“The older I get, the more acutely I am aware that the vast majority of what is written remains unread.”—Jhumpa Lahiri, writer and Pulitzer Prize winner for Interpreter of Maladies, a short story collection. This quote is disconcerting to me as both a reader (so much to read, so little time to do it) and as a writer (probably most of what I write remains unread, but I haven’t read Ms. Lahiri either). We can search for causes of the decline in reading and literacy; there are many. In this article, I’ll focus on one most pundits neglect—it might not be the most important one, but it is relevant.

First, let’s back up what Ms. Lahiri says with some statistics: a U.S. government survey just released records the percentage of people who read for pleasure or self-fulfillment on a typical day (funny that they don’t consider the pleasure of reading self-fulfilling, but that’s the government for you), by age groups: ages 15-24, 9.4%; 25-34, 12.0%; 35-44, 13.9%; 45-54, 15.3%; 55-64, 25.5%; and 65+, 38.3%. Does that surprise you? It doesn’t surprise me. Compare the extremes: 9.4% for 15-24-year-olds (so much for the Harry Potter revolution making millennials into readers) v. 38.3% for 65 and over. The trend goes down going from older to younger people. That doesn’t mean that young adults are illiterate; it just means they don’t read. If they go manage to get through school, they have to become literate, right? Especially if we call cellphone acronymese English: “HRU WU M4C” (this translates to “How are you? What’s up? Meet for coffee?”—they usually don’t care about question marks).

What’s causing this negative trend? It’s more complex than the simple age groupings indicate. I submit that expensive book prices contribute to the decline in reading and literacy. People seek out entertainment options that are less expensive in general, and the younger they are, the more entertainment outlets they have to spend their limited cash on. The pundits rarely focus on the fact that prices can drive entertainment choices. Is it the ticket prices driving young people away from Broadway shows? Do young couples prefer to watch pay-for-view because taking the whole family to the movies almost requires a second mortgage? And, if you’re a reader (the stats say most people aren’t), do you prefer reading three to five ebooks from indie authors or small presses than reading and expensive one from a major publisher? And, if you’re not a reader, would you be more likely to become one if ALL books were reasonably priced? (If the general answer is no, we’re in big trouble!)

Given that so many people don’t read anymore, why should we even worry about book prices? Because there’s a bigger question: do we believe that reading and literacy help make us human? Kids in that 15-24-year-old age group might not read anyway because they have a lot of entertainment options to distract them, but they sure won’t shell out $12 for an ebook from a major publisher. In general, we shouldn’t give people excuses not to read because that’s a surefire way to kill literacy.

I became an avid reader long before I was a published author, and it’s always seemed to me that book prices were too high. Being a patron of our local public library and an addict of cheap, used paperbacks, extreme price-gouging by the big publishers first slammed me at college. Any college student will tell you textbooks are overpriced—more so now. If I wanted to keep a textbook from my major and minor programs in college, I preferred hardbound, but I had to buy it either as a used book in awful condition or as an overly expensive large trade paperback that never stood the test of time. Today’s students also have access to loose-leaf versions—they provide the cover, that is, the binder, but that less expensive version often still costs a hundred bucks or more. College students still resell books not in their major discipline—try doing that with a loose-leaf version!

Fiction books are also often too expensive, although less so than textbooks. One only has so much disposable income for entertainment expenses, and reading fiction is entertainment (that’s not from me—it’s from Kurt Vonnegut—do millennials know who he is?). The price ladder would normally climb from ebook to trade paperback to hardbound. A reader can easily spend a hundred bucks on two or three hardbound books. Traditional publishers often charge a lot for trade paperbacks too, but the most egregious pricing occurs when they charge almost as much for an ebook version as the trade paperback and hardbound versions. That’s especially true of the Big Five publishing conglomerates, the worst of the worse. Even their little paperbacks found on those airport racks are far too expensive.

Why can’t I buy a book by a major author—yes, there are a few who haven’t yet become formulaic—without cringing over the price? Of course, I don’t do that; I don’t even cringe anymore. I just refuse to buy the book at that price! I just bought a Harper-Collins ebook on sale for $1.99. The original price was probably around $10, and it’s already returned to that price.  I won’t pay more than $6 for an ebook now (my upper limit used to be $5, but I allow for inflation), so I tend to read a lot of indie authors and authors writing for small presses (I call these indie publishers because they’re not part of a big publishing conglomerate, and therefore maintain some independence). Know what? They often write better and more entertaining stories than those old formulaic mares and stallions in the Big Five stables, what the big publishing conglomerates think of as sure bets. In the indies, you’ll find new voices, exciting plots, new wrinkles on old themes, and memorable, thoroughly human characters. So I’m not suffering. On the contrary. For the price of a fast-food meal, I can enjoy hours of entertaining reading.

Now I’ll take off my reader’s sombrero—it’s a large one—and put on my writer’s—smaller, but also affecting my bottom line. I have so much fun writing, I’d give my fiction away for free if I could, but I can’t. My books are reasonably priced with very few exceptions that are beyond my control (all those exceptions are print versions now). They’re not free, though, for multiple reasons.

Production costs. These include editing, formatting, and cover art for the most part. In many cases, as an indie author, I pay for all this; in others, an indie but traditional publisher pays, but I still spend lost of time working with them at the production end. Moreover, the small press needs to recover its overhead and pay its staff.

Marketing costs. I don’t have to do that, but I want readers to know about my books. What I do is more limited to book launches, but even a traditional publisher expects an author to contribute time and money to that effort. The amount and time a traditional publisher commits to that effort diminishes with every year that passes. The NY Times and TV ads are reserved for the old mares and stallions.

Website. This is one way readers learn about an author’s writing. Every author needs one; I have one. It’s a major cost center. The yearly cost is on a par with the production costs for one book with ebook and print versions. Most of the old mares and stallions have staff to run their websites; all other authors are DIY.

I’m not even counting the time spent on social media, book events, and querying reviewers. Let’s put it in a crime fiction context: writing a book is like the thrill of nabbing the perp, while all the other stuff is like the gumshoe work needed to find the clues to do that (OK, the orders are reversed, but you get the idea).

Bottom line: writers have to recover their costs. Readers have to recognize that TANSTAAFL is their reality. As a reader, I rarely pay $6 for an ebook; as a writer, I wonder why—and how!—other authors can give away their stories for free and not recover those costs.

Why do I then have PDFs free for the asking and free short stories on my blog? Two reasons: (1) collections of short fiction don’t bring much money in (Ms. Lahiri’s Pulitzer probably helps her now, but what about before?); and (2) I don’t have either the time or the money to publish all the good stuff I write (the bad stuff never sees the light of day, of course), so why not save the file in both MSWord format and PDF format and give the latter away for free?

Making more of my stories into PDFs free for the asking is certainly an option, of course, and I might do more of them in the future—maybe even full-length novels (novel manuscripts are still small computer files)—but I’m limited to my website for advertising in those cases, so fewer readers will know about these stories. And I’ll still have to pay for the website!

Any would-be author has to take these pros and cons about the writing life into consideration. I’ll stop writing when it’s no longer fun or when I’m dead, so if you’re a fan, don’t worry. And I’ll continue to read until my eyesight is gone, but I won’t pay exorbitant prices for the books I read. (BTW, Ms. Lahiri’s Pulitizer Prize-winning book is available for Kindle at $10—I won’t be reading it anytime soon. I’m sure it’s great, but I have my principles.)

***

[Note from Steve: Due to circumstances beyond my control, there’s been a problem for readers wishing to make comments on articles in this blog. That problem has now been solved, so comment away! I apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused.]

Did you miss Rembrandt’s Angel? Both that novel and my novel The Collector present my unique thesis that stolen artwork can be used as collateral for other nefarious criminal activity. In Rembrandt’s Angel (Penmore Press), Bastiann van Coevorden, an Interpol agent, has to manage Scotland Yard Inspector Esther Brookstone’s obsession with recovering a Rembrandt stolen by the Nazis in World War Two. Esther’s mission takes a turn that’s more deadly and different from her usual cases in the Arts and Antiques Division of the Yard. The duo will take readers on a wild tour of Europe and South America before the story reaches its thrilling climax, as they uncover what the stolen paintings are used for. In the process, the couple’s romantic interludes become a full-blown romance. Available on Amazon, Smashwords, and in most bookstores (if they don’t have it, ask for it).

In libris libertas!

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 26th, 2018 at 3:30 am and is filed under Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.