In June 2011, I did something that I swore I never would. The soon-to-be-ex-husband had been asking me to do it for weeks and I had continually delayed the decision. Eventually, pressure from peers and friends – who raved about it and drove me half-mad with curiosity – made me cave in. Afterwards, I found myself racked with guilt that in the knowledge that I had turned to the dark side. When I admitted to it on Facebook, a virtual torrent of opinion was unleashed and some of my on-line friends admitted that they were massively disappointed at my decision. I was amazed at the depth of emotion on the subject. But I did it anyway.
I had taken ownership of an Amazon Kindle for my birthday.
Since then, I’ve enjoyed the guilty pleasure of being able to download books in a couple of minutes, (I’ve never liked waiting for anything, anyway, so this is nectar to me), and having the luxury of carrying lots of lovely books in a lightweight virtual folder has been bliss. But this isn’t the full story because, if you could look at my bedside table, you would see four paperback novels piled on top of said Kindle.
All of this has made me think – if I’m torn between the novel and the virtual version, then just how does this reflect around the world and how does the future look for reading? Will the virtual novel leave the paper version lying in the dust, or will there be a revolution in orthodox book publishing?
According to engadget.com 12,000,000 e-readers were shipped in 2010. Around 700,000,000 books were sold in the same year, with 22,000,000 Kindle books being sold by Amazon. This is a scary statistic for those who are steadfastly holding on to their paperbacks, shaking their heads in disgust at those who have crossed to the supposed dark side of e-reading.
Even our tiny local library has joined the revolution. Tired of being left in the technology doldrums, with falling borrower numbers, Bridgend County Borough Council libraries, in South Wales, have started offering e-books in addition to the orthodox paper versions.
I wanted to find out how the e-reading phenomenon is changing the world of the writer, too, so I decided to use Facebook to see how successful writers are being influenced by the changes in publishing.
First, I asked Tiffany Murray, author of Diamond Star Halo, about whose decision it was to convert her novel to electronic format for resale. She told me, ‘Nowadays you sign an e-book contract with the publisher, via an agent. This is a temporary contract with a temporary royalty percentage, so that the agent has the right to change it at any time. This is because nobody really knows what’s going to happen with the e-novel.’
Percentages, of course, dictate the motivation behind converting novels into virtual versions. Tiffany clarified this, ‘The market norm (for e-books) at the moment is 25%, whereas paperback is just 7.5%. And every book deal that’s been signed over the past five years will contain a separate e-book contract.’ So the decision is clearly a no-brainer for any writer, but what of the buyer? What price-point incentive is there for them?
I checked out a couple of my favourite novels on Amazon, the current market leader in all things e-book, and it appears that there’s generally just a twenty to thirty pence reduction in Kindle books compared to the conventional versions. Of course, there’s no cost for delivery so buyers can download instantly without paying a premium for having the book available immediately.
Annette Green, a literary agent whose clients include Sarah Salway, gave me her take on the subject. She said ‘Almost all of my clients publish their books electronically nowadays. And the decision to publish this way has definitely affected paperback sales.’
But does the rise of the e-book really mean the end for the real thing? Both Tiffany and Annette confirmed that, while they both own electronic readers, they are still energetically and enthusiastically purchasing orthodox books from local retailers. And how are book retailers fighting this newest challenge to their business? They’re finding new ways of providing that personal service to customers – for example, one retailer in Herefordshire is providing a free, next-day bespoke delivery service in a bid to hold on to market share. And it’s working.
And what’s on my bedside table these days? Well, there’s the infamous Kindle, which currently contains some fifty-odd books, but it’s sandwiched between three novels and a biography – all paperbacks. I have a feeling that, while the e-reading sensation will continue to increase in popularity, there will always be a place for the paperback – after all, nothing can compare to the smell of a freshly-discovered novel, the discovery of a story as physical pages are turned. Time will tell…
*Originally published 2011
Jayney rambles... 