Time doesn't matter

by Jane

So, this week I talked with a number of editors in our business who are complaining about recent poor bookstore sales and it caused me to consider again how our industry is changing and how I wish publishers would begin to “rethink.”

Traditionally, books are launched and shipped in a certain season and then, in subsequent seasons, these books are considered “backlist” and hopefully continue to sell (with virtually no support from the publishers). So, if the book doesn’t “take off” in its first few weeks, the publisher literally abandons it and moves on to the next one.

The beauty of this new “electronic publishing age” is that books are always there and available. And they can easily continue to be publicized and promoted during the course of the year with very little additional cost and effort. Publishers, in the acquisitions process especially, are totally losing sight of this phenomenon and they certainly aren’t taking advantage of it.

If a novel, say, which contains a story line about breast cancer and also takes place in a highly trafficked summer vacation area is published in March, there is the initial publicity for the book. But then there can be a solid push in May or June because of the location of the story and then again in October for Breast Cancer Awareness month. And this can go on year after year. The novel doesn’t just have one season.

I am currently trying to sell a book with a graduation market; but it is also a great gift title. Publishers are passing because they say that there are too many books aimed at the high school or college graduate, but to my mind that is limited thinking. Why not take advantage of the enormous marketing ability of the internet and not only publish this for that graduation market but also for September when kids leave for school and for Christmas? And what about birthdays? Why just limit the publication to a single event?

Time simply doesn’t matter any more in our business. Backlist can become front list again at a moment’s notice. If only publishers would realize this. I think they simply don’t take the time to consider the inherent possibilities that electronic publishing affords and that, I’m afraid, does matter.

What do you think?

The Times it is a-changin'

by Michael

While it was certainly inevitable, since the Times seems to love to add to its bestseller lists (14 and counting!), last night's news about the addition of an e-book bestseller list came as a bit of a surprise. It's interesting to note that in the announcement, Janet Elder, editor of news surveys and election analysis, says that the Times has been creating the e-book tracking system for two years. That's serious investment in time and money on their part. They also mention that they'll be partnering with RoyaltyShare, a company that tracks all sorts of digital downloads and actually got its start in the music business.

It'll be interesting to see what this list looks like when it debuts. How similar will it be to what's selling well on the Kindle platform? Will we see more clearly the effects of the agency model on e-book sales? Will the exclusion of certain publishers from Apple's iBookstore hamper their sales? And how many books will appear both on the e-list and the hardcover or non-fiction lists? How many children's titles will show up on the e-list? Will a Harry Potter-sized smash force the creation of a children's e-list? Could I possibly ask another question?

Seriously, this is a major development in e-book publishing, and I eagerly await the publication of that first list. Do you, as readers and writers, care?

‘Tis the Season (Already?)

by John

Today I want to give a shout-out to one of my favorite blogs, Gregg Easterbrook’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback. Ostensibly a recap of the previous week’s football games, Easterbrook typically goes off on tangents that even a non-football fan can appreciate, covering everything from astrophysics to economics to Battlestar Galactica.  One recurring item is Christmas Creep: how every year retailers and advertisers seem to be promoting Christmas earlier and earlier in the calendar. For instance, in Yokohama, Japan, the municipal Christmas lights went up on October 31^st (so much for Halloween)!

I’ve had Christmas Creep on the brain, because November 1^st seems to be an unofficial date for the media to start publishing their year-end best-book lists. So far we’ve got the New York Times best illustrated, Publisher’s Weekly and Amazon, with many more to come. I suppose I see the logic in getting these lists out early so that retailers can plan their “best of 2010” holiday displays. But still, by printing “best-ofs” in early November, these media outlets essentially declare that books are done for the year and make November and December a virtual dead zone for new titles.

With so many books fighting all year long for attention, publishers could really use two more months to space out their promotional efforts, rather than having to spend the end of the year focused on “the best.” But what if Christmas keeps on creeping earlier and earlier? Will the window for new book promotion shrink even further, to the point where publishers can only effectively market a few books a year? Or will people start getting skeptical of “best-of-the-year” lists that cover only 10 months or less, especially if there are fewer books to consider? Better yet, could books actually lead the way in reversing the Creep? To me, that would be the best Christmas present of all!

Perspective, dinosaurs, and death machines

by Lauren

I was so happy to read this post on PWxyz about a new book co-edited by Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics, who you already know I love.  Machine of Death is an anthology of stories from a variety of incredible contributors (including xkcd's Randall Munroe) spawned from a particular Dinosaur Comic about a machine that tells people how they're going to die.  I can't believe I'm only hearing about it now, but I'm about to order my own copy.

There are a few things about the PWxyz post that warmed my cold, cynical NY heart.  One was the editors' appreciation of the efforts of people who tried to move the work through the great traditional publishing machine.  The anthology's editors worked really hard, produced what is surely a fabulous product, and found people who'd go to bat for it.  It didn't work out, so they self-published.  But rather than complain bitterly about how broken publishing is and how all authors should abandon it, they didn't take it personally:

This isn’t some vanity-press sour-grapes effort. The simple truth is that we probably can’t compete on the shelves at Barnes & Noble alongside every other book in the world. The agents and the publishers are right; it might not work for a mass market. That’s okay. We don’t need to sell it to everyone. We don’t need to sell 100,000 copies; we don’t have the rent on a New York office to pay for.

I don't think all authors should self-publish.  In fact, I don't think most authors should self-publish.  But for the right project, with the right platform, at the right time, it can be the right way to get a book to the audience that wants it, as long as you can put together a team of people who know how to get all the right pieces in place. 

The second thing I loved was how well this demonstrates that people who are truly dedicated to a great idea can build a community supportive enough to make their projects economically viable.  Sure, MOD-Day benefitted from the existing platforms of the people involved, but those people built their platforms online from the ground up through hard work, great content, and presumably a little luck.  No one says it's easy, but I love seeing the proof that it's possible if you're willing to make it happen.  The internet isn't a cornfield baseball stadium, but if you build it, and you work really hard to get people to see it, especially people with influence, and they like it, people are gonna come.


P.S.  This is a great excuse to link you to a delightful recent Dinosaur Comic.  You're welcome!

Travel

by Michael

Now that I live on the West Coast, I do a lot more traveling than I used to. Previously, I'd go to a couple of conferences a year, travel for the holidays and vacation, and that's it. Between Labor Day and Christmas this year, I'll be taking six trips to three different locations, so I'm suddenly paying more attention to travel news, books and apps.

The New York Times yesterday ran a review, of sorts, on travel apps, the gist of which is: books are still better than apps. And, in fact, they recommend that the iPad is actually a better travel companion that the iPhone, if you want the right app for the job. This surprised me a bit, considering my previous blog post about the usage of the iPad. But it makes sense: more screen real estate can be a huge advantage, not just because it can display more information, but because it's much easier to navigate. But the lesson learned here isn't that books are better travel companions or people should take their iPads everywhere they go (not everyone is me!). Rather, the book publishers and their app developers need to work harder to make the travel app experience a better one. From the review, it seems like the fixes could be quite simple. And, as apps mature, I think we'll see that the apps can actually do a better job of showcasing guidebook information on the fly.

But until then, I'll still carry my beat up, dog-eared guidebooks when I travel. How else would I have ever found the Mütter Museum? (Sorry, I couldn't resist linking to it!)

via PWxyz

Five years?

by John

If you’re like me, you’re probably getting tired of the whole ebook/print debate. But even so, I had to take note of this assertion from Nicholas Negroponte, founder of One Laptop per Child, on CNN that not only will physical books disappear, but that they’ll be gone in five years.

Five years? Really? To be fair, while Negroponte appears to mean this statement generally, his evidence rests firmly on his work in Africa, where he sees ebooks following the ubiquity of cell phones in developing nations. And indeed, if a society with no access to or history with any book format is suddenly given the choice between a bunch of dusty old tomes or a laptop with thousands of titles, the winner seems obvious.

But again—five years? While I’m sort of impressed by the sheer brazenness of Negroponte’s prediction—this is the first time I’ve seen an actual expiration date for the printed book—it does seem a bit hard to swallow, for any number of well-discussed reasons. I guess the only true way to test Negroponte’s theory is to check back with him on October 2015 and see what formats we’re reading. But then again, maybe Negroponte’s talking head days will be over in, oh, 2 ½ years? Maybe CNN will be gone in 4? The internet in 3 ¼?

The medium is the question

by Michael

I was very taken by this article I read on mocoNews.net yesterday. It features an interview with Scott McDonald, SVP of Market Research at Condé Nast, who talks about the results of the surveys of iPad users. Some of the results were a bit surprising: people spend more time with the iPad version of the magazine that a print one; most people leave their iPad at home, making it more of a personal computer than a mobile device; people didn’t understand what in the magazine was interactive or how to use it.

This interests me for several reasons. First, hearing that the device is not a mobile device for most people changes how developers and content providers should be thinking about their material. How you craft your material for someone on the go is very different from what you’d make for someone sitting at home. For instance, it seems that location-based apps or features aren’t as necessary on the iPad, whereas on mobile devices, they’re pretty much required. Travel publishers, it seems would be better off spending their time developing their material for the small screen than the big one. I think that’s actually pretty big news as we all consider what the future holds for “content providers.”

The other part that really stood out was that people didn’t know how to use the interactive features and ads, and they need to be taught how to interact with them. As publishers begin thinking about how to add value to e-books through doohickeys and gizmos, this is something they need to keep in mind. We know that e-book readers are not all techies and kids, and publishers should think very carefully about their audiences as they consider “enhancing” books. I know I’ll be thinking about it as we discuss new avenues for our authors.

The death of picture books?

by John

The New York Times ran a front-page article this morning on the recent decline in picture book sales. Blame is assigned widely, from the economy to parents urging their kids to read up to publishers over-pricing the books and emphasizing YA. To the list of culprits, I’d add merch and tie-in books, which have cannibalized picture books sales due to lower price points and characters that kids recognize from TV and other media. And then there are school and library budget cuts—while trade publishers ostensibly target bookstores for their picture book sales, they used to be able to rely on schools and libraries for at least a few thousand copies to help break even. Sadly, those sales have evaporated, too.

So, how to reverse the trend? I hope there’s an answer, because as an art form, picture books have only gotten more beautiful, exciting, and innovative in the last decade. It would be a tragedy if consumer tastes or publishers’ timidity force picture book creators to focus their energy elsewhere. Any ideas out there?

A welcome to the new kid on the block!

by Jane

Over the last couple of years, due to the deteriorating economy and a lack of advertising revenue, many of the nation’s major newspapers have dropped their book review sections. We have all watched this with great sadness (much as we watched the closing of so many independent bookstores over the past fifteen years) as the fewer book reviews consumers can read, the less they will be inclined to search out new and interesting authors and their work.

So, I was absolutely thrilled yesterday when I opened the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal to see their new Book Section. Not only are there lots of interesting and well written reviews, but there are also articles about bestselling authors (Jeff Trachtenberg, for example, writes about Philip Roth) and pieces about subjects like writers’ retreats and how blogging has influenced the economy. There is even an op-ed (sort of) on the Kindle and its effectiveness and another on writing.

All of this is very exciting and I can only hope that this new section will be hugely successful so as to encourage other major market newspapers to rethink their decisions to eliminate their book reviews.

What do you think?

Crystal balls

by Michael

I love the future. Not the actual future, but the idea of the future. I love watching footage from the old World's Fairs or reading about futurists like Buckminster Fuller, and my favorite part of Disneyworld was Epcot, where I learned that the “future” would be all about maglev. Predicting the future is a tricky thing, what with all the variables that life has, but that didn’t stop us in the past, and it’s not stopping us in the future of today!

But how does this relate to books, you ask? I stumbled across this Gizmodo post the other day that contains video from a company called IDEO. In it, there are three different approaches to the future of the book, all of them interactive and social. Some of what they present is very compelling, and I could see parts of it being implemented—for instance, being able to share books and documents within an organization or group in an easy, visual manner. In fact, the second concept (by far my favorite), “Coupland,” seemed almost organic to me. How convenient! And the first concept, “Nelson,” could be very helpful in an education context, with its ability to show commentary, criticism and the connection between works. The third, “Alice,” is a fun idea, but I don’t think it’s necessarily the future of the “book.” The level of interactive storytelling described here, while compelling, exciting and definitely futuristic, isn’t a linear, immersive reading experience. And with fiction, frankly, I think that’s what a lot of readers want. It’s not that there isn’t a place for this concept (though the costs needed to develop something like this makes me think this kind of storytelling would be tough), but I’m not sure I’d call it a book.

What do you think? I fear I’m suddenly sounding like a technophobe!

Small-scale publishing

by Stacey

This piece about the successful online magazine Rumpus becoming a publisher is pretty interesting. Because they have a built-in readership, and members through their book club, it seems to make sense to go this route for them. But my question is with such limited resources (a staff of two), wouldn't it be more efficient to go with a traditional publisher for better marketing, sales, and distribution channels? I'm not sure if they tried this and for some reason it didn't work out, or maybe they want to fully be in control of the product they are releasing, but this seems like the kind of thing that if it works for them to publish successfully on their own, traditional publishers will be knocking on their door to try to get in on their built-in audience and make the stakes even higher and the numbers even bigger.

I think as an idea, this small-scale publishing has merit, but in actuality will be difficult to manage successfully, and to build on and grow at a sustainable level. And I know that at least one of the Rumpus writers is working on her own book project, and my guess is that she, and others affiliated with the mag, will be going the more traditional publishing route. I'll be curious to see how it all plays out.

Blogging is hard!

by Michael

Especially on the Thursday before Labor Day! I’ll admit, part of the problem is that I’m distracted getting some great submissions together for Fall and, of course, by the action at Flushing Meadows. It’s my favorite two-week stretch of the year! Sad to see Roddick and Oudin lose yesterday, but I’m happy to cheer on the many Americans still left in the draw. I actually like so many tennis players that I often get confused about who I really want to win. But today, I’ll say I’d like to see Clijsters and Fish win. Just don’t expect the same answer tomorrow.

In e-book-ish news, Samsung finally admitted what the tech world already knew, that they’ll be releasing the Android-powered Galaxy Tab tablet later this year. It looks like a nice device, with that front-facing camera (and a less interesting rear-facing one) that everyone expected the iPad to have. The book reader is powered by Kobo, and it looks quite nice. As the Engadget video review mentions, the pixel density is better than the iPad, so I’m curious to see it in person. Let the tablet wars begin!

Ok, enough of my rambling. Hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend. Enjoy!

Numbers!

by Michael

For someone who never liked math much (past the age of 16, that is), I have a thing for numbers. I like things to be tangible and real, and while dealing in the abstract is great for artists, it doesn’t make much sense in business. In all of the discussion of e-books, I find very few articles and blog posts contain numbers, and when they do, they tend be rounded and squared and averaged and guesstimated. So I was pleased to see this great post from Mike Shatzkin today, which looks more closely at the nitty-gritty of author compensation from e-books under the agency model. The results make sense, and in some ways bear out both the arguments of agents/authors and publishers. There’s still some guessing here, but this is the closest to something I trust that I’ve seen thus far, and it’s worth a closer read and further thought. Interesting times.

Kids these days

by Michael

It’s one of my favorite times of year! It’s the annual Beloit College Mindset List. Since 1998, the college has been helping their professors understand what the cultural differences are between them and the incoming freshman class. The list is new each year, which means there’s an awful lot of fluff on it, but some of the entries really make you think. (I recommend going back and looking at past lists, since much of those still apply.) A couple that stood out to me this year:

32. Czechoslovakia has never existed. (I still remember teaching myself how to spell it when I rather impulsively chose it as the Olympic competitor country to do a report on in 5th grade.)

67. Ruth Bader Ginsburg has always sat on the Supreme Court.

46. Nirvana is on the classic oldies station.

That last one gets me the most. Now that I live in LA and have to drive, I listen to music radio again, something I hadn’t really done since high school. It was definitely a shock hearing Nirvana on the “classic rock” station.

So, how’s this relate to publishing? It’s important as publishing professionals to be aware of who our audience is, and reading this list always makes me stop and think about the kids picking up my authors' books. And it also makes me project into the future: In a few years, there won’t be a kid who’s been to a Waldenbooks. They won’t remember a time before Amazon. They’ll live in a world that’s full of widely-available, instant-access e-books. And this is just a few years down the line! Any thoughts on what generational changes the future might hold for publishing?

The return of the independents

by Jane

When Barnes & Noble announced a couple of weeks ago that they were for sale, the incredible irony of the potential results of such a move struck me. Almost immediately, I saw the very positive ramifications for our industry.

The incredible proliferation of the chain bookstores over the last twenty or so years has wreaked havoc on our business. The chains first and in a very dramatic way caused some of the greatest independent bookstores in our country to go out of business. It was in these individual stores that word of mouth about first time authors and their books would begin to build and spread outward. Many of these independent stores were responsible for creating bestsellers and successful writing careers.

But then the chains came in and knocked the independents out with their discounting and other mass merchandising methods. And these same chains because of their tremendous influence also dictated to publishers which books they should publish. When a chain “passed” on ordering a book, that title died—there was simply no place for it to go.

And then came Amazon, first slowly and then it exploded. Ordering electronically definitely put a crimp in the chains’ style and cost them dearly.

And this, of course, was followed by the development of e-readers and the new era of electronic publishing; the chains were becoming more and more irrelevant as places for books to be bought.

Now, Borders is barely surviving—they just laid off a bunch of staff at their headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. And, Barnes & Noble might just be bought by its former owner Len Riggio who, undoubtedly, will take it back to being a much smaller, simpler operation—and continue to sell many items other than books simply because for a chain of any size, books are not as economically attractive to carry as they once were.

But the corner bookstore—and I actually have a wonderful one a block away from my home in New York City—is going to become more of a force. I don’t know yet whether the independents will multiply and grow as they once did—but I am counting on them wielding far more influence on what their customers read than they have in recent years. If this happens, then reading will benefit greatly whether books are sold in hard copy or electronically.

I am really rooting for the return of the independents and look forward to hearing what you think of all of this.

It's alive!

by Michael

While the serious, business-minded e-books news continues to unfold at a rapid pace, I thought I’d take a moment to show a creative insight into what books can be. And this one is simple, doable, and doesn’t change the nature of the reading experience: the digital book cover. Instead of just a static cover, why not have something that’s animated or video? And if all covers are as elegant as this clip, I say bring ‘em on!

E-history

by Michael

How many of you owned a Laserdisc player? Hands? None of you? Well, I owned one (which no longer works, making my Laserdiscs sadly unplayable), so I found this article over at TripleCanopy which I found via TeleRead--doubly fascinating. I had no idea that e-books and Laserdiscs had any shared heritage, and I never could have guessed that they were also related to one of the founders of the SDS at Columbia, who also happens to head the Institute for the Future of the Book. The interview is really enlightening, as it shows how the changing technology at times created new formats, while at others the technology was chasing the ideas of great thinkers.

And in other e-news, a new Kindle is born. Looks pretty nice, though with my iPad now I won’t be diving into a dedicated e-reader anytime soon.

I love it when I'm right

by Jane

Over the last several months – it could be as long as a year, actually – whenever I have met someone not in our industry who asks what I do and I tell them, I invariably get the question, “Is publishing going to survive.”  What they really mean is whether the business of book publishing will be able to survive the arrival of the digital book.

I have always maintained that the changes that reading books electronically will bring to the book publishing business can and will be very exciting.  In fact, I have been absolutely certain that as a result of these changes, reading overall would increase.

And then Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon announced that for the last three months, sales of books for its e-reader, the Kindle, outnumbered sales of hardcover books.  This news is really historic.

There was other news though that was just as exciting. According to the American Publishing Association, hardcover book sales were up industry-wide 22% this year.  Indeed, reading has been increasing, and I believe as more and more electronic reading devices are sold – and sales of these are way up as their prices have dropped – people will read more in all formats.

So, rather than being concerned that book publishing is going down the tubes, outside observers of our business should jump on the bandwagon and spread the word. This is only the beginning of a wonderful new digital publishing age. 

Do you all agree?

You can’t take it with you…or can you?

by Miriam

As you all know, we’re obsessed with electronic rights around here and pretty concerned with issues like piracy and copyright violations stemming from all the ways technology makes it easy to rip off an author’s work and not compensate him or her for it.  And, now, my friend Joan has sent me this link about a device that will allow you to put your entire library, not to mention that heavy backpack full of textbooks, into your e-reader of choice with little fuss and no muss. 

Full disclaimer: I’ve known Ian Sullivan, one of the inventors, since he was a four-year-old with an aversion to clothes and I was his longsuffering babysitter.  Before I take him to task for contributing to the downfall of the publishing industry, what do you all think of his invention?  Is it merely a boon to those of us who want to cart our entire library with us when we’re on the move?  Or is it another sinister way to encroach upon author rights?

A step in the right direction

by Michael

Via Mediabistro, I was led to this fascinating article about Hearst’s plans for their upcoming magazine apps for the iPad and other tablets. While I’m not sure they’re being realistic about the pricing of these apps, I’m excited that publishers are finally looking beyond delivering the print versions in an electronic format. Of particular interest to those of us in publishing is that the O, the Oprah Magazine app will allow users to download books within the app itself. It’s a smart way to sell books, as readers can buy what they want immediately — not only do they not need to go to the bookstore, they don’t even need to leave the app! I’m curious, of course, about what format the book will be in, and if you’ll be able to move it to other reading platforms, but this is all still early and preliminary. I’ll be eager to try these apps out when they arrive!