The Five Misconceptions

THE FIVE MISCONCEPTIONS The dictionary widget on my Apple dashboard defines the word “misconception” as: (noun) a view or opinion that is incorrect as a result of it's primarily based on defective thinking or understanding. I had hoped that my earlier post on e-books would be my final, at least for some time, since I am of the firm opinion that all this e-guide discuss is the classic tempest in a teacup. But all this zany business over the weekend between Amazon and Macmillan brought all of it again up once more. The blogosphere went into a full-on panic spiral, and all these goofy assertions had been raised and discussed and argued over . . . why? I’m going to try to break it down into five key misconceptions. . . . The Silliest Misconception: Amazon (or Apple) is or shall be a monopoly. Starting with the goofiest one first, which is that Amazon successfully has a monopoly on the e-reader/e-book market and if they don’t, that's their sole goal, and they're well on their approach to making that happ en, again, if it isn’t already the case. If, like me, you acknowledge that monopolies are a nasty thing, you’re in all probability really nervous that this has happened or will occur. Rest straightforward, people. According to an R.R. Bowker survey outlined in the Publishers Weekly article “The Nook Arrives,” the Kindle accounts for about 25% of the e-e-book market. Since e-books are maybe 1-2% of the entire publishing enterprise, which means the Kindle is firmly in control of 0.25-zero.5% of the total publishing business. I wasn’t capable of provide you with a clear share of the market an organization must management to be thought-about a monopoly as outlined and prohibited by the Sherman Anti-trust Act of 1890, the Clayton Anti-trust Act of 1914, or the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914, but I think we are able to all stipulate that less than 1% is hardly a monopoly. In that same R.R. Bowker survey, the iPod and iPhone combine for 24%, and when you correct for the fac t that not all Kindle books are sold by Amazon and not all iPhone/iPod compatible books are sold by Apple, they mainly have the identical share of the enterprise, which is definitely dominated (42%) by desktop or laptop computer computers. No one has a monopoly on both the gadget or the software format. Now, I truthfully can’t communicate as to whether or not either or both of Amazon or Apple try to become monopolies in any marketplace, nevertheless it actually, actually, actually is secure to say that as of right now, neither of them are, and both have a really, very, very long way to go before they get thereâ€"and the SEC and FTC received’t allow them to do it, anyway. I even have little question that Amazon needs you to purchase a Kindle and download books from their website. Apple needs you to buy an iPad and obtain books from their website. Building one thing and offering it on the market isn't inherently an act of evil, neither is it a warning of monopolistic aims. The Bus iness Model Misconception: All e-books should or would be the same value. The argument at the coronary heart of the Amazon-Macmillan mud-up is Amazon’s one-value coverage that sets the worth of a Kindle edition at $9.ninety nine. Macmillan wished more like a consignment cut up and the power to set their own prices. I think Amazon over-reacted by taking Macmillan’s books off sale for nonetheless short a time, especially since this one-value coverage is both foolish and already actually not actually happening. But then we heard all kinds of accusations from the blogosphere of worth fixing, and other shifty if not technically illegal practices directed at both Amazon and Macmillan (and by extension the community of publishers). I get that Amazon needs to be sure that their costly single-use device has lots of software obtainable for it, assembly the extensive-ranging demands of the most important possible number of potential customers. The Kindle with no guide to download into it i s useless, and it only starts to be useful if a fairly large variety of books, in a wide variety of subjects, are available. The Kindle needs content material, it wants it now, and at a price that’s competitive with paper books. Again, this is not an act of evil, nor is it the large dangerous loss-leader that destroyed music retail. It’s okay if publishers, including Macmillan, set a producer’s advised retail price (MSRP), and it’s okay if any retailer, massive or small, takes that because it actually is: a suggestion, not a mandate. Since authors are historically paid a royalty based on MSRP, and discounts are likewise based mostly on that, everyone’s getting paid, nevertheless it’s the retailer who’s setting aside some revenue so as to discount the e-book and drive prospects into their store. The $9.ninety nine Kindle e-book is a lot more short-term and fewer dangerous than Wal Mart’s deep low cost on finest-selling hardcovers, since Wal Mart doesn’t depend on bo oks for its survival the best way Amazon does. That pricing devalues books in a method that they could not recuperate fromâ€"in a method that CDs by no means did get well fromâ€"and that’s something we must be wringing our arms over more than the jittery, momentary little e-guide value struggle. Until and unless one of the e-guide gamers really reaches “monopoly” status, they’ll be combating it out, and since it’s clear that no one will become a publishing monopoly, that competition will continue. Ultimately, everyone, including Wal Mart, has shareholders they need to fulfill, and shareholders don’t prefer it if you sell one thing for less than you paid for it. It’s going to look fairly chaotic on the market whereas a number of gamers jostle for their piece of the increasing e-book market, however eventually these costs will discover a new plateau and we’ll live onâ€"precisely the identical method it shook out in the music business: totally different, however not ess entially worse. The Destructive Misconception: Creative content ought to be free. Where do I even begin on this one? Didn’t we all think this was going to finish with the massive lawsuits towards Napster? Well, if anything it’s gotten worse. The idea of “pirating” artistic content (music, films, books, etc.) has turn out to be a part of the day by day lives of tens of millions of individuals, many if not most of whom don’t even understand they’re doing it. These aren’t thieves sizing up a convenience store, fingering the loaded weapons within the pockets of their hooded sweatshirts. These are average ordinary people who would by no means in 1,000,000 years stroll into a Barnes & Noble and shoplift a duplicate of the brand new James Patterson audio book on CD, but will happily obtain it from whatever web site a fast Google search sends them to. They don’t even get that it’s unlawful, a lot much less that it’s immoral, unethical . . . all that stuff that by some me ans just appears to fuzz out in the consequence-free glare of an LCD monitor. If you steal a book that I actually have written you might be actually taking meals out of my kids’s’ mouths, and out of the mouths of all the kids of all of the people who depend upon that guide to make a residingâ€"and there are extra of those people than you assume, imagine me. Oh, yeah, and none of us are rich, and even when we were, we could solely have gotten wealthy if people value our creative efforts, solely need to get wealthy if what we do attracts a paying viewers. None of us need to be stolen from. Don’t you dare ask any of us to do this on a volunteer basis, until you’re willing to do your job for free, and so is everybody else. Short of the establishment of some type of goofy communist “utopia,” which is never going to happen, I can’t pay my electric invoice with stats on what number of times a PDF of Whisper of Waves was downloaded. If I create one thing of value and you want it, fee in full is required at time of service. You just don’t have a proper to free stuff. Not books that price upwards of one million dollars or more to produce, not pop songs that can price as a lot as that, too, and never copies of a $100,000,000 film. If you're taking it at no cost, and more people do, too, you will find your self at a degreeâ€"very soon, thoughts youâ€"where the books cease publishing, the pop songs cease taking part in, and the film feed is turned off. You have completely no right to free content. Yes, you too. The Asshole Misconception: Everyone but me is grasping. Ah, now that I’ve called you a thief, your response is that I’m some huge rich greedy bastard who just desires to soak you for money. Me, and Amazon, and Macmillan, and Apple, and everyone else who isn’t you. First off, when you’re illegally downloading free content material, it’s you who're the greedy, unethical one, not me, so reside with that. If you suppose $9.ninety nine is an exc essive amount of for an e-e-book however don’t count on to get it free of charge, now we can have a conversation. I are inclined to assume that e-books ought to be priced the identical as probably the most present paper version of the identical book. So when the book is out in hardcover at, say, $26.ninety five, the e-book version must be $26.ninety five, however when the $7.99 mass market edition is launched, the e-book ought to go down to $7.ninety nine. I suppose the business is basically in the means of adopting this mannequin, or one very near it. This makes essentially the most sense, as it avoids devaluing literature (or name it “printed leisure” if you wrestle with calling Twilight or I, Alex Cross “literature”). Printing is pricey, and paper prices fluctuate wildly, making publishing a business with razor-skinny revenue margins in the most effective of instances. If we may be allowed to make up a little of that on the e-book, it's going to help us survive to searc h out the subsequent Harry Potter, the following Da Vinci Code, or anyway, the following e-book you wish to read. It is not a sign of rank greed that someone asks you to pay for something of value. At $9.99 for a Kindle version, $26.95 for a paper hardcover, or $7.ninety nine for a mass market, imagine me, no one is gouging you. We’re making single-digits profits at greatest, and as many as 90% of the books printed in any given yr make no profit in any respect. If you suppose $9.99 is an excessive amount of to pay for an e-guide, don’t purchase them. If sufficient people feel the identical method, and e-e-book sales stop growing or dwindle, trust the market to react to that and are available again at you with $8.99, then $7.ninety nine, until the business is both confirmed untenable (and that can occur long earlier than anybody offers up and simply provides it to you at no cost) and disintegrates, like, say, the marketplace for typewriters, or we find a new e-book “candy spotâ € that satisfies shoppers, publishers, and retailers alike. The Highlander Misconception: It’s come down to Amazon vs. Apple, and there can be only one. We should have the ability to get by way of this one in fairly short order. Amazon and Apple are actually set up to be two of the major gamers in the e-e-book marketâ€"little question about that. I additionally suppose it’s easy to assume that we have seen only the start of this head-to-head competitors between know-how powerhouses. It’ll be fun to observeâ€"until the iPad has a nice Kindle software, the iBook retailer provides Kindle editions for sale, and Amazon sells the iPad and various apps and e-books. If that occurs, and I’d be willing to wager good cash it's going to, then everyone wins and also you decide whether or not or not you need the more expensive but extra versatile iPad or the cheaper but single-use Kindle, and both method, you’re reading your favorite authors (who are getting paid for his or her bother) on your chosen system. I know, a part of me desires to observe a VHS vs. Beta slugfest, a Pepsi vs. Coke battle to the end, however the larger part of me acknowledges that it actually isn’t going to happen. Both Amazon and Apple will have successes and failures. Amazon is going to need to learn some hard lessons from the 1984 debacle, and this newest kindergarten slap-battle with Macmillanâ€"and they're going to. Apple tends to let their first adopters assist them de-bug their newest device. I discovered after buying my orange first-generation iBook to give them a healthy waiting interval before shopping for a new Apple gizmo. This time subsequent year the iPad might be smarter, higher, and the same worth (just you watch). Ultimately, what I hope everybody gets out of that is that every thing really really might be nice. Fine for authors, fantastic for publishers, fine for Amazon and Apple and Mobipocket, and everyone else. Except maybe brick-and-mortar bookstores, however I’m making an attempt not to think about that. â€"Philip Athans About Philip Athans Good piece, Phil. One quick observe, since there's a Kindle app presently for the iPhone, and the iPad will be able to run pretty much all iPhone apps, you'll, at time of purchase, be capable of get Kindle editions on an iPad. They received’t be within the fairly iBooks reader app, however they’ll be available. 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