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I'm getting pretty tired of books on Amazon being bombed with 1* reviews on the grounds that the ebook is too expensive or unavailable.
The latest one is here: Brandon Sanderson's The Memory of Light - the completion of the late Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time sequence. There are around 100 1* reviews, all complaining that the ebook is scheduled to come out some months after the hardback release. Many of them slam Jordan's widow, Harriet, for apparently insisting on this windowing to protect sales of the hardback. Some of them are nasty - like this from Paul Kingsley:
Now, putting aside the fact that Mr Kingsley is a rude, whining shitheel with an epic sense of entitlement, reasonable people can disagree as to whether holding back the ebook release is OK or not. But the fact is that had they gone for the option of releasing the ebook with the hardback, at or near the hardback price point, there would be 100 1* reviews slamming the 'rip-off'. "There are no production costs!" Paul Kingsley would be screeching. "Greedy bastards!"
Windowing is a time-honoured and important publishing strategy. A book will sell at all kinds of different price points over its lifetime - the hardcore fans will pay for the hardcover, the casuals will wait for the paperback, the book club members will get it cheaply, etc etc. Generally speaking the sooner you want to read a book the more you'll pay.
I'm kind of intrigued at the way ebooks are showing us that when consumers catch on to this they tend to get irate - they clearly have never quite realized that hardbacks cost more because they are early access to the content, not because they cost more to make. (They do, but not a lot more.) So there's a debate to be had about what's the best way to publish stuff, and I lean towards things like bundling.
The place not to have this debate is in the reviews of a book. Even when the ebook is out, those 1* ratings will remain, dragging the whole work down. People don't necessarily read the reviews - they may well just see the low rating and click through to the next book. Amazon clearly don't care. They never, as far as I can tell, remove reviews of the price, and I wouldn't hold my breath for any of these reviews of the release date to disappear. I think it's deeply unfair to authors.
Anyway: I just wanted to let off some steam. As you were...
The latest one is here: Brandon Sanderson's The Memory of Light - the completion of the late Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time sequence. There are around 100 1* reviews, all complaining that the ebook is scheduled to come out some months after the hardback release. Many of them slam Jordan's widow, Harriet, for apparently insisting on this windowing to protect sales of the hardback. Some of them are nasty - like this from Paul Kingsley:
No ebook because Jordan's widow want's to make more money by trying to force this hardcover to #1 means one star to hopefully ensure she doesn't succeed.
Publishers, authors, retailers, dead author's widows - get with the program!
Dead tree versions are, like dead authors, pushing up daisies.
Now, putting aside the fact that Mr Kingsley is a rude, whining shitheel with an epic sense of entitlement, reasonable people can disagree as to whether holding back the ebook release is OK or not. But the fact is that had they gone for the option of releasing the ebook with the hardback, at or near the hardback price point, there would be 100 1* reviews slamming the 'rip-off'. "There are no production costs!" Paul Kingsley would be screeching. "Greedy bastards!"
Windowing is a time-honoured and important publishing strategy. A book will sell at all kinds of different price points over its lifetime - the hardcore fans will pay for the hardcover, the casuals will wait for the paperback, the book club members will get it cheaply, etc etc. Generally speaking the sooner you want to read a book the more you'll pay.
I'm kind of intrigued at the way ebooks are showing us that when consumers catch on to this they tend to get irate - they clearly have never quite realized that hardbacks cost more because they are early access to the content, not because they cost more to make. (They do, but not a lot more.) So there's a debate to be had about what's the best way to publish stuff, and I lean towards things like bundling.
The place not to have this debate is in the reviews of a book. Even when the ebook is out, those 1* ratings will remain, dragging the whole work down. People don't necessarily read the reviews - they may well just see the low rating and click through to the next book. Amazon clearly don't care. They never, as far as I can tell, remove reviews of the price, and I wouldn't hold my breath for any of these reviews of the release date to disappear. I think it's deeply unfair to authors.
Anyway: I just wanted to let off some steam. As you were...