Literary Rapture

Ebook Pricing

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:26:00 +0000

It has been a while since my last post, so what has made me come out of hiding? Ebook pricing. The Bookseller reported today that Transworld has finally announced that the UK ebook price for Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol is going to be the same as the hardcover: £18.99. Same goes for Random House in the US, where the hardcover and ebook are both priced at $29.95. Pardon me, publishers, but there is no way in hell I will pay 30 bucks for a Dan Brown ebook. You are making Amazon look like the good guy by pricing its proprietary ebook at $9.99.

This kind of pricing strategy is selfish and shortsighted on the part of publishers because they are not listening to their customers, who believe, right or wrong, that ebooks should be less expensive than print editions. Charging the print price for an ebook is not going to change the customer's mind. It is going to make them go elsewhere to buy the book or illegally download it somewhere. The customer is not thinking about what percentage of the ebook price eventually goes back to the publisher. Instead the customer is thinking about whether the product is worth the asking price, and in the case of The Lost Symbol for $29.95, the answer is going to be: not worth it.

Random House sited among the reasons for its pricing decision, that they were afraid a lower ebook price would decrease the number of hardback copies sold. But a lower ebook price also means that some of the people who would have waited for the paperback or just borrowed a friend's hardcover copy might now buy the ebook instead. More units at a lower price is just as good as less units at a higher price, isn't it?

To be honest, this subject gets me riled up because the larger publishers seem to pay very little attention to what their customers want or are willing to buy, and that is a Business 101 lesson. From Andrew Savikas of O'Reilly Media: "Think long and hard about what your customers want, and provide the service of giving that to them." O'Reilly has great publishing model that successfully incorporates DRM-free ebooks and print editions. Why are they so successful? Because their customers wanted DRM-free ebooks, so O'Reilly started selling them.

My Take on FiledBy Author

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:00:00 +0000

I saw the hype about FiledByAuthor in PW, on Twitter, in my Google Reader. Most of the hype simply said that the site had 1.8 million writer profiles on there and that it was set up as a resource/community for writers and readers. So I checked it out, signed up and created my profile as a reader. I even uploaded a profile picture and added some books to my “favorites” list. However, the thought occurred to me mid-way through this process that I might be wasting my time. What benefit do I, as a reader, gain from FiledByAuthor?

Digging deeper into how the site works, I discovered (shockingly) that I am not necessarily the target audience. Apparently, FiledBy aggregates content about authors from all over the internet and packages the information in the form of author profiles with a picture, bio, list of works. After that, authors are asked to pay a subscription fee to verify their listing and add extra features to the profile. According to the website, publishers can also elect to pay this fee on behalf of their authors. Carolyn Kellogg of Jacket Copy pointed out that the author information on this website will not be removed at the request of an author. She talked with a co-founder of FiledByAuthor, Peter Clifton and asked why FiledBy does not offer an opt-out. Clifton answered that he hopes people will prefer to participate, but that FiledBy has every right to create a directory of authors using available information from the internet. However, in Carolyn’s opinion, “to be truly author-friendly, it has to demonstrate that it values intellectual property.”

Tricky. If an author decides to participate, he or she is out at least a hundred bucks and now has another site that needs regular updates and attention. On the other hand, opting out means having no control over the information, correct or otherwise, listed on FiledBy. It might look like the author does not care about reaching readers. Of course this all depends on how many readers actually sign up.

I get the idea behind FiledByAuthor. Publishers encourage their authors to have a web presence and to market themselves online. Many authors don’t have the time or inclination to do as much as they or their publishers would like. FiledBy offers an all-in-one resource for author information. As a resource, it is pretty comprehensive. I did some test searches on German authors whose English translations are out of print, and they turned up results! Even some German children’s book authors are in there.

Final conclusion: As a basic resource for ISBN and publication info, this is a great site. The interface is simple and easy to navigate. However, the marketing and community aspects have yet to impress me. Urging people to come to you, rebuild their profile information and invest time means you have to offer something there that is more valuable than what they find somewhere else.

I thought publishers were broke

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:31:00 +0000

It turns out that they are able to reach deep into the coffers for certain acquisitions. Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife, just landed herself a $4.8 million advance from Scribner for her next novel. $4.8 million?!? A huge advance any way you look at it, the money becomes that much more important in this new era of acquisition freezes, layoffs, and penny-pinching. This novel better be one heck of a bestseller, or Scribner will be that much deeper in the hole. Publication of the book is set for September, so we'll have to wait and see if this pays off.

As the New York Times points out, second novels by bestselling authors have a tendency to underperform. The other, and most obvious risk, is that Scribner is going to have to wait until September to start seeing returns on their investment, which may or may not pay off. The publisher is at the whim of a reader's subjective decision to buy this book or not. How many more people have to say that publishing needs a new business model? In an industry where margins are slim in good times, why are we risking millions of dollars ahead of time?

Maybe HarperStudio with its low advances and 50-50 royalty split with authors can make a better go of it. Or anyone else out there willing to step outside the box.

Bob Stein at TOC on building communities

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:51:00 +0000

This short snippet of Bob Stein's TOC presentation comes from Ed Nawotka's article in PW today:

In this brave new world, the key role of publishers “is to build and nurture vibrant communities for authors and tend to their readers.” They will be judged on their ability to “curate and build communities for their authors around their readers.”

The idea of building communities and becoming more attentive to reading audiences has been a major one at this year's TOC Conference. Interacting with the target audience is presenting a major challenge for many publishers today who have traditionally taken a very distanced approach when it comes to readers.

How many times have we all heard or participated in a discussion about the "good old days" of publishing when it was a glamorous and artistic endeavor, when publishers were the "gate-keepers" of literary and academic taste? In the past, book publishers were situated on the forefront of cultural movements. Significant and society-altering ideas were published in print before they appeared anywhere else. I am not arguing that books can no longer play that role, but today, technology has pushed book publishing back to the lagging edge of cultural trends. Often times, authors have blogged about their revolutionary ideas long before these ideas make it into a printed book.

Publishers have to engage their readers, build communities of readers, and let these communities take some of the burden of marketing every title off the publishers' shoulders. User-generated content and viral marketing are very powerful, but they depend on a strong network of dedicated fans. Let's spend some real energy opening up to readers so they can become champions for the book publishing cause (obviously, the question is how to do this, and if I had that answer, I would be rich).

UPDATE: Chad Post echoes my sentiments in his analysis of BEA's new structure.

Free downloads and DRM

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 00:16:00 +0000

The other day I downloaded Free-Range Chickens by Simon Rich and The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss to my Kindle. For free. FOR FREE. I probably never would have read either of these books if I'd had to buy them. Sorry, Random House, but it's true. The good news is that they can only make money off of me, not lose any. What if these two authors turn out to be my new favorite authors and I rush out to buy more books by them (or more likely download them to my Kindle from the comfort of my shoe-box apartment)? Random House has just increased the chances of that happening.

Through February 28th, Random House has made a selection of their backlist books available for free on the Kindle and through Stanza, an e-book iPhone app. These books are also available for download from Lexcycle. According to a Lexcycle press release from December 8th, this promotion is to build a readership for these authors and encourage sales of more books by these authors. Excellent idea.

Fewer Book Trailers, More Market Research

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:22:00 +0000

This item in GalleyCat reminded me that book trailers even exist and that they don't work. Have a little faith that readers are intelligent enough to tell the difference between stock video footage and a description of a book. I know that GalleyCat's article is about how book trailers DO work, but I will argue that the two videos mentioned are not actually book trailers.

The lion video is amazing and (I will admit this only to my blog readers) brings a small tear to my eye. The book, A Lion Called Christian, came out in 1972. The YouTube video was posted in 2006. This is a perfect example of viral marketing at its uncontrollable finest. Marketers are hard-pressed to artificially generate interest for their products like this. Why? Because consumers are at a point where they want to control and interact with content instead of ingesting what is put in front of them. They take pride in discovering obscure videos on YouTube, then discovering long lost books that correspond to these videos (or pick your own example). Creating something obscure then making people discover it is a tough thing to do.

As for the other video mentioned, I will admit that this is the kind of cool, supplemental media that should surround a book (kind of like giving away free sample chapters or even free books), but I would not categorize it as a book trailer. The video gives people a better sense for the author and wins readers based on the content. There is nothing flashy about an author reading an essay out loud, but if the quality of the content strikes a chord with readers, that works.

On another topic, GalleyCat's opening line to this article reminds me of another pet peeve of mine about the publishing industry:

"...nobody really knows if 'book trailers' actually motivate readers to go out and buy books..."

Nobody knows? Why is that? No, don't answer that question because it was rhetorical. Instead I am going to tell you why. Many publishers apparently put more faith in their innate ability to artistically glean which books will be successful than they do in market research. Of course market research is less glamorous and scholarly than artistic gleaning, but it has the distinct advantage of giving businesses an idea of what their customers think and how they will spend money. If you are a publisher who is willing to spend money on book trailers, you should also be willing to spend money on market research.

Powerful President

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:15:00 +0000

He has only been the president for just over an hour, and we can already see Obama's power to inspire Americans to participate in their country's direction and future. Mashable has the latest numbers from the CNN/Facebook live streaming video of Obama's inauguration, and they are staggering! Our new president is truly of this generation.

Publishers, Take Some Notes!

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:13:00 +0000

Apple iTunes will now offer DRM-free music from Sony, Universal and Warner starting this week. According to the NY Times, music label EMI was already offering their music through iTunes without DRM. I had no idea. Shows how much I know!

Over the holidays, I had a conversation about this very issue, which concluded with the assumption that iTunes would eventually drop DRM, but not anytime soon. Good thing we were wrong. We have all heard the arguments for and against DRM over and over. Without it, there would be rampant sharing and less buying. With it, people will find a way to hack it or buy music without it.

How many of us have borrowed physical CDs and physical books from people? Each instance represents a potential sale lost through sharing. Even in the pre-digital age, we were sharing and loaning and not buying. Sure, it is easier to share a digital file, but it is also easier to buy one.

Again over the holidays, there was an article in the NY Times reminiscing about the good old days of the music industry, before digitization. Sound familiar, publishing people? It reminded me of all the "death to publishing" articles and laments about this new digital era of publishing. I think the reality of the situation is that no matter what era we are working in, something will challenge us. Those challenges change constantly, and that is what keeps things exciting. We could all certainly find jobs out there with fewer challenges and more stability, but didn't we get into publishing to avoid such jobs?

The iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:39:00 +0000

Question: is the iPhone worth $199 plus an extra $30 each month of my hard-earned cash? With an iPod, a digital camera, a video camera, a laptop, and a cell phone, do I need to add another gadget to my arsenal? After realizing that all the hip and cool people have iPhones, I decided last week to drop the dough and get the answer to my burning question

Answer: I was an idiot not to get one sooner! I love my iPhone. I have bonded with fellow iPhone lovers. Gone are the days of wandering aimlessly through the city armed only with a poorly drawn map of my destination. No photo opportunities can escape me now. Feel the urge to blog? Anytime, anywhere, that is possible (ok, anywhere there is a 3G or Edge Network signal). I can satisfy my musical urges by playing the piano or the ocarina on my iPhone. I can whip out a classic literary text at a moment's notice. I have already downloaded several books from Project Gutenberg and some free books from Random House through the Stanza reader. Pleasant experiences, both of them.

I am suddenly so connected to other people and to my own creative impulses. Get an iPhone!

Chad's second installment

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:21:00 +0000

on the publishing biz in these crazy financial times must be read. Read it here.

She's getting HOW much??

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:21:00 +0000

Word on the street is that Sarah Palin could get up to $7 million to write a book. I would like to throw up right now, except that the Times does pose this very good point:

With publishers as nervous as everyone else about next year’s economic
prospects, Palin’s popularity has become a boon. “Nobody is waiting for George W
Bush’s memoirs,” one New York agent noted.

Two Smart People on Two Tough Subjects

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:27:00 +0000

The first smart person is Kassia Krozser at Booksquare, and she wrote about social networking. What I like about this post is that Krozser asks companies to be responsible and involved in their social networking strategies. Rather than setting content adrift online or building a rudimentary Facebook page, Krozser insists that social networking is, at its heart, more about old-fashioned relationship building. It is a process that requires a personal investment of time and energy.

Social networking is not a magic new concept. If anything, it’s a return to
basics: talking to your customers, reminding them that they are important to
you. The only difference between then and now is that your customers are
everywhere and technology gives you the power to find them, listen to them, talk
to them, and build relationships that extend long beyond the boundaries of a
traditional marketing campaign.Social networking, by its very definition, is a
sustained, ongoing process. If you’re a publisher, this is requires changing
your thinking. You’ve traditionally maintained some distance from your ultimate
customers: readers. People buy books from retailers. Retailers buy books from
distributors. You might take out some ads and put dollars into promo, but you
haven’t spent a lot of time talking to readers. Focus groups don’t count.

It’s time to get your hands dirty, to dig into the real-world
conversation. It’s a weird thing, and sometimes awkward and uncomfortable,
especially if you’re accustomed to public relations-speak and the cheerleader
behavior that accompanies marketing messages. When you talk directly to real
people who read and buy books, they tune you out when you try to stay on
message. If they wanted to rehash cover copy, they’d read the back of the
book.

In a recent conversation I had with some social networking and media gurus, this very topic of proactive communication and interactivity came up. How do you get readers to visit your website and read your content? These days, you don't. You push your content and your expertise to the places your target audience spends time. You become the authority outside of your own space, which will eventually create an audience. Am I going to seek out books on a publisher's website? Not unless I have some personal relationship with that publisher or someone who works there (hint to publishers: most people outside the industry do not have that personal connection). And that brings us back to establishing relationships with readers through social networking.

The second smart person is Chad Post of Three Percent, and he wrote about the business of publishing in these economically challenged times (and will continue to write about this in follow-up posts). As this first installment seems to indicate, we are in trouble and it might be because our industry is a bit too top-heavy.

Rarely—if ever—did people start up publishing houses with the idea that
this would make them millions. Same goes for bookstores and bookstore owners. In
the best of times, these businesses aim for 3% profit margins. As conglomerates
took over the industry though, and houses started merging, the expectations
jumped to the 10% range, fundamentally changing the rules of the game and, in my
opinion, pushing the industry into its current tenuous position where a lot of
people are filled with anxiety and dread.

Good News

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:45:00 +0000

from the Bookseller: "Deloitte described books as a 'significant mover' in this year's Christmas survey with shoppers placing books fourth on their Christmas shopping list."

New "Godot" Productions

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:52:00 +0000

This would be worth a trip to New York or London!

Michael Crighton

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:53:00 +0000

The news of Michael Crighton's death took me by surprise this morning. I paused midway through eating my overcooked egg to reflect on Crighton. My first encounter with his writing was when my third grade teacher read Jurrasic Park to us aloud in class. It might have been a bit to early, because my only memory of the book is a scene where a guy's guts get ripped out by a dinosaur. Disturbing as this early image was, I got over it and even went on to read other books by Crighton. I also became an avid "ER" viewer in high school (the George Cloony and Julianna Margulies era). Sad to think that we will never get to read the new Michael Crighton book again.

Obits from the Guardian and New York Times.

Yes We Did!

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:53:00 +0000

http://www.barackobama.com/photos/

Rounding up

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:24:00 +0000

I love round-ups, the lazy approach to blogging that makes me look well-read and informed. Thank you, other bloggers. Thank you, Google Reader.

The Google settlement, everyone is talking about it. TOC Publishing News has a nice collection of responses to the settlement, and Carolyn Kellog from the LA Times' Jacket Copy analyzes the value and bottom line for publishers and authors. Georgia Harper on how the settlement will affect orphan works.

Roberto Saviano attended the Frankfurt Book Fair behind closed booth doors. His book, Gomorrah, investigates the inner workings and major players in the Italian mafia. Obviously the mob has threatened his life, and he has lived under tight security for the past two years. The Guardian reviews the book here.

Young publishers unite!

The essays of George Orwell reflect his "restless intellect"

The final count for translated fiction and poetry for 2008 from Chad Post. German is number three on the list with 34 titles!

Booksquare does not agree with Random House's ebook royality rate.

Barnes and Noble braces for a slow holiday season. As the 8 Ball would say, "Outlook not so good."

Apparently there was a buzz book during Frankfurt this year.

American artists on Bush's cultural legacy

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:53:00 +0000

Who better to eloquently express the failures of the Bush administration than 12 prominent American artists? The Guardian has collected statements on the "cultural legacy" of the Bush administration. Too good to pass up, here are a few quotes:

"If McCain wins, I feel like going into a cellar for the next four years or going out into the streets every day and screaming." - Paul Auster

"The 'cultural legacy of George W. Bush' would seem to be the punchline of a cruel joke, if there could be anything remotely funny about the Bush administration." -Joyce Carol Oates

"We have an administration of criminality, complicity and incompetence but no cultural legacy whatever from those eight years." -Edward Albee

"So the Bush years have been great for the arts, restoring a collusive, adversarial climate last seen circa 1968." -Lionel Shriver

"Here, people have complained a lot, but in terms of organizing a vanguard of resistance, of people getting out there and saying this is not the American way... Where is the Arthur Miller of this generation?" -Naomi Wolf

"It's hard to believe Bush, a man who's proud not to read books and who makes fund of words longer than one syllable, has been the inheritor of the mantle of the Founding Fathers, or of Woodrow Wilson, FDR or even Bill Clinton." -Daniel Liebeskind

Americans Read, too!

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:21:00 +0000

I blogged earlier about the hoardes of German readers that attend the Frankfurt Book Fair every year. It turns out that Washington Post book critic Michael Dirda believes in the reading culture in America, and so should you!

Facebook and Feedburner

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:38:00 +0000

I have been playing online today with Feedburner and Facebook. Believe it or not, this counts as working! Take a look at the official Frankfurt Book Fair fan page on Facebook with photos, info, links, and other goodies!

Can you even remember music videos?

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:58:00 +0000

I have so many fond memories of watching music videos on MTV as a teenager. Then MTV suddenly turned into a reality show channel with a bunch of crap for programming.

But take heart, children of the 80s and 90s, because NBC has launched a Hulu-like website for music videos called MTV Music. You can bop to your favoite beats just like in the old days!

The Kindle is everywhere...but Europe

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:55:00 +0000

Three developments regarding the Kindle have recently caught my eye.

1) The Bookseller reported during the Frankfurt Book Fair that the Kindle would not be released in Europe this year due to complications with data carrier agreements.
2) Oprah is now endorsing the Kindle, which you can read about from the Bookseller, the Guardian, Time, Amazon, and Oprah.com.
3) Several American university presses will release Kindle versions of textbooks (old news, but I just found out about it)

But what does it all mean? Are we just lusting after another gadget, or are some readers ready to change their reading habits? We no longer have a problem with the electronic versions of songs. We gave up our CD towers with ease and eagerness, but nobody wants to get rid of their bookshelves. People complain that you can't take a Kindle to the beach, but then why do we take our MP3 players to the beach?

I had a conversation with a German family about the Kindle recently. Although they had not heard of the Kindle, they said that $300 did not seem like too much to pay for such a device. They seemed intrigued. Germany has an amazingly strong reading culture, and I am looking forward to seeing how the Kindle does in that market. The only person in this conversation who was not intrigued by the Kindle was the person who worked in book publishing.

Maybe the target audience is not actually the publishing professional, but the book club member, the business traveler, and the readers who have nothing to do with the business of publishing outside of consuming it. Most of the talk about the Kindle comes from inside the industry, yet I hear relatively little about the Kindle from outside the book biz. Despite working with and producing e-books, publishing people mostly stick with ink-and-paper books (as found in a survey conducted by the Frankfurt Book Fair, over 60% of respondents do not use e-books or e-readers).

As a potential user, the primary reason I would buy a Kindle over the Sony Reader or any other device is the internet connection. Gadgets need to be multifunctional and convenient these days. Maybe I should just buy the iPhone instead. The truth is that consumers are not sure what they want when it comes to digital reading, which makes it difficult for publishers to create products for them.

Book-based social networking

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:30:00 +0000

Obviously I love books and talking about books, but do we really need another one?

Vacation

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:13:00 +0000

Hello readers. Literary Rapture is on vacation until next week. Munich is the perfect spot to recover some of the brain cells lost during the book fair.

Frankfurt Book Fair links

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah Johnson) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:02:00 +0000

Check out my round-up here of links to a fraction of the awesome content on the Frankfurt Book Fair website.