LJNDawson.com, Consulting to the Book Publishing Industry
Book Publishing Industry Consultant

Forest for the Trees

Via Peter Brantley, Seth Godin blogs about his concern for publishing:

I worry about my esteemed friends in the book publishing industry as well. The amazing thing about the Times story today was the report that the mood at BEA was 'unease' about ebooks. The fastest-growing, lowest cost segment of the business, the one that offers the most promise, the best possible outcome and has the best results... is causing unease! All because of the trees.

The article Seth's referring to is, of course, this one. But the unease was not necessarily on the part of publishers (although they are still charging as much for an ebook as they are for a print one). It was largely on the part of booksellers:

A big advantage of the products is that bookstores never sell out of copies of an electronic book, something Mr. Bezos demonstrated by downloading and reading from ?What Happened,? which in hardcover format has sold out in many stores. Amazon itself expects to be unable to ship new copies until June 21, according to its Web site. Barnesandnoble.com says it expects the book to be available June 6. That too makes bookstore owners nervous about the future of electronic books. ?We?re always concerned with any competition,? Mr. Stillwagon, of Tattered Cover, said. ?The technology has progressed, and people are embracing it. For us, every book sale counts.?

That is understandable, of course. And bookstores need to figure out how they're going to vie with Amazon (and potentially B&N.com) and other web retailers to offer ebooks. And perhaps they can't do this.
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