L'Imprimé est éternel

Cette fois-ci, c'est dans l'autre sens que je vais traduire. Un peu de lecture pour les francophones pour changer.


Traduction de Print is Eternal écrit par JA Konrath ( Samedi 17 avril 2010)

L'Imprimé est éternel

Animateur : Bienvenue aux Obsolètes Anonymes ! Je nous ai tous rassemblés aujourd'hui pour accueillir notre nouveau membre : l'industrie de l'impression !

Industrie de l'Imprimé: Bonjour à tous. Mais il y a une erreur. Je n'ai rien à faire ici.

(ricanements dans la salle)

Industrie de l'Imprimé : Sérieusement. Je ne suis pas obsolète. Je suis d'actualité. Les livres imprimés sont là depuis des centaines d'années. Ils ne seront jamais remplacés.

Cassette Vidéo : Ouais, c'est ce qu'on a tous pensé.

Disque Vinyle : Ça s'appelle le déni. C'est difficile à gérer au début.

Cassette Vidéo : Facile à dire pour toi Vinyle. Tu as encore un petit marché de niche avec les collectionneurs. Ils ne peuvent même plus me refourguer sur EBay.

Antiquaire : On pourrait éviter de parler d'Ebay s'il vous plaît ? Avant j'avais des boutiques partout. Mais de plus en plus ferment à cause de ce site de rien du tout.

CDs: Au moins il te reste quelques magasins. Les boutiques spécialisées qui me vendent sont presque éteintes. Il ne me reste plus que quelques îlots chez Best-Buy et Wal-Mart *.

Industrie de l'Imprimé : Écoutez, tous le monde. Je comprends que vous pensez tous que les livres électroniques vont me virer. Mais cela n'arrivera pas.

PTT ** : On commence tous par dénier. Je me souviens quand on ne pouvais pas faire 20 pas dans une ville sans voir une cabine téléphonique. Et puis ces foutus téléphones portables sont arrivés. Vous avez qu'il y a même des gens qui n'ont plus de ligne fixe? Avant il y avais une ligne fixe dans chaque maison...

(PTT fond en larmes. Bottin se joint à lui, ainsi que modem. Encyclopédie Universelle, portant un T-Shirt "Je Hais Wikipedia" s'envoie quelques prozacs. Ils se serrent dans les bras les uns des autres.)

Vidéo-club : Ce que PTT essaie de t'expliquer, c'est que lorsqu'une technologie arrive qui est plus rapide, facile et meilleur marché, la vieille technologie (et toutes les sociétés qui les portaient) tendent à s'atténuer.

Industrie de l'Imprimé : Mais qu'est-ce que tu fais là, Vidéo-club ? Il y a encore des VidéoFutur plein partout.

CDs : Il y avait des marchands de disques plein partout, autrefois...

Cassettes : Oh Ouais ! Ils vendaient des cassettes aussi ! Allez, tapez m'en cinq !

(personne n'en tape cinq à Cassette)

Vidéo-club : Les chose étaient pas mal pendant un moment. J'ai eu quoi, vingt ans, tranquille. Puis j'e m'en suis pris par tous les côtés. *** Netflix, avec ses envois par courrier. la VOD, Tivo, Youtube. Et puis le coup fatal est arrivé il y a deux ans. Hula. Roku, qui autorise les abonnés Netflix à streamer la vidéo instantanément. iTunes et Amazon qui proposent  le téléchargement de films. Red Box, qui loue des DVD pour 99 cents et ne prends pas plus de place qu'un distributeur de canettes?

Industrie de l'Imprimé : Mais les livres ne sont qu'une faible portion du marché. Les gens lisent sur papier depuis Gutenberg. Ils ne s'adapteront pas si facilement.

Kodak : C'est vrai. Ça prends quelques années aux gens pour adopter une nouvelle technologie. Certains ne s'adaptent pas. Polaroid ne m'a jamais remplacé.

Polaroid : Tais toi, Kodak. On s'est fait tous les deux étaler par Numérique. C'est quand la dernière fois que t'as vendu une pellicule ?

Antenne TV : Moi je suis encore bien implantée dans quelques pays du tiers monde!

Machine à écrire : Le truc c'est : Quand la technologie s'améliore, elle se répand. Papier Carbone et moi on avait un bon plan. Je faisais les mots et lui les copies. Puis Photocopie est arrivée, mais elle n'est plus très bien non plus.

Photocopie : Enc..és d'ordinateurs.

Disquette : Tu l'as dit !

Imprimante Matricielle : Enc..és de laser et de jet d'encre. Ça manque à personne de détacher les trous sur le bord du papier ? Ça leur manque pas cette sensation, et cette odeur ?

Cartes Routières : C'est vrai ! C'était pas rigolo d'ouvrir une grande carte en conduisant, pour essayer de trouver ou vous étiez ? Ça ne vous manque pas, le bon vieux temps ou les voitures n'avaient pas de GPS, et ou personne n'utilisait Mappy **** ?

CDs : Enc..é d'internet. C'est ça le problème. Accès instantané à l'information et aux loisirs pour le monde entier. Vous voulez qu'on parle de piratage et de téléchargements illégaux ?

("Non! " collectif)

Animateur : Nous avons tous lu sur le blog de JA Konrath que le moyen de combattre le piratage c'est la facilité et le coût. Industrie de l'Imprimé, est-ce que tu baisses tes prix et facilite le téléchargement de tes livres aux clients ?

Industrie de l'Imprimé : En fait, nous venons d'augmenter les prix des ebooks.

(soupir collectif et signe de négations)

Animateur : Bon, tu n'apprendras jamais de tes erreurs. Est-ce que tu le rends plus facile au moins ?

Industrie de l'Imprimé : Ben, on a commencé à décaler les ebooks, en les mettant en vente des mois après la sortie des grands formats.

(tout le monde se tape le front)

Industrie Musicale : As tu au moins essayé de vendre sur ton propre site ? Si seulement je l'avais fait. Et puis Apple est arrivé.

Industrie de l'Imprimé : Euh... non. Nous n'avons pas essayé çà. En fait, certains livres (prenons JA Konrath comme exemple puisqu'on l'a déjà mentionné) ne sont même pas disponible sur toutes les plate-formes ou à l'international.

Animateur : Qu'est ce que tu racontes ? Ses livres sont disponible partout.

Industrie de l'Imprimé : Ceux là c'est ceux qu'il publie lui-même. Il manque certain marchés clefs, et depuis des années, à ses livres que nous vendons. Mais tout va bien. On lui paye des royalties bien inférieures et on augmente les prix pour faire encore du profit. Et puis, le livre électronique c'est encore une niche. Les appareil de lecture électroniques sont dédiés et chers.

Bornes d'Arcades : J'étais une industrie florissante. Les enfants dépensaient des millions dans mes milliers de points d’implantation. Mais alors Nintendo, Sony et Microsoft ont créé des machine d'arcades domestiques, et maintenant les gens jouent à leurs jeux vidéo sur des machines spécialisées. C'est un business multimillionnaire maintenant *****et je ne peux rester concurrentiel qu'en vendant de la pizza et en donnant des jouets en plastiques aux gamins avec le plus de cartes de foot. Si les gens veulent le média, ils achètent l'appareil le plus cher. Point.

Industrie de l'Imprimé : Mais aucun de vous ne m'écoute. L'imprimé sera toujours là.

Industrie des Journaux : Ouais, comme il dit !

Industrie de l'Imprimé : On ne va pas commencer à se comparer, d'accord Industrie des journaux ? Sans vouloir t'offenser.

Industrie des Journaux : Pas de problème. Eh, peut-être qu'on pourrait s'entraider. Je vend de l'espace publicitaire presque gratos ces jours ci et …

Industrie de l'Imprimé : Non merci. Plus personne ne te lis. Les gens prennent les nouvelles ailleurs.

Animateur : Alors pourquoi les gens n’achèteraient pas leurs livres ailleurs également ?

(Industrie de l'Imprimé se lève, en pointant son doigt tout autour de la salle)

Industrie de l'Imprimé : Écoutez, ce n'est pas moi. Vous tous, là, vous êtes passés de mode. La technologie a avancé, et vous ne l'avez pas suivi. Mais ça NE M'ARRIVERA PAS. Il y aura toujours des librairies et des livres papiers. Nous continuerons à vendre des livres grands formats à des prix de luxe et à payer les artistes entre 6 et 15 % de royalties au prix que NOUS trouverons approprié. Et les masses achèteront nos livres PARCE QU'ON L'A DECIDE ! NOUS NE DEVIENDRONS JAMAIS OBSOLETE !!!

Marchands de chandelles : Amen mon gars, C'est ce que j’essaie de leur expliquer depuis des lustres !

Cds : (chuchotant à Vinyles) Je lui donne 6 ans, maximum.

Reading and books buying habits, Lots of Changes...

So, I've got my ereader for more than 5 months now, and I find out that it changed my reading and book buying habits quite a lot.

First, regarding reading, I found out than even if I used to consider myself a "big reader" (1-2 book per week at least), I DO read much more now than I did previously (2-3 books per week). I used to take my books everywhere with me, and when close to finishing one, taking an other with me so as not to miss reading time. Now, I still read at every opportunity, but with my nook it's way easier. I find it almost handier to read with it than with a hardcover book, which made me feel guilty because of possible stains, abuses etc.
I read under (really) small rain, whereas I wouldn't with pbooks. Some (Jane Fancher among others) even read in the bath with their ereader. Depending on ambient light luminosity, and eye strain, I also sometimes change the text's size (wich I definitely could not on pbook)... and you know what ? While a year ago I would have told you that I loved the paper's touch, in no way do I miss pbooks.

I borrowed a few paper books ( Scalzi's Lost Colony and Zoe's Tale ) at the library, and even if I liked them quite a lot, I found them (they're hardover sized) clumsy and uneasy to take with me.

Regarding buying, I bought in the last months :

• 1 book @ amazon, 
• 5 @ B&N
• 8 @ webscriptions
• 4 @ Closed Circle
• 10 @ Smashwords
• 2 @ my local book store (paper books, no ebook available).

I also downloaded a few fo free. In addition to the "free" ones, I have a downloaded a great many from Baen, "given away" with some ebooks in the "promotional CD".

I didn't read them all, but they are all on my ereader, ready to be chosen when I finish one.

Oh, and I didn't have to find out space in the basement to store all these books. Just some work with Calibre, a little bit of dropbox to synchronize and save...

And you ? did your ereader change parts of your life ?

Unequal rights for digital books (Revised version)

Here is the revised version to the article presented in the previous post:

This is a translation of the "open letter" originally published in "Le Monde" edition of 02.12.10
With permission of the authors.

Inéquitables droits du livre numérique


Unequal rights for digital books 

We often agree, dear editor and friend, when discussing literature, but I must now bring up a point of contention: money. In France, the subject is taboo and the word vulgar except when related to one of Zola’s works. I just received your “Contract Amendment” regarding “digital rights.” For those who might happen upon our exchange (which I’d like to keep confidential), I want to explain that digital rights are source to the royalties I get when my book goes from paper to screen, and is read on an iPad or a Kindle.

When asked, you answered, reassuring, that this market is embryonic. That’s true. But who can predict the future? Look at the world of the audio CDs: in only a decade it almost completely gave way to that – immaterial – of digital distribution of music. In short, you ask me, while waiting for the situation to become clear, to sign the damn amendment where you grant me 10 percent of the net price of the book, as on paper. As a result, I have to speak percentages; forgive me in advance for being so vulgar.

I know the traditional book model, you’ve once explained it to me: 53 percent of the sale price goes to distributors and 15 percent to the printer. You grant me an average of 10 percent on each book sold, which leaves you, dear publisher, a little over 20 percent to live on. So on each of my books, you earn twice as much as me, which is justified, I agree (even though you could be more generous), since you make that financial bet that has justified the very existence of your profession since Diderot: You advance “fixed costs,” from proof to production, not to mention the efforts of your publicity service to promote it to critics.

So, in your “Contract Amendment”, you suggest that I keep these same 10 percent rights on my digitized book. You are yet freed of the handling, storage and printing costs, and it will leave you 90 percent, since you sell this “book” at the same prices on the web as in the bookstore (a commercial aberration that probably buys some time for booksellers, and that’s for the best). Certainly, with 90 percent, you’ll still have to pick up some costs. You transform the work to an “eBook” format and you “secure the data” (I’m told that these costs are negligible, but correct me if I’m wrong).

You say that you have to pay the “virtual library” (sometimes your own subsidiary, you little rascal!) up to 30 percent. But some tell me that this percentage can only decrease (it is already often 20 percent), since everything in that “distribution channel” is virtual and competition is fierce. Ultimately, for this book I wrote, you’ll get between six and seven times more money than me, right? But maybe I’m wrong. After all, I’m a writer, not an accountant.

David against Goliath 

Ten years ago already, a major French publishing house’s CEO said in Le Monde: “Our traditional system is falling apart. In a world that is increasingly digital and where direct-to-consumer sales are used more and more, the temptation will be great, especially for authors, to change the rules of the game. Especially the one by which they get 10 to 15 percent of rights over a creation that is still theirs, whereas they could get more.” I gloss over his “a creation that is still theirs,” which is more ironic – I’m sure – than unfortunate. I would like to reassure you: “Changing the rules of the game” is not my immediate intention.

In the United States, William Styron’s heirs left the venerable publishing company Random House, which offered them 25 percent of the net price (i.e. 20 percent of retail) for a Web publisher, Open Road Integrated Media, which offered them 50 percent. Interesting how copyright holders sometimes can be indifferent to historic connections. As for us, we are friends, aren’t we? Despite our friendship, I hope I’m misunderstanding, when I’m listening to you, that you consider electronic rights to all my previous books as yours, even if we signed these contracts well before the “Web years” and even if they bear no mention to Internet publishing. I do not read anywhere either in my amendment that you would consider renegotiations of the low percentage someday, despite technical developments and cost reductions.

Finally, I fear that since a digital book is never “sold out”, you won’t feel compelled to reprint it anymore, that I won’t be able to have the rights reverted so that I can keep it alive somewhere else. I cannot believe it. Such practices, among friends? I’m like you: I do not know how the electronic book trade will play out in the mid-term. I see two options: The reader will download it on the traditional publisher’s site, or on the site of a more generous “web publisher”, to whom an annoyed author will have entrusted his Internet rights (do not presume I’m making any threat here, it is an academic hypothesis). Or the reader, driven by a portal such as Google, will look for it in an online bookstore, Amazon, Fnac or Google itself. Oddly, the latter hypothesis seems more plausible, because the reader generally knows the book’s title or author’s name, and more rarely the name of the publisher.

If these “tablets” spread and if reading habits changed, I wonder if high selling authors would not consider getting around the publisher, considering that they no longer need its label. With distribution agreements providing the author with at least 65 percent (like Apple), rather than publishing agreements at 10 percent, they could take the risk of selling a little less to earn more. What do you think? You’ve considered all this, haven’t you?

In this battle beginning between the Goliath of distribution and the David of publishing, I know which side I want to be on. After his reader, an author’s greatest ally is his publisher (and booksellers, but that’s not the issue here). And publishers have never been in greater need of their authors. For, if no writer can exist without a publisher, surely no publisher can exist without an author. I know what I owe you, dear friend. I want to be your ally, and that you would consider me as one. So here's my question: do you humiliate an ally?

Paul Fournel, Cécile Guilbert, Herve Le Tellier, Gerard Mordillat and Gilles Rozier, authors. Article published in Le Monde, edition of 02.12.10

Translation with help (among others) from:
Steve Silkin. His books are available on Kindle  or Nook 

Unequal rights for digital books

Edit : Une version avancée a été publiée dans un nouveau post : 

Here is a rough first draft of a translation from an highly ironic open letter five french authors had published in "Le Monde" at the beginning of December last year.
I know that some english speaking people are interested in how the ebooks market is in France, so I attempted a translation.
Far from beeing a professional translator, I have probably made more than a few mistakes, so if anyone (French or English Speaking) spots some and finds corrections, please send them so that I can edit and correct the translation.

I couldn't find good appropriate translation for some parts, for which I put them in Bold, waiting for a correction.



Inéquitables droits du livre numérique (Open Letter published in le Monde 12/01/2010)

Unequal rights for digital books


We often find agreement, dear friend and editor, when discussing literature, but I got to talk here about a grievous issue: money. In France, the subject is taboo and a dirty word except when related to one of Zola's works. I just received your "Contract Amendment" regarding "digital rights". For those who might fall on our exchange (which I'd like to keep confidential), I say that digital rights are those that I get when my book leave  the world of paper to that of screen, and is read on an iPad or a Kindle.


When asked, you answered, reassuring, that this market is embryonic. That's true. But who can predict the future? Look at the world of disc: it gave way in a decade to that, very intangible, of music. In short, you ask me to commit, waiting to see more clearly, and sign the damn amendment where you grant me 10% of the net price of the book, as on paper. I'll have to talk percentage. Forgive me in advance for the vulgarity.

I know the traditional book model, you've once explained it to me: the distribution pockets about 53% of the final price of my book, and you, dear editor, once the printer is paid (around 15%) and my royalties are settled (you grant me an average of 10% per copy sold), you still get a little over 20% to live. So you earn on each of my books twice as much as me, which is justified, I agree (even if you could be more generous), because you make this financial bet that since Diderot justifies the very existence of your profession : you advance "fixed costs", from correction to impression, not to mention the efforts of your press service to promote it to critics.

So, in your "Contract Amendment", you suggest that I keep these same 10% rights on my digitalized book. You are yet freed of the handling, storage and printing costs, and it will leave you 90%, since you sell this "book" at the same prices on the web as in the bookstore (this commercial aberration probably spares for some time booksellers and that's for the better). Certainly, with these 90%, you'll still have to provide some cost. You transform the work to an "eBook" format and you "secure the data" (I'm told that these real costs are ridiculous, think me). You say that you have to pay the "virtual library" (that sometimes is your own subsidiary, little rascal) up to 30% and more, but remember that this percentage can only decrease (it already is often 20 %), since in this "distribution", everything is virtual and competition is fierce. Ultimately, for this book I wrote, you get between six and seven times more than me, right? Please, correct me if I am wrong, I am more literary, alas.

David against Goliath

Ten years ago already, a major French publishing house's CEO said in Le Monde: "Our traditional system creaks at the joints. In a world that is increasingly dematerialized and where 'one to one' is more and more used, the temptation will be great, especially for authors, to change the game's rules. Especially that by which the only get 10% to 15% of rights over a creation that is still theirs, whereas they could get more. " I "passe sur"  this "a creation that is still theirs ", which is more ironic - I'm sure - than unfortunate. I would like to reassure you: "changing the game's rules" is not my immediate intention.

In the United States, William Styron's heirs left the old house Random House, which offered them 25% of the net price (ie 20% of retail price) for a Web editor, Open Road Integrated Media, which offered them 50% . But you know how "ayant droits" sometimes are, indifferent to ancient links. As for us, we are friends, aren't we ? Despite our friendship, I am also afraid, listening to you, that you consider electronic rights to all my previous books as yours, even if we signed together these contracts well before the "web years" and if they do not mention Internet publishing. I do not read either anywhere in my amendment that you planned to renegotiate someday this low percentage, despite technical developments and cost reductions.

Finally, I fear that since a digital book is never "sold out", you won't feel compelled to reprint it anymore , that I won't be able anymore to have the rights back to have it live elsewhere. I can not believe it. Such practices, among friends? I'm like you: I do not know how in the medium term, electronic book trade will organize. I see two options: the reader will download it on the traditional publisher's site, or on that  more generous of a "web publisher", to whom the author will have entrusted his Internet rights (do not read any threat here, it is an academic hypothesis). Or the reader, driven by a portal such as Google, will look for it in an online bookstore, Amazon, Fnac or Google itself. Oddly, the latter hypothesis seems more plausible, because the reader generally knows the book's title or author's name, rarely the publisher.

I wonder, if these "tablets" spread wide, if reading habits changed, I wonder if large booksellers would not consider getting around publishers, considering that they no longer have need of his label. With distribution agreements providing the author with at least 65% (like Apple), rather than editing agreements at 10%, they could take the risk of selling a little less to win more. What do you think? I guess you've thought about it.

In this battle starting between the Goliath of distribution and the David of edition, I know which side I want to be. After his reader, an author's best ally is his publisher (and real bookseller, but such is not the issue here), and publishers have never been in greater need of their authors to validate their work. For if there may be no writer without a publisher, there surely can be no publisher without an author. I know what I owe you, dear friend, I want to be your ally and you also see myself as such. So here's my question: should we humiliate an ally?

Paul Fournel, Cécile Guilbert, Herve Le Tellier, Gerard Mordillat and Gilles Rozier, writers.
Article published in the edition of 02.12.10

Edit : Une version avancée a été publiée dans un nouveau post : 

Vas-y, prends nous pour des cons ! #prendsmoipouruncon

Voici deux tribunes dans le journal "Le Monde" de différents partis prenants dans le monde de l'édition électronique:

Antoine Gallimard, président du Syndicat national de l'édition (SNE):
L'édition numérique accorde les mêmes droits d'auteurs que le livre imprimé

Paul Fournel, Cécile Guilbert, Hervé Le Tellier, Gérard Mordillat et Gilles Rozier, écrivains :
Inéquitables droits du livre numérique


Bien que présentés dans un ordre "anti-chronologique", le plus récent après le plus vieux, il est clair à la lecture que le second est une réponse adaptée aux arguments du premier...
Je ne me permettrais pas d'aller plus loin dans le développement des arguments des écrivains, qui me surpassent (et de loin) de leur légitimité comme de leur plume.

Meet the Gatekeeper !

A few days ago, my boss saw me coming back from lunch with my ereader in hand. As he was interested about it, we started to talk. Past the technical aspect and peculiarities of my reader (a Nook) comparatively with the FnacBook, the subject changed to the catalog, and when I talked to him about self-publishing, his first reaction was : "When I buy from a well known publisher, I know I'll get the quality associated to that publisher."

This IS the role historically attached to "Publication" (as opposed to the Publisher see previous post)  : vetting the quality of books, guarantying it reaches a minimum quality, in content as much as in "presentation" (format, editing) ...

What is true, is that if all books (good or bad) had similar visibility, a customer would only have his own experience for choosing books to buy.

In the traditional pbook world, the publisher would have the first role of "gatekeeper". In addition to that "filter", "critics" would be able through a media (newspaper, tv show etc) to add additional information. Lastly (and part of the Publisher's "marketing campaign"), a few "blurbs" would be added to the book, giving it additional "credentials". And last, some books would get litterary (by genre of course) prices, given by a jury.
While all these factors contribute to a book's visibility,"Shelf space" (or rather lack thereof) on the contrary reduces it.

So if there is no publisher in the loop, how will someone know what to buy ?
Well, who's best than readers to vet a book ? After all, when buying a book you're a reader too ! And with new technology, readers can (and DO) post reviews about books at the booksellers's place, for you fellow reader to check before buying! And if you find out that you don't like "general readers" books, you most likely will find a couple of bloggers whose tastes are more in line with yours.
Bad books get bad reviews, good books get good reviews and everyone is happy !

Of course some may try and game the system by posting fake reviews, but in general, the system works. After some times, it auto-regulates...

Joe Konrath has the same view, as expressed in today's post.

DRM et édition numérique Française, French epublishing

Voici quelques liens interressant concernant le marché numérique, particulièrement en France
Here are a few interesting links/ressources regarding ebooks market, particularly the french one.
(except for the first one, in French)

Future of ebooks

Les internautes sont les nouveaux prescripteurs du livre

Livres numériques & mépris du lecteur : éditeurs et bibliothèques complices ?

De la bibliothèque à la bibliosphère @Amazon
De la bibliothèque à la bibliosphère @ Immatériel
De la bibliothèque à la bibliosphère @ Feedbooks

Epub for scientific publications ?

Today I showed my e-reader to two co-workers, whose first interest was storing/reading scientific publications on it, thus avoiding to print them. I understand the problem as I also commonly print pdfs for reading.

Unfortunately, my Nook is only marginally able to display PDFs, which is the standard format for publications.
Now I wonder, would epub not be a good alternative/additional format ?
There may be problems with mathematic formulas, but otherwise ?

My take on why France is not as advanced as the US ebook-wise

Tara Maya is the first who commented on my blog, Thank you !

In the previous post, I mentionned my perception of France beeing "retarded" ebook-wise.
I unfortunately don't have the data and "distance" to compare correctly the US market with the french one, but my first take on it that we are not yet out of the original chicken and egg problem.

What we need is :
- enough ebooks (and at competitive enough prices) to make e-readers attractive and economically "efficient".
- good e-readers (and at competitive prices) to open up the ebooks market and give them potential customers.
- enough customers to reach critical mass.
Not until the customers critical mass is attained will indie author be able to start making profit.
As for the delay we have, at the beginning of last year's 4th quarter, we were the same stage as in the US before Amazon introduced the Kindle.

What the US had that is not that much available here is the "Amazon Kindle" launch, which seems to me to have won on all three points.
While the Kindle is available in France, it has not been internationalized (the Kindle store as well as the hardware is strictly English), there was no marketing campaign around it ... In addition to that, international kindle books prices are higher than US ones (ie .99$ --> 3.34$ international , 2.99$ --> 5.74$).

Additionally, there are hurdles that may hurt Amazon if it tried to expand into the french market (which is not a stated goal at the moment) :
- Publishers having a firm control of pbook prices (through a "unique price" law) and lobbying to have it transposed for ebooks, which would disable Amazon's price cutting strategy,
(cf (French) http://actu-des-ebooks.fr/2010/11/10/kindle-stores-amazon-conquete-europe , http://actu-des-ebooks.fr/2010/11/15/le-president-amazon-france-explique-la-situation-du-livre-numerique-francais/),
- an insufficient publisher's cooperation with providing ebooks,
- a lesser sized market,
- it's refusal to "read" epub books,
- Google's ambitions and large catalog...

The last point about Google's larger catalog is mainly about the old french news where Google had digitized a high number of books (from Libraries) and the newer partnerships with publishers to help them digitize out-of-print pbooks.
(cf (French) http://actu-des-ebooks.fr/2010/12/07/google-ebooks-le-plus-grand-catalogue-au-monde/)
However, publishers may find problems with writers not wanting to let their ebooks rights to publishers ...

Two ressellers tried and recreate Amazon's success for the Christmas season (France-Loisir/Chapitre.com and FNAC), but my perception is that it was a miss.
The "FnacBook" (FNAC.fr) and "Oyo" (Chapitre), which have Kindle/Nook like wifi/3G connectivity, greatly suffer in technical comparisons with the Kindle.

The may have failed due to
- publishers not beeing ready to offer their best-sellers at reasonable conditions,
- not so good e-readers,
- not wide enough marketing.
I think it was all a mix, and even though there were progress in the three categories, it's still not enough for ebooks to get real traction here. We will get there, that's for sure, but in how much time?

All in all, the market isn't mature enough for e-resellers to fight on price and royalties and writers to self-publish.

Meet the Publisher...

I know I promised some raytracing, but so far I haven't had time to write anything on it so ...

However, as quickly mentionned in a previous post, I follow the blog of J.A. Konrath and am quite interested in the "Self-Publishing movement". Of course, having no writing talent or time and living in the "ebookwise retarded" France, I am not in the least directly involved, but (as with ray-tracing) I'm an avid external observer.
After a few months of observations, I got some partial knowledge about a publisher's role, as well as the publishing industry's. Here is more or less my limited understanding.

The publisher's historical role is to choose writers or books, and bet a high amount of money on it. That money is distributed between a writer's advance (and later royalties), editing, formatting, cover art, production and distribution, marketing... Due to his experience and knowledge, as well as it's high volume of sale, he should be able to sell enough of these books to retailers to at least recoup his bets, some books compensating for others, finally making a profit.

Historically, the risk taken by the traditionnal publisher was high due to the "materiality" of physical books (pbooks) : high cost of production, high costs of distribution, high marketing constraint, short average lifespan of books ... That latter point is important in itself : In physical bookshops, the amount of shelf space is limited, which combined with new books arrival means that a rotation is needed (new books replacing old ones). I also heard of some states where "storage" taxes enticed publishers to make more limited runs, which also limits the book's availability after it's first runs.
So for publishers, High risks lead to big piece of the cake. The author not taking as much (monetary) risk got a small part of the pie

However that business model has gained some competition with the arrival of "self-publishing".
The premise on which the traditional publishing is based is that of material high starting costs. Some new ways to provide/read books have become more widespread :

• POD machines,even though highly geographically constrained ;
• ereaders (Kindle, Nook, Sony etc...) allow affordable, comfortable, and portable reading of ebooks ; 
• tablets allow affordable and portable reading of color ebooks, comics, "enhanced" books ; 
• smartphones and PCs are also there (almost free for ereading since bought mostly for other applications);

All these devices allow a reader to get the reading experience they want, and combined with high availability of ebooks through digital library (which provides unlimited shelf space) they get rid of a big part of the "publisher's risk" : production and distribution. This opened the way for "self publishers"...

If one suppresses the production and distribution services from the ones listed above (publishers please comment and add any that I may have missed), it leaves : Writer's advance, editing, cover arts, marketing.

Supposing a writer were to forego an advance, and provide his own editing, formatting and cover (either by doing the work himself or sub-contracting it), and did his own marketing, he would not need the services of a publisher... that's exactly what self-publishing is.

J.A. Konrath did change from traditional to self-publishing and has a tremenduous success and provides his calculations, as well as other writers success stories.

Derek J Canyon did also and keeps track on his blog of the exact costs for his two books ("Dead Dwarves Don't Dance" and "Dead Dwarves Dirty Deeds")... While not a success yet, (far from it, he has yet to recoup his initial costs), it seems clear that the monetary amount is far from justifying a high royalty rate if it were done by a publisher...

However, I wrote of a publisher's role here, but there is an other aspect that I didn't write on : the "Publishing Industrie's role". I'll explore that in a next post...