ARTS & FARCES internet

Novelist Ewan Morrison told the attendees of the Edinburgh international book festival that books—as we know them—will be dead within 25 years, brought to their end by the digital revolution. The Guardian published a condensed version of his argument a couple weeks ago.

More importantly than the death of paper books, according to Morrison, will be “the end of ‘the writer’ as a profession.” He writes, “The economic framework that supports artists is as important as the art itself; if you remove one from the other then things fall apart,” arguing for the necessity of the traditional publishing system of advances and royalties.

Especially advances.

Morrison fears that writers will follow their musician, filmmaker, journalist, and photographer brethren in a “... dramatic, and in many cases terminal, decrease in earnings…,” blaming it mostly on piracy and Amazon, Apple, and Google. His piracy statements and citations are misguided (on his part) and propaganda (on the part of those he cites). Chiding authors who leave traditional publishing, Morrison maintains, desperately, that things must remain the same: “Authors must respect and demand the work of good editors and support the publishing industry, precisely by resisting the temptation to ‘go it alone’ in the long tail.” Yes, authors desperately need editors; but publishers? Not so much; especially not the big, corporate houses. It’s been decades since publishing houses actually nurtured emerging talent.

James Bradley, also a novelist, thinks Morrison’s screed should be read “as much as provocation as thesis,” and argues that paper books will evolve from consumer good to prestige object.

Bradley, like Morrison, falls into the piracy trap laid by the entertainment cartel and its fact-free propaganda. The entertainment cartel loves to cite each incident of piracy as a lost sale. It’s become something of a mantra, as if like the politicians they bought, if it’s repeated enough people will believe it. But it’s a lie; and a particularly nasty one at that. There’s scant evidence that piracy leads to lost sales; almost all of those sales would never have been made to begin with. Emerging evidence indicates that “pirates” are the media companies’ best customers.

In July, Douglas C. Merrill, Google’s former chief information officer and now EMI’s chief operating officer of new music and president of digital business, used his keynote address to tell attendees of the annual CA Expo in Sydney that after profiling the behavior of file sharing service users he discovered that those “thieves” were also iTunes’ best customers. “That’s not theft, that’s try-before-you-buy marketing and we weren’t even paying for it….”

In June, a Society for Consumer Research study cited by TorrentFreak found that pirates “buy more DVDs, visit the cinema more often, and on average spend more than their ‘honest’ counterparts at the box office.” An anonymous source told TorrentFreak that the findings displeased the company that commissioned the study so badly that the findings have been suppressed.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s (IFPI) own 2010 Digital Music Report, released in January 2010, blames decreased physical sales of music on piracy, finding that pirates are half as likely to buy physical CDs than the average music buyer. But, as TorrentFreak points out, the report is about digital music and avoids any mention of digital sales. When TorrentFreak looked at the two pages about digital sales published separately (.pdf; 184KB), it concluded that pirates are 31 percent more likely to buy single tracks online; 33 percent more likely to buy albums online; 100% more likely to pay for music subscription services; and 60 percent more likely to pay for music on mobile phones.

In my own experience, I published my last book—Information Eclipse: Privacy and Access in America (2000)—simultaneously in print (for sale) and on the web (for free). The web offering had no deleterious effect on the print sales. If anything, the web offering most likely increased the print sales.

So, can we please stop the “piracy is a menace” nonsense?

Morrison, as Bradley correctly points out, completely ignores the success of Apple’s iTunes Store for ebook sales. Bradley writes, “... consumers are prepared to pay for content if it’s easily available and priced competitively.” While customers are prepared to pay for high-quality, high-value digital content products, they will absolutely not pay for corporate bloat that adds no value whatsoever. Musicians need producers and engineers; writers, journalists, filmmakers, and photographers need editors. What they—and more importantly, the culture—don’t need are labels, production companies, publishers, and distributors.

Here’s an example from recent personal experience, using the music industry—the first to be digitally disrupted. Earlier this year the Radiators, one of my most favorite bands, announced they were calling it quits after 33.3 years but would spend most of the year on a wide-ranging tour, the Last Roundup. The tour would culminate in a three-night stand—the Last Watusi—at the original Tipitina’s in New Orleans.

The Radiators have a strong connection with the Twin Cities, deeper than the river, and the Last Roundup tour included a three-night stand at the Cabooze on the West Bank in Minneapolis. I made it to the Thursday and Saturday shows (two tickets for each show ~US$150) and thought seriously about making the trip to NOLA for the Last Watusi (US$352 + airfare + lodging + meals). As soon as the Cabooze shows were available through Nugs.net, I jumped on them (US$38.85). And you can bet I’ll be waiting in virtual line to buy the DVDs and remixed multitrack digital audio releases of all three Last Watusi shows (cost unknown).

That’s a fairly nice chunk of change since May.

With regard to author advances, Morrison cites the common line, “£10K is the new £50K.” Bradley says that it’s mostly the royalties system that enables writers to work “and as advances disappear it will be increasingly difficult for many authors, especially literary authors, to make a living wage.” Look, advances at that level are in the stratosphere for authors and are rarely seen in literary fiction circles. I’m pretty sure I’m remembering correctly that the largest advance I ever received from a traditional publisher was US$7,500. Most book advances—especially from the small publishing houses that actually try to market and sell books—are significantly lower.

If an author, musician, filmmaker, photographer, or journalist needs advance money to finish a work, there are alternatives; among the most promising being Kickstarter.

As for the distribution problem, one must think in terms of pushing bits not atoms, something the cartel members just don’t understand and probably never will. Here’s a hint: You’re not limited to Amazon, Apple, and Google. Not by a long shot. But you’ve got to think in terms of using the right tool for the job, not a single monolithic hammer.

That leaves the discovery problem; it’s something that’s been worked on for almost two decades and no one has yet hit the sweet spot, but it’ll come.

If creatives would spend less time bemoaning the state of their cartel overlords and more time creating, we’d all be in better shape. Disruption is the new normal; live it, live with it, or get out of the way.