With the rise in popularity of ebooks, many publishing companies have begun to focus closely on the cannibalizing impact that ebook sales have on print sales. Sourcebooks, Inc. has even announced that it will delay the release of “Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse” as an ebook in order to prevent any loss of hardcover sales. However, the discussion of cannibalization may be less relevant than once thought. While the introduction of the ebook format necessarily brought about some cannibalization, the market may have reached the point that the issue is no longer cannibalization, but missed sales.
The argument that ebook distribution will result in print cannibalization rests on a number of consumer behavior assumptions. In order for print cannibalization to occur, consumers would need to seek out book titles first and select the desired format second. This consumer behavior is consistent with many current and past retailing practices (both in physical stores and e-stores) where consumers browse in sections and select the format (hardcover versus paperback) only after the desired content is found. This consumer behavior is a primary reason why paperback editions are released at a later date.
However, ebook distribution challenges this behavior. Consumers who want ebooks now go to dedicated ebook sites to browse and buy. This type of purchasing behavior is possible because ebook distributors have amassed enough content to satisfy the majority of ebook consumers. Amazon, the most popular ebook distributor, has over 300,000 titles and nearly all of the titles on the New York Times Best Seller list. Individuals buying from these distributors (and especially those who have purchased a dedicated e-reading device) have chosen their desired format before choosing the content.
Given this change in consumer purchasing behavior, the argument of print cannibalization rests on an even more difficult assumption -- that any given book title has limited substitutes. Those who subscribe to this idea believe that as long as their content is not available in an ebook format, consumers will continue to purchase the print book instead of purchasing a similar title in their preferred format. However, a publishing company cannot dictate the format when consumers cannot find an author’s content. While a limited number of authors will be able to overcome this (at least to some extent) through reputation-based marketing, dictating the format may alienate an author’s readers. This alienation poses a significant risk to the long-term success of a publishing company.
There is no doubt that the introduction of a new format brings about some level of cannibalization. However, publishing companies and authors must realize that there is a difference between avoidable and unavoidable cannibalization.
