Fiction Lovers: A Kindle, an iPad and a Hard Place

It’s a confusing time to be a book, and maybe even more so a reader. Digital or hard copy? Kindle or iPad? Moral opposition to digitalization of literature, or admission of defeat and support of (now) underdog Kindle? Is Kindle playing the underdog card unjustly? The answers offer no sigh of relief, posing questions that simply delve deeper into the the world of digital books and leave paper bound backers with nowhere to turn but the one place from which they hoped to hide.

There is a Big Six in the publishing world, five of whom form the major players of the digital book battle. Random House, while currently excluded from the tablet talk, is doing a fine job of further complicating matters in its own right, waging a war on digital rights to backlist books (the publisher claims it has the contractual power to digitally release all older titles, preventing those authors from making direct deals with Amazon et al. for electronic releases that would provide them with a higher percentage of royalties). Of the five involved, Macmillan was the first to make big moves against the Kindle, though it wasn’t until a few others signed on board that it became much more significant to book worms and tech nerds the world over, developments that unsurprisingly coincided with the arrival of the iPad.

Macmillan’s siege came in the form of the agency model, which greatly differs from the Kindle’s $9.99 flat rate for books. Under this new model, publishers would sell digital releases of hardcover bestsellers in a range from $12.99 to $14.99, with the electronic versions available the same day as the print debut and the digital price for each title to be determined individually. Amazon and Kindle owners alike were furious, enough so that a customer boycott was issued against Macmillan titles while Amazon itself stopped selling Macmillan releases directly through the site. The two companies, in fact, are still at an impasse, where they will likely remain until their contract expires (and Macmillan officially switches to the agency model). Hachette announced its agency model move last week, and while still unofficial, HarperCollins CEO Rupert Murdoch has made it very clear that it is the direction the publisher is headed.

With the unveiling of the iPad, Mr. Jobs announced that consumers need not worry, the price for iBooks would soon be in line with Kindle’s — clearly that didn’t mean matching Amazon’s baseline, but forcing Kindle’s up. And if it seems Jobs was suspiciously overconfident in this prediction, it is with pleasure that I inform you that the $12.99-$14.99 (suggested — and subject to increase) price model was originally proposed to publishers by Apple. The significant raise in price caused an understandable uproar on behalf of Kindle patrons accustomed to paying $9.99, since Amazon will clearly be unable to maintain a flat rate policy with the new barrage of by-the-book pricing. The change in price model initially appears to put the digital reader at a disadvantage, but it also provides benefits that could render it a positive development for the future (remembering that the digital book and tablet markets are still very much in their infancies).

The agency model proposes a higher starting cost for new books printed in hardcover for their first pressing. Similar to the price drop that occurs when the hardcover edition of a new release enters its mass market paperback form, the $12.99-$14.99 digital price would then drop as well (as the book loses its best seller momentum), to as low as $5.99. While the Kindle currently offers some discounted and free material, it’s undeniably limited, and with a little patience, the agency model would definitely save customers some money. The agency model’s increased price tags also offer some more abstract advantages, such as the stronger possibility of extending whatever life print has left: if a digital copy is only a couple of dollars less than a hardcover copy, customers are more likely to continue buying books, especially since the recent price hike may delay potential digital readers from purchasing the tablet itself. With the agency model also affecting royalty percentages for authors, sites such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble, whose devices allow self published authors to distribute their work directly, will be able to sustain a niche market that could just be what keeps them in contention with the iPad, a competition that will prove very costly if and when it collapses.

So what’s a book lover (nerd) to do? Reluctant to forgo the pocketing of paperbacks or decorating godsend that is wall-to-wall bookshelves, the initial inclination was to rebel against the Kindle. Many of these people are the same customers (geeks) that salivate for a year over the mere rumor of a rumor of a tablet, however, so what happens when Mac releases the iPad, one of its main attractions certainly being iBooks? If an increased digital price will keep print in business longer, than I’m all for the iPad (with no intention of purchasing one, of course). But without the Kindle to keep prices in check, it will be difficult to ensure the agency model doesn’t get inflated, as well as ending a new era of self publishing that has barely begun (and could possibly prove the catalyst for a revolution in literature). While I may continue pretending that book stores and libraries will be around forever, the shift to Ebooks is quickly working out its kinks. It may take a few years for a standard pricing system to develop, tablet competitors to produce desirable models and the Big Six to finagle its way into sole digital ownership of its backlists, but we are surely headed toward a future where digital authors are the only ones we know. Rest assured, I’ll be the first one protesting the tropical getaway popup mysteriously appearing when I open my Robinson Crusoe (you guys asked for it, after all).