Seth Godin's blog - Reinventing the Kindle (part II)

[SJHigbee]

My daughter sent me this blog, thinking I might find it interesting - but I believe that those of you who use Kindle - and publish e-books might also find it thought provoking...


'Okay, so Amazon's Kindle is cool and it's gaining in traction and people who have one buy a lot of books. 10% of Amazon's book sales are now on the Kindle.

But it could be so much better. Here are my newest riffs for Jeff and Co.:

1. Give publishers (throughout this post, when I say publishers, I also mean self-published authors) the ability to insert passalong credit with a book. So, if you buy a book, it might come with the right to forward it, for free, to two other people who also have Kindles. Three clicks and you just spread the book.

Let me log in with Facebook Connect and send certain books to all my friends who also have a Kindle.

Let me see the list of the fastest-spreading books. Or fastest spreading among my friends.

2. Give publishers the ability to send free samples of new books to people who have opted in. For example, I could have a master setting on my Kindle that said, 'for any book I finish, give the publisher permission to send me up to six free samples.' This creates a lever for successful authors and an asset for successful publishers. It lets them start publishing books for their readers instead of trying to find readers for their books.

What happens when Malcolm Gladwell sends a note to all his readers recommending a new book?

3. Anytime I send someone a book (see #1) or recommend a book, let me (with the other person's consent) see the comments they write in the margins of the book as they read it. Imagine being able to read a novel this way with your book group, or a sales manual with your department.

4. Create dynamic pricing. As a book gets more popular, allow the publisher to give a rebate to the first # of readers... either all or part of a book. If I get good at reading hit books first, I'll end up paying close to nothing but be rewarded for my good taste and ability to sneeze ideas.

5. Let anyone become a publisher with just a few clicks.

6. Demolish the textbook market as soon as possible by publishing open source textbooks for free. It's only natural that profit-minded professors will work to replace this by using #5.

7. Give publishers the ability to insert quizzes or feedback. This creates a certification or continuing ed or textbook opportunity far bigger than a book can deliver.

8. Allow all-you-can-eat subscriptions if the author or publisher wants to provide it. Let me buy every book Seth has written, or all the business books I can handle, or 'up to ten books a week.' Remember, the marginal cost of a book is now the cost of the bandwidth to deliver it, so buffets make economic sense.

9. And my last one, which I think I mentioned earlier, but it's so good, I'll mention it again: ship the Kindle with $1000 worth of books on it. I'm willing to contribute a couple of titles, and my guess is that most authors would.

It's pretty simple: many book publishers look at this new medium and ask, 'how can I use it to augment my current business model.' I'd like Amazon to challenge that thinking and say to the world, 'how can you use this platform to create a new business model?' Jeff had a very funny appearance on Jon Stewart (it's not easy being funny with a professional comedian) but it would have been easier to tell the story if the Kindle was about community and connection too.'

www.sjhigbee.com

[crystalwizard]

As a publisher
And from the perspective of the merchant:

SJHigbee said...

1. Give publishers (throughout this post, when I say publishers, I also mean self-published authors) the ability to insert passalong credit with a book. So, if you buy a book, it might come with the right to forward it, for free, to two other people who also have Kindles. Three clicks and you just spread the book.

So I loose the sale of 2 books. If you want to forward the book to two friends, buy 2 more copies.

SJHigbee said...

Let me log in with Facebook Connect and send certain books to all my friends who also have a Kindle.

Now I loose, not just the sale of 2 books but potentially the sale of 100's of books. If you want to give all your facebook friends a copy of the book then buy them all one.

SJHigbee said...

2. Give publishers the ability to send free samples of new books to people who have opted in. For example, I could have a master setting on my Kindle that said, 'for any book I finish, give the publisher permission to send me up to six free samples.' This creates a lever for successful authors and an asset for successful publishers. It lets them start publishing books for their readers instead of trying to find readers for their books.

Publishers already have review copies of books to hand out. A publisher that is kindlizing a book also knows how to make a .pdf sample. If you want a sample, write the publisher.

SJHigbee said...

What happens when Malcolm Gladwell sends a note to all his readers recommending a new book?

Hopefully they all go and BUY the book.

SJHigbee said...

4. Create dynamic pricing. As a book gets more popular, allow the publisher to give a rebate to the first # of readers... either all or part of a book. If I get good at reading hit books first, I'll end up paying close to nothing but be rewarded for my good taste and ability to sneeze ideas.

We're already selling the kindle versions of our books for very low prices. How much lower do you want to go? But rebates and such things are properly handled via the publishers own website and company, not through Amazon.com

SJHigbee said...

5. Let anyone become a publisher with just a few clicks.

All it takes to become a publisher is to email for an account.

SJHigbee said...

6. Demolish the textbook market as soon as possible by publishing open source textbooks for free. It's only natural that profit-minded professors will work to replace this by using #5.

Does this guy realize that in order to survive, publishers need to SELL what they publish? The publishing houses that publish those text books depend on that income (and they don't make as much of a profit as you think they do) to help with their bottom line. Demolish the textbook market and you put a lot of people out of work. Open source textbooks? That concept boggles me. This isn't a computer program, it's a book. With a computer program you can't see what makes it go unless you look at the source code. With a book, all you have to do is read it to see what makes it go. Open source doesn't apply here. What he is asking to do is allow anyone that wants to, to take someone else's work and modify it or even re-release it under their own name.

Professors DONT WRITE THE TEXTBOOKS! And I seriously doubt that the people who do spend a lot of time writing them will be any too happy about being told that they have to give their work away for free.

This man isn't living in the same world as the rest of us.

SJHigbee said...


7. Give publishers the ability to insert quizzes or feedback. This creates a certification or continuing ed or textbook opportunity far bigger than a book can deliver.

In a book? It's a book. It's not an interactive computer game. The entire reason that the kindle is gaining popularity is because it does such a good job of immulating a BOOK not a computer program.

SJHigbee said...

8. Allow all-you-can-eat subscriptions if the author or publisher wants to provide it. Let me buy every book Seth has written, or all the business books I can handle, or 'up to ten books a week.' Remember, the marginal cost of a book is now the cost of the bandwidth to deliver it, so buffets make economic sense.

I have no idea what an 'all you can eat subscription' would be, except perhaps a 'pay 5 bucks, download every book in the publisher's catalog'. If that's what he's talking about well, then, there he goes wanting me to lose hundreds of dollars in sales again.

SJHigbee said...


9. And my last one, which I think I mentioned earlier, but it's so good, I'll mention it again: ship the Kindle with $1000 worth of books on it. I'm willing to contribute a couple of titles, and my guess is that most authors would.

ah hah! there's his hidden agenda. This guy is a self-published author and he's looking to use the Kindle as a means of marketing his book. Sorry, Charlie, but marketing your book is something YOU have to do in otherways, starting with sending all those facebook friends you mentioned a nice email and asking them to GO BUY IT!

SJHigbee said...

It's pretty simple: many book publishers look at this new medium and ask, 'how can I use it to augment my current business model.' I'd like Amazon to challenge that thinking and say to the world, 'how can you use this platform to create a new business model?' Jeff had a very funny appearance on Jon Stewart (it's not easy being funny with a professional comedian) but it would have been easier to tell the story if the Kindle was about community and connection too.'

Book publishers might look at this new medium and ask that, but I'm guessing most probably don't. He obviously is but he's thinking solely about what HE wants and what HIS needs are, yet speaking as though he had permission from the rest of us to represent us with his stupid ideas.

New content added on a regular basis.

Visit Abandoned Towers at
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[SJHigbee]

Yup. I thought you'd find it interesting...

www.sjhigbee.com

[crystalwizard]

SJHigbee said...
Yup. I thought you'd find it interesting...

Yeah. I also just discovered (since I went and searched for his blog after that post) that he doesn't allow comments about his blog posts. Maybe he knows that a lot of people would disagree with him?

[The Wrong Writer]

Or maybe he's working on a black belt in irony?

[darkbow]

[quote]From one writer's perspective ...
[quote]

1. Give publishers (throughout this post, when I say publishers, I also mean self-published authors) the ability to insert passalong credit with a book. So, if you buy a book, it might come with the right to forward it, for free, to two other people who also have Kindles. Three clicks and you just spread the book.

This one I don't have too much of a problem with. After all, once a book is bought, they're often given to friends, family, etc. However, I can see how the ease of a "click" could make this a bit too easy and cause concern.

2. Give publishers the ability to send free samples of new books to people who have opted in.

As long as the publisher is the one given control over this, I don't have too much problem with it. This would allow publishers to snap off books to reviewers with ease.

3. Anytime I send someone a book (see #1) or recommend a book, let me (with the other person's consent) see the comments they write in the margins of the book as they read it.

Hmm. Only if the original reader has given some sort of permission. Maybe to "Friends Only," kind of like Facebook.

4. Create dynamic pricing. As a book gets more popular, allow the publisher to give a rebate to the first # of readers... either all or part of a book.

Maybe. Though I'd think something like a lesser price for those who pre-order would be a better route. Still, I'm not crazy about this. Most e-books are already pretty cheap.

5. Let anyone become a publisher with just a few clicks.

Isn't it already really, really easy to become a publisher if you want? I'm not saying it's easy to become a good, qualified or succesful publisher. Just "a" publisher.

6. Demolish the textbook market as soon as possible by publishing open source textbooks for free. It's only natural that profit-minded professors will work to replace this by using #5.

This is just stupid. Everything can't be free. If all my writing is going to be given away free, I'll just stop sending out submissions. As would most other writers who are serious about their craft to some extent or another.Readers wouldend up with nothing but bad fan fiction and people being published who shouldn't be otherwise. Heck, maybe we're already there. Heck, maybe I'm one of the ones who shouldn't be published. :-)

Though I have known some professors who have published textbooks. Not many, but a few.

7. Give publishers the ability to insert quizzes or feedback. This creates a certification or continuing ed or textbook opportunity far bigger than a book can deliver.

Eh, maybe. But I'm thinking the professor of any given class should have control over something like this. And it's already being done online to some extent. The professor just creates a Web page for a particular class or book or whatever, then includes tests or quizzes. Usually needing a signup and password or some other security measures.

8. Allow all-you-can-eat subscriptions if the author or publisher wants to provide it.

The only way I could maybe see this work is if the price was relatively high, the subscriptions had strong limits and the publishers had control. Otherwise, it's just a give-away.

9. And my last one, which I think I mentioned earlier, but it's so good, I'll mention it again: ship the Kindle with $1000 worth of books on it. I'm willing to contribute a couple of titles, and my guess is that most authors would.

$1000 is a lot of books. I don't have a problem with this one as many authors are already giving away some material online, but I think the limit should be much lower. Maybe 5 books. Or $100 worth of books.

I think some of this stuff are ideas worth considering, but I believe the publishers should keep most of the control. That being said, I also realize this could lead to publishers low-balling one another and lead to the drastic situation of books being given away for free.

One of the things that still baffles me about the Kindle and similiar tech is everyone is always spouting something like "it'll hold 2,000 books" or something similar. But who has that much time to read that many books? I average about 45 books a year and have been doing so most of my adult life. Nearly 40, I've yet to read more than 1,000 books in this lifetime (though I'm close ... yes, I keep track, check out my blog).

"Beneath a Persian Sun" upcoming in Carnivah House's "Infinity Swords" anthology

"The Death of Lester Williams" in the anthology Deadlines, "Ogre" at The Absent Willow Review, "Peter Piker the Pankin Man" at Big Pulp, "Day Trip" at Demonic Tome, "Deep in the Land of the Ice and Snow" in "The Return of the Sword" anthology, "The Note" at Every Day Fiction, "Walking Between the Rain" at Every Day Fiction, "The Unconquered Mage" at Static Movement, "A Dragon's Tale" at Aphelion, "Terror in the Flare Lights" at The Tiny Globule, "Killing Just for Fun" at Demonic Tome, "Zombie Tears" at Tales of the Zombie War, "Steven Spielberg and The Magic Box" at The Ranfurly Review, "The Death of Lester Williams" at Crimson Highway, "Hot Off the Press" at Ray Gun Revival, "A Dragon's Tale" in Issue 22 of Beyond Centauri, "August" at Demonic Tome

www.tyjohnston.blogspot.com</A></A>

[crystalwizard]

darkbow said...

One of the things that still baffles me about the Kindle and similiar tech is everyone is always spouting something like 'it'll hold 2,000 books' or something similar. But who has that much time to read that many books? I average about 45 books a year and have been doing so most of my adult life. Nearly 40, I've yet to read more than 1,000 books in this lifetime (though I'm close ... yes, I keep track, check out my blog).

Yes, actually. I know several people that do nothing but read and read extremely fast. They could easily fill a Kindle with 2000 books and read them all in 6 months.

But I think you're missing the real treasure in the Kindle for writers, Ty:

Put a reference library in it.

then keep it on your desk for a handy tool to do research with.

Right now everyone's thinking about the Kindle in terms of fiction. It does that, of course, but it doesn't have to be limited to that.

New content added on a regular basis.

Visit Abandoned Towers at
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[SJHigbee]

Yeah - I'll echo that one... I've a wonderful Thesaurus - which is the size and weight of a breeze-block - which is absolutely a must-have item in my writing arsenal. Not terribly mobile, though.

www.sjhigbee.com

[darkbow]

crystalwizard said...

Yes, actually. I know several people that do nothing but read and read extremely fast. They could easily fill a Kindle with 2000 books and read them all in 6 months.[/quote]Oh, I realize there are people out there who read voraciously, hundreds of books a year. Yep, the Kindle would be perfect for them. But I have to wonder if there are enough of those type of readers to create a viable market for something like the Kindle, especially considering the initial cost investments. Maybe there is.

But I think you're missing the real treasure in the Kindle for writers, Ty:

Put a reference library in it.

then keep it on your desk for a handy tool to do research with.

Right now everyone's thinking about the Kindle in terms of fiction. It does that, of course, but it doesn't have to be limited to that.

I see what you're saying, cw, but I don't get where the Kindle is any kind of big leap or improvement upon already existing capabilities or technology. Much of what you're talking about is, or can be, readily available already on the Internet. If distributors and publishers have Web pages or an ftp site or something that's password protected, why couldn't they already do what the Kindle is possible of? Convenience? Yeah, the Kindle is small enough to be thrust in a purse or backback, but so is an iPhone or any number of cell-phone-like gadgets. Though, admittedly, the Kindle does seem to provide a reading screen that's easier and better on the eyes.

I think the Kindle is a step in the right direction. But I also think we're a few years away yet from the Kindle or something like it making it into the mainstream, similar to cell phones and such. The pricetag alone, especially in this economy, I think is going to discount a lot of potential sales. Once the Kindle gets down to about $100 or better yet, $50, I think sales will spike. As long as something else hasn't come along to replace it.

"Beneath a Persian Sun" upcoming in Carnivah House's "Infinity Swords" anthology

"The Death of Lester Williams" in the anthology Deadlines, "Ogre" at The Absent Willow Review, "Peter Piker the Pankin Man" at Big Pulp, "Day Trip" at Demonic Tome, "Deep in the Land of the Ice and Snow" in "The Return of the Sword" anthology, "The Note" at Every Day Fiction, "Walking Between the Rain" at Every Day Fiction, "The Unconquered Mage" at Static Movement, "A Dragon's Tale" at Aphelion, "Terror in the Flare Lights" at The Tiny Globule, "Killing Just for Fun" at Demonic Tome, "Zombie Tears" at Tales of the Zombie War, "Steven Spielberg and The Magic Box" at The Ranfurly Review, "The Death of Lester Williams" at Crimson Highway, "Hot Off the Press" at Ray Gun Revival, "A Dragon's Tale" in Issue 22 of Beyond Centauri, "August" at Demonic Tome

www.tyjohnston.blogspot.com</A></A>

[crystalwizard]

darkbow said...

I see what you're saying, cw, but I don't get where the Kindle is any kind of big leap or improvement upon already existing capabilities or technology.

It's not that expensive, the books for it are cheap, anyone can kindlize a books but creating e-books for other readers is a PIT-B, and having seen one this past weekend at conDFW, I can say it's miles above the others just in the screen width. The fact that the pages didn't hurt my eyes with screen glare helped my positive attitude. The way that it's operated and the fact that reading a book on it actually DID feel like reading a paperback book also helped a lot.

New content added on a regular basis.

Visit Abandoned Towers at
http://cyberwizardproductions.com/AbandonedTowers

[darkbow]

Actually, I'm glad to hear all that. I've yet to hold a Kindle in my own hands. I'm not down on the Kindle, I'm just still skeptical of it finding a sizable market. But Amazon's taking the leap. Someone had to. And since they're leading the way, I'm sure they'll earn the rewards, whether those rewards are immediate or a few years from now.

"Beneath a Persian Sun" upcoming in Carnivah House's "Infinity Swords" anthology

"The Death of Lester Williams" in the anthology Deadlines, "Ogre" at The Absent Willow Review, "Peter Piker the Pankin Man" at Big Pulp, "Day Trip" at Demonic Tome, "Deep in the Land of the Ice and Snow" in "The Return of the Sword" anthology, "The Note" at Every Day Fiction, "Walking Between the Rain" at Every Day Fiction, "The Unconquered Mage" at Static Movement, "A Dragon's Tale" at Aphelion, "Terror in the Flare Lights" at The Tiny Globule, "Killing Just for Fun" at Demonic Tome, "Zombie Tears" at Tales of the Zombie War, "Steven Spielberg and The Magic Box" at The Ranfurly Review, "The Death of Lester Williams" at Crimson Highway, "Hot Off the Press" at Ray Gun Revival, "A Dragon's Tale" in Issue 22 of Beyond Centauri, "August" at Demonic Tome

www.tyjohnston.blogspot.com</A></A>

[crystalwizard]

darkbow said...
I'm not down on the Kindle, I'm just still skeptical of it finding a sizable market. But Amazon's taking the leap.

Ty, you have that wrong.

They aren't finding a market.

They are CREATING a market

And, since they are amazon, they will create a very nice sized market.

My only complaint from the side of the publisher is that I still can't find anyway to remove a book that I've added to my library (of books I've put in print for people to buy, not books I've bought and downloaded)... but then I haven't written them and asked how to do so yet.

New content added on a regular basis.

Visit Abandoned Towers at
http://cyberwizardproductions.com/AbandonedTowers

[Team 2012]

They will hack out a proprietary domain using their size to force the issue (see: Microsoft)

But there are inherent flaws in this model: users are paying more for the reader so that amazon can monopolize it. Only works in Sprint footprints, only in U.S. only in their special format, which is probably going to be obsolete as soon as Pixel Qi screens hit the market this year.

And the Kindle reader will be obsolete at that point, as well. The market model is already doomed. As soon as their is a 'reading iPod' on the market, they're gone. It's as though the Walkman had first been brought out by Tower Records and could only play cassettes from them or something.
It's a grotesque anomaly in an ongoing process.

Meanwhile, aeveral columnists have dropped their knee-jerk 'oh, kindle is so cool' line and started talking about reading on their iPhones.

Could be that as soon as Apple brings out a reader, it'll be all over for Kindle.