Pottermore: Rowling tells ebook retailers to get lost

[elf]

Rowling has finally decided to release the Potter books as DRM-free ebooks* and even physical bookstores are freaking out. (They've been "banned from selling" the ebook editions. This is a problem, because, of course, brick-and-mortar stores sell so *many* ebooks now; this will be a major blow to them. WTF?) Publishers are quick to insist that this is not a game-changer, not a major shift in publishing habits. (I'm with Wired: I think this is book publishing's Radiohead moment.)

Konrath is crowing that he was right a year ago when he said that authors, not publishers, would eventually destroy the publishing industry, if publishers didn't figure out what they actually had to offer. The WSJ says that other authors could be inspired "to self-publish when their deals come up for renewal or demand higher royalty rates than the 25% of net sales that most publishers offer today on digital editions."

Aww. Authors might notice that they have the right to set the terms for their work. Publishers might have to figure out what they've got that's worth 75% of the sticker price for the life of the book (or the life of the author + 70 years, twitch). And we'll get to actually find out if the last several years' of unauthorized ebooks** prevent the legit ones from selling.

* Current info is that the ebooks will be watermarked somehow, probably with buyer's name & either acct # or purchase order # like DriveThruRPG; I assume this'll mean they're locked PDFs.

** If anyone didn't realize there are Harry Potter ebooks already, the rock you're using for an umbrella is too big.

Comments

[trialia]

Frankly, she's just taken too long to bother with this for me to care. I've already scanned my own paper copies for personal use, so she'd have to offer something extra for me to think it worth paying again for them.

[elf]

I've heard a rumour that they'll be .epub files. I'm *fascinated*; I want to see what watermarked .epubs look like.

If the price isn't hideous (and there's no reason it should be; no middlemen to deal with) and there aren't bizarre hoops to jump through, I'll buy at least one to see what it's like; I may buy the whole set.

I expect that, like the Tolkien ebooks, these will sell plenty well despite pre-existing unauthorized versions. If the "watermark" includes something like a front page that says "this ebook belongs to [buyer name]," I could see them selling ridiculously well--and by taking control of the whole sales front, she's got the ability to make them customized like that.

[flo]

I've also heard they will be ePubs, and heard that Amazon is supposedly working with her on the format. If this is the catalyst for Kindle reader apps and whatnot to finally support ePub, I will be over the fucking moon.

[dreamatdrew]

ePub on kindle = great idea.
As long as AMZN doesn't CONTINUE the stupid and ignore the 2nd gen/DX versions for updates.

[supermouse]

If not, there's always Calibre, which is pretty seamless when converting from epub to mobi.

[boundbooks]

The other thing to keep in mind is that this might represent one of the few chances for most of her US fans to get UK editions (aka the correct version) for the early books. I'm willing to bet that since she's not going through her publisher, that the ebooks will likely be the original UK editions, which are not widely available in the US (barring pirated copies, which aren't necessarily everyone's cup of tea). I know the latter books in the US were the UK versions, but the early books (especially the first) were pretty Americanized.

[flo]

Honestly, I have no idea why physical bookstores are freaking out about her making her ebooks available herself. It's like they think she should make her business decisions based on what is best for them rather than what is best for her-- which is pretty much what she is doing.

[boundbooks]

I think it's a rather stupid mindset, at least some of the quotes I've seen:

"We're therefore disappointed that, having been a key factor in the growth of the Harry Potter phenomenon since the first book was published, the book trade is effectively banned from selling the long-awaited e-book editions," he said.

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2011/06/24/harry_potter_books_to_go_digital_in_july/

Apparently, they didn't realize that their profits were coming from the physical books they were selling, not some kind of psychic lease on the whole series. >_O

[flo]

It's the word choice there that really gets me-- "banned", as if it's not her own copyright that she is exercising, as if she's taking something from them when they never had it in the first place. You really have to wonder what the physical bookstores think they could add to the transaction that is worthy of them getting a cut. It's not like most of them already sell run-of-the-mill DRMed ebooks, much less universally usable/readable formats. And they certainly haven't been championing ebook sales or helping the market get to where it is.

Now, I can see where they'd be concerned about her ebook sales cannibalizing their print sales, but then you have to ask if they wouldn't have been screwed anyway if the loss of her print sales would really hurt them.

[boundbooks]

"Now, I can see where they'd be concerned about her ebook sales cannibalizing their print sales, but then you have to ask if they wouldn't have been screwed anyway if the loss of her print sales would really hurt them."

Mmhm. Most of the people who want the Harry Potter books already own them, with rare exceptions (myself), so the rate of purchase is nowhere near where it was originally. As you said, if HP print sales were keeping them afloat, they're probably already walking-dead. :P

I'm guessing that we'll see things akin to the music industry, where a lot of bookstores will go under (like music stores), but those that remain will provide whatever it is about the transaction (vinyl, collectibles, staff, unique selection, shows, who knows what) that is worthy of them getting a cut.

[elf]

BECAUSE SHE'S NOT LETTING BOOKSTORES SELL THE EBOOKS. They did all this incredible work to make her rich, and now she's abandoning them by cutting them out of the profit-stream.

Because of course, every ebook sold is a lost paper sale, and as soon as she starts selling these, bookstore sales will evaporate, because nobody will ever want Harry Potter products on paper again.

[boundbooks]

I am so, so happy that they'll be DRM-free. I would not have bought them if they'd had DRM.

At the same time, I don't think this will fundamentally change the need for publishers, because like Radiohead, this really does require an established presence to work.

I think John Scalzi (who is a published, bestselling author who also put out his first two books for free online), actually had a rather good post about it: Why In Fact Publishing Will Not Go Away Anytime Soon: A Deeply Slanted Play in Three Acts


However, I bet it will change the likelyhood of established authors renewing deals.

[elf]

I don't think publishing is going away, but it's going to go through several big changes, which may include bankruptcies at very high levels.

Authors will still need editors, proofreaders, doc-formatters, cover designers, advertisers, and get-books-to-customers business managers. Some of them will be happier taking on these tasks (or the management thereof) themselves; others will continue to outsource them.

But they may not be willing to pay 83% of the cover price of the book, forever, for those skills. And they won't have to. Because there *will* be tiny startup publishers, willing to do excellent editing & design, for 30% of cover price up to a cap of $10,000 per book, or whatever set of numbers is reasonable. There will be publishers who say, hey, it costs us [$X.xx] to edit/format/cover a book, so we want [$X.xx + 50% of X] from each book, plus Y% of the cover price for as long as we list it for sale in our catalog, listing by annually renewable contract.

Publishers won't vanish, but they need to re-think who their customers are (it's no longer "bookstores") and what constraints their content-providers (authors) have. They're about to lose their grip on the top-end authors who gave them space to be sloppy with everything else.

[boundbooks]

"Publishers won't vanish, but they need to re-think who their customers are (it's no longer "bookstores") and what constraints their content-providers (authors) have. They're about to lose their grip on the top-end authors who gave them space to be sloppy with everything else."

Ooh, this is very true and interesting. I'm really interested in seeing what a publishing industry might look like where mid-list authors are who the publishers have to bend over backwards to please, because the ones whose sales take off then leave their publisher. I think it'd be cool, because it'd probably end up in taking a lot more risks and better service for those authors.

[elf]

I expect that, before things improve, publishers attempt to get lock-in by making new authors sign hideous non-compete contracts that mean "we own everything you write forever."

And those authors will be screwed. Current mid-list will regain their rights when the print books go out of print (because publishers won't want to bother trying to hold on to authors they've got no legal strings on) and some of them will go on to be super-bestsellers. And the next wave *after* the screwed-over authors will be a lot more wary, and publishers will *then* have to start negotiating real terms instead of the "trust me" approach. Especially if some author's group manages a class-action lawsuit based on falsified royalty statements.

[boundbooks]

"I expect that, before things improve, publishers attempt to get lock-in by making new authors sign hideous non-compete contracts that mean "we own everything you write forever.""

That is so true. /sigh

I think I am too optimistic, sometimes, since historically there are far more examples of HolyCowOverReactionDeathStruggle by a current business to a change in media/paradigm than actual, real, constructive change. =/

[elf]

The good news is that, despite annoying numbers of authors who will get screwed over by a publishing industry going into a death spiral, there are many many more authors who will figure out how to take advantage of the new opportunities and business models.

Which is not soothing at all to the ones who get screwed, or their readers. But being an author (or any kind of creative person) for money has never been easy or a guaranteed way to make a living; that one model is dying (I'm pretty firm on that belief) doesn't mean that All Art And Creativity is dying with it.

I'm eagerly awaiting the subscription-recommendations services that will spring up as paid-access blog sites, where a group of people write recs for good ebooks, at least 30k words worth/day (1 novel, or a handful of short stories) for $1/day per subscriber.

[supermouse]

Thankfully, there's a growing body of online literature dedicated to showing new authors how to self-publish and market their own books. I have read that there are now several mid-list authors who are making an actual living purely out of their own self-marketed e-books, although I can't remember names.

[elf]

Konrath is making a frightening living out of it. Plenty of midlist authors have reclaimed their rights & discovered that there's still a market for their books, and even if they don't have all the advertising leverage of a major publishing house, getting 70% of the cover price instead of 17% makes a big difference in the take-home pay.

I'm not sure how many of the authors at Backlist Ebooks are supporting themselves off their efforts, but some are doing fairly well.

[supermouse]

I don't think I have actually seen that site before. Thanks for the link, and also for expanding on my comment with actual names and so on.

[nashira]

My love for JKR will be tripled if she goes with drm-free epubs, no lie.

[jumpuphigh]

This is what anti-DRM proponents really needed. It has the potential to bring the debate out of geek corners of the internet and into mainstream homes.

Although this cracks me up:
To cope with the possibility of so-called 'piracy' the ebooks will feature a digital watermark that will identify who purchased the book. This will allow authorities to track down who shared an ebook with the rest of the world, and those users could be faced with lawsuits for copyright infringement.

If it's DRM-free, I can just remove the watermark before sharing. *rolls eyes* Or maybe I'll just share a version that is unofficial since there are already so many of those.

[stasia]

HOMG, there are HP ebooks already?!

*snort*

I do think that this move is the spearhead for the larger shift of authors away from the current publishing model, but really I just wanted to be silly for a second.

Stasia

[supermouse]

I will probably buy the whole set. I want them, I will read them more in that format[1] than any other and I can afford to, ah, 'encourage' other authors I enjoy to follow suit.

[1]'that format' being 'whatever format it was but fed through Calibre and put on my Kindle'.

[cavocorax]

I agree. I'll probably at least buy the first one (assuming reasonable prices) to encourage others to self-publish non-DRM books at reasonable prices.

[cathepsut]

I really don't get why everybody gets so bent out of shape about sharing ebooks. I've been sharing paperbooks for 30 years and nobody cares...

[elf]

But sharing ebooks means making a copy, and that's TOTALLY DIFFERENT from handing over a paperback! Because, um. It doesn't wear out the original, and you can give it to twenty people at once, or a hundred, or EVERYONE ON THE INTERNET.

Why, if people were allowed to just give a copy of their digital content to anyone who wanted it, software & ebook providers would all go broke. That's why Baen went bankrupt years ago.

(Mainly? Publishers had been unhappy with libraries and secondhand bookstores for generations, but couldn't find a way to stop them. They've now found a way to prosecute people who enjoy content without paying for it, and they think this is going to get more people to buy books, rather than turn to alternate free content.)