For months, a group of writers calling themselves Authors United have campaigned, mostly unsuccessfully, against the business practices of Amazon.com. On Thursday, they mounted their latest challenge, officially requesting that the Department of Justice investigate how Amazon exercises its "power over the book market." (A spokesman for the Justice Department said it is reviewing the request.) The list of signatories fills twelve pages and reads like an unusually expansive long list for a prestigious writing award; the five hundred and seventy-five writers include Philip Roth, V. S. Naipaul, and Ursula K. Le Guin, along with many longtime contributors to this magazine.
Links of the week August 24 2015 (35)
Our new feature links to interesting blogs or articles posted online, which will help keep you up to date with what's going on in the book world:
31 August 2015
It is perhaps the writers' lack of legal expertise that has given them the freedom to put forth what antitrust experts described to me as a highly unorthodox argument: that, even though Amazon's activities tend to reduce book prices, which is considered good for consumers, they ultimately hurt consumers. The authors are, in essence, trying to make the case that Amazon is bad not only for writers, but also for people who buy stuff on the site - and they're taking this approach for good reason. As I wrote in March, in a piece considering an F.T.C. probe of Google that began in 2011, U.S. courts evaluate antitrust issues very differently, nowadays, than they did a hundred years ago, just after antitrust laws were established to keep big corporations from abusing their power. Back then, judges tended to be largely concerned with protecting suppliers from being squeezed by retailers, which meant that, if a corporation exercised monopoly power to push prices down, hurting suppliers, the company could easily lose an antitrust case. But by the nineteen-eighties, the judiciary's focus had shifted to protecting consumers, leading courts to become more prone to ruling in favor of the corporation, on the grounds that lower prices are good for consumers.
The controversial fourth book in The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo series has been released today with intrigue, secrecy and with a viking curse to add to the thriller.
Fans of Stieg Larsson's best-selling Millennium series have been rushing to get their copies of The Girl in the Spider's Web - despite the late author's partner calling for a boycott of the book, which was written by someone else.
Eva Gabrielsson, Mr Larsson's partner of more than three decades, said he would be 'furious' about the publication, timed to hit the shelves today to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the release of the hugely successful Girl with a Dragon Tattoo.
She said Larsson had began work on a fourth book centering on the popular protagonists before his untimely death from a heart attack in 2004.
Speaking to reporters just hours ahead of the launch, Mr Lagercrantz said he was 'terrified' to write the fourth installment. 'I used to say that I was bipolar, manic depressive all the time, and I think it was kind of a good thing to write' in this condition, he said.
The sequel went on sale in 25 countries on Thursday, including Sweden where a Stockholm bookstore opened at midnight to sell the first copies to around 50 fans who showed up to get their books signed by the author. 'I came on the subway, that way I can start reading on my way home,' said Millennium fan Rickard de Boussard, 57.
Mr Lagercrantz told reporters he had been 'obsessive', poring over Larsson's trilogy, reading and re-reading it, doing endless hours of research, questioning his ability the whole time. 'The writing process was a combination of an enormous desire and total fear,' he said. 'The fear of not doing Stieg Larsson justice kept me going.
When you compare the online traffic of a news website against that of a publisher's website, who do you think gets the most visitors? Think the New York Times or Fox News versus HarperCollins or Simon & Schuster. To almost no one's surprise, it's not even close: the news sites get much more traffic. Yet both groups create massive amounts of content that people enjoy reading. So why such a big difference? Put simply, one group understands the power of content.
Let's face it: most readers never visit publishers' sites. And if they do, they don't find many good reasons to return. That's because the typical publisher's site is covered with dozens of images showing frontlist releases, current bestsellers, author listings and some lame ads to join a boring mailing list.
Publishers possess huge repositories of great content that people want to read. Too often, though, this wealth of content is left sitting in a publisher's warehouse or on its servers. All this dormant content represents a vast amount of untapped selling power. Yet I rarely see publishers taking advantage of this great opportunity on their sites. For example, HarperCollins recently allowed The Wall Street Journal to publish the first chapter of Harper Lee's new book, Go Set a Watchman. The national buzz surrounding the release was huge, yet HarperCollins gave away a massive marketing opportunity. I'm sure big money changed hands in the deal, but HarperCollins could have taken the long view, directed millions of people to its site and taken advantage of the chance for substantial exposure. It's a classic example of news sites capitalizing on publishers' shortsightedness. News organizations understand the power of content, while publishers don't seem to get it - even though they're both in the content business.
A year and a half later, I opened my 40th rejection: "There is no market for this kind of tiring writing." That one finally made me cry. "You have so much resolve, Kathryn," a friend said to me. "How do you keep yourself from feeling like this has been just a huge waste of your time?"
That was a hard weekend. I spent it in pajamas, slothing around that racetrack of self-pity-you know the one, from sofa to chair to bed to refrigerator, starting over again on the sofa. But I couldn't let go of The Help. Call it tenacity, call it resolve or call it what my husband calls it: stubbornness.
Among the many challenges book cover designers face is trying to represent a book's premise or main character without getting so specific that readers are left with little to imagine. A few years ago, the headless woman was one of the most commonplace sights on bookstore shelves (if the lack of something can be considered a "sight"). By not showing the female character's face, a publisher assumes that readers will be able to use their imaginations to fill in what she looks like.
But lately, another cover design trend has been popping up on this summer's crop of beach reads: the flat woman. Inspired by the "flat design" that's become standard on the Web, these covers take on a minimalist style characterized by bright colors, simple layouts, and lots of white space. Several different designers and publishers have used this approach on hardcovers and paperbacks alike, especially those aiming for the upmarket-but-still-commercial-fiction-for-ladies sweet spot. (The headless woman is also still going strong.)
The patient zero of flat women might be Bernadette, the heroine and cover star of Where'd You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple, from 2012. On that cover, a woman's face floats over a turquoise backdrop. Her only facial features are two squiggles that represent nostrils and a two-tone mouth, plus some blunt, angular bangs. Bernadette's eyes are covered by sunglasses or binoculars, and judging by the other ocular obstructions on many of these covers, flat design tends to avoid depicting eyes.
Direct to consumer" is not about selling books through your Web site.
Rather, it is a philosophy that puts your consumer, the reader, first and foremost in each and every activity that the business undertakes. That might seem straightforward enough, but with decades of complex author, agent and retail agreements piling up - not to mention territorial licensing, franchise deals and the like - readers may have taken a bit of a back seat in publisher corporate strategy.
The first phase of the digital evolution of the industry has taken place, and where we go next depends on publishers shifting their business away from B2B - we are no longer in the exclusive domains of resellers and middle men. Whoever makes the most of the unparalleled direct access to the consumers that digital platforms provide will emerge as the next dominant player in this ever-changing ecosystem.
So what is it that readers want?
The simple answer is more books to read. The detailed answer involves curation, personalization and greater engagement. Whether that engagement is with the publisher, imprint, author or book character depends on the book genre and reader habits, and there is no one-size-fits-all.
- For some reader types, that would mean high frequency interaction and more intimate online events.
- For others it could be a blockbuster annual convention with seasonal release lineups in the spirit of E3 and Eurogamer for games.
24 August 2015
To grow, publishers must either battle other publishers over market share or identify and serve new markets. Digital media are useful to publishers only insofar as they serve one of these aims. (A separate matter is using digital media to drive down costs and boost profits, but that is not growth in the defined sense.) Using digital media to redistribute market share may be costly and not lead to the expected gains, as a publisher's rivals are likely to use the very same tactics: anyone can publish for the iPhone and Android, anyone can get books onto the Kindle, anyone can set up a comprehensive XML workflow. But with market share battles there is no relief; it is an arms race, and a publisher can no more forego publishing in digital form than it can stop seeking new and creative authors. For a publisher pursuing growth, alas, it's new markets or nothing.
Which brings us to interstitial publishing, publishing between the cracks. (No, uh, wisecracks, please.) For a day filled with text messages and meetings and slathered over with email, one opportunity for publishers is to promote interstitial reading, reading that is done in the brief moments between other engagements, whether those claims on our attention are other media or simply the wiggle room in a schedule: the time spent waiting for a plane, a doctor, or for a meeting to begin. That%u2019s a huge number of minutes in any day; a good portion of our lives is wasted while we are waiting for the main course to arrive. This point was brought to mind by the frequent complaint of being stuck for an hour or more in an airport. What a great opportunity to pull out an iPhone and check mail, alerts, and Web sites! But a user in this situation could have been reading formally published material (formal here means "the kind of stuff you are willing to pay for" to slip between the interstices of the day. Trade publishers have begun to study this, and the Wall Street Journal dedicated a feature story to the emerging practice.
If Amazon continues this way, it is likely to resemble the mythical ouroboros...
The New York Times investigation of Amazon's white collar workforce culture reveals that the company may be on the road to its own eventual demise.
Way back in 2002 when I worked at Publishers WeeklyInternational news website of book publishing and bookselling including business news, reviews, bestseller lists, commentaries http://www.publishersweekly.com/, I called a friend at Amazon on the phone at his or her desk and when they answered, they nearly had a heart attack. "People here know who you are, they know we are friends, you can never call me here," they told me in no uncertain terms. And whenever I visited Seattle, he or she was reluctant to meet me in person. They would eventually, but with reticence, and only at Elliott Bay Book Company during an author reading: something that would give them valid "cover" if they were seen to have been with me.
ONE of Scotland's leading authors has warned that most of the nation's writers are being left to struggle "below the breadline" because the publishing industry has declined so much.
Janice Galloway said mainstream publishers in the UK had become caught up in a "relentless profit machine" were now unwilling to take on risky or experimental work.
"It is all the wrong way around. Like most of life, the people with too much money have astonishing ranges of ways to keep it.
"Everything these days is down to profit. People don't count much. If you don't earn much nobody is that bothered about you.
"They (publishers) can make squillions from a book that will sell all around the world in 56 different translations.
It is hard to fault the monetary logic."
With the Frankfurt Book FairWorld's largest trade fair for books; held annually mid-October at Frankfurt Trade Fair, Germany; First three days exclusively for trade visitors; general public can attend last two. approaching, I expect the question regarding innovation in the publishing sphere to again be a hot topic of discussion. In previous years, I have noticed that ways to deliver content have mostly been put forward as examples of innovation, usually associated with audiovisual enhancements, magazine style apps, or unique digital protection measures. More recently, the focus has shifted a little toward addressing the acquisition process and the relationship with authors, and whether there shouldn't be a call or even incentive for creators to lead the innovation for the sake of industry as a whole.
But what this symbiotic relationship does is create a devil's circle, as the Germans say, with content being produced that has already been produced in a slightly different but easily recognizable form. When you operate in this circle, it is difficult to think outside the box or "break the loop." That applies to both publisher and content creator. Already we see transmedia-, niche- or short-form authors who want to try something different going off on their own, setting up shop and doing all the things they are obliged to undertake because publishers are focused on catering to the prevalent moods while keeping their imprint a recognizable and trustworthy one.
In his call for Your five-minute manifesto for FutureBook, The Bookseller editor Philip Jones wrote that part of the planning of our FutureBook Conference this year (4th December at The Mermaid) is "to take this recent history of the book business and reflect on the job still to do." To that end, he made a call for submissions: we want your manifesto for the future of the book business. Details of how to get it to us are below. Our first response comes from the author Diana Kimpton and it's a deft example of Jones' interest in "a series of ideas, proposals and/or rules to help the business evolve digitally, or change a current direction...challenge conventions, and lock horns with received wisdom." We're glad to present Kimpton's manifesto here and hope you'll consider sending us one. -- Porter Anderson
I get on well with my publisher. I have 100% control over my covers and my marketing. I choose my editor, and I decide my pricing strategy. Best of all, I keep all the profits. Does that sound unbelievable? It's not. My publisher is me.
Digital technology has made self-publishing a viable alternative to the traditional system, and it's not just for those who can't find a publisher. I'm one of an increasing number of authors who have abandoned the submission treadmill in favour of the freedom of producing our own books. And the more we do it, the more we learn about how publishing works and the more we realise that traditional deals are not author-friendly.
It's noticeable that the topics of discussion in my writers group have changed from "how to submit my manuscript" to "how to format an ebook". If that keeps happening, publishers will find their slush pile ceases to exist and so will their businesses. If they want to survive in this bright, new world, they need to improve their author-publisher relations, so here are a few suggestions on how to do it.
Change leads to anxiety, and there has been a lot of change in publishing in recent years. There is one trend, though, that is striking more fears in publishers' minds than any other. And that is the fear of data.
While sales data has been with us for a long time and is used extensively, there are now new kinds of data that are becoming available. Social media campaigns can reveal who clicked on a link. Email campaigns can be tracked for opens, forwards and reactions to calls to action. But the availability of reading data is probably causing more angst than any other because it strikes at the heart of publishing- everything from acquisition to editorial to marketing to author care.
One fear is that reading data will influence what gets published. This is a somewhat strange notion, as self-publishing has already removed almost any barrier to market, and more books than ever before are getting published. What the doubters really mean is that data could influence what the big publishing houses will publish in the future, such as more celebrity biographies, tales from YouTube stars and vampire novels.
The fear is that, in the future, worthy books of high literary quality will be shunned. Yet titles are getting acquired by editors even when sales data point toward the reality that they are never going to deliver a positive return. What those who have reservations about data fail to see, however, is that data will make it easier to find the audience that appreciates these books. Rather than support an expensive marketing campaign across mass retail, publishers can tailor their campaigns to the relevant audience by virtue of an improved understanding of who likes to read a certain kind of book. And just as important, publishers will also discover the optimal approach to reach that audience.
I'm only seconds into a digital copy of T.S. Eliot's famous ode to adolescence, The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock, when my ears prickle uncomfortably. As I read-"Let us go then, you and I, / When the evening is spread out against the sky, / Like a patient etherised upon a table"-a soft rock track reminiscent of James Taylor begins to crescendo in the background. Eliot's arch observations are drowned out by the acoustic guitar and its upbeat melody.
For a dose of relief I turn to YouTube, where I find a copy of an old recording that features Eliot himself reading the text, sans soundtrack. The strange and charmed rhymes, the brooding hint of menace, the nasal timbre of literary elitism: At once, the poem is restored. By the time Eliot intones, "Time yet for a hundred visions and revisions," I'm engrossed in the text, lost to the world.
And so it's with a skeptical ear and eye that I return to Booktrack, which sells digital books that pair text with music and ambient sounds. Since its founding in 2010, Booktrack has grown its library of titles to 15,000 and raised $10 million from investors, including Silicon Valley kingmaker Peter Thiel. The success of audio book provider Audible, which sold to Amazon for $300 million, beckons.
Indeed, platforms like like Google Classroom are making it easier than ever before for teachers to experiment with digital tools and switch between apps during class. Clever, a San Francisco-based education startup that raised an additional $30 million last December, provides schools with a secure, universal login for the educational apps within its developer network. And this summer, Google Classroom paved the way for a similar user experience by making its functionality around student-teacher communication and assignment management available to approved developers. Companies like Booktrack benefit from those new platforms and integrations; teachers using both Google Classroom and Booktrack Classroom, for example, will be able to view and grade students' Booktrack homework alongside assignments completed in Google Docs or other apps.