LJND.com Blog

Fear and Loving at TOC

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:15:00 EST

It’s that time again, when the digi-literati convene on the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan and gleefully frighten the hell out of everybody. (One year, after Seth Godin gave a presentation, a CEO muttered to me, “Now do I slit my wrists?”)

TOC is one of those conferences that is simultaneously exhilarating and depressing. Exhilarating because so many possibilities are gaily strewn across the immediate future like lights on a Christmas tree. Depressing because…when you get down to the nitty-gritty of implementation, that “immediate” future becomes further and further away. “Now” begins to look like next year. The glitter wears off the possibilities and they become work, just like everything else.

It’s an unnerving experience if you’re not prepared for it. And although this is TOC’s fourth incarnation, many publishers are still not prepared for it. Which seems to be part of O’Reilly’s job in this industry – to push the business past its comfort zone, even just for a couple of days. Enough pushing, the theory goes, and eventually what was unnerving last year is the way of doing business this year.

SBook publishers are a tough bunch to push. Conservative by nature, cautious to the bone, book publishers do not embrace change – and that’s putting it mildly. It was winter of 1999 when ONIX was adopted as a BISAC standard. It’s now 11 years later and…we are still lecturing publishers on the importance of good metadata (when it’s more important now than it was in 1999!).

This is a quality very difficult to explain to vendors who come into book publishing with great solutions, and who frequently leave book publishing with extreme disillusionment. Will book publishing ever move beyond ink-on-paper? (When it wants to.) Does it want to? (Not particularly.) Will it survive? (Yes.)

But O’Reilly’s right, and vendors need to pay attention. Looking back on the presentations for TOC 2009, many of the ideas offered up then have just begun to trickle out into the mainstream. Decent formatting for ebooks is a good idea. Social networking helps call attention to your titles. Women read loads of ebooks. Do consumer research. XML is a great tool that will help a publisher create books and other materials in any number of formats.

Vendors should not be discouraged by this seeming slowness – on the contrary, many publishers are only just now ready to hear what you have to say. There are so many of you who have such great tools – DAMs, editorial tools, production and XML tools, social media platforms, workflow management – and the emphasis on progress and innovation at TOC drives home the very points that you are making daily to prospective clients.

Yes, publishing is behind other entertainment industries – notably the music business, notably in issues like piracy and pricing. But it IS moving ahead. Maybe not under its own steam – recently, the mere fact of the Apple iPad led publishers into a strong enough position to finally negotiate with Amazon over ebook pricing – but it is being hauled, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century.

ISBN hour on Twitter - Aggregating the Tweets

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:34:00 EST

Many folks have asked me to aggregate the ISBNhour tweets - if you click here you will get them all.

DBW, the iPad and Amazon

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:50:00 EST

Digital Book World, held in New York City on January 26 and 27, was an unqualified success. I’d initially had doubts as to how it would hold up against TOC, which can be a life-changing conference – and is at the forefront of where technology meets book publishing. I was, in fact, leery.

But the focus of DBW was somewhat different than TOC’s. Trade publishers were in abundance, as were agents (of all things!). And the tone of the conversation was rather implementation-focused – how to use social media for marketing purposes, how NOT to design ebooks, what publishers and online stores are thinking about when they set ebook pricing.

The Tweetstream is a good indication of what folks were thinking while they attended. Two presentations in particular nearly brought Twitter down – Brian Napack of Macmillan speaking on digital piracy (urging publishers to spend heavily on finding pirates and issuing takedown notices “while they still have the money to do so”, and noting that it had gotten so expensive to do this in the music industry that many labels had laid off their anti-piracy staff); and Robert Gottlieb’s participation in Brian O’Leary’s panel on the challenges ebooks face when so much content is available for free on the web.

So it was lively! And educational. And extremely well-attended. And the iPad launched right in the middle of my panel on Wednesday, which I absolutely take as personally as it’s possible to take something.

But DBW is not done yet!

Every Thursday afternoon at 1 EST, DBW is hosting a Digital Roundtable. Pablo Defendini of Tor, Kate Rados of Chelsea Green, Bridget Warren (former co-owner of Vertigo Books), Guy Gonzalez of F&W/DBW, and I discuss our evolving landscape and take questions from those who’ve dialed in.

And! There are webcasts – an archive of them here and more to come.

Most importantly (to me) is an upcoming one-day intensive seminar called Digitize Yourself: Real World Skills for the Future. I’m hosting this, and we’ll be looking at tools, workflow issues, and other extremely practical matters for those folks who have to implement the blue-skies thinking their colleagues pick up at conferences. This will take place on April 15th in New York City, and more details will be available soon. Ish.

Well…after the DBW and iPad excitement, many of us were figuring we could sit back and breathe a little bit. But no! Talks between Macmillan and Amazon broke down on Thursday and by Friday Amazon had removed the “buy” button from all Macmillan print titles, and clicking on Macmillan’s Kindle titles only got you a “this book not found” error. Macmillan books also evaporated off of wish lists.

Why?

The unicorn is why. Apple is working on an “agency” model with publishers – pubs tell Apple how much they want to charge for a book, and Apple keeps a percentage of that. Amazon sells a book for whatever it wants. And while some argue that the Amazon model nets publishers more money in the long run, this is about one thing that’s more important to publishers than money: Control.

In the agency model, publishers set the price. In the Amazon model, retailers set the price…and customers come to expect extremely low prices for certain things, even though the retailers are losing money on those things. Those low prices are loss leaders for the retailers’ other inventory.

Amazon claims they are capitulating, though they are certainly taking their time about it. But in another sign of their concern about the iPad, they just bought a company called Touchco, which makes touch-screens.

As for publishers…I worry that publishers’ extreme desire for control in a world they can increasingly NOT control (piracy, author behavior, new business models that disintermediate them) is pushing them to make decisions that are not really in their best interests. If you are getting more revenue by NOT controlling prices, why is it so important to do so? If you are selling more books when you’re NOT controlling piracy, why spend boatloads of money going after torrent sites? Ebooks may not be viable to sell at $9.99 right now – and may serve as a loss leader for the time being – but costs of producing ebooks will go down (they always do) and eventually publishers can make a nice amount of revenue from $9.99 ebooks.

Controlling the scene is not always good for you. The need to control may indeed be an irrational (and rather panicky) response to uncertainty.

Metadata! More Important Than Ever!

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:46:00 EST

My passion for metadata isn’t a big secret – since my days at Muze and B&N.com, I’ve witnessed firsthand how good metadata helps people find the books they are looking for, and how bad metadata prevents people from finding what they want.

Why is this relevant now?

Well, CES showed us that there is a great interest in ebook readers – 23 of them debuted there, and an entire “Ebook Zone” was created. Apple is negotiating with publishers to sell content (books, magazines, newspapers) on its soon-to-appear tablet. With all these digitized books, search becomes more crucial than ever – web search is the ONLY way people are going to purchase these digital products.

Discovery/review services like NetGalley – as well as all the ecommerce sites – are heavily reliant on metadata not just for listing titles, but also for search algorithms themselves. (You’d think that would go without saying, but it doesn’t.)

Whether it’s “semantic” search or a more traditional browsing hierarchy, search technologies rest on metadata. Tags, definitions, clarifications (“when we say ‘porcelain’ we mean fine china, not toilets”) are all necessary to guide users to the information they want.

This metadata may not come in the form of the traditional ONIX feed. If a book file is marked up in XML (whether via InDesign or anything else), the title, author, BISAC and LC subject codes, price, publisher, and copyright date can all be easily derived from that book file – because those data points are defined in the file (usually in the front matter) with tags.

But just as with ONIX, what’s inside those tags has to be correct. This has a better shot at happening if the search engine is pulling from the book itself (the author name, for example, is not likely to be misspelled in the actual book).

In recently-released recommendations to the publishing industry, BIC has stated: "Publishers must retain responsibility, wherever possible and appropriate, for the metadata of the products they publish, in all formats, print and digital." Another company, Giant Chair has built its entire business around hosting a metadata platform for publishers: “When equipped with the appropriate tools, publishers are naturally the most qualified and motivated source for metadata creation and enrichment.”

Which makes sense!

Except in the real world it doesn’t quite play out that way. In my career, I’ve seen lots of publisher-generated metadata. There’s a reason why NetRead, Eloquence, and other data-scrubbing services exist. There’s a reason why Ingram, Bowker, and Baker & Taylor have departments of data editors who normalize and standardize that data. There’s a reason why librarians spend countless hours re-cataloguing titles for WorldCat. There’s a reason why BISG launched its Product Data Certification Program.

And that reason is: while publishers make the books, they continue not to pay sufficient attention to the accuracy of their data. While publishers are the definitive source of who the author is, what the list price is, what the book is about…they are not recording a lot of that information accurately. Because if they were, Fran Toolan and Greg Aden would have to find new things to do. Richard Stark would suddenly find himself with weeks and weeks of free time. Thousands of library cataloguers would be out of work. Ingram, Bowker, and B&T databases would be redundant. PDCP would not be necessary.

But good metadata IS publishers’ responsibility, fundamentally. They can outsource that responsibility, but ultimately it does all come back to the publishers. As our digital landscape explodes – as web search becomes not just one way but THE way readers find what’s next on their reading lists – metadata only becomes more important. If your sales are dipping, it’s entirely possible that readers can’t find your books. Take a look at your data. The solution is probably there.

Peter Pan and Copyright

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:44:00 EST

Just an interesting thing I ran across while spelunking around today.

Missing People Section!

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:35:00 EST

I sent out my newsletter and for some reason the "People" section did not appear. So I am posting it here:

Kate Rados, formerly of Sterling, has been named Director of Digital Initiatives for Chelsea Green. According to the press release, “Rados will be responsible for shaping the overall digital strategy for the company, from web/mobile development, to digital publishing, to digital marketing and social media.” She also gets to work from home, in New York City. Follow Kate on Twitter at @katerados.

David Gitow, formerly VP of Marketing at Cengage, has left the company.

Stephen Abram, the public face of SirsiDynix, is decamping for Gale Cengage, where his former SirsiDynix CEO, Pat Sommers, is president.

The new Executive Director of BISG is Scott Lubeck, whom I had the pleasure of meeting yesterday. He was formerly with Wolters Kluwer. More information on Scott can be found here.

The Value of a Publishing House

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:32:00 EST

Slipping into the New York Times the day after New Year’s was an op-ed by Jonathan Galassi, president of FSG, which begins with the question, “What is an ebook?” and ends (or nearly ends) with this observation: “A publisher — and I write as one — does far more than print and sell a book. It selects, nurtures, positions and promotes the writer’s work.”

In between the opening question and the conclusion is a gap roughly the size and consistency of the La Brea tar pits.

To the first point – “Are e-books a new frontier in publishing, a fresh version of the author’s work? Or are they simply the latest editions of the books produced by publishers…?” – the answer is, of course, “It depends.”

If an ebook is simply a digital reproduction of a print book, the answer leans towards being “the latest editions” – and frankly, in the case of a lot of ebooks, it’s less of a reproduction than a travesty of formatting and a sort-of approximation of what the print book was supposed to offer.

If an ebook contains new information/illustrations, is presented in a variety of formats and fonts, and possibly contains video, or an author interview, or other material…it’s probably “a fresh version of the author’s work” which has been curated by the ebook publisher in a different way than the print publisher did. (And which is what Open Road is saying they’re all about.)

But is it solely the author’s work that forms the basis of that ebook? Galassi argues, in the case of William Styron, “An e-book version of Mr. Styron’s “The Confessions of Nat Turner” will contain more than the author’s original words. It will also comprise Mr. Loomis’s editing, as well as all the labor of copy editing, designing and producing, not to mention marketing and sales, that went into making it a desirable candidate for e-book distribution. Mr. Styron’s books took the form they have, are what they are today, not only because of his remarkable genius but also, as he himself acknowledged, because of the dedicated work of those at Random House.”

All true!

But then the trouble starts. Galassi states: “An e-book distributor is not a publisher, but rather a purveyor of work that has already been created. In this way, e-books are no different from large-print or paperback or audio versions. They are simply the latest link in an unbroken editorial chain, the newest format for one of man’s greatest inventions: the constantly evolving, imperishable book — given its definitive form by a publisher.”

And here is where I strongly disagree. It’s those words “definitive form” – which presume that the hardcover first-run is the “real” book, while everything that follows is somehow derivative. As our work with StartwithXML has demonstrated, this view of the “editorial chain” is rapidly evolving into a model where there is NO “definitive form”.

It is true that an ebook distributor is not a publisher, in the same sense that a physical book distributor (Ingram, Baker & Taylor) is not a publisher. And many physical distributors are also ebook distributors.

But an ebook PUBLISHER is a publisher. And this is where I think Mr. Galassi gets it wrong. Because nowhere in this essay does he even discuss ebook publication, or regard ebooks as anything other than a digital version of a print book.

Let’s have a look at audiobooks as a parallel. Audio versions of books have to be read by someone – either a professional reader such as Jim Dale, or a famous/semi-famous actor, or a voiceover artist. That person must modulate his voice, decide what to emphasize, re-create the work aurally. A simple reproduction of the book so that you can hear it is more along the lines of what DAISY does for the visually-impaired, where you get a computerized voice reading rapidly and without inflection, spelling the words it doesn’t recognize.

Audio divisions of publishing houses – and independent audiobook publishers such as Brilliance – determine abridgement, voice quality, and a host of other factors in producing these “books”. And I would argue that the level of nurturing, curation and editorial is as meticulous as it is for that hardcover book. Audiobook publishers are not simply distributors – and to call them this is a disservice to what they provide.

As we fully explore the potential of ebooks (as Open Road is doing) we’ll find opportunities for precisely the sort of care-taking and curation that Mr. Galassi values so highly - just as we have for audiobooks. The “traditional” publishing process will not be replaced or diminished by ebooks – it will be amplified.

So yes, there will still be publishing, as Galassi himself concludes. “Even if someday, God forbid, books are no longer printed, they will still need the thought and care and dedication that Mr. Loomis and his colleagues put into producing William Styron’s work for nearly 60 years. Some things never change.”

Which kind of leaves me ultimately shrugging at this article. So what was your point?

The truth is, Galassi’s point is largely unspoken – and you have to have been in publishing a little while to glean what he’s really talking about. It’s very clear that he wants some form of credit for what traditional hardcover publishers do. In publishing, the form of credit that is most widely recognized is, of course, rights.

It’s interesting that Galassi brings up Random House in this particular example – because initially, Styron’s publisher was Bobbs-Merrill (as a correction notes at the end of the piece). In early December, of course, the CEO of Random House issued a memo asserting that Random House retained the digital rights to all its titles - shortly after Open Road announced that it would be mining publishers' backlists for ebook material. Galassi seems to be lining up on the side of Dohle – that publishers, when they acquire a book from an author, are allowed to publish that book however they want, whenever they want.

And if those rights were not explicitly granted in contracts (because of course many contracts pre-dated any existence of ebooks), and if the courts do not uphold Random House’s position, it appears that what Galassi is not-so-implicitly saying is that publishers nevertheless deserve a portion of whatever profit is made from those digital books.

This gets even more interesting, of course – Galassi is essentially saying, “You wouldn’t even have a product if it weren’t for what we’ve done, so we should get some compensation beyond what we’ve earned from the production of this hardcover book. Those rights are implicitly granted in the contract with the author."

Which is basically an invitation to a large and long party attended by contracts and IP lawyers.

Practically speaking, however, the question then becomes, “How are you going to figure out what the hardcover publisher's compensation should be?” Because in order to carve out that compensation, a monetary value has to be placed on each component of the publishing house: editorial, marketing, sales, production, etc. And no traditional publishing house I’m aware of actually tracks these functions the way they would need to be tracked to create useful algorithms. Is Galassi saying they’re going to start?

There are other issues, of course. Not every author is a Styron – you’re not going to want to invest all that caring and tending in every single author. (And not every editor is Gordon Lish or Max Perkins, tenderly re-shaping, or in some cases gutting and renovating, what the author brings him.) When I worked in publishing 20 years ago, 80% of what my editors acquired went directly to copy-editing – no nurturing, no sitting down with the author…no reading. So I honestly have to question how much value is inherent in that 80% – obviously, the copy-editing process has value, of course, but what if the editor took a manuscript (as increasingly happens) from an agent that had already been edited, packaged, otherwise made publication-ready?

Authors have traditionally complained that their publishers aren’t doing such a great job marketing and selling their books; the explosion of self-publishing ventures and digital marketing consultancies (ahem), as well as the influx of new marketing-department hires at traditional houses, are evidence that these authors may in fact have a point. If an author can demonstrate an increase in sales after moving to a self-publishing model (as Steven Covey appears to be doing) or hiring a marketing consultant, what value is the publisher actually bringing? (I AM excited about publishing's new digital marketing hires - many of them are very clued-in and will contribute a great deal of value - if they are allowed to do the things that need to be done.)

As for production, typesetting, paper selection – these are very important for print products, obviously, but ebooks use entirely different formatting and thus a great deal of print production is irrelevant to ebook creation.

I’d argue that we can’t take for granted that a traditional publishing house – simply by virtue of being a publishing house – adds value. The value a publishing house adds really depends on the editor, the author, the culture of the publishing house, and the book itself.

Whatever a “book” is. Wanna go there?

At Mediabistro's eBook Summit

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:54:00 EST

Yesterday I was at Mediabistro's eBook Summit, an event that actually spans two days (but I had to take one day to get this newsletter out, so there you go). They opened with a session on Open Road, the company founded by Jane Friedman and Jeffrey Sharp.

Jane and Jeff were interviewed by Carmen Scheidel of Mediabistro, who gave Jane and Jeff a chance to explain exactly what Open Road is, and what it intends to do.

Apparently they are looking at backlist titles with an eye towards both ebook and movie products. Their example was William Styron, whose books make good movies ("Sophie's Choice"); there is also some extant footage of Styron himself that's never been widely available. And it's high time his books were available as ebooks.

Additionally, they are publishing what Jane calls "E-riginals", which are ebooks native to Open Road.

When Carmen brought up the memo from Markus Dohle at Random House regarding digital rights (and many of the books Jane would like to publish are, in fact, Random House books), Jane very carefully stated: "We are only working with people who represent that they have those rights to sell to us." This she repeated a couple of times.

Open Road is also working with universities, which of course are great repositories of authors' papers. And they are developing apps - Jeff cited an app that would lead tourists around Charleston, highlighting Pat Conroy's haunts.

Some discussion from the Q&A - all answers are Jane's:

What will it take for traditional publishers to thrive once again? "I think there will always be physical books, and it’s essential that we keep them. But some of the issues of traditional publishing have to change. Advances are difficult, The idea of chasing the bestseller is very very difficult. Most of the time if you chase the bestsellers, you don’t make money. We are in a secular change – meaning we are not going to go back. Publishers will get smaller, advances will go down, and nonreturnability of books is essential. Each publisher will find his or her way; it’s going to be a tough decade, and the balance between e-publishing and physical publishing, the e-world is going to get pretty close to representing 50% of the publishing business."

How will readers purchase your ebooks? At what price? "At this point we are thinking of standard list price as around $14. But again, nothing’s definite. We have to see what the audience will bear. All of the marketing that we are doing will live on OpenRoadMedia.com. Pieces will be pushed out everywhere else. But we are not selling books from our website. We are auditioning distributors. We are agnostic – we will be on whatever device exists. We will distribute and have our books sold everywhere ebooks are sold."

Could you talk about the kinds of deals you’re making with authors for backlist and e-riginals? "We are in 50-50 partnership. Our intention is to be a 50-50 partner with a content owner."

Are you encountering resistance from traditional authors that ebooks will erode print sales, and how do you mollify those concerns? "Number one, we have to respect the author. If Sherman Alexie doesn’t want his books on e-, that’s okay. The issue of erosion is like the issue of price. We need every possible consumer and every possible purchase we can get. We cannot turn away a customer. I do not believe that the publishing on e- should be delayed. That’s TODAY. I cannot be dogmatic. Do I think there will be some cannibalization? Yes, but we are building a new audience and we have to satisfy that audience. It’s extremely important for us to face this head-on – perhaps we will increase the reading audience rather than cannibalize the audience. Traditional publishers have very big nuts – their overheads are beyond anything that’s understandable by people who don’t work in a big company, and the erosion of hardcover sales WILL hurt their bottom line."

How do authors reach you? "We say that we are not accepting unsolicited manuscripts. If it’s agented or with a lawyer, we will accept solicitations."

Survey Says!

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:38:00 EST

Recently I got into a discussion about how midsized publishers were managing their digital assets, and all parties in that discussion (who shall remain nameless) realized that we had NO IDEA how midsized publishers were handling increased digitization and proliferation of book formats.

So I decided to find out! And share! Because that is what we do here.

I devised a questionnaire that takes a reading on several departments within a publishing house: IT, Editorial/Production, and Marketing. These are the most likely departments to interact with a DAM system, to be experiencing pain points with insufficient digital asset management, and to appreciate good asset management in an agile content delivery framework.

I queried and submitted the survey to 50 publishers. Of those 50, 8 publishers flatly declined to participate (you know who you are). An additional 20 did not respond by the requested deadline. Or the grace period. Or the grace period after that. Eventually I had to close the door just for the sake of getting on with things. (Not that they noticed. I don’t think.)

So my results focus on the 22 publishers who did respond. Who have also asked for anonymity, but I want to extend my gratitude for quick turnaround and great information!

Some general trends in IT:

Most publishers surveyed use a mix of Macs and PCs. And most of these publishers either use Adobe InDesign or a mix of Adobe and Quark. No publishers surveyed use Linux or Sun. Most of the respondents have a mix of database platforms: Microsoft SQL, MySQL and Oracle.

As far as managing digital assets is concerned, the answers seem fairly evenly divided. Eight publishers feel they have this under control; five feel it’s not an overwhelming concern; six know that this is a problem they have to solve; and two are experiencing pain on this issue.

Most of the publishers surveyed store their digital assets on a central server, using filename conventions to keep them organized. Three also use physical media to store assets. Six publishers use an external service (such as their printer’s) to store digital assets. And one publisher stores digital assets on a central server, on physical media, externally, and in a DAM (which would seem to indicate that their DAM is not sufficient for their needs).

The bulk of publishers in this survey either adapt well to change, or note that a new implementation and rollout can be disruptive, but ultimately worth it. Two publishers state that they do not handle disruption well.

Most publishers have internal IT departments, or outsource specific IT functions while keeping a “base camp” of IT staff in-house. Only two publishers completely outsource their IT.

Some trends in Editorial/Production:

Overwhelmingly, most publishers plan for more than one edition of a book. Only one publisher claimed they do not – which was proven incorrect by a glance at their website, where there are simultaneous publications of hardcover and paperback. About half of publishers report that producing more than one edition of a title is part of their regular workflow and not much work.

Publishers seem to need to re-use digital files “frequently” or “about half the time”, in most cases. These publishers are fairly evenly divided in terms of how easy it is to retrieve files. About half say that it’s easy, and about half say that it’s a project to get them. No publishers reported severe pain in file retrieval. (Which is good!)

Publishers are, as we know, wedded to workflow and this survey bears that out. Most publishers surveyed claim their manual workflow works, although some changes could conceivably make it better. Six publishers say that their workflow exists for certain purposes and changing it would be a challenge. Two publishers are in active pain around workflow.

The publishers surveyed are moving towards making more ebooks available. About a third release an ebook for every print version; slightly more are making some of their titles available digitally. Two publishers are not planning on creating any ebooks at all.

Some trends in Marketing:

Overwhelmingly publishers report using digital assets from books for web or print promotions “all the time”. Only three report doing this “sometimes.”

Artwork requests from the media are, by and large, handled manually (presumably someone emailing a cover image to a book reviewer). Five publishers have an automated process to handle this; two publishers report having to scramble. And three publishers report significant pain in print to web processes. Half of the publishers report a “fairly smooth” process with a few glitches, while six publishers report that they have automated their print to web process.

Conclusions:

According to our survey results, about 50% of publishers are repurposing digital assets frequently, and about 30% are doing this half the time.

The primary workflow concerns among these publishers are integrating freelancer or outside author content using internal tools; building an XML workflow; and increasing the number of digital titles available.

45% of publishers surveyed are just beginning to implement an XML workflow. Only 18% of publishers have fully committed to an XML workflow; 36% are either just starting to consider it, or have not given it much thought.

In terms of tolerance for change, 55% of the publishers surveyed say disruptions could possibly be worth it, although those disruptions would not necessarily be welcome. About 35% say they are flexible and open to change. And about 10% say that change is difficult.

If any other midsize publishers want to contribute to this pool of data, I’d certainly welcome it! Email me for a questionnaire (and expect to get hectored and pestered for results).

Q&A with Brad Inman, founder of Vook

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:58:00 EST

After the widely-covered Gary Vaynerchuk launch, we caught up with Brad Inman to see what Vook was going to do next.

LJND: So what's on tap for the Vook now?

BI: We've got a Japanese cookbook coming out, where we've worked directly with the author. There will be a series of other publishers getting involved - we've found lots of publishers dying to do it.

LJND: So the response has been enthusiastic?

BI: The response has been overwhelming, and we’re still learning & trying to figure it all out. We've got mass production planned for next year - we're still working out which genres are best, the best places to get distribution. We're experimenting with pricing and business models. We're new to the book business – in our industry, you get proof of concept, you do experimenting and testing, and then once you have a vein you think you can tap, you get really aggressive. We are seeing that there’s an opportunity here – book, ebook, audiobook, vook.

LJND: One of your other businesses is TurnHere, the book video company. Does Vook use Turn Here footage - is there a natural outgrowth here?

BI: We've always viewed Vook as an extension of TurnHere – we shoot very high quality video at very low cost. This gives us great leverage and scalability in the market. Simultaneous production gives us great capacity to scale the business. We're going to do hundreds or more book videos next year.

LJND: How did the "Crush It" Vook come about?

BI: Gary's publisher came to us when they saw the article in the NYT in the spring – they thought he was perfect for it. They have a series of other titles we’re negotiating with them on. The Vook is natural for his audience and his crowd.

LJND: What sort of book is ideal for the Vook?

BI: The fan base needs to be there on the internet – and it can be a book from a traditional author, because the internet is so comprehensive. There are some authors that don’t have any internet fan bases and they’re not authors we’d want to do – this is a way to expand the audience of the book publishing business: tons of people are watching video all day and not reading. So if the author (or genre) doesn’t have an internet fan base, that’s a problem. We’ll be taking two of the Sherlock Holmes stories out of the public domain – we shot the videos in London with the cooperation of the Sherlock Holmes Society. The title has a huge fan base and they helped us shape the video – which is an annotation to the stories.

Another example: recently we had a newsletter that’s focused on losing weight, where they send out to a list every day – in that case, our author had no connection to this group, but the fan base around the genre is huge – it's about a 90-second workout. You unsurface a whole new distribution channel on the internet than by only going to B&N.

LJND: It sounds like what Mike Shatzkin has to say about vertical markets , about niches.

BI: We think verticals/niches is really the way the internet works. The internet is already organized around subjects. The general, mass-market shotgun approach – from news, television, books – these sales channels haven’t been very organized. And the internet is made for verticals. Users are affiliated with a group; they've personalized a page.

LJND: Obviously Vooks can't play on ebook readers - how do you see people accessing them?

BI: We seem people using smaller devices – phones. It won't be long before everything’s browser-based, so there are no closed systems. Universality is making sure your app is universally accessible. If you’re in all the devices, the global population can find you. Once you're universally available, you can then use the power of segmentation of the internet.

Our iPhone app is our best seller. Of every 100 sales, two-thirds are iPhone apps. Apple’s gotten behind us in a big way - two of our apps are in the top 10 for books that turn into apps. Our apps get featured. Apple’s seeing the value of our multimedia. That’s really what we’re building to, is the market for these devices. They embrace multimedia.

Everything’s going to come together by the end of next year. There will be a multiple selection of computers and devices that we can choose from, all browser-enabled. And there will be more competition – the good thing about B&N coming out is all the competition. They’re going to have to add features and content, and that’s going to enable all kinds of creative enterprises.

LJND: Now that you've been working with publishers a little, what final observations do you have?

BI: We bring video and technology and internet marketing and relationships – but the foundation of all of this is good books; we depend on publishers and authors for that.

We’re in the first inning of something that’s much bigger than people realize. Handwringing and fear don’t get us anywhere. There’s a huge new opportunity. The key is to experiment – with us or others – but the only way you’re going to be part of it is to participate.

PubPocalypse Now - a guest post by Brett Sandusky

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:53:00 EST

Digital Marketing Manager at Kaplan, Brett Sandusky is also a co-founder of QBAH2 . His love for books is rivaled only by his love for France.

Let’s be honest here: the publishing industry is tanking. Everyone knows it; we just won’t admit it. Houses are merging, imprints are quietly dying, talented people are being laid off. All the while, we keep trying to find some shred of a thought of a possibility of reinvention so we can stay afloat for another quarter or two. Print books are starting to go the way of vinyl and CD, and all we can do is look around and pretend that our former glory perfumes the air through which we walk.

We are in the midst of an identity crisis. There, I said it.

We want to be print, we want to be digital, we want to be prigital , we want to be traditional, we want to be POD, we want to be ePress, we want to be social media, we want to be a New York Times bestseller, we want to rank on Amazon, and we want to sell at your local indie bookstore. We want to sell books like other consumer products and yet we still hold onto the notion that we are the filterers of content for the masses. All in all, we’re doing it wrong!

One of the biggest arguments against POD and self-publishing is that no one is there (read: we are not there) to determine if the content is worthy of publication or not. Well, look around - what exactly are we determining is suitable for publication?

Celebrities who don’t actually read or write, with seven figure advances and ghostwriters and media circuses?

There are zombies, vampires, and sea monsters (oh, my!). There is shlock lit, autobiographies of failed politicians and former meth addicts-cum-tennis-players. And reality show personalities - Lauren Conrad, Heidi Montag, Spencer Pratt and Bam Margera all have their own books. It’s the truth! And gimmicky blogs with two-month track records.

This is what we’re selling. No joke. Nice version: We’ve diluted the waters of quality content and now we’re paying the price. Not so nice version: We’re addicted to the crack of the home-run bestseller and we’re stealing from whomever we can just to buy our next bump.

It’s time to take a look at ourselves and decide what we are going to pursue. Are we filterers of content or are we distributors of content? Are we book printers, eBook suppliers, movie makers, game designers, app developers?

It’s time for a new model. A truly new model. A model that does not include the returns of those home-run "bestsellers". A model that does not include the same advance and royalty structures that have been on life support. Content has changed, ergo pay structures for providers of content should change. PULL THE PLUG! A model that supports readers’ device preferences (printed books are devices, too). A model that is adaptable for the future. A model that …

We need an XML business model. Time to retool.

What do I mean by XML business model, you ask? I am talking about a business model that is adaptable. A model that is made up of components which not only work in tandem with each other but can be applied or omitted based on specific needs. A model that would, in the end, be lean and yet address every scenario we could encounter. I am talking about a customizable, modular business plan that would allow us to have just the right equation for each type of content combination were it print, digital, or a combination thereof. Is it so crazy to ask that the business model mirror the business?

This issue’s acronym is courtesy of Brett Sandusky, from his column: "prigital"

This issue’s acronym is not an acronym at all, but a portmanteau. I used this word above, and thought I should define what I mean by prigital. Prigital is the combination of both print and digital publishing into one product that seemingly bridges the gap between both. By combining these two elements, it is possible to offer a reading experience enhanced by rich digital content. Some examples of prigital products: companion apps that are to be used simultaneously to reading, vooks, integrated video in digital eBook products, integrated audio in digital eBook products.

Mythbusting the ISBN

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:27:00 EST

It’s probably not healthy to keep thinking about this. It certainly makes me a lousy conversationalist. Because in all the ruminating and talking and (if you must know) mad nattering to myself (luckily, I spend LARGE portions of my day alone), I keep coming back to the ISBN.

Bear with me. (I have already investigated, and there is no rehab facility that deals in identifier addiction problems, so that’s out.)

Last month, the AAP’s Digital Initiatives Working Group and BISAC’s Identifiers Committee conducted a survey among members to determine what publishers’ views actually are on the ISBN. Publishers have been told what to think, repeatedly – and we know how much publishers like being told what to think – so we thought we’d turn the conversation around and ask them what they thought. The results are not yet finalized, and when they are I will talk about them.

But I worry. Because as we expand book distribution from merely a paper-with-occasional-ebook business to an all-kinds-of-paper-and-lots-of-different-ebooks-plus-vooks-plus-promotional-packages-plus-print-on-demand-plus-subscriptions-to-book-content-plus-downloadable-audio – well, you can see where this is going, and it’s messy.

And I have been in more than one meeting where I have heard these exact words (and I am not making this up), “If only we had some kind of system to deal with this, some way of identifying content…”

Hello????

So, first, some mythbusting.

ISBNs are expensive.

Actually, no they are not! The new My Identifiers site will offer new pricing in January. A single ISBN will cost an author or publisher $125. Ten ISBNs are $250, or $25 per ISBN. A hundred ISBNs are $575. This is cheap!

An ISBN is just a bar code for a book, and if my books are digital, I don’t need ISBNs.

Not so! In using an ISBN for a digital book (or any book), a publisher creates an automatic web page for that book, which is populated by the bibliographic data in Books in Print (and can be edited or added to by the publisher). Bowker hosts that web page, and the hosting price is included in the purchase of the ISBN. Publishers can choose which booksellers will sell their titles on that page – or direct traffic specifically to the publisher itself.
br /> The price of the ISBNs also includes a widget for each title, to put on your own website or to share – you can choose to display as much or as little of each book as you want.

Amazon doesn’t use ISBNs, so I don’t need them.

Wrong again! It is true that Amazon doesn’t depend on ISBNs – but when they have them, they do use them to create their ASINs. ISBNs are the foundation of Bowker's Books in Print, which in fact licenses data to Amazon. Also to Barnes & Noble – the website and the physical stores. Also to ebooks.com, Abebooks.com, Indigo, and almost every single public and institutional library in the US.

So if your book is listed in Books in Print (and if it has an ISBN, it will be), it is automatically available to book buyers – consumers, librarians, and the people who stock books in physical bookstores. If your book is NOT in Books in Print, it might be available on Amazon - but unless you approach all these other outlets yourself (and many will require an ISBN to sell your product anyway), Amazon will be the ONLY place it is listed.

Consumers don’t search using ISBNs.

Again, not true! College students have learned that the best way to find the textbooks they need is to search by ISBN. This way, they can be sure that they are getting the latest edition, the used version, the ebook - whatever they want - at the best price possible. (Almost two years ago, the Harvard Coop arrested students who were jotting down ISBNs to take home and search online to see if they could find better prices.)

These students will graduate. And by then they will be used to finding their books online by searching for the ISBN.

More importantly – search engines use ISBNs. Books in Print licenses its database to “the top 3 search engines” (they are not allowed to name names, but we know who they are). BIP is also searchable on the open web. Search engines crawl that database as well. ISBNs are, in fact, the cornerstone of book search on the web – even though most people don’t realize it. Books – whether digital, print, or audio – are very nearly not findable without an ISBN; publishers are really testing the odds by not using them.

And now…some confirmation of suspicions. The more ISBNs I have, the more metadata I have to keep track of.

Absolutely true. If you have a lot of products, they all need to be described. This is not an argument for fewer ISBNs, however. It may be an argument for fewer products. It may be an argument for the ISTC, which would allow publishers to group ISBNs together and repurpose much of the same metadata among them, streamlining databases everywhere. But not using ISBNs will not ever solve your metadata problems.

We only produce a single EPUB file, which has a single ISBN. We don’t care what it gets converted to once we send it to our distributors. They can assign more ISBNs for the different formats they create from our EPUB file.

And that makes a lot of sense. Until you need to change the metadata on that file – if, for example, you’ve accidentally misspelled the author’s name. Or if the price changes. Or if your hung-over intern has assigned a BISAC category of “Juvenile – Ducks” to a romance novel. Once metadata is being assigned to an ISBN you did not create, you have no control over that data. None. Even though it’s your product. So the metadata associated with that EPUB file better be pristine before it leaves your house, or you’ll be in a massive game of catch-up.

Publishers in other countries don’t have to pay for ISBNs.

This is true – except for the UK. ISBN agencies are subsidized by taxes, ultimately, in many other countries. (Somehow I don’t see politicians being able to put that one across here. Call me cynical, but I just don’t think we have such powerful lobbyists in the book industry.) But the money that publishers pay does actually go somewhere. It funds the web pages for each ISBN. It funds the widgets. It funds manual editing of a publisher’s metadata when there are typos or misspellings or other errors. It funds the title maintenance software, the data hosting, and the teams of programmers and editors who manage Books in Print.

The very fact that I know all of this disturbs me deeply. But what disturbs me still more is that so many publishers do not know it. Yet.

Kindle-Killer or Dr. Seuss Rhyme?

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:25:00 EDT

The Scamp and I arrived at Pier Sixty yesterday afternoon ready to tweet. Well, Scamp was ready to ignore her homework and play on her Gameboy. Why would I bring an 11-year-old girl to the launch of B&N's Nook? Two reasons: The alternative was leaving her at home by herself, in close proximity to a jar of Nutella; and because presumably by the time she's out of college, she'll be reading on a gadget.

So...pomp, circumstance, history of B&N as the "real" innovator when it comes to bookselling. And then the Nook.

First, the obvious. The name. Obviously, "nookie" jokes abound. And the official name is "nook", not "Nook" - lowercase "n". That said...nobody thought Kindle was a brilliant name either. And I am not using the lowercase "n" - it's confusing.

Moving on: What features does this thing have?

Like the Kindle, the Nook has a 6-inch e-ink screen. Their reading areas are completely identical. The Nook, however, has a color touchscreen where you can view and navigate your library by book cover.

As far as downloads are concerned, the Nook relies on AT&T 3G for most downloading. However, if you happen to find yourself in a Barnes & Noble store, you can take advantage of the free wifi there.

In fact, one of the most compelling aspects of the Nook is its interoperability with the physical world. While in a B&N, you can read an entire ebook - just as you would a physical book, in the cafe or sprawled on the floor - because B&N will stream that book to you via wifi.

You can also LOAN BOOKS TO FRIENDS. And they don't even have to have a Nook - you can share your ebooks for up to 14 days at a time, sending them to iPhones, iPod Touches, Blackberries, Motorola smartphones, a PC or a Mac. Just as you can share physical books (and demand them back), you can do the same with ebooks.

As with the Kindle, the Nook allows for bookmarking, and syncing among devices. So if your battery runs out or you forget the thing, you can pick up where you left off on your iPhone or Blackberry or other supported device. (In my mind, this is an improvement over the physical world - if I lose or forget my book, I can't just pull another copy down from the cloud; I actually have to go and buy a new one. Or wait till I get home. God forbid I should have to wait. That's just asking too much.)

The Nook holds up to 1500 ebooks, and an expandable memory slot allows for 17,500 more.

But one of the greatest features is portability. Meaning users can "side-load" (makes me think of "side-along apparition" from Harry Potter). You can transfer PDFs and EPUB files to the Nook from your computer. Why is this huge? Because you can borrow EPUB books from the library and load them onto the Nook. You can load business documents (converting books from Word to PDF is so easy these days!). You can use the device for ALL your long-form reading, not just some of it.

Which brings us to the issue of content. B&N offers over a million ebooks (half of which are Google Editions of public domain titles, but half of which are not). Additionally, newspaper and magazine subscriptions are also available.

And as noted previously, in January B&N will be offering blog subscriptions via Bloggapedia - over 8000 blogs, hand-picked and curated, categorized into a great taxonomy for easy browsing. (If you haven't registered your blog with us, please do!)

As to whether or not this is a Kindle-killer, it is of course too early to say - the Nook is not yet on the market. But given the way the device is capable of handling real-world interactions - with the physical store, the library, the user's friends/family, and other devices - I'd say Amazon has a bit of catching up to do.

FiledBy adds video

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:17:00 EDT

FiledBy has announced that it has partnered with StudioNow, an online video production company, to provide video capability to authors who want to create video content for online marketing. According to the press release:

"Producing commercial quality video is normally expensive and out of reach for many authors,” said Peter Clifton, CEO and President, FiledBy. “The efficiencies brought to the process by our partner StudioNow make on-location video shoots and custom book trailers more accessible and affordable. This will allow more authors, illustrators and book contributors to take advantage of the promotional power of the video medium, especially since so many are interested in sharing their video on their FiledBy sites."

Girls Quest - call for books!

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:57:00 EDT

There is an organization called Girls Quest, which provides mentoring and other services for New York City girls ages 13-17. On October 17, they are sponsoring a career day for about 40 teenage girls, and they need books!

If you're a publisher with books for teenagers about careers, money management, inspiration, personal growth - please email me and I can let you know how to donate appropriate titles. Thank you!!!