Hardcover Vs Paperback Books: LongTail, Tipping Point, Piracy, Pricing & Usability

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Just yesterday I cam across this book by Clay Shirky Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. Now I am a great fan on Clay Shirky, I was about to pick it up but didn’t as it was hard-cover, I inquired about the soft-cover version but since it is just launched in India it won’t be available for sometime.

• I won’t definitely miss something by Clay Shirky but but a soft-cover book would be at least 200-300 INR less than the hard-cover. Since I buy lots of stuff which I never read, I am usually concerned about the pricing too.
• The book looked bulky to me, cos I carry my laptop which is already stuffed with so many things. The soft covers I find are more user friendly, specifically travel friendly. Most of my reading is actually while travelling and hence the concern.

I posted this question on LinkedIn and got some good replies but I am of a different view or may be with limited vision. I don’t get the explanation on marketing, collectors items, more profit on hard-cover types. I wonder if Book Publishing Industry is playing Ostrich and acting like Music Industry by sticking the age old formats and distribution structure.

The Profile of Me, The Reader:

I am a voracious reader and I atleast consumer 100 pages of text everyday - feed readers, blogs and portals.

My reading is limited to non-fiction and the subject area of my work, field and industry. That’s why Clay Shirky is all the way more important read for me.

I read when I am back home in the evening and I would anytime prefer a book than some TV show. Plus with speed reading tips from Tony Buzan I can do power reading over the weekends or when I am travelling. Usually when travelling abroad I at least have 2 books on my target.

Hardcover Vs Paperbacks / Softcover & Digital Publishing

Paperbacks are easier to carry and easy on the pocket too.

Paperbacks  give you that light feel and it would also appeal to less avid reader who get intimidated or have excuse looking at the big and bulky books

Paperbacks  can actually give you much more readership - as some class of readers are always price sensitive - college student, young professionals, housewives, and retired people.

Paperbacks  if it may not kill but at least control the piracy to some extent.

Industry should focus on creating readers and fan following for authors, not the collectors.

Readership is not about books - it’s about the time slot and the industry is competing with portals, blogs, aggregators, social networks, mp3 players, online video, TV, Newspaper and so many other things related to content consumption.

I think Chetan Bhagat has got it right. His books comes almost near if not equal to the cost of some high-end magazines and he has not just created fan-following for himself but lot many people who otherwise don’t buy books would never think twice before buying his books. They would thus get introduced not just to reading but also to the habit of buying books.

And if you believe it in Long Tail and the Tipping Point : Won’t it make more sense to create long tail readers and not just collectors. Won’t it make more sense where you create so many readers that it almost brings tipping point not just for a particular blockbuster bestseller but to entire industry and market

The reading habits are changing - the content is now consumed in capsules. Take the example of a book called Groundswell. It was almost a repetition for me. The social technographics was known to me few years back and I keep track of various blogs which talk about the subject. The book was good and related to my industry but I have had the capsules long time back and still I am on it on a regular basis.

The Industry cannot rely on few top best-sellers, just imagine how affordibility can changes the dynamics of the book publishing and the consumption.

Environmental conditions also provides a pointer to take a new approach towards the materials used in book publishing. From glossy thick pages encased in hardcover to thin re-cycled pages tucked in paperbacks.

Content Consumption is moving to digital screens, I don’t see any publisher doing some radical stuff on that front.

Of course not all content can be ready for screens - but why not for books less than 250 pages or so - can we show them in Wiki format ?

Why can’t the distribution be changed ? Subscribe to a publisher and download the chapters each week, or make micro-payments for just the chapter that you want to download.

Supporting Trends and Data

• Press release on PRarticle.com, July 2008: Book Sales in Decline as US Economy Contracts
• The book business in the United States in 2007 registered $29.93 billion in sales, producing 2.377 billion units, about the same as 2.383 billion in 2006, according to the Book Industry Study Group.
• While the book business has been relatively stagnant in recent years and even months, it now appears to have turned the corner downward.
  Net sales of books in April fell 3.5 percent to $472.7 million, based on data from 79 publishers as reported to the Association of American Publishers.
• Not all sales were down. Among the book categories registering increased sales were inexpensive e-books, up 19.9 percent to $3.4 million; university press hardcover sales, up 12.1 percent to $5.6 million; adult mass market sales, up 4.7 percent to $53.2 million; adult trade paperback sales, up 4.5 percent to $118.3 million; and audiobooks, up 1.7 percent to $12.6 million.
• E-book sales rocket up at Random House, Penguin, S&S and elsewhere
• Last week Random House announced sales for e-books were already more than double the total for 2007. The trade body, the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) estimates that sales of e-books in March 2008 were 58.9% higher than in March 2007
• In an economic bind, families turn to libraries
• “Book publishers have a lot of challenges, and folks getting their books via the library doesn’t even make the first page,” said Michael Norris, a senior analyst for Simba Information, a Stamford, Conn.-based media research company. Norris said that when consumer spending in general rises again, book sales will grow, with patrons possibly buying titles they first borrowed from the library.
• Still, the nation’s three biggest booksellers are struggling, with shares trading near 52-week lows.
• Barnes & Noble saw second-quarter sales dip 1.6 percent to $1.22 billion and profits fall 14.6 percent to $15.4 million. Books-A-Million’s second-quarter sales fell 7.5 percent to $122.8 million and earnings declined 79 percent to $645,000 from $3.1 million.
• 15 Trends to Watch in 2008 - Publisher Weekly *** must read
• You can also try comparing the search query on Keywords Forecasting on adCenter Labs

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