Bestselling author and mean mean jerk Douglas Preston
I just read this NY Times article (via) and I’m noticing a trend that’s really starting to infuriate me. It’s the use of the word “entitlement” by publishers and authors to describe their own customers.
In this article, author and complete jerk Douglas Preston is featured in this paragraph:
“The sense of entitlement of the American consumer is absolutely astonishing,” said Douglas Preston, whose novel “Impact” reached as high as No. 4 on The New York Times’s hardcover fiction best-seller list earlier this month. “It’s the Wal-Mart mentality, which in my view is very unhealthy for our country. It’s this notion of not wanting to pay the real price of something.”
This kind of thing drives me absolutely insane. The ebook release of Preston’s book is delayed by four months because Preston and his publishers want their hardcover money. According to those publishers, Impact‘s “real price” is $26. Speaking of entitlement.
But let’s see some peasants brandish pitchforks. Exactly what are the outrageously entitled Wal-Mart Americans saying? Here’s another paragraph from the article:
“I just don’t want to be extorted,” said Joshua Levitsky, a computer technician and Kindle owner in New York. “I want to pay what it’s worth. If it costs them nothing to print the paper book, which I can’t believe, then they should be the same price. But I just don’t see how it can be the same price.”
Hmm. That’s logical, sound, completely unentitled thinking. For years, publishers have been charging $20 or more for “hardcover” books, implying that some of that cost goes toward the actual production materials. Now, with ebooks, they’re trying to charge the same price for brand new ebooks as they charge for the outlandishly expensive hardcover editions.
The problem with this isn’t that customers are “entitled” to think they should get ebooks cheaper. The problem with this is that no publisher has yet advanced any logical explanation as to why the ebook editions SHOULDN’T be cheaper than the hardcovers. The burden of proof is on the publishers, and they haven’t convinced anybody.
Furthermore, it infuriates me when publishers think or believe that just because their pricing system has been a certain way in the past, that’s the way it should be forever. $26 is not the “real price” of a book. Dan Brown is not worth $26, Sarah Palin is not worth $26. And let’s face it, Douglas Preston isn’t worth $26. (You can just tell by his hair, can’t you?)
In reality, the hardcover of Impact goes for $14.29 at Amazon. If you want customers to pay more than $9.99 for the ebook edition, start by showing them a formula that goes something like this: [hardcover price] – [paper, ink, cardboard, and shipping costs] = [ebook price]. To sell a hardcover for $14 and then argue that the “real price” of the ebook version is up to $15… sheer madness.
Now, I do think publishers should be able to set their own prices. I also think Macmillan is incredibly stupid to raise their prices $5 per ebook. I hope it brings them to their knees. Fine, though, it’s up to them.
But when rich, bestselling hack authors (Preston’s crapped out more than a dozen novels in the past decade) start insulting their own readers, things are taking a wrong turn. It’s not readers’ “absolutely astonishing sense of entitlement” that makes us think technological advancement should bring down production costs, it’s basic common sense. And no matter how many times publishers say ebooks are expensive to make, it will never make sense to charge the same amount.
[...] Vreeland has a great article in Chamber Four about this topic. He quotes author Douglas Preston as saying: “The sense of entitlement of the [...]
Excellent article. I would like to point out that, in addition to production costs, there is another reason why many of us “entitled” consumers believe that ebooks should cost much less than they do and that is because most ebooks limit what you can do with them. When I buy the $26 hardback for $15, I can read it, then I can lend it to friends, sell it to a used book store (granted, I might only get $1 for it, but still), give it to a library, etc. When I get an ebook, I can read it… and then maybe my family can read it… but unless I am willing to lend out an ebook reader, my friends probably cannot read it, nor can I sell or give the book away.
Some people are always going to want hard backs. There is something special in their weight, their feel, etc. Even many ebook enthusiasts may want hard backs for some books. But to build your entire business model in the digital age around technology that is essentially 500 years old?
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Bill
Hi Bill,
Thanks for stopping by. That’s a great point. Ebook editions are still so limited that it often makes me question my ebook buying when it’s a title I probably won’t want to read again.
Macmillan still has no idea how to sell ebooks.
It is true that publishers have failed to make the case for high pricing. This has been noted in several articles in recent weeks at Teleread (www.teleread.org) and at An American Editor (www.americaneditor.wordpress.com).
The fundamental flaws in your argument are (a) it is built on the proposition that publishers owe consumers price justification data and (b) that ebooks are entities that are wholly separable from their print versions.
I, too, would like to see much lower pricing of both ebooks and hardcovers, but my approach is to not buy books that I consider overpriced — not to demand that the publisher justify the price to me.
Hi Rich,
Thanks for stopping by.
They don’t have to make the case. I think they should, I think it would be a smart business and PR decision, but they don’t owe it to us.
However, calling readers “entitled” when they’re actually asking for something reasonable and logical — that’s going a little bit far, don’t you think?
Great article – I’m not quite as livid about looming price increases as you are, but do feel they are a bit higher than makes sense. I commented on your article’s comments about another article (love the blogging world sometimes) at my site:
http://www.thelewisfour.com/2010/02/on-entitlement.html
I feel that $15 is too high, but $9.99 is too low, and give my opinion on why.
Hi Scott,
Thanks for stopping by. I liked your post. You’re definitely more even-handed than I was.
I think part of what drives me a little nuts about this is that publishers talk out of both sides of their mouths when it comes to hardcovers.
On the one hand, they sell hardcovers for at least $10 more than trade paperbacks–even paperback originals, with no release delay. So for decades, they’ve put this great importance on books in hardcover form.
Now, on the other hand, they’re saying hardcover books are so cheap to make as to be worthless from a materials standpoint.
Those two sentiments just don’t jive.
[...] Preston is exhibiting that he knows deeply what it means to feel ‘entitlement’. My reaction when I read Preston’s quote was exactly the same as this writer. Fortunately his books are throw-away fluff, and not even good throw-away fluff, so I will miss nothing if I never buy one again. [...]
Excellent article Nico
From Douglas Preston article “not wanting to pay the real price of something”
I donot know any way to estimate the “REAL VALUE” of a book unless I read the book. “Real Value” is my own perception and justifying the price of the book on real value is ridiculous.
“Walmart attitude” – If the success of walmart is right, then the walmart attitude will bring more profits.
If 10 people are willing to pay @ 14.99 then there might be 100 people willing to pay @ 9.99 and 400 @6.99.
See how many 99 cent books are in the top 100 list in Amazon.
I baught almost 60 books in Kindle and out of which 45 are either 9.99 or 6.99. Never baught a book above 10 dollars. May be it’s an anchor price. I don’t know. I am really interested in seeing the fate of ebooks after 14.99 default prices.
Will people forget 9.99 anchor point and will buy 14.99 regularly?
or will the publishers realise their mistake? It’s an interesting experiment.
I HOPE Douglas Preston is a true NON-WALMARTIAN. I wish he will always go to a local farmer’s market and pay for the REAL VALUE of a tomatoe or a potatoe.
real value? ask an economist. i’m always stuck with the question of why writers write? and are we the ones who should pay the perceived ‘real value’ so that writers can write for a living?
does mr preston’s publisher sell his books at wal-mart? at costco? do his books have an expiration date? do they become less valuable as time goes on and therefore can be marked down for ‘clearance?’ maybe the clearance price is the ‘real value’ and the newly published price is inflated?
mr preston. if you perceived your writing to have a ‘real value’ above what the average consumer wants to pay, either don’t write for the average consumer, or sell your books exclusively in tiffany’s. problem solved.
hi Maverick and Robyn,
Thanks for stopping by.
I think both of you bring up a good point about Preston’s use of the phrase “real price,” which is almost as infuriating as the word “entitlement.” It’s shorthand-doublespeak for “I want more of your money,” and it’s (ironically in this case) a sign of a serious sense of entitlement. There is, of course, no “real price” for anything, and claiming not only that there is one, but that it’s higher than people are paying… well, these are just more signs that Mr. Preston (super-jerk) sees customers as dollar signs.
I sincerely hope that this ingratitude toward his fans and customers severely hurts his career.