Rankin Publishers

It was utterly captivating this last week, watching Ian Rankin as he first sat down to plan and then write 2012's best selling detective novel. Not least for the deadline that closed around him from the moment he started writing it, or for the fact he writes with everyone expecting the result to be a bestseller. I was very pleased to see he operated on a get it down before getting it right basis, although I suspect any author would easily find a motivating correlation in his method. Across several interviews he first stated he'd never watched any of the Rebus TV dramas adapted from his books, for fear it might alter his perception of the characters, but was very happy for the advertising the TV serialisation offered his books. And so say we all.

I for one rushed to Amazon to buy the newly published book: Standing in Another Man's Grave, written by Rankin during the five months covered by the documentary. For reasons I have documented at length here, mostly to do with practicalities and only a little to do with my much put upon back, I rarely buy hardbacks or paperbacks any more, mostly they simply don't fit with my read any time, any where philosophy. A philosophy that's difficult to maintain if you've left your book on the bedside table or by the front door, or in the kitchen, work desk, train etc. My rush to buy Ian's book sadly came to a grinding halt when I saw the Kindle version was priced at £9.99 - more expensive than the hardback and double the price of any Kindle or paperback in his back catalog.

I don't know about you but there is very little I'm prepared to pay twice the price for, just so I can have it NOW! This has always been the case, most notably waiting on the price to drop on videos back in the day, through DVD and Blu-Ray more recently. I have of course paid for many hardbacks, for their material quality beyond the reading, as I've paid less for a paperback's singular purpose of delivering the read. A Kindle book is another evolution, the pure read without the tangible token at the end, a library you don't need to find or make sure you pack because it follows you. I'd like to pay less for the Kindle privilege, I'm certainly not going to pay more than the paperback. Definitely not twice the price.

So I didn't buy Ian Rankin's: Standing In Another Man's Grave. The hardback was never in the frame and the Kindle was priced out of the equation. Nor did I buy any of his Kindle back catalog out of principle. I made a mental note to check on the Kindle price in February but I'll probably forget. So that's a sale lost, a potential fan wilfully told we don't value or want you. All that publicity gone to waste, at least on me. It's not Ian Rankin's fault of course, but what do his publisher think they're doing? I can't believe they make much from dwindling hardback sales and there's only so many he can sign. Are there legions of Kindle owners willing to pay twice the price just to read a book at launch? I did that once with Lee Child and decided it wasn't worth it, even for a Jack Reacher! If your main product is redundant (hardback) and your alternative is priced not to sell, you don't have a viable basis for long term business, do you? I can't believe publishers are naive enough to try and wait out the digital book boom. Digital publishing is the obvious step forward just as the printing press was from hand writing books.

Any ideas?