Doodads and Whatnot

The following is a letter I sent to the Random House Australia. As you can tell from reading it I am unhappy that it is not possible for me to buy the books I want from them in the format I want.

27th October 2009
Ebook publishing.
Random House Australia
Level 3
100 Pacific Highway
North Sydney, N.S.W., 2060
Australia

Dear sir or madam,

I have followed with keen interest the international launch of the Kindle electronic reader from Amazon.com. When I had established that a minimum of books which interest me are available I placed an order and am now a very satisfied user of the device. It is the second e-ink device I have owned and without a doubt its best feature is the ease with which content may be sampled and purchased.

It was with some irritation however that I noticed many if not all books from your catalogue are not available for purchase in Kindle format within Australia. This is despite them being available from the Kindle store for other regions. I appreciate that this is due to the way that publishing rights are negotiated but, as I will outline, this doesn’t matter to me.

I shall also outline why I have come to the conclusion that the greatest piracy threat publishers face is themselves.

Let us look at the example of Terry Pratchett’s recent book Unseen Academicals. I would very much like to read this book but I don’t necessarily feel the need to own a paper copy. In the event that I might desire to own a paper copy I still may not bother because of a simple truth: I am lazy. I want to take the easiest route to reading the novel at a reasonable price. The less effort involved the more likely my purchase.

Were the book available via the Kindle store I would have bought it within a few moments with not much more than a quick taping of a few buttons. It wouldn’t even have been necessary for me to get out of my hammock or comfy chair. However, the book is not available to me in this way. What am I to do?

There are a few options. For the sake of making my overall point plain I shall list them in order of ease, starting with the easiest.

1. I could not read the book. You get nothing, Mr. Pratchett gets nothing, and I get nothing.
2. I could pirate the book. A few quick Google searches suggest that it’s definitely available. The quality is likely to be variable but from the comments of the people who have pirated it would appear to be readable.
3. I could create a fake U.S. address and have the book “shipped” there. You get nothing, Mr. Pratchett gets paid, and I get to read the book.
4. I could go to the library. This is closer to my house than any decently sized bookstore and reserving the book online is often as fast as ordering it. You get a small amount of money per reader, Mr. Pratchett gets a small amount of money per reader, and I get to read the book.
5. I could go to a physical bookstore. The outcome of which is obvious.

Critical in all of this is the observation that by not making the title available for the device I use you’ve made several options which don’t net you any income more attractive than buying from you. Obviously, given my writing to you, I have significant objections to piracy and would not want to deprive Mr. Pratchett of the income but as for you? I’m not sure it upsets me as much. If the author is paid and some publisher continues to make future titles available it doesn’t seem that it would change my enjoyment of the books significantly.

Much of the chatter on internet forums regarding the Kindle launch has focused on ways in which users may access the U.S. Kindle store. This is a very positive sign that people are willing to pay for the content they consume. I doubt however that they will be return exclusively to paper books should this “loophole” be closed. They will instead move to the next easiest option, piracy.

It is to be hoped that what you see as the solution to this is making your catalogue available in formats for which people have shown a desire. If your position is that electronic book formats require more protection or better region controls then I have little sympathy for you and hope that you see the error in this before you find your ebook offerings replaced by foreign or illegitimate markets.

If you are currently negotiating with Amazon or preparing your content for sale in Kindle format please disregard this letter.

Yours sincerely,

Name Removed.