December 17 2009

Price, speed, and convenience will probably determine how information that is carefully argued and presented in book form will be distributed.

I attended a brilliant talk that Michael M. Kaiser, President of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, gave on the subject of Arts in Crisis, to an audience of the leaders of the Hawaii nonprofit arts and culture community. It’s a talk that he is giving to similar audiences in 70 cities in all 50 states, over the course of a year.

I have gotten into the habit of following up books, plays, movies, talks I have enjoyed by browsing their authors or principals on the Net, to read reviews and other information about them. It’s a way of amplifying my pleasure in them, and cementing them into my memory. Browsing Kaiser’s remarkable bio and record of turning arts organizations into booming successes in Wikipedia and elsewhere, I soon came across his 2008 book, The Art of the Turnaround: Creating and Maintaining Healthy Arts Organizations, published by Brandeis University Press, the subject of his talk.

I had an important presentation to make to a possible major sponsor of the upcoming Hawaii Book and Music Festival (HBMF), and I was keen to make use of some of Michael Kaiser’s ideas. Eager to learn more of his thinking I went to the John F. Kennedy Center site, and found the book available at $28. Hmm,  a lot for a 200-page book. On impulse, I went to Amazon.com, and found the book listed at $18.45. Hmm. I happened to have my Kindle on my desk, so I clicked on the Kindle Bookstore, and there it was, available for $14.30. I typed in the title, one-clicked it, and a few seconds later I had the book and was reading the Introduction. The whole process, from impulse to having the text to read in large-print format, had taken not much more than a minute.

This nicely illustrates one aspect of the current debate over traditional books vs. e-books and e-readers. If I need information now, I want it in the most convenient form, without having to go to a bookstore or wait for a mailing. I’ll read the book in any form that is convenient--whether on my computer, my e-reader, or my app phone. If I’m sufficiently impressed, I’ll get it in what Seth Godin calls “the souvenir edition.”

A year ago I would have said that e-readers like Kindle had the brightest future. Today I would say that app phones will rule. Chances are, “books” will be delivered in multi-media packages, available in every form at any time. Instead of paying $20 for a book, we’ll pay $30 for the right to a book in every format: hardcover, paperback, E-book in a variety of formats, pdf, audiobook. Good news for publishers and authors. Remember when we all had one landline, and our phone bills were about $25/month? Now it’s not unusual to have a landline, a dedicated fax line, and a cell phone, and monthly phone bills of $200 or more.

Tags: Add new tag, Amazon.com, Arts in Crisis, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Kindle, Michael M. Kaiser

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