The things that keep me focused are simple: more people are writing than ever before, more people are reading than ever before, we know that, generally, people will pay for valuable content (defined as valuable by the person), and we know that now, more than ever, curators or concierges — editors — are needed. There is simply too much…stuff for anyone to sort through. While I wanted to agree with Carolyn Reidy about content over format, it is hard to convince the average reader that one format should be valued the same as another when they see that is not true.

(And all of the arguments simply fall apart when a customer buys a book with a digital price that is the equivalent of a hardcover, only to end up with a poorly formatted file that is hard to read…while it’s near-impossible to figure out how to resolve the problem. I joke that readers should be given extra benefit for sticking with some publishers while they learn how to do this digital thing.)

I have long argued that trying to force readers to buy into a business that makes no sense to them is the wrong approach. Does it make sense to charge a price I won’t pay in order to maintain an institutional business model, or does it make sense to consider the fact that you will gain a customer earlier in the buying process by revisioning models to reflect current (and future) consumer mores (if we are talking purely about recouping advances, the time value of money argument suggests maximizing sales at the earliest point rather than dragging them out over a year or so)? Or, if you lose the sale entirely, who wins?

I don’t know the answers either, but I do know ignoring what readers say is dangerous. It’s not that people are going to stop buying (digital) books, it’s more that they’ll make purchasing choices that fit their economic needs (this I think should be more of a worry to publishers — the sheer amount of choice versus the number of “must have” books).

I am interested to hear your further thoughts as you work through this. I mean, we’ve managed to put a man on the moon; we can solve this pricing dilemma!