me as holding that book in my hands. Maybe I’m too old school, I don’t know. But I do know I’ll pay the extra few bucks for that experience before I’ll pay that much for an electronic platform.
@sandyl: I agree with you! It seems any more that unless it’s a long established author, the newer books are shortchanging the reader because they’re rushed to stay within a certain word count limitation. When I’m reading a great story, I want the whole story, not one missing the last 50 or hundred pages.
Higher ebook prices wont drive me to buy print; they’ll drive me to self-pubbed authors, sales and the library.
I object to paying more for an e-book than for the paperback. It means that there are series that I no longer read.
My uncle was a Jehovah’s Witness. One night he argued with my mother about the punctuation of what Jesus said as he was dying on the cross. He wasn’t impressed that when my mother pointed out that the original bibles were not written in English with modern punctuation.
@theo:
I am glad that I am not the only one who looks at an $7.99 book with large print and thinks “What!?” I thought I was being a little picky.
Count me in with those who won’t buy an e-book priced higher than the paper version. I don’t buy paper these days, so I also have given up on series I enjoy because of the cost. Also, I reread so often I rarely use the library for books. Some of my favorite authors never go on sale and that means no more of their books for me. I want to support the author, but refuse to spend more for a book I can’t lend to a friend than I would for one I could lend.
One thing is we’re starting to see more females in tech fields within television and other media which might help bolster the professions a little as more teens and kids see these characters. One of the benefits are characters like Felicity Smoak (Arrow) who is arguably one of the smartest tech people in the DC World currently (at least on television), Caitlin Snow (The Flash) a well-respected doctor who also works with genetics, Oracle (DC Comics), Happy (Scorpion) a mechanical genius, Simmons a bio-chemist (AOS) etc. We’re starting to see more of this and they all types of women who are fleshed out as characters.
I have bought I paperback book and 1 hardcover book for myself in the past 2 years (and the paperback was on sale – had it been full price, I wouldn’t have bought it) – all the rest of my purchases have been ebooks. I have also become far more reluctant to purchase ebooks at full price even if they are by favourite “auto-buy” authors – I just can’t justify spending over $10 (Cdn) on an ebook which I may or may not enjoy. At this point, I have probably purchased 50% fewer books this year and I am either borrowing the books from the library or waiting for the book to come on sale. Chances are that if my library doesn’t have the book (preferably in ebook format) or if it doesn’t come on sale, I’m probably not going to read the book. I have a TBR mountain (e and paper) that will probably last me for the next five years, so unless something drastically changes with respect to ebook pricing, I don’t think that I’m going to be buying many books for awhile, except when I see something I really want “on sale.”
Interesting both my Mom and I have moved away from ebooks. I will buy them if they are significantly less expensive than a paper book, but if given the choice or the difference is only a dollar or two, I would rather have a book I can hold in my hands and also lend to each other if we want.
Publishers: if digital and print are interchangable, how about letting us lend, borrow, exchange and own digital books, without geo restrictions?
Becuase a book I can only read on a certain platform, with a certain app, and which might disappear any day at the whim of the publisher/seller (Amazon and 1984, IIRC), or of the lending service (scribd), is not the same as that print book which I can tape back together, read under full daylight/streetlight/candlelight/etc, lend to a friend and steal it back five years later because s/he never returned it.
So DON’T tell me its worth more.
Publishers don’t care what readers prefer price wise as long as they can control their bottom line. What they want is control over Amazon the way they control the brick & mortar stores with their release date controls, return policies, etc. Amazon won’t play their game so they’re being petty. That said – considering the vast range of price and quality – is anyone really surprised by the high amounts of ebook piracy going on?
I may not be a super reader (although I’m probably close most years), but I’m definitely a super buyer. And, these days, I buy almost exclusively digital (with the exception being books with a lot of artwork and other visual content–mostly nonfic, cookbooks, craft books, etc.). Like the other posters, I’m buying fewer books by mainstream publishers. I rarely preorder. I won’t buy an ebook that’s priced the same as a paper book. I certainly won’t buy an ebook if the paper book is less expensive (that makes me feel as if I’ve been spat in the face, frankly). I dump more and more books in my massive wish list(s) and maybe remember to check on them later for a price drop. . . or maybe not. At this point, I literally have more books than I can read in my lifetime. If I don’t finish a out a series or miss out on a terrific read–well, I’m just not as bothered about that as I once was. There are just too many other options for me.
I also want to say that I’m excessively annoyed with the people who still harp on what an evil corporate entity Amazon is. STFU–I have no patience with that. I’m not naive; I know Amazon is a business like any other, is interested in its bottom line, and doesn’t do things out of a sense of altruism. Regardless of their motivation, as a consumer I appreciate that they’re willing to go up against publishers (and Apple) to get a better deal for their customers. The big publishers are happy to put out products that are increasingly of lesser quality at higher prices. The message to consumers is bend over and take it. No, I’m opting out.
I have watched the books in my digital wishlists over the last many months as they never or seldom budge on price. So glad we went through the whole agency pricing lawsuit because now we have … agency pricing. It’s ridiculous. And, no, publishers don’t care that I buy primarily self-pubbed books and routinely pillage my library’s shelves. They will not-care themselves right into oblivion.
I just have to shake my head at the stupidity of the major publishers. They have succeeded in losing large numbers of power readers and buyers (including myself) because of their asinine pricing policies. I’m one of those readers that much prefer to read in e-format thanks to my failing eyes and my failing carpal tunnel wrists. If I can’t get the book at a reasonable price in e-format, I flat out won’t buy it. These days, I’d say I buy maybe 1 ebook a month from the major publishers and zero physical books. On the other hand, I probably buy 20 self-published books a month. What they don’t seem to understand is that we are all still reading and still purchasing, we just aren’t doing it in their neck of the woods. If you continue to disrespect your customers long term, eventually it won’t matter if you change your policies, your will have lost them for good.
This post made me wonder about my own reading and purchasing patterns. (I moved to e-books in 2010 and I’ve never looked back.) Because I have a love affair with spreadsheets and I compulsively make lists, I had the data to take a look. (Although, when I went to look up how much I paid for the books I read, I realized I should be keeping better track of what I bought. How many books do you have to have in your TBR pile to be considered a Neurotic Book Hoarder? Never mind. I don’t want to know!)
So far this year I have read a total of 45 books published in 2015. Of those, 17 were borrowed from my library, and the remaining 28 were purchased.
Of those 28, the purchase price was as follows:
2 $.99
4 $1.99
7 $2.99
7 $3.99
4 $4.99
1 $5.12
1 $5.99
1 $7.99
I rate my books on a scale of 1 to 5 (at .25 increments because that’s what neurotic spreadsheet list makers do.)
My average rating for those books borrowed from the library was 4.18.
My average rating for those books I bought was 4.23.
By purchase price:
$.99 2.65
$1.99 4.31
$2.99 4.29
$3.99 4.25
$4.99 4.5
$5.12 4.25
$5.99 4.5
$7.99 5.0
Who published the books I purchased?
15 Self Published
4 Forever/Sold by Hachette Book Group
2 Pocket Star, Gallery Books/Sold by Simon and Schuster
2 Carina Press/Sold by Harlequin Digital
2 InterMix, Berkley/Sold by Penguin Group
1 William Morrow/Sold by HarperCollins
1 St. Martin’s Griffin/Sold by Macmillan
1 TKA Distribution (Self-Publishing Arm of Knight Agency)
Who published the books I borrowed?
6 Berkley, InterMix, NAL, Signet/Sold by Penguin Group
5 Love Inspired Historical, HQN Books/Sold by Harlequin Digital
3 Sourcebooks Casablanca
1 Loveswept/Sold by Random House
1 Lyrical Press/Kensington Publishing
1 Gallery Books/Sold by Simon and Schuster Digital
I will also note that one of the books I borrowed from the library, I ended up purchasing. (A definite 5 star read! It is not included in the purchased book data.) I purchased the book when it was briefly on “sale” for $7.99 (the regular price is $9.99). Apparently, I am willing to pay up to $7.99 for a few select books, but my sweet spot appears to be between $1.99 and $4.99, with $2.99 and $3.99 being the “right” price.
Dear Publishers:
Thank you for raising ebook prices. Since I can no longer read paper books due to health issues, your increased prices have driven me to seek out ebooks at the library, and now my monthly book budget has dropped from around $50 to $0. Meanwhile, I’ve read around forty borrowed books in the last five weeks. Almost all of them would have been purchased over the next few months if they’d been reasonably priced. Instead, most of those were in the $7.99 – $11.99 range. A number of them had been sitting on a “if it ever goes on sale” list, some for years.
I’m going to be saving a LOT of money going foward at this rate. And only 2 or 3 authors will continue to be auto-buys. It’s a shame, really, because in truth I’d rather just buy my ebooks as I have for years, but who am I to whine about saving all this cash?
Best regards,
Victoria
With rare exceptions, if I buy a fiction print book, it goes to the used book swap/sale within a few months, unless others in the family want to read it.
I get a most of the print books I buy from the book swap. On the other hand, the e-books I buy generally don’t get shared. So, if the publishers manage to get $7 out of me for a print book, that means someone else can buy it when it is still new-looking without publishers getting a penny from the sale.
The thing is, they can easily count the sale of e-books and paper books. They can’t easily count the resale of lightly used paper books. In many parts of Maine these days, there are few bricks and mortar bookstores that don’t also sell used and many areas are just served by Amazon, Walmart, and the second hand store’s large selection of used books.
But just because they can’t/don’t count it, doesn’t mean it’s not a significant part of the market.
There’s a ton of sexism in the programming/computing world. A friend who has an incredibly impressive resume was recently turned down for a number of jobs. When the recruiter asked for feedback, he was told that she “seemed like a nice lady” but they were looking for someone who would “drive results.” Her resume is full of results she’s driven, so she probably didn’t match their idea of someone who can “drive results.” A lot of guys at that level have the ego and bluster of Trump and talk about how they are assholes to get results. Obviously, people can’t wrap their heads around the idea that results can be gotten some other way, even if it’s on a resume and they could have talked to a number of references to check.