Barnes & Noble

I just read in Publishers Weekly's daily e-newsletter that Ron Burkle has been unsuccessful in his proxy battle against Barnes and Noble's Leonard Riggio. As a result, Burkle will not have three slots on B&N's board of directors, although I am sure he will live to fight another day, in another way...after all, he does own 19% of the company. Stockholders bought into Riggio's plan to increase B&N's share of the e-book market to 25% by 2014 and embraced its growing B&N college division. What that means for B&N booksellers like me remains unknown. Anyone who's checked the online prices at B&N.com recently and compared them against in-store prices realizes that B&N.com is very competitive online with Amazon, but it appears that the strategy is to cannibalize its own brick and mortar stores in the process.

Just last week I priced a Dave Matthews 2-CD collection at iTunes and realized it sold for less at my local Barnes and Noble, which surprised me (again, why would a digital version for something cost more than an actual version, which includes physical CD's and a case?). Then I compared the in-store price against the online price; it was even cheaper online. To make sure it wasn't a one-time thing, I priced Ken Burn's War documentary - the in-store price is 15% higher than the online price.

Though membership benefits are not what they once were online - in order to compete with Amazon, B&N slashed its online prices, effectively eliminating the need for a membership online in terms of buying things - the relatively new policy of providing free express shipping for members can be a powerful lure. Until you realize that even non-members can get free shipping, albeit not express, on orders of $25 or higher (it's the same at Amazon).

Will brick and mortar B&N's go the way of those now-extinct Gateway stores that allowed customers to look at available models, which could then be ordered online and delivered? I think that's an eventual possibility, but a more likely one is that as the e-book market takes on even more steam, stores will close, leaving fewer physical stores for me to work at and you to shop. There are certain types of books that as yet do not translate well into electronic form - coffee table books and children's illustrated books (children's books in general...who would trust a small child with an electronic device that costs $150?), for instance - and the selling of educational toys and Nook and Nook accessories will help counter the loss of print book sales, but within a few years, it's quite likely many of us who work as booksellers will need to find some other way to pay the bills.

Barnes & Noble

Penguin...why don't you want me at your party?

I worked last night for the first time since going on vacation, and saw that in celebration of Penguin's 75th anniversary, they are offering through B&N a "buy one, get second 50% off" sale on specific books. That's terrific, you say. Well, it would be if that sale extended to all readers of Penguin books. Unfortunately, it only applies to those who buy print versions. Those of us who prefer digital reading material are not included in Penguin's celebration.

Just this morning I read in this week's Newsweek that the average production cost for an e-book is fifty cents, which I kept in my mind when perusing some of the titles from the sale that garnered my interest.

Although I have a B&N membership, I'm not going to include any extra discounts in this little experiment. So, let's see...I've had my eye on Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind for some time. The B&N price online is $11.52. To download the digital version, I'd pay $12.99. As for the second book, while we already have a print copy of Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, I wouldn't mind having a digital copy. B&N's online price is $10.80. The e-book sells for $12.99.

The Penguin discount is not based on the online price but on the list price, so Pollan's book, after the 50% discount, comes to $7.50. The total for both books in celebration of Penguin's 75th anniversary? $19.02, a very nice price for two trade paperbacks. Unfortunately, as a digital reader I am not invited to the party. My price would be $25.98 - nearly $7 more.

Let's try another duo, shall we? Three Cups of Tea sells very well at the bookstore. To buy Greg Mortenson's non-fiction book in print, my online price at B&N is $9.36. Once again, the digital download is $12.99. Tanya French's In the Woods also sells well; the online price is $8.25...yet again the digital price is $12.99. After application of the 2nd book discount - which puts French's book at $7.50 - the total is $16.86. The digital price comes to $25.98. Penguin seems to be telling me, quite loudly, that it is holding its nose to sell me e-books. Rather than inviting me to its 75th anniversary celebration, it is telling me I can't participate, and as a result, I would be charged more than $9 more to read the same books a print customer would.

If my previous blog on the topic didn't send you over the edge, I imagine this one just did.

None of this should reflect badly on B&N. The publishers who went with the agency model set their own e-book prices and do not allow sellers to discount digital content. On the other hand, discounting of print books occurs everywhere - from your local bookstore to your local CVS.

Penguin...why don't you want me at your party?

Penguin, Penguin, Penguin

I tweeted a couple of days ago that a book I'd reshelved - Shayla Black's Wicked Ties - sold in trade paperback at Amazon for $10.20 while the Kindle price, set by Penguin, was and remains as of this afternoon, even after I submitted a complaint to Penguin, $12.99. So I decided to do a bit of sleuthing and am reporting here about pricing for hardcovers, trade paperbacks, and mass market paperbacks. I looked at a myriad of books in each category, but settled upon two apiece that are representative and created the table you see below, which includes not only Penguin books, but for some contrast, books published by Random House. Remember, Penguin sets its own Kindle prices via the agency model. Random House does not.

Penguin Publishing	Random House Publishing
MJD: Undead and Unfinished $14.97 - hardcover $11.99 - kindle Kindle price ~20% less	David Mitchell - The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet $15.21 - hardcover $9.99 - kindle Kindle price 35% less
LKH: Bullet $15.75 - hardcover $12.99 - kindle Kindle price 20% less	Justin Cronin: The Passage $14.46 - hardcover $9.99 - kindle Kindle price 30% less
Karen Harper: Mistress Shakespeare $10.50 - trade paperback $12.99 - kindle Kindle price 20% more	Lisa See: Shanghai Girls $10.20 - trade paperback $9.50 - kindle Kindle price ~10% less
Nora Roberts: Savor the Moment $7.99 - trade paperback $9.99 - kindle Kindle price 20% more	Sarah Dunant: Sacred Hearts $10.20 - trade paperback $9.89 - kindle Prices nearly match
Nalini Singh: Bonds of Justice $7.99 - mass market $5.49 - kindle Kindle price 30% less	Tessa Dare: One Dance with a Duke $7.99 - mass market $6.39 - kindle Kindle price 20% less
Charlaine Harris: Dead and Gone $7.99 - mass market $6.99 - kindle Kindle price ~15% less	John Grisham: The Partner $7.99 - mass market $6.39 - kindle Kindle price 20% less

On digital versions of new hardcovers, real discounts are available for both publishing houses, although the discount for Random House is closer to 30% while the Penguin discount is closer to 20%. Trade paperbacks show the largest differences, and in this area Penguin fails miserably as its kindle prices are 20% higher than its print prices. Random House doesn't have its trade paperbacks priced very understandably, at least to me. Many of its digital trade releases are almost the same price as the print versions, although I did see a substantial amount for a discount of roughly 10%. Kindle versions of mass market paperbacks are discounted for both publishers, from ~15 to 30% for Penguin to a more stable 20% from Random House.

This has been an interesting exercise. Had I more time, I would have added more columns, so we could compare pricing from St. Martin's Press and Harper/Collins on the agency model side, and Harlequin, on the Random House side. In lieu of that, I've done a more thumbnailed sketch.

Pricing for the new Lisa Kleypas, in mass market from St. Martin's: $7.19 for mass market, $7.99 for Kindle. You can buy the popular trade paperback, Sarah's Key, from Tatiana Rosnay (another St. Martin's book), for $8.37. The Kindle version will cost you $9.99.

Moving on to HarperCollins...Julia Quinn's latest sells in mass market paperback for $7.99. The Kindle price is exactly the same. The price tag for the trade paperback version of Garth Stein's The Art of Dancing in the Rain is $8.99. You can buy the same book in mass market format for $7.99. Unfortunately, the Kindle version goes for $9.99.

I'll leave you with an upswing, and some pricing for Harlequin. The mass market paperback for Robyn Carr's Moonlight Road sells at Amazon for $7.99. The same book in digital format costs $5.76. Julia Justiss' upcoming Harlequin Historicals is $5.99 for the mass market release and $3.99 digitally.

Penguin, Penguin, Penguin

An Update to Yesterday's Blogging

An update to yesterday's blogging

I've not heard back from Penguin Publishing as yet, but just checked Amazon. Penguin has lowered the price for the digital version of This Is Where I Leave You from $12.99 to $9.99. The trade paperback remains priced at $10.20. For all of you who have wondered what the price differential between a print book and a digital one, Penguin has answered your question: twenty-one cents. Hard to believe...and I don't.

An Update to Yesterday's Blogging

A Letter to Penguin Pubishing

I just sent this to Penguin Publishing, at ecommerce@us.penguingroup.com and thought I'd share it here.

I have been a long-time Kindle user, mostly of trade and mass market paperbacks, which generally have been discounted 20%. Since your company decided to set your own prices, I've stopped buying from you, and here's a perfect example why.

I am a fan of the author Jonathan Tropper, and in fact, How To Talk To a Widower, his book from a few years back, is one of the best books I read this year. Alas, it was published by Random House, and I hadn't realized he'd switched to you when I decided to buy This Is Where I Leave You to coincide with the release of the trade paperback.

The trade paperback went on sale today for $10.20 at Amazon. The Kindle version remains the same $12.99 it was when the book was sold solely in hardcover. As of yesterday, when only the hardcover and Kindle version were available, the hardcover was being sold new at Amazon at $11.23, making the digital version more expensive than the hardcover. I assumed that when the trade paperback was released today, the Kindle price would at least match its price. Imagine my shock to discover when that did not occur. Of course, now that a trade paperback is available, the hardcover price has increased, but the Kindle price remains the same. Do the math as I did and you'll note that you are selling the digital version at a price which is more than 25% higher than the trade paperback.

I have heard all the arguments for increased digital prices, but for you to set a HIGHER price for a digital version than I would pay for a print version is not only ludicrous, it's revolting. Everybody has focused upon the price changes for digital hardcover releases, but nobody really considered the price changes publishers would institute for digital trade/mass market paperbacks. For those of us who read a lot, the price increase means I'm buying fewer books each month, and specifically, it means I'm sticking with Random House and Harlequin, because they did not go with the agency model.

You have lost a valued customer with your greed and refusal to face market changes. There is no way in the world I will accept that it costs MORE for you to provide me with a digital copy of a book than a print copy.

FWIW, when I realized I would not be buying This Is Where I Leave You, I found an older Tropper book, one also published by Random House, to buy. The trade paperback price for Everything Changes, like your trade price for his newest, is also $10.20, but the digital version for my Kindle is $7.20, a 30% discount, which I appreciated. That said, I would gladly have paid $8.16 - a 20% discount.

For you to allow discounting on print versions while refusing to allow them on digital ones results in cheaper print copies than digital ones, which discourages customers in the only growing segment of the publishing pie. That's quite a business model you have. I can only conclude that you are so afraid of losing money on print books that - like the child who puts his head under the covers in the belief that if he can't see a monster, it won't see him - you would rather gouge digital readers than revise your antiquated business plan. Shame on you.

I'll share any response I get. Grrr.

A Letter to Penguin Pubishing

July Books

Jonathan Tropper's How To Talk To a Widower is one of the books I most enjoyed this year. Because it was published under the Random House umbrella, I assumed that last year's hardcover, This Is Where I Leave You, released to great acclaim, was also published by Random House and looked forward to buying the digital version to coincide with the book's mass market release. Random House, as you might recall, did not switch to the agency model for digital releases, and as a result, their books remain discounted. Also as a result, their digital sales through Amazon have increased by upward of 40%.

Alas, apparently Tropper switched publishers in-between both books. His new publisher, Penguin, which sets its own prices for digital books at Amazon, is currently selling This Is Where I Leave You for $12.99 while the hardcover, which it does allow to be discounted, sells for less, at $11.23. When the trade paperback version is released tomorrow, it will sell for $10.20 at Amazon. If Penguin is true to form, the digital version should come down tomorrow, but my guess is that it'll match the paperback price of $10.20, which I find a ludicrous proposition.

I've decided not to buy the book because of Penguin's Kindle pricing policy and instead decided to fill in my Tropper back-list with Everything Changes - published by Random House and very nicely discounted at $7.20. It too is a digital version of a trade paperback, which currently sells for $10.20.

Here's what else I bought for July on my Kindle: Twice Tempted by a Rogue by Tessa Dare (published by Random House's Ballantine Books) and Susan Mallery's Almost Perfect (published by Harlequin, which, like Random House, did not switch to the agency model). The digital versions of both books are nicely discounted.

Though Dare's debut and subsequent releases have received great fanfare, I've never actually read her, so I'm hoping for a good read. As for Mallery, after hating the first couple of books I read for her and reviewed for PW - The Marcelli Princess and Sunset Bay - she seems to be growing on me. I actually recommended Under Her Skin and Chasing Perfect in my PW reviews.

As much as I'd like to buy Lisa Kleypas' Love in the Afternoon, Macmillan, its publisher, set the price for its digital version at $7.99 at Amazon. The mass market releases sells at Amazon for $7.19.

There is one book I'm wavering on for July: the third in Sharon Ashwood's Dark Forgotten series. I read and gave book one, Ravenous, a strong review for PW but put down book two, Scorched, mid-way and never finished it. This series is published under the Penguin Umbrella - by Signet - and, surprisingly, the Kindle price is $6.99, slightly less than the paperback will sell for ($7.19) when both versions go on sale tomorrow. But given my "meh" response to the unfinished book two, I doubt I'll be buying Unchained, book three in the series, even if Penguin is beginning to see the light.

It's a shame that authors have to suffer for their publisher's misguided policies, but rather than over-paying for the Tropper and Kleypas books, I'll likely be reading them at the bookstore instead.

One last thing before I sign off...in less than a week I've published two Amazon Vine reviews. I recommend both, with some recommendations. Please check out my reviews for Marcus of Umbria and The Bucolic Plague, both memoirs with a similar theme.

P.S. - This link will only work until next Monday, but if you want to read my newest PW review, for the new Susan Andersen, click here. The review is third from the bottom of the page.

July Books

Beating a Dead Horse

I imagine many of you are tired of my constant bitching about publishers and ebooks, but this morning, after reading two things - a blog entry from LibrarianinBlack about publishers making it difficult if not impossible for libraries to easily provide usable audio books and ebooks to customers (thanks, @madpoptart for the link), and an invitation from PW for a webcast entitled Enhanced Ebooks Today - I thought to myself that, once again, publishers have got it wrong.

Many of us who read a lot are able to feed our habit because as a general rule we read paperbacks rather than hardcovers. I bought an expensive electronic device because I can store my entire library on it...and because, at the time, it was actually cheaper to buy ebooks than paperbacks. Now, of course, with the agency model that I've already bitched about, unless I buy an ebook published by Random House or Harlequin, I am paying as much as print customers for digital paperbacks, and more than I would pay for print versions at B&N with my membership (yes, I have a membership even though I get an employee discount) because the agency model disallows discounting.

That was a mouthful, so let me put it more succinctly: I buy a lot of books and want to get the best price I can for them. Publishers using the agency model would prefer I buy print over digital, so much so that while they allow discounting of print versions, they don't with digital versions, which means that I can generally buy a print paperback for less than I can a digital paperback. Further, I am not the only Kindle (or Nook) owner who bought an ebook reader because it allowed us to keep feeding our reading habit while giving us a handy-dandy, small device on which to store our ever-growing libraries.

All along I've said that publishers are behind the times. I think I shared the incident at the Atlanta RWA conference in 2006 during which a highly placed executive was shocked to learn the Internet impacts readers. This was 2006, mind you, not 1996 or even 2000. Their being behind the times is among the reasons they refuse to let go of old models that aren't forward-looking. Even though the ebook market is the fastest growing, they see it as the enemy, and as one commenter to LibrarininBlack's blog wrote, they see all ebook readers as thieves and pirates, which is why their DRM rules and requirements are so onerous that many librarians want to throw in the towel entirely on audio books and ebooks.

Because, in the immortal words of Pogo, "the enemy is us," publishers would rather cling to old-fashioned models of delivery, leading to the agency model and higher prices. And now, to justify those higher prices, they plan to sweeten the pot with ebook enhancements.

No, no, no!

I don't want no stinking ebook enhancements.

I want the same book I can buy in print, but for less money because it costs less for you to deliver that book to me...and I'm guessing I'm not the only reader who feels this way.

Since the agency model went into effect, the two big publishers that did not embrace it - Random House and Harlequin, experienced a marked increase in ebook sales (for Random House it was 40%). For now I'm going to pay with my pocketbook and try to not buy books published by the big five who went with the agency model, particularly Penguin/Putnam, whose recent pricing increases are most egregious. Instead I plan to make better use of my local library, and spend extra non-work hours at the bookstore reading quietly in the corner.

It's really hard to envision a business plan that encourages customers not to buy their product. Since prices increased, though, that's been the result for this customer. In March, the month before the agency model went into effect, I bought seven ebooks. I've finished buying for June, and bought only five in comparison. They just don't get it.

Beating a Dead Horse

Yes, It Looks Cool, But... (and B&N and Nook News)

Yesterday my daughter made the largest purchase of her 18-year-old life and bought a Mac Pro. With her college discount she saved a bit of money on it, got a free printer, and iWork, which provides a word processor, spreadsheet, and PowerPoint-like program (more on that later). I kicked in and bought her three years of Apple Care. She also paid to have the contents of her pc laptop moved onto her new laptop, and not long after we came home, they called to say it was ready to pick up. She now has Garage Band, giving her (I believe) the ability to record her own music - hey, she's a guitar player - the microphone and camera, and whatever other cool things Apple adds on that don't generally come pre-loaded onto a pc laptop.

While she worked with the sales staff, I had plenty of time to wander over to the iPads, which are clearly the focal points of the store. Huge posters adorn every bare bit of vertical real estate and probably half a dozen were there to play with. So play I did. And by the time I left, I was bewildered and more than a little angry.

First things first. The iPad is gorgeous to look at and looking at it makes you want to pick it up. The virtual keypad, though, is for shit - yes, that's my professional opinion - and though everyone says it's easy to simply plug in a keyboard, my question at that point is...what's the point? If you do, you've basically created a desktop computer. Okay, so it's gorgeous but not functional on its own for typing. What about the apps? Well, here's my second issue: The three programs that make up iWork sell for $79 when used on a Mac but just $9.99 each when purchased from the App Store for the iPad. In other words, buy an iPad and you pay $50 less than you pay for those same "apps" on a computer with a real keyboard. The only way my brain can wrap around it is this: They charge you less because, when combined with the for-shit virtual keypad, you get less functionality out of the word processor and spreadsheet programs.

Steve Jobs is a genius when it comes to making you want things you never even knew you wanted...let alone needed. In the end, though, other than my beloved iPod, I find his products over-priced and unnecessary. Given that there were no more Genius Bar appointments available for the day by noon, and I'm guessing the products aren't as idiot-proof as advertised. And aren't all of us idiots at times when it comes to technology? On the other hand, I have a very happy child right now and know that Mac owners are practically cult-like in their devotion to Apple. Still, until the money tree out back blooms big time, I'll be holding on to this unreasonable Apple negativity.

I've talked about this before, but I'll do it again. The basic iPad model, at $499 for 16GB, is Wifi only, which means it's not going to connect everywhere. Add a 3G connection (and those iPads haven't yet been released) and you'll be spending another $130 plus a monthly contract (presumably with AT&T). At the end of a year, you will have spent $750...add another $70 for the keyboard dock, and you're at more than $800. And this, folks, is what Apple is calling the new "low end" computer.

And, not to beat a dead horse, but last night at work I double-checked some e-books at B&N.com and discovered that other than books sold by Random House and under the Harlequin umbrella, the cost of digital paperbacks has, as I feared, indeed increased as a result of Mr. Jobs and what I view as his collusion with publishers. Readers can continue to buy the digital version of a new paperback for roughly 20% less than the print copy if published by Random House or Harlequin, but all other publishers went with the so-called agency model and now, their digital copies sell for the same price as print copies (more, actually, if you buy from B&N.com or use your membership in stores). Those prices went up at Amazon and B&N for Kindle and Nook as a direct result of the iPad, and while there have been a plethora of stories about the change in hardcover pricing, nobody is writing about the increase in paperback pricing.

As for Barnes & Noble and Nook, walk into any store now and there is a large Nook counter right inside the front door. That fact, and that Best Buy will also be selling Nook, and I am not alone among B&N booksellers in feeling as though a huge clock just started ticking down on our jobs. The new head of B&N is an internet/tech guy, and a Nook Lite (no 3G) and Nook 2 are on their way. The Nook is the new mission for booksellers, and while I know brick and mortar bookstores will never completely disappear, things will change.

I became a bookseller because I love books and love talking to customers about them. I sell the membership cards with zeal because they can save customers real money (~$5 for each adult hardcover that isn't a bestseller) and because I like to do my job well. Until the pricing issue I discussed at length above, I've been a strong proponent of electronic reading for several years now and enjoy extolling the virtues of having a mobile, hand-held personal library, but I'd rather talk to customers about books than feel pressured into selling something that may eliminate my job at some point down the road.

Gee...I got through this entire blog entry without mentioning the AAR plagiarism mess. Well, almost.

Yes, It Looks Cool, But... (and B&N and Nook News)

Prices...They Have A Changed

Although via Gail Carriger's publisher I have a (now cherished) manuscript version of Changeless, yesterday I bought and downloaded for my Kindle the digital version. I did so knowing that I paid the exact same amount as somebody who walks into a bookstore and walks out with a print copy. And, had I walked into the B&N where I have a membership (forgetting my employee discount), I would have paid less than I paid for my digital copy. I'm not at all happy about it, but I support the authors I adore, plain and simple.

For weeks now, if not longer, I've been bitching about how Steve Jobs has mucked up the digital playing field. I've noted that when iTunes was born, he forced the music industry into the 21st century but that when it came to iBooks, because of Kindle competition, he did not. I moaned about how the agency model would only truly be reasonable to consumers if release formats were staggered but prices didn't rise. I complained when this did not happen, when I noticed delayed releases of new print hardcovers into digital format also included increased prices. And I wondered what would happen to paperback-only releases.

And now I know...I think. In checking my Kindle purchases for the last several months, I noticed that I generally paid 20% less for my digital copy than I would have for a print copy. Instead of paying $7.99 for a paperback-only release, I most often paid $6.37, although occasionally - very occasionally - $6.99.

I re-tweeted myself when I noted that increased competition most often leads to reduced prices for consumers, but that with the release of the iPad and creation of iBooks, we've seen the opposite. I love my Kindle, love having a thousand books at my disposal in a package that is the size of a paperback yet weighs even less. I love being able to download in the middle of the night, at an airport, or after reading a review while waiting in a doctor's office. But let's face it...a digital copy, as great as it is, is not the same as a print copy. No trees were killed in the making of it, no ink used, no machines or human beings paid to secure a print run. And I can't lend a digital copy to a friend...it's even illegal for me to reformat a book so I can read it without Kindle software. And yet now I'm being asked to pay exactly the same price as I would for a print copy.

Essentially both the publisher and the consumer reap the benefit of convenience as far as digital books are concerned. They don't have to pay any printing costs and I am able to access books 24/7, and save space in my house at the same time. They continue to reap the benefit. They still have no printing costs to pay, but now they want us to pay 20% more for - nothing. The price of creating digital copies did not increase overnight. "That does not compute, Will Robinson." My little brain simply cannot grasp the logic of a 20% price increase when no additional costs have been incurred.

I think what publishers fail to consider is this: Not all of us are that "buys one or two books a year" reader. Genre readers tend to read a lot...I know I do...and to spend a lot of money to feed our habits. This month alone, even with all the reviewing I do, I bought several urban fantasies and romance novels. But now I'll be thinking twice about those Kindle purchases and will most likely buy one, probably two, fewer books a month to make up the difference. And I'll do it grudgingly, knowing that I'm being over-charged, but in the hopes that the inequity is rectified soon.

Hard-core readers need to read and we've been left entirely out of the equation. That's right - those of us who shore up the publishing industry are being screwed by it. It sucks. We are paying the price for publishers who don't understand our loyalty, or that their business has changed, as evidenced by the statistic in my last entry, that e-book sales grew at a rate of more than 175% last year. Somehow I knew this was going to happen. Damn.

P.S. I believe I've shot my wad on this topic and don't plan to write about it again...unless something changes in a big way.

P.P.S. And so I don't leave you entire with a bad taste in your month, let me share a link to a video trailer for Soulless that Gail Carriger mentioned; click here and enjoy.

Prices...They Have A Changed

The Ethicist Agrees

Last week a reader sent in an interesting question to the NYT Ethicist, Randy Cohen. Until just now Cohen's background was a mystery to me; now I know that he answered ethical questions from listeners to NPR's All Things Considered for several years...and now you do as well.

Anyway, the reader asked whether or not it was "okay" that after having bought the print version of a book, he then found a pirated version online and downloaded it to his e-reader. The Ethicist responded: "An illegal download is — to use an ugly word — illegal. But in this case, it is not unethical. Author and publisher are entitled to be paid for their work, and by purchasing the hardcover, you did so," comparing the action to "buying a CD, then copying it to your iPod."

In his response to the reader, he shares the view of his friend, the publisher of Grand Central Publishing, which is that anyone downloading pirated material has stolen intellectual property and is a thief. But Cohen takes issue with the publisher's point, arguing that "it is a curious sort of theft that involves actually paying for a book."

The Ethicist's view has long been my own - I just don't see why I should have to pay for a book two times. I realize many consider this a rather sketchy position. Frankly, I feel better knowing somebody who thinks about ethical questions daily came to the same conclusion.

Finally, and apropos of nothing, really, yesterday it was reported that in 2009 e-book sales grew at the astonishing rate of 176% while overall book sales were flat at best.

The Ethicist Agrees