Newest Post – Finally!

Posted on July 6, 2011 by eScribe

After a little break, I wanted to direct people to interesting articles/news items.  Both originate from Digital Book World.  The first is on DRM, article here; the second is on self-publishing, article here.

When Does Digital Rights Make Sense?

This news item pulls from John Schember’s article “DRM-It’s all about lock-in” at Teleread.  He basically looks at the question of DRM from the stand point of … “When does it make sense?  He focuses on the five major parties affected by DRM: readers, stores, DRM vendors, publishers and authors.  His basic conclusion is that DRM is not necessary unless one is dealing with a library or subscription service.

I agree with his conclusions.  I especially like how he simplifies the answer to his question: When Does Digital Rights Make Sense?  The answer lies in perceived ownership.  If you buy a book, you perceive (and in actuality) you own that book. If it is a physical copy, it is now yours to do with as you please – read it, lend it, etc.  The same should be true of an ebook as well.  People know the basic laws and publishers/authors/retailers should be suing the violators and not punishing everyone else for cumbersome requirements.

On the other hand, if you are checking out an ebook from a library or from a subscription service, the perceived/acknowledged owner is the library (actually the lending service as Kansas is finding out should have happened with Overdrive) or that subscription service provider.  Here it makes sense to have DRM.  It mitigates length of time to read and what can be done with the book.  After all, the reader does not own the book.

Again, I agree with John’s conclusion and should be the standard for publishing.

One side thought though – If I own a book and have a garage sale, can’t I sell that book?  Presumably, the same is not true for ebooks?  Just a thought.

 

Has Self-Pub Gone to Far?

I thought this was interesting information.  Basically, self-publishing is getting spamed.  People are maliciously “publishing” ebooks trying to make money off of their scam, especially (at least the article seems to indicate) on Amazon.

While I completely disagree with the concept as unethical and immoral, can we really be surprised this happened.  Spam seems to occur in everything digital.  However, I think the market place will help take care of this as Amazon and other vendors learn from this issue and tighten their approval process.

One thought, could a vendor use something like the wiki concept?  In a wiki everyone (or at least registered/approved people) can change, add and/or delete information.  Could a vendor have something similar where people can delete the book from sales?  I assume there is also a reporting process involved. Should be interesting to watch.

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“New Era” Cont

Posted on June 6, 2011 by eScribe

Earlier I discussed the “New Era of the Author” and linked to various articles about it.  I then ran across Scott Walker’s article “Co-Creating Value with Customers” at Digital Book World.  I think he reinforces my rewording of David Meerman’s Scotts quote: Authors/Publishers need to think like marketers (Scott’s original is “Marketers need to think like publishers”).

The summation of Walker’s article is found in the following:

  • Companies are shifting from selling products to selling services (products are still in the mix, but consumers find value from the services instead of the products).
  • Companies are shifting from having transactional relationships with consumers (one-time or isolated interactions) to having service relationships with them (a series of ongoing interactions).
  • Companies are finding their business-to-business and business-to-consumer models merging together.

Here is an interesting way to look at it.  Think of Christian Ministries or Churches.  What do religious missionaries try to do?  They try to tell the story of Christ and the Bible.  A missionary though does it through service and discussion (or at least they should – we can all point to perversions that were in it just for the money!).  What are Scott Walker and David Meerman Scott talking about? Telling a story – discussion and service.  An author or publisher needs to not just tell the story that is contained in the book, but there is a broader story they need to tell to gain trust from their customers.  What are the different stories of  Baen, Simon & Schuster, Zondervan and Cruciform Press?  Each publishes books.  Each sells books.  But, each has a different, broader story.  Can I call it a “meta story”?  (See the definition of meta, here,  at Wikipedia) A story that is beyond just the book that is being sold.

  • Baen publishes and sells sci fi and fantasy books.  What meta-story is Baen telling?
  • Simon & Schuster publishes a variety of books and yet each of their divisions is trying to tell a story.  What meta-story is Simon & Schuster telling?
  • Zondervan publishes a variety of Christian books that span theological differences.  What meta-story is Zondervan telling?
  • Cruciform Press is a small, Christian publisher who’s story varies from Zondervan’s.  What meta-story is Cruciform telling?

Think of all the other publishers and authors and their meta-story.  This is where I think publishers and authors need to transition to.  Not just selling a book with a large scale marketing package with ads, book tour and other marketing options.  They need to tell their meta-story.  This is the essence of having a “service relationship” versus a “transactional relationship”.  This is what David Meerman Scott talks about, or at least my interpretation of what he talks about, when it comes to social media marketing.  In a digital world that revolves around “relationships” (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc) people want to connect to others.  This is why I think authors especially need to think like social media marketers. They need to tell their meta-story.

Are publishers and authors telling their meta-story?

I do want to add a word of caution as publishers/authors begin telling their meta-story.  It is more important to be honest and truthful.  To continue with my earlier example of churches and ministries, think of how many created a scandal because of their lack of honesty, truthfulness and steadfastness to their meta-story.  To deviate from your meta-story will ultimately damage the relationship with the customers.

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“The Era of the Author”

Posted on June 1, 2011 by eScribe

Here are three great articles about the Era (or Age) of the Author and the future of publishing:

I think another industry technology has impacted holds the answer: marketing.  The new marketing model is  “social media marketing”.  The two best books I have found on the topic are David Meerman Scott’s The New Rules of PR and Marketing and Dave Evan’s Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day.  Good blogs include Scott’s Web Ink Now and CopyBlogger.  In The New Rules..., Scott says that marketers need to start thinking like publishers.  I would argue, that the reverse needs to also be true in this “New Era” – the author needs to think like the marketer.

Let’s face it, today is all about technology and the web.  There are blogs for virtually everyone’s interests.  There are niche markets out there for every type of hobby.  Because of the availability of the web and its world-wide reach, people can now sell things that previously couldn’t be sold as well because the market wasn’t there for a brick and mortar store.  I submit, the same is also true for books.  While there were specialty brick and mortar stores the predominant focus were the chain stores (Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-a-Million, etc) and these didn’t move a large or diverse offering of specialty books.  Amazon came along a changed that to an extent prior to the Kindle.  Then Amazon really changed the publishing industry with the Kindle.

Now, as we combine technology and publishing, publishing has to change.  Just as marketing has.  Just as music has.  Just as selling virtually anything has changed.  No longer can a store survive without some online presence (or at least it is difficult to do).  However, part of the business model publishers and authors need to incorporate are the same models that marketers (and many indie musicians) have incorporated. Scott’s book is a great example of how this could work.  He first blogged his entire book and got feedback (not necessarily a requirement!).  Then published it without spending money on marketing campaigns, was a Business Week bestseller and published in 24 languages.  How did he do it? By not being just an author, but a marketer as well (granted that is a little easier for him as a professional marketer).

In this “New Era”, author’s must be more aware of their interactions with their fan base.  Author’s need to be “available” to there readers and interact with them on a certain level. Just as social media marketers discuss web presence, so the author needs the same web presence.  Additionally, many authors and specialty stores can begin selling their books on their own website (and they should!).  This is where the power of the web comes into play.  No longer do I have to go to Amazon or B&N or iBooks to buy a book.  Their convenience is the ease of download over  a 3G/4G connection.  However, I can easily go to a website a buy a book I am interested in without having to go through chain stores.

As a personal example from the music industry (many lessons learned for publishers and authors from the music industry’s digital transition).  I am interested in a very specific type of Christian music.  Pre-internet and digital download, I could not find representatives of my taste in retail stores (to include most Christian Book stores).  However, as I have searched the web, I am able to find more indie groups that are not dependent on chain stores for distribution, major recording companies for production or marketers to drive sales.  They do so on their own blogs and websites.  I can download their music there or at iTunes.  There are even Christian internet radio stations specializing in what I want to listen to.  The same should be true for the publishing industry.

The quote that best proves this concept (this is also what social media marketing is based on) is last line in Aydt’s article:

So a theme from this year’s event: “Give ‘em what they want.” The readers want more accessibility to their writers and the writers want more power. Who knew?

 

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Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Posted on May 27, 2011 by eScribe

I should have posted this the other day.  Oh well…

Here is another great article from Digital Book World, “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Ebook Piracy”, by Cecilia Tan.  I don’t endorse the example she uses, but her points are worth discussing and thinking about as publishing goes digital.  Some of the small publishers I have worked with worry about DRM and in my opinion they should not.  Here are my thoughts on why:

  • To me, DRM is keeping honest people honest.  How easy is it to find hacked movies, songs and books on the internet?  Is the cost of DRM worth keeping honest people honest?
  • Music does not have DRM.  I think this is an important point and has a number of aspects.   1) I find it ironic that some that worry about DRM with an ebook do not worry about DRM for music or video downloads. 2) Music has moved away from DRM due to cost and customer convenience. Shouldn’t ebooks do the same?  After all, a music file and an ebook are nothing more than a digital file.
  • Audio books are sold in a similar manner to music files: no DRM.  Why should an audio book not have DRM while the ebook version of the same work have DRM?  Does not make sense to me.
  • I think there is a social media marketing aspect to this as well (Cecilia addresses this in her article as well).  In today’s social media marketing, people want to trust an author or publisher before they buy an item.  By having DRM, a publisher reduces the desire to trust.  Be honest, as a consumer, do you want the limitation of DRM?  Wouldn’t that be a “mark” against the publisher/author?
  • As a Christian, any violation of copyright is sinful.  Therefore, there is a higher Authority we would answer to if we violate copyright laws.  Again, DRM keeps honest people honest.

These are some of my thoughts on why not to use DRM.  I understand the desire to protect intellectual property, but I do not think the cost for DRM to protect property outweighs the convenience and possible sales reduction without DRM.  Besides, there are copyright laws to handle intellectual property violations.

The one side note I would make deals with sales.  Publisher need to handle resale contracts with care.  If Publisher A allows Online Store B to sell a book, the contract needs to specify price per sale and authorization (or not) for Store B to allow Store C to sell the same book.  Without DRM, the authorization needs to be specified in the contract.

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Ebook Sales

Posted on May 23, 2011 by eScribe

Who did not guess this was going to happen:  Amazon ebook sales topped their print sales (press release). Note their milestones”

  • Since April 1, for every 100 print books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 105 Kindle books. This includes sales of hardcover and paperback books by Amazon where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.
  • So far in 2011, the tremendous growth of Kindle book sales, combined with the continued growth in Amazon’s print book sales, have resulted in the fastest year-over-year growth rate for Amazon’s U.S. books business, in both units and dollars, in over 10 years. This includes books in all formats, print and digital. Free books are excluded in the calculation of growth rates.
  • In the five weeks since its introduction, Kindle with Special Offers for only $114 is already the bestselling member of the Kindle family in the U.S.
  • Amazon sold more than 3x as many Kindle books so far in 2011 as it did during the same period in 2010.
  • Less than one year after introducing the UK Kindle Store, Amazon.co.uk is now selling more Kindle books than hardcover books, even as hardcover sales continue to grow. Since April 1, Amazon.co.uk customers are purchasing Kindle books over hardcover books at a rate of more than 2 to 1.

This should not be a huge surprise to anyone that is following ebooks and their sales.  How much closer is the tipping point between digital and print publishing?  As a Christian, my concern still tends to how are Christian publishing companies keeping up the shift and the marketing requirements that are associated.

This maybe a stretch, but I came across Monday Notes‘s “Shift Happens…” article (via challies.com) and want to combine both articles.  Granted Shift Happens discusses the transition to video on demand (VOD) and Netflix’s growth and business model shift.  However, I can see something similar occurring in the publishing industry. Think about the overarching change from movies in the theater to video rental stores to Netflix mail subscription model to their VOD model.  As the demand for movies and watching convenience has shifted with technology we have seen a rise in demand for movies (visual entertainment as a whole).

Is it possible to shift books to on demand similar to VOD as ebook sales have started outpacing print publications (tie in to earlier article!)?  All the books you could read for a flat rate per month.  Not sure if it will happen, but there may be some possibilities in it.  There are some thoughts though for such a shift:

  1. Publishers would have to rethink/retool author’s royalties.  Not sure how that would look but obviously can’t be percent per sale.
  2. What if a reader wants to take notes?  A lot of readers I know enjoy taking notes when reading Christian Living or Bible Study books.  What happens with those notes?  What happens to them if one cancels their subscription?
  3. Fiction works would probable work well because there is a greatly reduced possibility of notes.
  4. How would someone gain access if they do not have wifi or 3G/4G connectivity?  Could it be similar to Netflix’s iPad App where you download the movie and can watch it for 3 days (or so) before it goes inactive?  Not sure.

Just some of my thoughts as the publishing industry continues to change and people are demanding more for less!

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