I believe that I’ve mentioned my love of my Kindle here before. It’s an amazing device that allows me to never, ever be without a book. (On a related note, I find that I also never have to talk to anyone on the bus if I don’t want to. Like I said, amazing.)
I’m just kidding, but it is a wonderful thing. The problem that I have with it isn’t actually a problem with the device itself. It’s more with how it’s being used.
See, when I got the Kindle I was ecstatic. Here was a way for me to get books directly from authors without the time, cost, or ecological damage that publishing usually brings. I could even find authors, those who hadn’t managed to make it big and buy directly from them. I was stepping into the future, a brighter world where I could have a personal relationship with what I read and those I bought it from.
Except I found that reality differed from my dreams. Sure, I could buy direct from new authors. But those that I already loved? No. Many of them don’t even offer their books for the Kindle and if they do its at a price which is in no way realistic. Really, the ebook is only a dollar less than the printed copy? How does that make sense?
I understand that when a book is new a publisher might want to keep the ebook price high in order to encourage sales of the printed copy but after a certain point it doesn’t make any sense to keep that price artificially high. That point, by the by, is the precise moment that I can buy your book used (shipping included!) for less than the price of the ebook. I have a certain amount of loyalty to my authors (more than most, probably) but I’m currently trying to pay off several debts. I have my limits.
And strangely enough I find that I still have to go through publishers. There are few ebook stores on the websites of the authors that I follow, not even when the books that I’m looking for are out of print. And let me just say that when I’m forced to buy your book from a used book seller because it is impossible to get new you have failed. I love you, but you’ve failed all the same. I am ready and willing to pay you for your work, work that could be translated to ebook form in a very short amount of time, but due to reasons I don’t quite understand (do the publishers still have rights to it? are you trying to keep used bookstores alive?) you refuse to take my money. I have been looking for certain Jack Chalker books for over six months now and would be happy to hand money over to him THIS VERY SECOND but they aren’t available online.*
There are authors, I know, who refuse to publish in the format at all, and I suppose I can understand that. I don’t agree with their reasoning, necessarily, but I understand. After all, having online copies does mean that it is easier for someone to pirate your work (although I would argue that anyone who is going to pirate a book would probably go ahead and try to get it from a used bookseller or, deus averat, the library). And I suppose you could argue that Kindles kill books (although I would love to debate with you about whether the value of a book is in the actual paper bound thing in your hand or something much more intangible). But for the rest of you, all those people who create the delightful worlds that I love, please get on this.
I really want to read your stuff. I really love my kindle. I would love to give you my money (just not too much of it, there’s a lot of you). Can’t we find a way to make this work?
*Baen Books, Jack Chalker’s publisher, is actually one of the few publishers that is actually starting to do ebook publishing right. Not only do they offer a couple of books by most of their science fiction authors for free they also provide a portal for direct download and payment through their website, knocking off one step of the middle man. Yet they still haven’t republished out of print books as ebooks yet, which is a shame. Seriously, I will transcribe them for you. Send me Jack Chalker’s early books and I’ll do it for free. I’ll even ship them back to you when I’m done.