Stephen Colbert interviewed Native American author Sherman Alexie two days ago on The Colbert Report. One would have expected the interview to rest on the topic of Alexia’s latest novel, War Dances. Instead, Colbert immediately brought up Amazon’s Kindle and Alexie’s decision to not allow any of his works available for eReaders.
At first, Alexie responded in a rather paranoid manner regarding Kindle. All of your reading material in one place. All of your contact information. Big Brother knows what you’re reading.
This Books Examiner would argue that, if Big Brother were so inclined, he could dig into our debit purchases and find that little gem of a book on Capitalism you purchased awhile back in the used bookstore. Unless you paid with cash, right? Therefore, in order to fully protect ourselves, we must only pay for items with cash, thus burning the paper trail. Paying cash for all purchases? I can’t remember the last time I paid cash for any purchase over $20. This generation uses debit or credit and shops regularly online. Conclusion: Unless Alexie is paying cash for all of his purchases, this argument is null and void.
Alexie argued that eBooks opened the door to piracy, comparing the publishing industry to the music industry. Hello, future, sorry I missed your call. Amazon has sold well over a million Kindles. Now that Barnes and Noble is in the mix with the Nook and selling eBooks directly from bn.com, this is more than the future. This is the present state of the publishing industry. Competition allows for better pricing. By not allowing a published work to be sold in eBook format, an author just lost the possibility of one million sales. If a Kindle owner were watching the show two nights ago, they could have downloaded War Dances in minutes and started reading. Now, that reader has to remember the name of the author, the name of the book and also remember that they wanted to read it. Chances of the reader remembering a week later when they go to the bookstore? Slim to none. Conclusion: Alexie just lost a million sales.Colbert asked Alexie how he would sell books, ignoring all current marketing techniques. Alexie argued that because of eBooks, the craft of storytelling was lost. If it were up to him, he would sell his books door to door. Chances of someone opening the door: slim to none. This Books Examiner hides from the Boy Scouts. Their popcorn prices are outrageous. Cost of gas involved in going door to door to every single household in the United States: unfathomable amount of dough. Cost of promoting your eBook in an online community: nothing, and you can do it in your pjs.
The industry has changed. To quote Bob Dylan, “you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone.”
Comments
Holly - Well put! Go girl! I don't think I will be reading Sherman's book anytime soon.
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