The Power of Cultural Surrogacy: Ebook Leveraging of Publishing Crises in a New Millennium

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LOGOS The Power of Cultural Surrogacy: Ebook leveraging of publishing crises in a new millennium

Richard Guthrie

Richard Guthrie is a researcher of print and digital book publishing with over 20 years of experience in film and television production. He has a MA and PhD in Publishing Studies and is the author of Publishing: Principles and Practice (Sage Publications: London). He lectures in Publishing Studies at City University, London.

Email: [email protected]

The commercial ebook arrived in the ans; and the new and staggering digital late 1990s, when the Anglophone trade challenges (Greco, 1997, p.x). The ebook book market was in a perilous state. The was an intruder that most book profes- trade had been dangerously weakened sionals wished would just go away. by: steep percentages of book returns; The year 2000 was pivotal for publish- stark sales figures; a fickle and price-sen- ing. Many in the book industry watched sitive consumer base; the rise of chains, the rise of the ebook with some trepida- superstores, and price clubs; the decline tion, staying schtum on their real feel- of independent bookstores; a population ings; or if they did speak up, they publicly more interested in watching television paid lip-service to the new technologies than reading books; paper-thin profit (Reid, 2000; Rose, 2000a). In private, it margins; author advances that dumb- was another story. One senior editor in founded even seasoned industry veter- a major publishing house told me that

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‘those who like ebooks must hate real books’. The reac- vider that print publishers needed to overpower. tion early on to ebooks by some print publishers was As 2000 progressed, the trade book industry waited one of fear and loathing, but most publishing personnel to see if the ebook ereader Nexus could establish itself still did not want to be seen as 1) luddites or 2) being on as a lasting market force. In mid-2000, King dropped his the wrong side of history, if ebooks did take off. Trade ‘true’ ebook bombshell on print publishing. From his publishers were worried in particular over what ebooks website, he announced a second experiment—this one offered self-publishing. Simon & Schuster’s CEO, self-published. ‘Dear Constant Reader’, King wrote. ‘Do Carolyn Reidy, put the dilemma bluntly: you think I should offer this book? … Can I trust peo- ple to pay?’ One fan even offered to pay for those who You get a proven author like Stephen King, who’s didn’t (Rose, 2000d). An avalanche of positive respons- pretty good and has written so many books he prob- es drew King’s by now famous comment: ‘My friends, ably knows how to do some editing. He could take we have the chance to become Big Publishing’s worst his works right to the Internet (Offman, 2000). nightmare.’ Mort Janklow, a powerful New York literary agent, quipped to a journalist at the time, ‘That’s a fel- When Stephen King waded into the scenario with low sitting up in Maine having fun, but it’s not a way to two ebook experiments in 2000, he left no doubt that run a business.’ ebooks were viable in the trade book marketplace With the digital revival of The Plant, a novel the (Offman, 2000; Rose, 2000b; Guthrie, 2006). In March, author had abandoned in the early 1980s, King truly Simon & Schuster carefully managed the release of demonstrated what the power of an author brand could King’s first ebook, a novella. Riding the Bullet excited do with, and to, e-publishing. A shiver went end to end his fans so much, they crashed Softlock’s server (De through trade publishing. After his first posting, King Abrew, 2000). Four hundred thousand copies were wrote in an email: ‘I’m satisfied with the downloads— downloaded at 4.62 copies per second inside the first about 40,000 as of 4 p.m. yesterday, and we’re estimat- 24 hours (it eventually went to 557,000 sales). It ‘was ing a total pay-through of maybe 88 per cent. Let Mort a mega success. The publishing industry was a buzz’ Janklow put that in his pipe and smoke it!’ (Dubner, 2000) (Rose, 2000c). One excited director of a US public li- On average, downloads for The Plant came to 100,000 brary was so affected he rushed to his board, demand- per chapter, but in November, King stopped the whole ing: ‘We need to do this right now!’ (Schneider, 2000). enterprise. In a note posted on his website, King wrote The scale of consumer interest caught everyone by that some readers had paid only once, and ‘many never surprise (Zeitchik, 2000). King himself only predicted have paid at all’. King had warned he might do this. around 16,000 downloads (Dubner, 2000), but instead When the second instalment failed to match down- of letting the experiment run to its limits, Simon & loads to paying customers, King had threatened to Schuster went into semi-defensive mode. The company stop at the fourth instalment. He would continue only began deciding who could and who could not distribute if more than 75 per cent of downloaders paid for the it. Amazon and Barnes & Noble were okay, but the new third. Paying customers broke the barrier, so he contin- boy, Fatbrain, was not. The public reason: the Silicon ued on (Rose, 2000e; Weeks, 2000; Katz, 2000). Valley success story Fatbrain allowed two downloads King’s ultimate decision to terminate The Plant dis- per ebook. By established fair use provisions for print appointed many, not only readers who had paid regu- books at the time, two downloads per ebook sale larly for instalments and were left with an unfinished seemed a very modest nod to well-established con- book. ‘I am saddened and angered at the crass commer- sumer rights. In truth, though, it seemed that Fatbrain cialization of that incredible magic that occurs between was being ‘punished’ for being an independent online writer and reader,’ wrote e-author Jim Farris. ‘This is publishing success story. Offering 7,000 titles, 5,000 of not the best move he could have made,’ said Marilyn them works of fiction, the company’s profits had risen Nesbitt, CEO of DiskUs Publishing: ‘No one wants to by 78 per cent in the preceding year to US$35.3 million wait a year or two to finish reading a story and this (Offman, 2000). Fatbrain was just the sort of digital pro- might not bode well for any future instalments or any

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