Joe Wikert's Digital Content Strategies

Expedited Morning Delivery: A solution in search of a problem

2013-06-17T11:10:35-04:00

BusinessWeek is all hyped up about a new service they're offering print subscribers. It's called "expedited morning delivery." I first heard about it a couple of issues ago and didn't think much about it. Then when I went out to grab the morning paper late last week I found my next issue of BusinessWeek in with the paper. Here's what the BusinessWeek cover says:

We are pleased to announce that your magazine will now be hand delivered to your residence in the morning 1-2 days prior to when you previously received it.

My bubble thought: "how much money are they wasting on this meaningless initiative?" After all, if I'm really that anxious to get my hands on the next issue I'll simply go to the free digital version they include with my print subscription. The simple truth is I generally don't read BusinessWeek (or any other print magazine, for that matter) till a few days or so after it's arrived. I wonder how many other subscribers are like me and this does absolutely nothing for them.

Ironically, BusinessWeek's expedited delivery service comes in the same month that my print subscription expires...and I have no plans to renew. I love the magazine so why am I letting my subscription lapse? Two words: Next Issue. If you're not familiar with it, Next Issue is an all-you-can-read digital magazine subscription service that can't be beat. I've been a subscriber for a few months now and they're always adding new magazines to the list. BusinessWeek was recently added, so I see no reason to pay for a separate print subscription when I can access the same content via Next Issue. It's not cheap ($14.99/month) but it's well worth it, particularly since it allows me to cancel a few print magazine subscriptions.

There are two other great features of Next Issue that really appeal to me. First, I can share my subscription with my wife. We both like different magazines but we're covered under one subscription. She's got an iPad mini and I use an Android tablet; the user experience is the same across both platforms. Second, Next Issue promotes discovery. I'm reading a couple of magazines I never would have bothered to buy on their own. But since they're part of my existing subscription I'm reading them from time to time and extending their advertising reach.

So now I listen to most of my music via streaming services (primarily Spotify) and I get most of my magazine content from Next Issue. It won't be long before we'll see the same phenomenon with ebooks. For now, though, I'm still buying individual ebooks and waiting for a Next Issue-like service that meets my needs for longer-form content.

P.S. -- This BusinessWeek initiative reminds me of the famous Henry Ford quote:

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.

It seems BusinessWeek is actually trying to create faster horses. Silly idea.

My new job

2013-06-13T10:42:55-04:00

I spent the last six weeks taking on some consulting projects and exploring full-time job opportunities. I've had the luxury of being very selective on both, but especially on the latter. My primary goal has been to find a role where I can have a significant impact on the organization's future. Culture is critical as well, of course; I've been looking for a team that's passionate about the business and where everyone is rallying around a common goal. Lastly, I made it clear I need to stay in Indiana, even if that means I'm on the road a lot.

I'm delighted to let you know that I've found the ideal solution that addresses all these objectives. On June 20th I'm officially joining the team at Olive Software. If you're not familiar with Olive it's probably because they only recently started expanding into the book publishing and eLearning space. Olive specializes in creating a digital presence for publishers and content owners. And although the organization is currently thriving, that's not where the Olive opportunity ends.

I spent time in Olive's Aurora office last week and came away thoroughly energized. I wanted to dive in and become a contributor to this team right then and there. I met several Olive employees throughout the day and each one of them left me with the same impression: they all love what they're doing, they deeply respect what their colleagues bring to the table and they're all enthusiastic about the future of the organization. What more could I ask for? :-)

I've got a few days to decompress a bit before I fully immerse myself in my new role at Olive next week. I can't tell you the last time I was this excited about a new job. Part of it has to do with the fact I'm stepping outside of the book publishing industry for the first time in many years. But as Kat Meyer and I realized long ago, the challenges that exist in book publishing are similar to the ones faced in other content creation and distribution industries; the length of the work and the frequency of publication doesn't really distinguish content as much in the digital model as it did in the print model.

Thanks to everyone who brought me on board for consulting work and to discuss full-time opportunities. These past six weeks have been a new experience for me and I've learned at least one very important lesson: Even though the traditional publishing industry is rapidly shrinking and the job openings are limited, there are plenty of interesting opportunities in adjacent businesses, particlarly with organizations that truly understand digital and aren't paralyzed by The Innovator's Dilemma.

Coming soon: A universal ereading app

2013-06-11T09:51:23-04:00

Last May I decided to stop buying Kindle ebooks. I had already amassed a nice Kindle library but I felt it was time to move on, particularly since B&N was about to release the industry's first eInk device with built-in lighting. I bought their Nook with Glowlight on day one and proceeded to buy my ebooks from them. Over the past year I've occasionally bought ebooks from Google Play as well.

About six months ago I ditched that Nook eInk device and decided to do all my reading on my Nexus 7 tablet. I've been using the Nook app for Android since then and have grown increasingly frustrated with how long it takes to load longer books. Then I opened the latest version of the Kindle app on my Nexus and was blown away. It's so much nicer than the Nook app.

Since I'm no longer employed by a book publisher I also decided it's OK to start acting like all those other consumers who have flocked to Amazon for the best prices. I figure if most publishers aren't going to stand up and call a predator a predator, why should I? :-) The simple truth is the industry needs to change and that's exactly what's happening. The rate of change is just much faster (and painful for publishers) because Amazon is able to dictate so many of the new rules. As an outsider I'm starting to think maybe that won't be such a bad thing in the end. (Quite a change of opinion, don't you think?)

The result is I now have an ebook library that spans the platforms of Amazon, B&N and Google. I could use a tool like Calibre to break all the DRM and convert the files so they can be read on any platform. That's a hassle though. What I'd rather do is simply read any book in one reader app without breaking the law or going through a conversion process.

That concept might become more than a dream before too long. I'm told by ReDigi CEO John Ossenmacher that his team is working on a universal ereading app. You might have heard of ReDigi. It's the platform that lets you resell your digital music today and is planning to offer the same service for your ebooks tomorrow. John tells me that the ReDigi ereader app won't break any DRM and it will allow consumers to read all their ebooks from multiple retailers in one place. So no longer will you have to remember whether you bought that last ebook from Amazon or Google. You'll have your entire library in the ReDigi bookshelf and will be able to read them on a tablet without switching apps.

Sounds too good to be true, right? I would tend to agree, but John's team is pretty impressive and I wouldn't bet against them.

Let's assume for a moment that this universal ereading app is something consumers would opt into. You'd download it, tell it to scan your computer/tablet/phone/whatever and let it determine which of your ebooks were legitimately purchased from a major retailer or publisher. It would then move all those books into the ReDigi bookshelf where you could both read them and resell them. Kindle books would be on the same virtual shelf as Nook books, just like they should be.

Would consumers warm up to this platform? Would publishers? And is it possible that the downward pricing pressure would ease up a bit when consumers realize their ebooks will have finally have some resale value?

Structured documents for science: JATS XML as canonical content format

2013-06-10T09:52:58-04:00

It’s only my 7th day on the job here at PLOS as a product manager for content management. So it’s early days, but I’m starting to think about the role of JATS XML in the journal publishing process.

I come from the book-publishing world, so my immediate challenge is to get up to speed on journal publishing. And that includes learning the NISO standard JATS (Journal Archiving and Interchange Tag Suite). You may know JATS by its older name, NLM. As journal publishing folks know, JATS is used for delivering metadata, and sometimes full text, to the various journal archives.

But here’s where journal and book publishing share the same dilemma: just because XML is a critically important exchange format, is it the best authoring format these days? Should it be the canonical storage format for full text content? And how far upstream should XML be incorporated into the workflow?

Let’s look at books for a minute. The book-publishing world has standardized on an electronic delivery format of EPUB (and its cousin, MOBI). This standardization has helped publishers drill down to a shorter list of viable options for canonical source format. Even if most publishers haven’t yet jumped to adopt end-to-end HTML workflows, it’s clear to me that HTML makes a lot of sense for book publishing. Forward-thinking book publishers like O’Reilly are starting to replace their XML workflow with an HTML5/CSS3 workflow. HTML/CSS can provide a great authoring and editing experience, and then it also gets you to print and electronic delivery with a minimum of processing, handling, or conversion. (O’Reilly’s Nellie McKesson gave a presentation about this at TOC 2013.) And which technology will get the most traction and advance the most in the next few years, XML or HTML? I know which one I’m betting on.

In terms of canonical file format, journal publishing may have one less worry than book publishing, because many journals are moving away from print to focus exclusively on electronic delivery whereas most books still have a print component. Electronic journal reading—or at least article discovery—happens in a browser; therefore, HTML is the de facto principal delivery format. And as much as I’d like to think HTML is the only format that matters, I know that many readers still like to download and read articles in PDF format. But as I mentioned, spinning off attractive, readable PDF from HTML is pretty easy to automate these days. So I ask:

If XML is being used as an interchange format only, what do we gain from moving the XML piece of the workflow any further upstream from final delivery?

Well, why does anyone adopt an XML workflow? The key benefits are: platform/software independence (which HTML also provides), managing and remixing content to the node level (which is not terribly useful for journal articles), and transforming the content to a number of different output formats such as PDF, HTML, and XML (HTML5/CSS3 can be used for this transformation as well, with a bit of toolchain development work).

But XML workflows come with a hefty price tag. The obvious one is conversion, which is not just expensive, but costly in terms of the time it takes. Another downside is the learning curve for the people actually interacting with the XML—how many people should that be? In the real world, will you ever get authors, editors, and reviewers to agree to interact with their content as XML? So more likely than not, you’re either going to need to hide the fact that the underlying format is XML through a WYSIWYG-ish editor that you either buy or build (both are expensive), or you’re doing your XML conversion towards the end of the process. On a similar note, how easy is it to hire experienced XSL-FO toolchain developers? But developers who work in the world of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript are plentiful.

So building an entire content management system and workflow for journal publishing around XML—specifically JATS XML, which is just one delivery format, that isn’t needed until basically the end of the process—doesn’t seem like a slam-dunk to me. I should clarify that using JATS XML for defining metadata does seem like the obvious way to go. But I’m not so sure it’s a good fit to serve as the canonical storage format for the full text. One idea is to separate article metadata from the article body text, to leverage the ease-of-editing of HTML for the text itself.

What about moving HTML upstream, and focusing efforts on delivering better, more readable HTML in the browser? What about shifting focus away from old print models and toward leveraging modern browser functionality, maybe by adding inline video or interactive models, or by making math, figures, and tables easier to read and work with?

Just to throw a curve ball into the discussion, I attended Markdown for Science last weekend, where Martin Fenner and Stian Håklev led the conversation about whether it makes sense to use markdown plus Git for academic authoring and collaboration. I want to hear from as many sides of the content format conversation as possible.

So, what do YOU think?

This article was written by contributor Molly Sharp, appeared earlier on the PLOS site and has been presented here with permission of the author. Molly has worked in various content management-related roles since the late 90′s, when she led the implementation of an XML editing and production system for Sybex, a tech book publisher. Most recently, Molly was the Director of Content Management at Safari Books Online, an electronic reference library of 30,000 tech & business titles, where she created and managed a Content Team to ensure the quality of incoming content; designed and maintained content-related processes and workflows; and managed a publishing partner community of more than 100 organizations.

Never tell people what your book is about

2013-06-04T08:59:07-04:00

Since the dawn of the printing press, authors have always carried a certain mystique within society. The advent of e-books and digital reading devices has only magnified this appeal. People tend to look at writers with fascination because of their ability to compose words that generate deep emotion or provide answers to frustrating problems. This mystique is similar to the interest that doctors garner when they walk into a room and everyone starts describing their aches and pains. People marvel at the talent and intellect in their midst. Fair or not, this fascination creates a unique credibility factor that authors experience just from the accomplishment of writing a book.

When people find out that you’re an author, their interest usually leads to a common question, “So, what’s your book about?” This inquiry may sound simple. However, I’ve found it to be one of the most difficult questions for authors to answer, which in turn, creates a fundamental book marketing problem. The difficulty arises because authors tend to misunderstand the actual question that the other person is asking. This misinterpretation leads to a generic response that generates a disinterested look on the other person’s face or a quick change of subject. And, once you miss an opportunity to capture someone’s interest in your book, it’s tough to get them back.

Even though our culture is fascinated with authors, you don’t get carte blanche to babble about what you’ve written. There’s a deeper principle at work that trumps people’s curiosity about a book. It’s the principle of self-interest. Every human being lives from a mindset of protecting his or her own interests and making decisions for personal benefit.

Thus, even though people might think it’s cool that you’re an author, they will not buy your book unless there’s a reason that appeals to their self-interest. If you miss this vital principle, then you will fail to create the sparks needed to sell books like wildfire.

In contrast, if you keep the concept of self-interest in mind, you will view readers and book shoppers in a whole new light. When they ask, “So, what’s your book about?,” you’ll know that’s not really the question they’re asking you. Instead, people are politely wondering, “What’s in it for me if I buy your book? Is it in my best interest to read what you’ve written?”

To put it another way, when someone asks, “What’s your book about?,” do NOT answer that question. For the rest of your author career, never tell people what your book is about. Frankly, nobody cares what your book is about, the reasons why you wrote it, or why you think it’s great. Instead, people want to know, “What’s in it for me? How will your book make my life better?” Or, if I may put it bluntly, “I’m a person who makes choices based on my own self-interest. So, what can you do for me?”

Since most people purchase books based on the principle of self-interest, the key to powerful marketing is to show how you meet other people's needs. If you write fiction, you can meet a person’s need for entertainment, escape, or learning the power of story. If you write non-fiction, you can meet a person’s need for information, inspiration, or answers to a problem.

Utilize a promotional strategy that is audience-focused, rather than self-focused. All of your book marketing materials, such as your website, back cover copy, personal bio, newsletters, and even social media posts, should explain how you attempt to improve a reader’s life.

More importantly, if you want people to pay money for your book, then you owe readers a return on their investment. A financial transaction is literally taking place. However, authors have the advantage that consumers have to pay for the book first. Imagine if the public got to read books first and then decide if they wanted to pay. Some books might never earn a penny!

Don’t take your responsibility as an author lightly. Think of your audience’s needs as much as your own. To identify the value of your books, start by asking yourself these questions:

How do I specifically improve the life of my readers?
What tangible results do I create for my readers?
How do I help leaders meet the needs of their organization?

Never answer the question, “What’s your book about?” Instead, tell people what they really want to know, which is “What’s in it for me?” If you want to sell books like wildfire, redefine yourself from a person who writes books to an author who enjoys helping, entertaining, and inspiring readers.

This article was written by contributor Rob Eagar. Rob is the founder of WildFire Marketing, a consulting practice that helps authors and publishers sell books like wildfire. He has consulted with numerous publishers and trained over 400 authors, including several New York Times bestsellers. Rob is the author of Sell Your Book Like Wildfire, which is considered the bible of book marketing. For more information, visit: www.startawildfire.com.

Why BEA was like a live performance of "The Innovator's Dilemma"

2013-06-03T09:37:11-04:00

It's one of my favorite business books and I just had the pleasure of walking through it as a Broadway performance. OK, the Javits Center isn't on Broadway but it sure felt like I was surrounded by professional actors and actresses, all reading from the script of The Innovator's Dilemma.

Clayton Christensen must be smiling

Everywhere I turned I came across industry members who are way too focused on current channels and products. They're happy that 20-30% of their revenues are coming from "digital"; of course, by "digital" they mean quick-and-dirty print-to-e conversions, print-under-glass, or any one of a number of other descriptions of today's ebook marketplace. Many of them will tell you privately that "the ebook revolution" was overblown, they've wasted way too many resources on speculative e-projects and now see no reason to throw more good money after bad on this front.

The Digital Discovery Zone was a quaint little area set off by green carpeting and featuring about a dozen of the usual suspects, many of which are sponsors of the various industry conferences. It felt like walking through a petting zoo at your local state fair. I half expected someone to say, "wash your hands if you touch one of those animals, honey, you don't want to spread any germs."

Isn't it amazing that we still separate the "digital" players from the rest of the exhibitors at a major trade show?

Where's the disruption?

An attendee from outside the industry could walk away from BEA believing all is well and that the digital sector is a nice side-business, almost a hobby. They'd probably look at ebooks as something akin to audio books: an easy way to squeeze a bit more revenue from the print-first product line.

Let me share a secret with you: I've spent the past couple of years immersing myself in the publishing startup space and they don't care about the big industry trade shows. That's why none of them were there to exhibit.

I met individually with a handful of CEO's of startups that are all less than 24 months old and they each offered the same feedback: They were only there to meet a few attendees, figuring they could kill many birds with one stone (vs. flying to multiple locations for the same meetings). IOW, for these disruptors, BEA was nothing more than a Meetup. In fact, since I met each of them away from Javits, usually at a coffee shop or their hotel, I'm not even sure all of them actually attended the show.

Exploiting the blind spots

The startups I've been focusing on know that publishing is facing the same challenges that completely overhauled the steel and disk drive industries. IOW, publishing is ripe for disruption, the kind that starts with "three people in a garage" and ends with a completely new set of industry leaders.

None of this is intended as a slam against BEA. It's a fine event produced by some terrific people. My point in writing this article though is to offer the perspective of someone who's been a publisher for 20+ years and has had the opportunity to see the industry through the lens of outsiders as well, thanks to the numerous founders and other startup members I've met.

One of my goals as a startup advisor is to help them understand the industry's ground rules. I'm also quick to tell them they need to promise me one thing: Regardless of who it's from, including me, if they get advice from someone who's been in the industry more than a year, they need to take it with a grain of salt. After all, we don't want to discourage innovation just because an "industry expert" says "that's not how things are done in publishing."

Have you hugged a startup today?

Javier Celaya was right. Startups and publishers aren't engaging like they need to. Yes, there's innovation happening within publishing houses. I was even thrilled to get a firsthand look at this taking place within one of the big six houses. But it's what I'm seeing outside the traditional publishing ecosystem that excites me the most. If you're part of the old establishment, what are you doing to engage with these disruptive innovators?

P.S. -- Maybe this whole situation is an elaborate and clever ploy by Christensen to force us all to buy one of his other books, The Innovator's Solution. :-)

The myth of plateauing ebook sales

2013-05-28T09:16:53-04:00

My brilliant friend and industry colleague, Sam Missingham, was kind enough to ask me to preview this article she just published. She did a nice job piecing bits of information together to help us all understand the current and future trajectory of ebook sales.

Sam also provided some nice context on the myth that ebook sales growth is slowing and equilibrium has been reached. This attitude is only reinforced by all the big publishers who want this to be true, if only to save their jobs and their companies.

The reality is, yes, growth rates have slowed, at least based on the limited data we have access to. But that data misses so many different pockets, some of which Sam noted in her article (e.g., Smashwords). Second, like it or not, print books mostly appeal to an older demographic. In my role as publisher over the past several years I used to say that our customers are getting older and dying. That's true for technology books which has been my forte, but I think it's also true of other genres as well.

Note that I'm not saying the only people buying print are from an older generation; I'm just saying that I believe there's a significant difference in print vs. e buying habits when you compare those over 40 to those under 40, for example. So as the population ages (and dies) we'll see a continued shift towards digital. Print doesn't go away. It will outlive me, my kids, their kids, etc. But the move from print to digital will continue.

Next, I also believe there will be a significant shift that accompanies the next tablet price threshold. This is where eInk devices were heading but it's clear tablets are the key now. You can buy a lousy, no-name tablet for less than $100 but very few people are doing so. What happens when Amazon, Samsung, or someone else breaks through that threshold and offers a sub-$100 tablet? All those new customers won't be book buyers but many of them will be. And if the low tablet price is somehow subsidized by a content provider (e.g., "commit to Amazon Prime for 2 years and you'll get this Kindle Fire for $99") I think we'll see a pretty significant bump. This is something B&N should have done long ago, btw.

Finally, we're still living in a "print under glass" world, where the vast majority of ebooks are simple renderings of print in e-format. Yawn. Yes, it's simple and convenient, it allows us all to lug around many more books than we'd be able to physically carry, but I think this has led to stagnation. Publishers earn revenue from these products and they're extremely low risk to create. Publishers are also scared of the investments required for rich content so they're all just sitting back, living off these quick-and-dirty conversions.

As I've said before though, we're in the early stages, just like TV was initially where all shows were nothing more than radio programs in front of a camera. How much would it have slowed TV adoption if that model never evolved? IOW, if the production value for TV shows remained as low-budget as radio, well, who knows how long it would have taken for that platform to fully emerge.

Our industry needs to figure out how to create scalable content that takes advantage of the medium it's being delivered on. Think digital-first content that simply couldn't be reproduced in print, or if it is, the print product will be so stripped-down that it feels like an old-time radio program compared to a modern TV show. Notice that I also used the word "scalable" earlier. That's a key too. I've seen way too many glitzy products (The Elements iPad app is the classic example) that wow the audience but are definitely not scalable.

So yes, ebook sales rates are slowing. Most publishers might be stuck at their current levels for awhile. But the digital conversion is far from over, so don't let the short-term leveling off lead you to believe there won't be more disruption and shifts going forward.

Screwpulp: An exciting new startup (that I'm part of!)

2013-05-22T09:55:40-04:00

One of the benefits of my previous job is that it brought me much closer to the content startup community. I've met a lot of outstanding organizations but one that really grabbed my attention is a self-publishing startup called Screwpulp. I mentioned them briefly in an earlier article after I introduced them at an investor event in Memphis.

What's so special about Screwpulp? First of all, it's the people. I've spent time with each of the founding members of the company and I'd stack them up against any other startup team I've met. Every single one of them is extremely passionate about what they're doing and how Screwpulp is positioned to help reinvent publishing. Their passion is highly contagious. Also, none of them come from the publishing industry, so they're not caught up in "the way things work" and they feel no obligation to stick with the status quo. In short, they're the classic startup set out to break all the existing rules.

That leads me to the second point about what makes Screwpulp so special: the concept. Yes, there are plenty of startups out there catering to the self-publishing market, but Screwpulp recognizes that most authors don't have a platform. So rather than make the mistake of pricing the author's book too high and then wondering why it doesn't sell, Screwpulp initially sets the price at zero, uses scarcity to create a sense of urgency and takes the price up as demand increases. Very cool.

I love what Screwpulp is doing and I look forward to helping them become wildly successful. That's why I've agreed to join the team as an advisor. To learn more about the Screwpulp platform be sure to watch the investor pitch CEO Richard Billings made last week in Memphis.

Memphis startup community rocks

2013-05-20T10:00:00-04:00

For the past couple of years I've had the pleasure of working with a variety of startups in the content space and most of them are located on one of the two coasts here in the U.S. Last week was an eye-opening experience for me when I traveled to Memphis to take part in the Seed Hatchery Investor Day. I was there to help represent a terrific startup I'm now part of, Screwpulp, but the opportunity to mingle with investors and the other startups was priceless.

In the span of 3 hours Thursday afternoon I had the pleasure of listening to the investor pitches from six highly innovative startups: BetterFed, MentorMe, Boosterville, Musistic, Soundstache and, of course, Screwpulp. All but one of these startups originated in Memphis. Memphis! And you thought all they had in Memphis was Graceland and BBQ joints. (Btw, all the food in Memphis, especially the BBQ, is out of this world!)

I mentioned that all the startups but one were from Memphis. The exception is Boosterville, which was founded by a couple from my hometown, Indianapolis. But since there's no equivalent platform to the Seed Hatchery and their Investor Day here in Indianapolis, the Boosterville founders went to Memphis instead.

Sounds like an opportunity to me... That's also what Eric Mathews, CEO and co-president of LaunchYourCity, believes as well. I spent some time with Eric and his co-president, Andre Fowlkes, and I left convinced these guys are on to something. Innovation and startup launches aren't limited to the coasts, of course. We just need people like Eric and Andre to find leaders in towns like Indianapolis and get them to step up and organize the local efforts. Btw, LaunchYourCity announced last week that they're rebranding themselves as Start Co. Great name, and an even better tag line: "Never stop starting." Brilliant!

What does the startup scene look like in your hometown? Is it invisible to the local community like mine is? If so, I encourage you to reach out to the folks at Start Co. and see what can be done to change the situation. That's what I'm doing.

Direct sales and community building

2013-05-15T14:41:15-04:00

If you’ve been anywhere near publishing recently, you’ve probably been hit by the shrapnel of an exploding business model, a narrowing distribution network, or mind-numbing cutbacks. It’s fashionable for people who aren’t pouring their daily energies into words and stories to compare the changing ebook environment to the music industry. But it’s different. Much more simple and complex at the same time. And I believe--even without gulping down an alcoholic beverage--that publishers and authors can come out on top when the dust settles.

But it will require change. And partnerships. And innovation. We need to do what great authors do--draw readers in by telling an intriguing story and getting them involved. But this time it won’t be just into a book, but into the industry itself.

I’ve sat on both sides of the table, both as an author and an executive in the publishing industry. So I’m constantly viewing the future through the lens of a win/win scenario, where authors/publishers and readers thrive. And I believe that direct sales and community-building are an important first step. Having direct relationships and building audiences are instrumental to publishers controlling their own future. So let’s take a quick look at both...

Direct Sales

I recently had a conversation with a VP at a major publishing house and he/she said, “We’re not interested in direct sales. We have partners and retailers who do the selling for us.”

Sensing that we were not speaking the same language, I asked a few poignant questions:

“Are you interested in having the contact information for anyone who buys your book?"

“Well, yes.”

“Are you interested in better understanding the reading habits and preferences of your readers?”

“Yes”

“Are you interested in developing a number of creative marketing, sales, and promotional opportunity for your authors?”

“Of course.”

“Then you are interested in direct sales.”

As we began discussing further, we both realized there is a difference between building a direct sales channel and joining a direct sales channel. For the most part, “building direct sales” has been synonymous with “a publisher acting like a retailer and going direct.” In my opinion, publishers should not be interested in this type of situation. It is expensive, wrought with technical complications, and limiting for the end consumer. At a time when most publishers are pruning their teams, it is simply not a good strategy to tackle more with less. Moreover, readers accustomed to robust digital storefronts are not going to hunt down books at separate publishers.

But joining a direct sales channel is different. If a publisher can be part of a larger retail ecosystem but still enjoy the benefits of gathering contact information and staying connected to the end reader, it is the best of both worlds. Publishers can extend their reach from content acquisition all the way to consumption and feedback. Likewise, consumers can visit one location and find all the content they desire.

Direct sales is about visibility and transparency into the sales and consumption of a book. And who doesn’t want that? At BookShout!, we are making this a reality today. Working less like a traditional retailer and more like a retail portal and ecosystem, we are aggregating publishers together and allowing them direct access to the end reader. This includes allowing publishers to export contact information, create innovative marketing campaigns across social channels, and build author platforms.

Community Building

Seth Godin calls it “building your own tribe”. Others refer to it as “growing your audience.” Regardless of the terminology, community building is about bringing like-minded readers together and facilitating a discussion.

Did you notice that I said “facilitating”, not “controlling?” Some of the most successful audience builders I know understand that growing an audience is like throwing a great party. Make sure there is enough food, the right music, a place to congregate, and a topic to discuss. Then stand back and just keep the conversation going. The community will strengthen as others step up and manage the discussions. Influencers will begin to emerge. People want to belong, and content communities allow for this.

We don’t all agree that the Yankees are a good team, but we all agree that word-of-mouth referrals are gold. When a friend recommends a great book to me, I’m ten times more likely to buy it than if I’m being sold by a third party. When we build audiences around verticals, brands, and authors, we can help passionate people share their experiences. Plus there is the added benefit that a growing tribe creates noise, which in turn, continues to grow the tribe exponentially. All of these things begin to move the needle on sales.

Amazon didn’t buy Goodreads because they had an extra $150M+ lying around. They bought it because of the community aspect and the ability to tie these rabid readers closer to the buying experience. At BookShout!, we specifically built our platform around letting people create communities, what we call “circles.” We believe that if an author, publisher, brand, or book can establish its own community, they can better facilitate conversation, which in turn, develops more sales and marketing possibilities. It’s a self-sustaining ecosystem that can feed itself.

One thing is certain--you won’t get it right the first time. Building a direct channel and an audience is an iterative process. Give yourself the right to pivot, change directions, try new things, create micro-genres, and start conversations. We certainly don’t have it all figured out at BookShout! but we are actively listening so we can continuously improve. The one thing you can’t do is nothing. If publishers and authors do nothing, nothing will be all that’s left.

This article was written by contributor Jason Illian. Jason is the Founder and CEO of BookShout!, an innovative reading platform that empowers publishers/authors and builds community around books. BookShout! is working closely with publishers and authors to re-imagine the future of books.

Bringing democracy back to digital

2013-05-14T10:39:39-04:00

By exposing us to diverging viewpoints, fostering dissent, broadcasting scientific discoveries, and stretching our imagination beyond its sensory frame, books have promoted the rise of our modern social conscience. The many societal and technical revolutions of the 20th century have often been ascribed to a unique combination of readily available literature and high schooling rates.

High-speed printing presses, global distribution, and the excellent editing work of our forebears, enable publishers to sell authoritative, if slightly outmoded, versions of classic works for a few pence a pop. These inexpensive books are the WD-40 of the publishing world: they find their way into the most unlikely places, eating away at the grime of mindless entertainment. Comfortably purchased by all, they require no special treatment. They are forgotten on commuter trains, picked up on park benches, handed out as tokens and prizes, thrown away without remorse — and saved by the dustman.

It was initially hoped that digital publishing would precipitate the fall of prices, without affecting the margins of publishers: provided authors hand out clean digital documents, the costs involved in editing, proofing and laying out a work decrease dramatically. Part of the savings can then be passed on, benefiting both seller and purchaser. We can even distribute books for free over the Internet, in essence the largest, most egalitarian lending library in the world.

Yet, in our enthusiasm, we may have collectively forgotten how tall a barrier we were erecting between the reader and the text. While printed books exist in and of themselves, old-worldly, generous, and inefficient, digital books must be accessed through a reading device, be it a computer, a tablet, or a phone. In effect, one requires costly tools to economise: the reading apparatus, access to a network, charging facilities, etc. One must also defend an attractive gadget against theft — for the tablet, unlike the book, holds universal appeal.

In our technical circles, access to a basic reader is a given. How expensive can these unmarked, outdated pseudo-smartphones be? They can run a web browser and access Project Gutenberg… To many, they are out of reach. And even if they were handed out by well-meaning librarians, they could not be charged easily, or used everywhere without fear of assault. In many regions of the world, including parts of Europe and North America, they would be useless bricks, deprived from the essential companionship of a cell tower or Wi-Fi router.

Certainly, computers are available in public places, including libraries. But how comfortable should we be, as a society, with asking the poor to register at a central government-run place to access knowledge that used to be free?

Whether by design or accident, free reading has, so far, been a right in modern society. Wonderful and convenient as it is, our current all-digital distribution model has failed to carry on this fundamental tradition. As digital publishers, we must examine ways to restore it, of putting random books back into random hands.

This article was written by contributor Francois Joseph de Kermadec

Micro-consulting projects

2013-05-13T10:40:17-04:00

Last week's article about my search for new full-time or consulting work generated a lot of interest. It was also nice to see the resulting surge in views of my LinkedIn profile. Thanks to everyone who tweeted and help spread the word. I now have a few short-term consulting projects underway and several more longer-term ones are also being discussed.

I've spoken with quite a few prospective clients over the past week and it's clear there's a significant need for consulting help but budgets are tight; not exactly surprising given all the cost-cutting and cutbacks taking place across the industry today. I'm finding a lot of initial guidance can be covered by answering some questions, making a few initial recommendations, and, in some cases, connecting a client with one of my contacts or an industry solution-provider I know and trust. Many of these initial engagements can even be done in an hour or less.

That's why I've now decided to set aside 8-10 hours each week for micro-consulting projects. Each will be a one-hour engagement on the phone, via Skype or Google Hangout. These micro-engagements represent a smaller committment for everyone and can help validate a client's plans and determine their next steps.

Maybe a micro-consulting project is right for your needs. If so, email me so I can send you more details and get you on the calendar.

WANTED: New full-time job or consulting work

2013-05-06T11:12:46-04:00

An announcement was made last week saying TOC is no more and that I'm out of a job. The former was disappointing news for the publishing community while the latter was a particularly troubling development for my personal community, also known as my family. I'm sad to be leaving a lot of terrific colleagues, including the amazingly talented and brilliant Kat Meyer, but I'm also looking forward to what's next.

I'm not sure what the future holds so I'm currently exploring both full-time and consulting work. With all the consolidation, downsizing and loss of institutional knowledge publishers are currently facing, I believe these next few years will offer plenty of opportunities for industry consultants. I also believe my publishing and technology background, which features a mix of editorial, business development and sales experience, shows I have plenty to offer.

There's one other aspect of my background that I feel is also a critical element every publisher needs to master: the art of community development. Kat and I (as well as the rest of the TOC team) worked hard to build year-round community engagement and an industry franchise by starting with something that was originally limited to a series of semi-annual in-person events.

Most publishers haven't focused much on community-building and engagement. I believe we were creating a community template publishers could have applied to their own businesses. The TOC plug was pulled prematurely, IMHO, but the community engagement lives on here and elsewhere, of course.

Btw, the goal of community-building isn't just to create a direct channel. That's one valuable outcome but it's clear some publishers simply aren't interested in direct channels just yet. Community-building is about giving your real customers, the people who read your products, a reason to engage with you and your content. It's about establishing a dialog as well as giving them a place to meet and share their experience.

One of my former colleagues liked to say that "community is the new marketing." Some publishers think that means they just need to have a corporate Twitter handle and offer a Facebook page for everyone to like them. Then they wonder why there's no return on that minimal investment. This is one of the areas where I can help.

There are plenty of other areas I can work with you as well, including: business plans, business development, product development, digital-first models, acquisitions, etc.

Am I right for your organization's needs, either in a full-time or consultant position? You'll be in a bettter position to answer to that question by reading through my archives here as well as visiting my LinkedIn profile.

Better yet, send me an email and let's schedule a phone call to talk about your specific needs.

Earned Attention: More than a stack of paper

2013-05-01T08:36:45-04:00

As an industry I think we're getting weary of all the various "rich content" experiments and products floating around these days. I have to admit that most make me want to yawn and move on to the next item in my email inbox. Too many of them feel like a Frankenstein project where elements are grafted onto a traditional book and there's a giant bolt sticking out of the neck.

Every so often one actually grabs my attention. Ironically, the latest one is called Earned Attention. I first watched the video embedded below and was curious to learn more about it. Here's a quote from the video foreword that really resonated with me:

Attention is the ultimate currency. It is the ultimate scarce resource. It is the only commodity that matters.

How true. And even more so in the publishing world these days. We're all talking about discovery and rising about all the noise. If you can truly earn the attention of your target audience you're clearly doing something right, and "earn" is the key word here.

Here's another quote from the end of the video below:

A book that you never actually finish.

I'll bet that's a turn-off to a lot of people. Most of us just want to read a book from start to finish and be done with it. Every so often though you want the book to be a part of an ongoing stream of information. That's how I view Earned Attention. It's one of those products that should continue feeding your brain with more insight, long after you read the last word of the printed book.

I'm looking forward to digging into this one. My only disappointment is that the accompanying apps are for iOS only. As an Android convert I've decided this is the worst six-word sentence I've ever read:

Available for iOS (Android coming soon)

I see that sentence far too frequently. I guess I'll have to dig out that first-gen iPad of mine and see if I can use the app there.

Earned Attention case video from ENERGIZE on Vimeo.

LinkedIn as publisher

2013-04-29T16:16:28-04:00

I'm drawn to LinkedIn now more than ever before. The rate of connection requests I've been receiving there has also been accelerating over the past few months. Maybe it's due to all the uncertainty of the publishing industry but I think there's more to it than anxious job seekers.

There are all sorts of terrific publishing groups on LinkedIn where opinions are shared and discussed. A good example is our TOC LinkedIn group; check out the stats here. We're rapidly approaching 20K members. If you're not a member you're missing a great deal of terrific industry banter.

You may have heard of LinkedIn's recent acquisition of Pulse. Although Pulse isn't my favorite news platform it's probably in my top five. It's the combination of LinkedIn and Pulse that intrigues me though.

LinkedIn has always been a great place to network with others in your industry. Adding a dedicated content service like Pulse is smart and I believe it's just the first step in LinkedIn's goal of becoming a publisher. Well, I'm not sure they'd consider "publisher" as one of their future roles but that's basically where they're heading.

Lifelong learning is important today and it's only going to be more important tomorrow. We've all had to adapt and grow professionally more than our parents had to. Our children will be asked to grow and adapt more than we've had to. As LinkedIn becomes the Google of job and career search you can bet they want users to spend as much time on the site as possible. What better way to do so than to offer a variety of self-improvement and professional development content for all those lifelong learners? Looking for an entry-level accounting job? Here's content explaining the 10 most under-appreciated features of Excel. Want to become a better salesperson? Here's a piece on how to close the deal. You get the idea.

Just as Google recently bought Frommer's to feed travel content into their search engine I fully expect LinkedIn to sign more deals to acquire rights to job training, career development, professional certification, etc., content. Some of the material will be written exclusively for LinkedIn but a lot could be redeployed from books.

So although they won't publish books, just like Google isn't publishing Frommer's books, look for LinkedIn to add more and more content to their service. And if you're a publisher (or author) with a rich set of career and professional development content you should consider reaching out to LinkedIn to see if your content might be a good fit on their platform.

Direct sales of ebooks in multiple languages

2013-04-24T13:28:22-04:00

O'Reilly has long been a leader in fostering community and building a direct sales channel. This week we took the next step in enhancing the customer's direct buying experience by offering German editions for many of our ebook titles. Take a close look at the bottom of this screen shot:

I grabbed that image from the search results for "Windows 8" on our website this morning. If you click on the English title you'll see this screen:

You can either buy the English language version from here or click the Deutsch link in the bottom right corner and this edition is displayed:

We're in the process of adding more German titles to our online catalog and you can expect to see other languages added in the future as well.

Why is this significant? As I've said before, I believe every publisher needs to build a direct channel so they aren't overly dependent on other retailers. I'm not suggesting a direct channel replaces other retail channels but it's a very important extension that helps publishers establish a relationship with their customers, learn from the data generated and create even better products in the future. By adding other languages to the assortment we're making it easier for anyone around the globe to find the O'Reilly content they want on one site. And, of course, it's all being delivered with the multi-format (EPUB, mobi & PDF), DRM-free approach pioneered by O'Reilly.

Pre-publication samples

2013-04-22T12:40:31-04:00

This one has been nagging at me for years and I'm amazed none of the major ebook retailers offer a solution. I'm talking about the ability to pre-order an ebook sample prior to publication. Today I received a bulk email from Eric Metaxas, author of Seven Men, telling me the book is "now available." His team either pressed "send" prematurely or they just want us to pre-order today. The print book doesn't release till tomorrow and the ebook doesn't come out till a week later. (Btw, why is a publisher delaying the ebook's release by a week? That's such out-dated thinking.)

I don't want to buy the ebook today but I'd love to request the sample when it's available. The ebook isn't released for eight more days so the sample obviously won't be available till then either. The chances of me remembering to check back next week and request the sample are close to zero.

So why not add a button that lets me pre-order the sample now? You don't have to send it to me now, but have it sent to me on April 30 when the ebook releases. How hard is that? More importantly, how many sales have been lost because this sample pre-order button doesn't exist?

Lessons for all PR professionals:

Never send the email blast saying the book is available the day/week before it actually is available.

Tell your publisher to make sure the ebook is available the same day as the print book, not a week later.

Tell your publisher and/or retail partner to implement a sample pre-order button for all ebooks. Better yet, make the ebook sample available on your own website, in all formats (EPUB, mobi, PDF), before the book releases anywhere else. What do you care if it gets out in to the wild and everyone shares it? It's called "establishing a direct channel with your customers", and it's a good thing to do.

P.S. -- The reason I'm on Metaxas' mailing list is because I read his amazing book Bonhoeffer a year or so ago. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It's one of the most inspiring books I've ever read.

Why Paperight should be distributing your content

2013-04-22T10:50:24-04:00

The opening statement on Paperight's "about" page says it all:

Paperight turns any business with any printer and an Internet connection into a print-on-demand bookstore.

This isn't just about distributing content through copy shops though. Paperight helps make content available in the developing world. That's why Paperight was named "Most Entrepreneurial Startup" from TOC's Startup Showcase in February. They're opening an entirely new channel and serving the needs of readers who might otherwise never have access to this content.

That's also why O'Reilly recently signed an agreement with Paperight. We're thrilled that Paperight is distributing our content and I want to encourage you to sign up with them as well. You can learn more about the Paperight/O'Reilly distribution deal here.

Please take the time to learn more about Paperight and get your rights team in contact with them.

Author (R)evolution Day videos now available

2013-04-16T10:19:42-04:00

If you missed TOC's first Author (R)evolution Day you missed a lot. Cory Doctorow kicked things off and more than 20 speakers followed with terrific presentations on marketing, audience development, choosing service providers, and my favorite topic, data.

The room was filled throughout the day and we know there were countless others who wanted to be there but simply couldn't make it. That's why we recorded the entire event. You'll find more than 5-1/2 hours of Author (R)evolution Day programming in this $19.99 video product. Cory will be pleased to know there's no DRM or other irritating technology restrictions on this content. In true O'Reilly fashion, we trust you as our customer and want you to have the flexibility of either streaming or downloading all the video to your computer.

If you're an author searching for marketplace success you'll definitely want to purchase this video collection. Let us know what you think about the programming for our first Author (R)evolution Day and stay tuned here for more information on future events.

Why I created a Flipboard magazine

2013-04-15T10:40:20-04:00

Flipboard recently announced the ability for anyone to become a publisher on their platform. Within two weeks 500,000+ magazines were created. I created one of those and I'd like to tell you why.

Before I do that though, let me tell you how you can get my Publishing 2020 magazine. Since Flipboard isn't available as a web-based app (which is a shame) I can't just embed a link to the magazine. Here's the link Flipboard provides, but it's nothing more than a short note saying my magazine exists and to download the Flipboard app and search for "Joe Wikert" to find it. That's not the best approach so let's hope they make it easier to share magazines down the road.

Now let's talk about "why." I've said before that I'm accessing my RSS feeds less and less. I switched from Google Reader to Zite for awhile but that wasn't always the best option either. I still love to see what others in the industry find interesting though, mostly by reading what they're reading.

Twitter kind of addresses this but I find it very difficult to focus on one person's point of view via tweets. It's everyone's stream of consciousness coming at you all at once. Even with the best filters in place it always feels like you're drinking from the fire hose. And every tweet has a shelf life of seconds at best. The Flipboard interface encourages a deeper dive and even though it's presenting much of the same information it doesn't come across as having a short shelf life.

As fun as it can be to abbreviate and get creative, Twitter's 140-character limit gets in the way at times, right? I see Flipboard magazines filling a nice, comfy space between Twitter and blogs. I read articles throughout the day and some of them are tweet-worthy. But the best deserve more commentary or context than I can squeeze into 140 characters. That's where a Flipboard magazine comes in. The majority of the articles I'm adding to my Publishing 2020 Flipboard magazine also include my thoughts about the piece. Annotations are an important element of the Flipboard magazine model but, unfortunately, the Flipboard user interface makes them hard to see. That's another item I hope Flipboard fixes in an app update.

My last point has to do with my addiction to the magazine called The Week. It's one of the last magazines I still subscribe to in print (mostly because it's not available as an Android app...yet). If you're not familiar with it, The Week aggregates the best news stories and adds some commentary. It's like reading the Cliffs Notes for all the major newspapers, magazines, and websites. I'd like to think that in some small way my Flipboard magazine is doing the same for the publishing industry.

My goal is to give the publishing community another resource for industry news and analysis, all delivered conveniently and elegantly via the Flipboard interface. I hope you'll sign up and let me know what you think. Also, if you feel I've overlooked an important article, send me a link so I can read and add it to the magazine.