one little cog

Despite being employed in the book industry, I work in the realm of the web and everything I do involves thinking about how someone would interact with a website and ultimately, the product. I have always speculated and continue to state that book publishing (not publishing in general) as we know it is on the brink of experiencing an evolution and perhaps even a revolution. A number of recent blogs and articles that I’ve read over the past week caused me to thoroughly ponder why the traditional model of book publishing is dying. After lots of thought and help from a couple of friends (also fellow industry professionals), here is part one of my storm session.

Note: Thanks goes out to Tammy Cabral and Erin Winzer for taking the time to read over my messy blogging. You may also find a few opposing viewpoints from one of them on occasion throughout this post.

1. The Promotion Process Begins BEFORE a Book is Published

Traditionally book publishing involved a select number of people working within a publishing house/company who ultimately decides what should and shouldn’t be published. A book would then usually go through a scheduled process of editing, copyediting, designing, and proofreading before arriving from the printer. The sales, marketing and publicity staff would typically have a marketing plan in place that would begin as soon as the book is on the shelves of bookstores. A list of titles would be created for each of two major retail seasons — Fall/Winter, and Spring/Summer.

I had originally questioned this when I was first starting off in the book industry and as I observed how publishing companies operated, I realized that they were focusing on seasons because of the retail sector and the fiscal year. This still works — but it is no longer as effective as it used to be. Why? Because the time between the acquisition of the book and the arrival at bookstores is a lost opportunity to promote forthcoming titles — opportunity costs.

Now during this period I should point out that marketing and publicity departments are usually busy taking care of the current season but this is a time where authors can be and should be establishing themselves so that they build credibility. The other solution could be to simply have a team of staff dedicated to pre-publication promotion but that would still require the co-operation of an author.

Erin Winzer likes the idea but is concerned about the potential of saturating the market. My point is that this would not be any major promotional campaign as this team would be focused on helping the author establish his or her presence in different areas. This is vital for first-time authors.

A final solution would be to simply scrap the entire two-season model and run on a continuous basis. Most publishers use the two-season model because they operate along the lines of a fiscal year but it really shouldn’t matter. Changing an operating budget is not difficult although it may pose a challenge for the government grants (more on that later.)

Food for thought: If all the shelves in the world were suddenly warped, would we not change the way we produced and formatted our books? We need to address the need of the customer, the reader — not what we think they want or should want.

Shelflife by Charles Trevelyan

2. An Author Who Isn’t Online and Contributing to the Internet Will Go Unnoticed

Fellow blogger Maki at Dosh Dosh has written an excellent post on Why Are You Giving Away Content For Free? and is quick to point out Chris Anderson’s article in Wired — Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business.

“It is important to keep in mind the reasons why you are publishing blog post after blog post, all full of ideas and information and giving them away.

Do you know that you might generate more income by creating content and packaging it into the form of an affordable eBook, or perhaps a membership site? In terms of earning efficiency, premium/paid content might be a more lucrative venture than the act of simply giving away all your content away.

Chris Anderson recently suggested that ‘free’ is the future of business because the low cost of the digital web facilities the proliferation of free products, services or content. The web allows you to have greater flexibility in market definition: you can essentially give freebies to some, while selling to others.” — Dosh Dosh

I won’t deny that both Maki and Chris are speaking the truth with regards to free content and increasing sales, but I will point out that more importantly from a marketing perspective, contributing to the information available online is vital to establishing credibility, and more importantly, a following. Think about it — when a book is published, it is competing against an enormous amount of content available to the public. Authors are not competing against other authors and they aren’t competing against other books — they are competing against content.

How does one distinguish one piece of content from another? The author. He or she is the key to establishing credibility — but only by providing content that is relevant and genuine to themselves, to their visitors, and to their book(s). Blogging is only one step — outreach is the next.

Erin Winzer inquired as to whether or not a blog can generate sales and if it can all be tracked. In her own words:

The author is still Joe Smith off the street other than the fact that Joe Smith is now known as someone one who is talking on a particular topic. Also how many people will read Joe Smith’s blog – will it generate sales and can these sales be tracked?

The funny thing about blogging is that rather than relying on traditional media to establish someone as an expert on a topic, a blogger can become an expert as long as they provide solid and reliable content. As I stated before, outreach is vital and there is no better way than to reach out to like-minded people around the world through the Internet. I am not suggesting that an author go around hard selling their book online, rather I am suggesting that authors need to be interacting with common folk by bringing their perspective and allowing others the opportunity to relate. Whether it may be through a new idea or a totally different world they have created, people require something to relate to or comprehend before they can formulate some level of interest. This is natural human interaction — the most basic and noble form of marketing. Look at Squidoo, look at the forthcoming Google Knol — both of which are built upon the underlying purpose of providing free content that is associated with some level of recognizable source of credibility or authority on a subject.

Where my opinion differs is that I believe authors can develop this online presence on their own without relying on the infrastructure of Squidoo or Google Knol which really should just be considered extensions of their online presence rather than the foundation.

With regards to sales and tracking — technically yes and no. Just like all sales, nothing is absolute until the actual sale is made (wherever that may be) and while we can determine the level of interest on a blog, sales can only be tracked by point of purchase over time. Since blogging can be considered as both a short and long-term marketing campaign, blogs can change over time and thus so does the marketing campaign.

So fine — we get the idea that authors should be bloggers, now what?

As stated in 15 Trends to Watch in 2008 from Publishers Weekly:

“#4 Publishers will start acquiring specialized Web sites to get content for their books and to target niche audiences. By year-end, every major publisher will need to have an understanding of how to put a value on Web sites, because the old measures—namely, sales and profits—won’t necessarily be relevant and because the acquisitions will be smaller than what the companies would normally consider. The process will be similar to acquiring books, requiring a bit of imagination to see how the deals will pay off.” — Publisher’s Weekly

Honestly, I don’t even think publishers need to figure this out by the end of this year. The Globe and Mail just pointed out a blogging superstar in Japan, Mieko Kamakami, who is now a literary superstar — more likely than not — through a cellphone! (That subject to be touched on later)

Another insightful point:

“Joichi Ito, Internet entrepreneur and Technorati board member, says Japanese tend to view blogs more as exchanges with friends and a personal outlet than as news sources as Americans do, for discussing politics, technology and other issues.” — Globe and Mail

Sorry folks but any argument that an author should not have to blog is pretty sad. Marketing and publicity can do the best campaign they can for an author but if there is no credibility or some level of association with being credible — authors don’t talk to me about your book because I don’t know you. Yes that is blunt but it’s also the truth. Recently Random House offered a contract to Canadian Christian Landers for his blog on Stuff White People Like. What does that say?

Perhaps publishers will quickly begin to realize this and start spending more time online.

3. Destroy the Bestselling Model and Actually Help the Customer Already

Everything is a bestseller in some way, shape, or form. Why? Could we get anymore boring and fake? Usually when you step into a big bookseller, someone has paid for special placement in the “Bestseller List” or for a book cover to be facing outwards so that people can get a better view of it while browsing the immensely large store.

We don’t have time to go through everything - Photo Courtesy of Sharkatude

There is no such thing as a bestseller — there are only better sellers than others and we are simply talking about getting the right book to the right reader. Fellow blogger Erin Balser points out that she values the helpful bookseller and the independent bookstore over the big-box giants. Amazon is also a prime example of how helpful bookselling ultimately benefits both customers and publishers with fewer returns. Publishers should be taking those cues and stop paying for placement, and for goodness sake — stop the bestselling nonsense. The focus should NOT be on forcing people to pay attention to your book, but rather helping people find your book.

My colleague Erin Winzer who works as a publicist points out that this is unfortunately idealistic, and booksellers (especially big companies *cough* Indigo) rarely hand sells books.

What Erin points out is true but I can also point out that the whole idea behind helping the customer would likely be initially considered idealistic until we actually start changing our perception of what a customer wants. I’m not saying that we have to follow Amazon’s example because it’s never a good idea to do exactly what another company does — I am saying that it’s time to rethink our role. Hand selling books only goes so far, particularly with so many books out there but if we replicate the exchange of ideas that takes place with hand selling books — we can ultimately help people find what they are looking for — possibly with better success if we combine it with effective use of technology.

Nothing is bestselling — there is only the right book for the right reader. This may involve associating books through search engines, tags, related subject matter, similar books, similar authors, opinions, reviews, etc. These are all considered helpful tools. Tools that require investing time over money.

On the bookselling side, independent booksellers complain about the big box chains (like Chapters Indigo in Canada) and the lack of support from publishers yet these same independent booksellers fail to help people find the store. I have to confess that prior to working in the publishing industry, I did not even know about the small independent bookstores — and I grew up in Toronto! Yes that is sad, but doesn’t it demonstrate to you that the independent bookseller organization (CBA - Canadian Booksellers Association) has failed to communicate with people like myself? How can I find something if I don’t know about it?

For those who tell me that I should look one up … sorry folks, but I am not going to look at the Yellow Pages for a local bookstore and I definitely am not going to cross the city in order to buy a book just to support a local bookstore. What does this mean? It means that any local bookstore must begin to rethink their role. As I’ve pointed out a couple of months ago — Booksense.com which operates in the United States is an excellent way for people to find a local bookstore — but that is just the first of many steps.

******* Intermission *******

Taken from both the Quill and Quire and Erin Balser: HarperCollins just recently announced a new imprint that would focus on experimenting with a new model — one that focuses on reducing author advances and reducing returns. There is however the brief hint at publishing in many different formats (woopie…) My opinion? This is still a traditional publishing model, just one that is more frugal. Let’s try and be a little more innovative shall we?

Till next time! There are plenty of other issues that need rethinking so I’ve got plenty more to say but I’ll leave it there for now for the sake of readers and the fact that this is one really big post — stay tuned for part deux!

Share This