As mentioned in a previous post, there was a panel “Wanted for Murder: The E-Book” at Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, Harrogate. As you are by now, probably aware, and if not aware, you can probably imagine, this panel caused quite a stir.
If I’m honest, a lot was said within this panel and I couldn’t possibly do it justice. My knowledge of the book industry is ridiculously limited, so I have no intention of giving opinions on what was said about the majority of it. I am simply going to give you a brief overview of the subjects that came up in relation to eBooks in todays market and let you discuss and give opinions if you so wish. Though, as I’ve said, I probably couldn’t engage in any real conversation about it myself. I’m blogging as a member of the audience who witnessed what happened first hand and thinks my blog readers might like to hear about it.
So here goes;
Present on the panel were authors Steve Mosby and Stephen Leather, agent Philip Patterson, bookseller Patrick Neale and president of the Publishers Association Ursula Mackenzie. You can find both Steve’s and Stephen’s account of the panel on their websites. (Links on their names.)
It has been said that the festival chair, Mark Billingham asked Stephen Leather to be contentious. The subject of eBooks in todays world is one which causes high levels of disagreement anyway and Mark apparently, didn’t want to disappoint. Stephen for his part, took to his role extremely well and played the panto villain with ease. There were boos and hisses from the audience practically from the word go.
There were three main issues which brought the audience to voice.
The pricing of eBooks and the impact on the publishing industry. Leather’s opinion being that he sells more by selling at low cost. He stated that by selling a short story for 5pence, it would sell in it’s thousands, thereby accumulating him a decent wage from a few thousand words. He also championed the giving of books away, in order to bring his name to the attention of readers who may not have heard of him, or otherwise have read him. He talked a very marketing led talk. This rankled with the lovers of good old fashioned books, those who love books and those who think that authors who spend time creating stories and tales for others to enjoy, should be valued more than Leather was talking about. A difficult conversation, considering Leather is indeed one of those very story weavers.
There was talk of loss leaders, Amazon competing and taking a hit just to stay ahead and the general feeling that writers are being devalued by the cheapness that some books are coming out at. This is where I can’t comment. I don’t know enough and I will only serve to make myself look stupid by attempting to make comment on sales and marketing.
The second point which caused a massive roar of disapproval to go around the audience was when Leather stated that he created fake personas on-line to enter into conversations about his books, to raise their profiles and sometimes ended up talking to himself as he had so many profiles! While I see why someone who believes it’s all in the marketing would do this, I think it was a slip of the tongue for him here and he maybe got a bit too involved in his “part” on stage and this shouldn’t have been admitted.
Last, but by no means least, Leather stated – yes, I’m sorry, it’s all about the Leather – that he see’s nothing wrong with piracy of books. In fact he sees it as free marketing. He goes on his blog to say that he should have clarified this by saying he knows mass piracy would potentially destroy him, but controlled piracy can help a writer become better known.
This is where I do have an opinion. Whatever the opinions of books and marketing, piracy is illegal. That is a fact. How can you control it if it’s illegal? It’s a bit of an oxymoron. By bringing his support, however limited, of piracy, into the public arena, Leather may as well have lit the green touch paper to all mass marketers of free downloads. Those who feel words should be free to everyone regardless of the hard work of the person who structured those words into something pleasurable. Now, not only can they say, words are free, they can say they are doing authors a favour by putting their names out there. How does he intend to control this marketing machine can I ask? He stands by his own words stoically. That’s no bad thing, I just wonder how he’s going to ask the illegal producers of his work to only produce a certain amount and not to harm his hard earned income?
Hi Rebecca! Back again.
I found this a very interesting post to read. Maybe I’m an old fashioned girl – I do have a Kindle, but very much prefer to hold a real book in my hand. On price – whilst ebooks will always be much cheaper than paperbacks I still feel that, as a reader, a good book is worth paying for, although I know a lot writers who offer their book for free on Amazon to increase their sales and exposure.
I find it quite disingenuous to think that a writer is setting up false profiles to market their own books. To me, as a reader, that is very sad and misleading.
Also, I’m totally with you on the piracy issue. It’s illegal and should remain so. We pour over our work, some of us spending years getting the prose just right. For somebody to lift and use it is totally wrong. Just my opinion. Jx
It’s always good to see you here Jane!
I’m a bit of a mixer between holding books and a kindle. I like the ease of a kindle, for carrying and downloading, but I also like holding a book and seeing the book. I also suffer from headaches and reading from a book is often better for my eyes.
Rebecca – I have to agree with you about piracy. Whatever happens with e-books, taking another’s work without paying for it is wrong on many levels. I’m not a legal expert nor a technical wizard so I don’t have much background on the logistics of preventing piracy in this electronic age. But I do believe that piracy is wrong. Musicians, artists, writers and playwrights, among others who create, work hard at what they do. If people like their work, they should reap the benefits of it. Full stop.
As to the rest of your interesting post, thanks for sharing what you heard on that panel. Lots of food for thought…
Lots Margot and if you have your eye on Twitter you will see it’s still raging on.
Piracy is theft. Simples. Great post. Thank you.
Yours, Daffy Duck – she with just the *one* profile ;))
It absolutely is Daffy Duck 🙂
Stephen Leather has some potentially damaging views for many self-pubbing authors. He seems to be on the very edge of the ebook debate, almost as though he was on another panel altogether. Piracy is wrong – I completely agree with your thoughts, Rebecca. Multiple profiles who talk to each other is taking marketing too far. Does he have time to write at all?
Oh, what a tangled web we weave… 🙂 Annalisa is right. You’d have to be a vampire and never sleep. Oh. Wait. …
I bet I’ve written more books than you, Annalisa! Piracy is wrong, of course, but in small doses it can be helpful to a new writer. I shall blog on this in a few days, at the moment I’m too busy writing! 🙂
I’ll look forward to reading that Stephen – maybe you can convince me.
It will be interesting Stephen.
Very interested in Stephen’s blog when it comes. ‘Piracy can be helpful to a new writer?’ Well, so could stealing a tv if you wanted to watch Eastenders but it doesn’t mean it’s right. Me thinks he may just still be playing the villain game with us all, let us hope so.
Nice post, Rebecca. I think there’s a role for Kindle and the traditional book but I’m a hard copy girl myself.
It’s early days for e-books. Everyone is watching and waiting. They won’t go away. I’m convinced of that. But it will all settle down too. These free offering won’t last and I suspect the publishers will work out a way of regaining control of everything. That’s my take on it but we’ll just have to wait and see.
I think you’re right Rosalind, I just think it will take quite some time for everyone involved to get their heads around it and in the mean time we will keep getting massive debates and doom stories.
I asterixed this post because i was very keen to come back and re-read it and comment on it properly, because it was such a great post, Rebecca. I am so glad you were there for the debate. I saw a fair bit of Twitter hoopla surrounding it especially as the fella got the audience quite riled up.
The thing I want people to think about is where do you draw a line with the notion of what constitutes piracy? Is it that different from me buying a book and then lending it to a friend to read for free. They don’t pay for it and the writer won’t see a penny from that read. I can see that the physical act of deliberately trying to subvert a transaction to avoid paying is utterly wrong, but both processes lead to a free read and the writer getting nothing.
if someone did the ‘foiling the paying process’ to me all the time, of course I’d be livid, but if someone lent a friend their Kindle and Gunshot Glitter was on it and they loved it and I had other books on sale, I’d like to think they’d go out and get their own copy or explore my back catalogue. But there is no guarantee of it is there?
DRM rights management is another thorny issue as it can confuse consumers and actually put them off buying as it can restrict formats they can read on, unless you choose to waive them. To some degree you need to accept that piracy and/or borrowing is going to happen. It happens in all areas of culture, people like to share things. I do it, we all do it. From making mix-tapes, to taping off the TV, to lending someone a magazine.
Viz pricing, and de-valuing books, this is where supermarkets have a hell of a lot to answer for as they kicked it off to be honest. They have driven prices down. Writers now only get 10p a copy sold in some deals! If consumers expectations on pricing/value are altered over a long period of time it is deeply unfair on writers like myself who spend years writing books. They’ve also put pressure on publishers to get their writers to create books that are genre classification friendly. It’s one of the reasons I decided to self-publish Gunshot Glitter.
I do have a background in Marketing so can see how effective the use of a free day or a price cut can be as a promotion, but these should never be a ‘permanent’ fixtures. Who wants to be deemed ‘cheap’ all the time?
What positive associations do you have with that? I mean if you had two little bottles of Chanel No 5 in front of you and one was £5 and the other £30 which would you trust more on instinct?
When you shop don’t you find it more exciting when you get a bargain on something special that’s a premium price? That’s when you tell your friends ‘oh my God, XXX is at 75% off for two days, GET IN!’ Well that’s how a good book promotion should feel. It should feel like an event.
Blimey, I’ve written an essay, now can you see why, I waited before leaving this!! xx
Yasmin, Thank you for coming back and commenting so fully on this post. It’s what I love about blogging, the fact that people can have a real say and a real discussion on these things.
Having said that, I’m not sure I’m in a position to have that real discussion with you as I don’t know a great deal about marketing or how the book selling business works. I do get your point about lending books. I think with pirating, there is a more sinister and nasty motive behind it and it is actually about defrauding the author whereas the lending of a book is about being kind to a friend or relative. Plus it is illegal.
As for cutting prices to bring attention to your books, I can’t say I’m against that. If it’s something that works, it works. I am however, against piracy.
Please don’t get me wrong. I’m against piracy. Of course it’s wrong for someone to profit from someone else’s work without paying for it. And if half my readers were reading books they hadn’t paid for, I’d be in trouble. But piracy is a very small percentage of my turnover and providing it stays that way, it doesn’t worry me. And I do think that if someone has read a couple of pirated books they are more likely to buy a paperback when they are next in Tescos or Waterstones. Getting pirated copies isn’t easy, and there’s always a risk of getting a virus or a corrupted copy, so I really believe that most people will continue to buy books the legal way. I also believe that most people are actually prepared to pay for things they like, including books. For example, I have hundreds of music videos on my iPod for when I’m in the gym. I could get almost all of them free through YouTube but I buy them through iTunes. I’m happier doing that. I actually like the fact that when I buy a Phil Collins video, somewhere down the line he gets an extra 25p or so….