Bookshelf Battle

Exceptionally prolific book writing machine James Patterson has weighed in on the Amazon vs. Hachette Battle. Check it out here on CNN.

MY TWO CENTS: Frankly, this is one of those complicated issues that leaves a bumpkin like me cross-eyed. I think I get it. For both sides, it’s about money. On the one hand, you have Hachette and authors arguing that they should be rightly compensated for their work – that a lot of time and effort goes into producing these stories that we all enjoy and they should be paid for it. Why would anyone sit themselves in front of a computer screen typing away for twelve hours a day unless there’s just compensation coming? For the love of the artform? Well, that would be nice but hey, you know, money would be nice too. After all, authors need to pay their bills and need an income to survive on so they can focus their efforts on churning out more books. Without that income, they’ll have to get day-jobs and who feels like writing when they get home from work?

On the other hand, you have Amazon claiming that the demand for books priced too high just isn’t there. They may have a point. Think for a moment the veritable explosion of entertainment at your fingertips that has arrived on the scene in recent years. I can remember living in a time where if you wanted to watch a movie, you drove to a store and rented a physical copy, brought it home, watched it, forgot to bring it back, got charged late fees. Today, you can pop on your iPad, rent any movie you want and it is instantly on your screen. I can remember a time where if you wanted to buy a book you’d drive to the bookstore. Today, you again pop on your iPad, download it and start reading. Sadly, the movie and book stores are bygone relics, which is kind of sad as I used to enjoy wandering around them, finding books and movies I’d never heard of before.

The point is though that if you are any kind of entertainer – an actor, a singer, or even an author – you have a ridiculous amount of competition these days for the limited dollars people can afford to spend on your entertainment product in today’s garbage economy. If your book price reaches over a certain level, people will just watch a movie on Netflix instead.

It’s one of those difficult debates where both parties aren’t entirely right or wrong. I suppose in the end, we live in a free market and the publishers/authors should be able to price their products as they choose. If they price them too high, in an age where there is an abundance of options, the consumers will be the ones in the end who will let them know whether or not their product is worth the cost.

One last shameless plug for James Patterson (not that he needs it) – he’s one of the most successful authors in history for a reason. His books are pretty great and you should read one today.