James Patterson and the reactions of his controversial ad

 

WHO WILL SAFE OUR BOOKS?

“If there are no bookstores, no libraries, no serious publishers with passionate, dedicated, idealistic editors, what will happen to our literature? Who will discover and mentor new writers? Who will publish our important books? What will happen if there are no more books like these?

… “Why are there no impassioned editorials in influential newspapers or magazines? Who will save our books? Our libraries? Our bookstores?”

James Patterson, controversial ad in the NYT

I do a lot of things to try to raise level of awareness of what’s going on in country right now. This is an unusual and different time for books, the most unusual in the history of this country. E-books are fine and dandy, but it’s all happening so quickly, and I don’t think anyone thought through the consequences of having many fewer bookstores, of libraries being shut down or limited, of publishers going out of business — possibly in the future, many publishers going out of business.

My solutions to this point are the other things i’m doing, and it’s a lot. In terms of the big picture, yeah, if I’m gonna see Obama tomorrow — if i could see the president, I’m not sure what I’d say — because he’d say what do you want me to do?

James Patterson. This time, interviewed by Salon.

 

 

BOOKS DON’T NEED SAVING. EBOOKS ARE THRIVING.

I respect Patterson for his marketing genius. I also like many of his books. But I’m not finding much to agree with here.

“What will happen to our literature?”

Perhaps writers will write it? Aren’t they the ones who wrote all of those books on that list?

There are thousands of authors self-publishing. I’m sure some of them are writing great, important literature.

“Who will discover and mentor new writers?”

With ebooks, the readers are the ones who discover new writers. And those readers actually have a chance to discover more books than ever before, because many of them were never mentored by the establishment.

“Who will save our books? Our libraries? Our bookstores?”

Last I checked, books don’t need saving. Ebooks are thriving.

J.A. Konrath, A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing

 

 

SERIOUS PUBLISHERS? THEY’RE CALLED AUTHORS NOW.

Dude. Amazon. Biggest bookstore in the world. Growing like crazy.

Serious publishers? They’re called authors now. Nobody more serious than an indie author.

Who will publish important books? Indie authors. Who will publish serious books? Indie authors. Don’t need discovering. Don’t need mentoring. Don’t need babysitting. Don’t need pacifiers. Don’t need publishers.

What will happen to our literature? Publishers don’t create literature. Authors do. They’ll keep doing it.

Authors. Readers. Internet. Call it post-industrial publishing.

P.G., The Passive Voice

 

 

WE’D BE LOST IN VAST AMAZON-LIKE JUNGLE. 

… ‘ the more we talked the more we came around to a general point: literary agents are probably now more important than ever — for several reasons.

For beginning writers it’s tempting to say, “Hey, why do I need an agent? Why pay someone 15 percent when I can self-publish, or e-publish and keep 70 percent of the royalties?” But the real question is, “Fifteen percent of what?” The days of huge advances are over unless you’re someone with a million Twitter followers.

Their largest service is a kind of Venturi effect (holding back bad writing, accelerating the good), and if that niche were to disappear we’d be lost in vast Amazon-like jungle of lesser books. Wait a minute — that’s already happened!

An agent’s job is to keep you from getting lost-artistically, contractually.

Will Weaver, Huff Post Books blog.

 

 

WAIT, WHAT?

… “his recent ad … proposing a government bailout For failing bookstores and publishers is one of the most atrociously ludicrous ideas I’ve ever heard.

The publishing companies, to which I include Patterson among their ranks, are just like politicians; they hate the idea of regulations. They hate being told what they can and can’t do. … They hate when marketplaces evolve and the people at the bottom start to change the rules of the game.

But yet, as soon as they see things changing (which is always much much later than everyone else), they go running right to the government begging for help.

What’s besieging the industry is the fact that they refuse to evolve, refuse to embrace technological changes, refuse to listen to what the REAL consumers (the readers) are asking for

Just like when iTunes and cheap digital distribution were going to kill the music industry – which didn’t happen. Instead we have more amazing indie and small market bands than at any other time in the history of music.

Just like when piracy was going to kill the movie industry – which also didn’t happen. Now we have new film festivals popping up every year and brilliant small budget films that are being made with D-SLR’s.

Because we all know digital media and technology are the bad guy here. Yea, right.

August Wainwright blog.

 

 

NOW, WHO’S GOING TO WRITE THE EDITORIAL?

 

 

JAMES PATTERSON TO THE RESCUE!

Patterson is certainly doing his part to promote literacy.

But Patterson believes this isn’t enough. And he says that he’s not the right person who should be speaking out.

So who’s going to step up? If not book publishing company CEOs, then maybe the government. …  If not the government, then maybe the media, who Patterson says is running the same old story about the book business being in trouble.

Claire Kelley, Melville House.

 

 

We’d love to read your comments below!

Torow’s bomb: art at risk, copyrights and the denial of self-publishing.

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Scott Turow dropped the bomb

The Slow Death of the American Author.

LAST month, the Supreme Court decided to allow the importation and resale of foreign editions of American works, which are often cheaper than domestic editions. Until now, courts have forbidden such activity as a violation of copyright. Not only does this ruling open the gates to a surge in cheap imports, but since they will be sold in a secondary market, authors won’t get royalties.

That culture is now at risk. The value of copyrights is being quickly depreciated, a crisis that hits hardest not best-selling authors like me, who have benefited from most of the recent changes in bookselling, but new and so-called midlist writers.

Take e-books. They are much less expensive for publishers to produce: there are no printing, warehousing or transportation costs, and unlike physical books, there is no risk that the retailer will return the book for full credit.

But instead of using the savings to be more generous to authors, the six major publishing houses, all rigidly insist on clauses limiting e-book royalties to 25 percent of net receipts. That is roughly half of a traditional hardcover royalty.

And there are many e-books on which authors and publishers, big and small, earn nothing at all. Numerous pirate sites, supported by advertising or subscription fees, have grown up offshore, offering new and old e-books free.

Thus, under the cri de coeur that “information wants to be free,” some professors and others are calling for copyright to be curtailed or even abandoned. High-minded slogans aside, these academics are simply promoting their own careers over the livelihoods of other writers.

Now many public libraries want to lend e-books, not simply to patrons who come in to download, but to anybody with a reading device, a library card and an Internet connection. In this new reality, the only incentive to buy, rather than borrow, an e-book is the fact that the lent copy vanishes after a couple of weeks. As a result, many publishers currently refuse to sell e-books to public libraries.

An even more nightmarish version of the same problem emerged last month with the news that Amazon had a patent to resell e-books.

Why would anyone ever buy a new book again?

 Scott Turow, lawyer, president of The Authors Guild.

 

 

Reactions came quickly

Authors Guild’s Scott Turow: The Supreme Court, Google, Ebooks, Libraries & Amazon Are All Destroying Authors

We’ve written more than a few times about Scott Turow, a brilliant author, but an absolute disaster as the Luddite-driven head of the Authors’ Guild.

For the few thousand members of the Authors Guild, it’s time you found someone who was actually a visionary to lead, rather than a technology-hating reactionary pining for a mythical time in the past.

Note the implicit assumption: only publishers produce books. Turow, apparently, ignores the fact that these modern technological wonders (which he hates so much) have enabled an entire new world of massively successful self-published authors, who take advantage of this situation to realize that they don’t need publishers, and the lower costs and ease of distribution makes things much easier.

Also the idea of a literary culture at risk is laughable. More books are being published today than ever before. More people are reading books today than ever before. More people are writing books than ever before. Books that would never have been published in the past are regularly published today. There is an astounding wealth of cultural diversity in the literary world. Sure, some of it means a lot more competition for the small group of authors (only about 8,000 or so) that Turow represents… oh wait, I think we’ve perhaps touched on the reason that Turow is all upset by this. But, of course, more competition for that small group of authors does not mean the culture of books and literature is at risk at all. Quite the opposite.

Finally, the 8,000 or so authors (a mere fraction of the number of actual authors out there) who make up the Authors Guild are not served well by having someone as technologically reactionary as Turow leading them.

Mike Masnick

 (Please read the full article, it’s a must! Mike Masnick did a complete analysis of Turow’s latest NY Times opinion editorial.)

 

 

Scott Turow and the politics of cowardice. 

In fairness, in misleading readers right from the title, Turow is doing no more than following the lead of the organization he represents, which given its consistent advocacy for the interests of legacy publishing has no business pretending it fundamentally concerns itself with what might be best for authors. But choosing a name that disguises your true purpose can confer certain tactical advantages.

And it’s why an organization primarily dedicated to protecting the interests of big publishing calls itself The Authors Guild.

There are countless other examples (who wants to vote against The Patriot Act?), and I won’t try to list them all. The point is, when you see a title — whether for an organization, an article, or a concept — that’s at variance with underlying reality, you should recognize you are being bullshitted.

…another thing to watch for. When someone tries to sell you on a theory but refuses to discuss available evidence that could support or repudiate the theory, it’s another classic sign that you are being bullshitted.

Once upon a time, technology was such that the Great Guardians of Rich Culture and All That Is Good (AKA, the Establishment) could pontificate to the unwashed masses and there was no effective way for the masses to respond.

Obviously, the Internet has in many ways leveled the communications playing field, and now, when the high and mighty speak down to the masses, the masses can — and do — respond. What’s fascinating is watching the reaction of people like Scott Turow, who act as though we’re still living in a world where two-way communication isn’t a real possibility and the masses can be safely ignored.

When someone tries to pontificate to the masses, actively shuts down commentary, and refuses to respond to his critics, you can be confident you are being bullshitted.

 Barry Eisler

I don’t have much to add to Mike or Barry’s posts, other than to be grateful that they did such  good jobs, because Turow’s NYT piece was gnawing at me, begging for a response. Turow, like many bestsellers, lives in a gilded cage. He doesn’t seem to understand anything about his fellow authors, and doesn’t seem to want to learn.

Quit the Authors Guild. Quit right now, with an email explaining that the organization is not looking out for your best interests.

Joe Konrath

 

A list of things Scott Turow doesn’t care about.

On reading the latter, my first thought was: if Scott Turow didn’t spend so much time hating Amazon and pretending self-publishing didn’t exist, maybe he wouldn’t be so depressed.

What bothers me about Turow’s obsession with Amazon and his opposition to change is not his blatant disregard for the facts (or the definition of words), it’s that he allows this Luddism to become all-consuming, blinding him to the issues that really matter to writers.

Scott Turow is clearly too afraid of change to keep up with the latest developments. His New York Times piece demonstrates that he’s unaware of this new thing called self-publishing – which is enabling thousands of writers to pay bills and make a living from writing, in many cases for the very first time, thanks in no small part to Amazon. 

 David Gaughran

 

 

This is not the death of the American author.

Oh, woe be unto us, for the American author is an untenable and dying breed. The world conspires against the American author, actively seeking to destroy this noble breed!

Bullshit.

The American literary arts are certainly in trouble, but what’s happening in publishing now is no more the death of the American author than the era of Napster was the death of the American musician.

Look, Turow is very concerned about the erosion of the value of an artist’s copyright, and that’s a valid concern. But the biggest problem for the value of that copyright is it’s initial devaluation by the mainstream publishing houses. The big four (is it three yet? I think it might be three) do not treat authors (who are not bestsellers) particularly well, and are completely opaque about their practices. Authors have to fight tooth and nail to even get accurate sales numbers for their own books.

Yeah, it’s going to suck for a while, and a lot of people with expectations base on the old system are going to be very disappointed, but it’s a change, it’s not The End.

The Willarium

 

Amazon & Goodreads: Mixed reactions

 

 

“This is like finding out my mom is marrying that cool dude next door that I’ve been palling around with.”

Meanwhile, most of the people in the cities I visited strolled by bookstores without glancing inside. Most of the people in the airports weren’t reading. We are fighting amongst ourselves while the real battle is ignored.

Amazon and Goodreads have been fighting that war. If anyone thinks the fighting has been between them, I don’t know that they’ve looked up from their books and studied the landscape.

Yes, the publishing industry is going through some changes… It’s good to keep in mind that consumers are driving these changes.  

So many ways this can be good for all involved. I’m still trying to think of a way it could suck.

Hugh C. Howey, @hughhowey blog

 

 

“Amazon’s acquisition of Goodreads is a textbook example of how modern Internet monopolies can be built.”

“The key is to eliminate or absorb competitors before they pose a serious threat. With its 16 million subscribers, Goodreads could easily have become a competing on-line bookseller, or played a role in directing buyers to a site other than Amazon. Instead, Amazon has scuttled that potential and also squelched what was fast becoming the go-to venue for on-line reviews, attracting far more attention than Amazon for those seeking independent assessment and discussion of books. As those in advertising have long known, the key to driving sales is controlling information.”

Scott Turow, The Authors Guild blog

 

 

“Why didn’t someone else buy Goodreads before Amazon?”

The point isn’t that Amazon bought GoodReads. The point is why GoodReads wasn’t snapped up by a publisher years ago.

The obvious reason is that based on the rumors of a purchase price in the “low eight-figures” as some are confidently whispering, most publishers weren’t really in a position to buy Goodreads. 

The solution to keeping up with digital disruption is to have a customer relationship, one that digital tools and platforms make incredibly cheap and increasingly powerful. Goodreads is one such tool. 

And so I’ll offer this one piece of advice to publishers who may now feel like they should back away from Goodreads for fear that they are sleeping with the enemy: Don’t do it.

James McQuivey, Forbes

 

 

Goodbye Goodreads – How Amazon will ruin a Good thing.

Really, Goodreads?  You’ve forsaken all the other opportunities to partner with independent bookstores, Kobo, even Barnes & Noble & the Nook?  How about iPad?  Also, who at Amazon has a love of books or authors?

Jarek Steele

 

 

“Amazon just locked up discovery for the next couple years.”

When it comes to which website’s pages come up first upon searching Google for a book, Amazon and Goodreads vie for dominance. Now, the former has bought out the competition.

“Brilliant move by Amazon,” said Mark Coker, an outspoken digital publishing commenter and founder and CEO of Smashwords, one of the the largest distributors of self-published ebooks. “Amazon just locked up discovery for the next couple years.”

Jeremy Greenfield, Digital Book World

 

 

The Simple Reason Why Goodreads Is So Valuable to Amazon

Today, the publishing industry survives on super fans — book worms who read far more than most Americans, and who tell their friends what to read as well. By picking up Goodreads, Amazon gets to tap into those super fans. Simple. 

So Amazon has just bought the ecosystem where many of America’s most influential readers choose their books. How exactly they’ll use it isn’t entirely clear yet.

Jordan Weissmann, The Atlantic

 

 

Amazon Acquires Social Reading Site Goodreads, Which Gives The Company A Social Advantage Over Apple.

This type of social integration could give Amazon a major advantage over e-sellers like Apple, who have no social components to their product whatsoever. With people actually discussing and sharing the books that they’re into, having an Amazon direct connect makes complete sense. The site can offer special deals to Goodreads users, which in essence is now Amazon’s book-reading social network.

Drew Olanoff, TechCrunch

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Good reads for all

The acquisition of Goodreads by Amazon serves as a reminder of how bifurcated the book business now is.

As Porter Anderson details in his fine column at Publishing Perspectives: “The Amazonian Apocalypse indeed was upon us. We were up to our digital derrieres in that greatest of all booky community blessings: reach out and share the hysteria.”

The acquisition struck a nerve because for many Goodreads had come to be seen as the antithesis of Amazon. A website for book lovers that held your hand rather than rifled through your pockets looking for small change. It was also exploring a bit of the world that Amazon was NOT doing well, the area we now define as discoverability. As Goodreads founder Otis Chandler put it in his blog about the sale: “Our team gets out of bed every day motivated by the belief that the right book in the right hands can change the world.”

There are millions of books sold each year without the commercial intervention of Amazon or the guiding voices at Goodreads. Odd that we keep forgetting this.

Philip Jones, Future Book

 

 

Would love to read your comments!

Goodreads and Amazon, what does it sound like?

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For all the reasons and tools outlined in this previews post ‘Goodreads for Authors. Promote your books’, I’m a Goodreads fan.  To name some: 

 

You can find your next book to read.

You can qualify a book

You can comment or review and recommend (or not) a book,.

You can create or join groups.

The Author Program has great tools to help readers to find your book.

It’s great to interact with readers, to create a community.

Writers can ask for reviews.

Writers can announce an event or launch of a new book.

You can connect your Goodreads account with your Facebook or Twitter accounts.

 

So when I first read the words Amazon and Goodreads together -‘Exciting news about Goodreads: We’re joining the Amazon family!’-, it sounded like a strange noise to me; specially marked by the term Family. My first reaction was: they chose a group, they left the independence side. What a pity!, because independence was one of Goodreads great values.

But, as they announced that ‘Amazon supports us continuing to grow our vision as an independent entity, under the Goodreads brand and with our unique culture’, I hope I’m wrong. I hope nothing will change and I can still be a Goodreads fan without needing a Kindle in hands or feeling influenced.

We’ll see. It needs time.

 

So… Goodreads & Amazon, what does it sound to you? We’d love to hear your comments!

 

LIBRARIES: the hot topic - Part II

 

NEW DISTRIBUTION MODEL FOR SCHOOL LIBRARIES.

“One ebook, one device, for one child. It makes sense if you’re a parent looking to provide reading material for your son or daughter. But this model is not always practical for K-12 schools and their libraries.”

 

 

 

LIBRARIES RISK BECOMING IRRELEVANT IF THEY DO NOT  START LENDING DIGITAL BOOKS.

“It is plain that an inability to offer digital lending will make libraries increasingly irrelevant in a relatively short time. Library services therefore do not have the luxury of waiting any longer to expand, or in many cases start, their provision of digital lending,” wrote the head of the review William Sieghart, publisher and Forward prize founder.

 

 

LIBRARIANS CLOSE TO SATAN.

“In publishers’ eyes librarians are “sitting close to Satan”, declared Phil Bradley, president of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. Some publishers have refused to sell their e-books to public libraries, made them prohibitively costly or put severe restrictions on their use. Although 71% of British public libraries lend out e-books, 85% of e-book titles are not available in public libraries. In America the average public library makes available only 4,350 e-books (Amazon, an online retail giant, stocks more than 1.7m).”

 

 

ASKING FOR A BOOK BENCH.

“We wind up apologizing: for getting an Adobe ID; for having several separate ebook systems; for the number of steps involved in getting an ebook onto a reading device. And that’s just to the 38% of library users who even know we have ebooks.

“We want to suggest a new app. We’re calling it Book Bench. It’s an aggregated ebook reading app that would bring books from all library ebook vendors together in one place. This would allow libraries to promote a single service with a consistent user experience.” 

 

 WE’D LOVE TO READ YOUR COMMENTS!
 

Vine time to promote your ebooks.

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Short time, really short; only 6-seconds are enough to turn this app into a great tool for twitter fans.

To add a 6-second video to 140 characters, as Vine describes itself, you need to ‘found abbreviation –the shortened form of something larger; share something in motion in 6 seconds’. It’s really –really!- easy to use. The hard part is finding a creative way to show your ebook.

So, if you use your imagination and sharpen your creativity, it’ll be great to use this new art-form to share your book. You must download the app, available -up to now- for iPhone and iPod touch. And it’s free; yes, free. Just like in Twitter, upload your photo, write a few words about yourself (bio). Remember to include your site, Twitter, Facebook and all the data you can to make yourself available for readers.

There’s an Explore section where you can get inspired seeing others activity on Vine, search people or tags, see the editor’s picks, the most popular videos and tags. Here, you also have Followings and Followers, and there’s a Profile section to add some simple data and connect with your Twitter and Facebook account.

The video appears on a clean screen, there’s no title bars or bottom menu (!). Abbreviate something by the motion technique here is simple because it is ready to capture motion. Press the camera icon to start. When you see the image you want to film, press the screen. Ready?, filmed?, release the screen. Choose another image, press the screen, film, release the screen and… so on till 6 seconds.

When your video is ready, add a few words and share it on Twitter and/or Facebook. You can write multiple characters but remember that if you tweet it, only 140 will appear legible.

6 seconds. It’s not much, so here is when creativity and imagination get the best part. If you fall into cliches and your video is one-more-video, you better upload a photo of your book cover. Remember, for instance, that these 6 seconds are repeated again and again; then creating something cyclical is a good option.

Oops! We couldn’t find yet great examples of ebook promotion. If you have one, please leave the link on the comment! But here are a few ideas to get inspired and adapt into an ebook promotion.

 

Imagine your words going from paper to digital 

Show your ebook (or a free giveaway or a discount promotion) in a funny way.

 

 

 

Thank your readers.

 

 

This is how Simon & Schuster CA recommend books.

Or show the cover, first paragraph and the last sentence of your ebook, filming an ereader screen in motion.

You may follow vine blog to be aware of its news. 

And remember you need to create something that draws attention to get it retweeted, to capture word-of-mouth, because that’s what you’re chasing with Vine. It never fails to appeal to humor or feelings in a creative way.

 

We’ll appreciate your comments!

 

The difference between selling a book as a Marketer or as its Author.

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Photo Credit: seeveeaar (Creative Commons)

 

The best of being a writer in the self-publish era is the sense of freedom of knowing you can publish any book you want, when you want to and without waiting for any approval. But for some writers, the excitement lasts until they begin to get lost in social media and sale tips that jump (attack?) from internet every time they turn on the computer.

The only certain and proven task is that it is convenient to create presence before the book is published; or, in other words, start building a platform just at the same time you write the first paragraph of the book. You need to be ‘there’; your books would need to be ‘available’. As Joe Konrath wrote, ‘I believe it is all about being seen. Once you are under a reader’s nose, some will buy.’

Everything else is subjective, personal. ‘Do this’, ‘Say that’, ‘Don’t tweet this because…’, ‘You need help, enter here’, ‘You don’t need any help, do it yourself!’. How can anyone say that THESE TIPS work exactly to engage THESE READERS and you’ll sell thousands of books?

If you want to scare a writer, tell him that in order to advertise his book he has to become a ‘marketer’. Like a horror story, he feels in the middle of a forest, trees are growing taller, the vegetation becomes increasingly dense, it’s getting dark and he barely sees the sky or the exit; a sinister echo repeats:  marketing, marketing, maaaakerting… And he wakes up scared, assuming he has not the slightest idea where to start.

What if he changes the nightmare, forgets the marketing and advertising words and simply remains a writer in direct contact with his readers? It cannot be proved that people choose a book through Twitter or Facebook, to name some. In fact, according to this toc.oreilly post, ‘a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll revealed that four out of five Facebook users have never bought a product or service as a result of advertising or comments on the social network site. In addition, researchers at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute found that less than 1% of fans of the 200 biggest brands on Facebook actually engaged.’

What we can assure is that Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc., are places to start conversations, engagements. Nobody knows the book better than the author himself so maybe he can just interact with readers on Twitter, write a blog, answer some mails (yes, still effective!) or encourage creating a community on Goodreads –which, by the way, as reported in the last TOC Conference in New York, it’s gaining more and more weight on the decisions of the over 15 million registered users. No one needs to be a marketing genius to do that. 

Just stay active and found your niche, your tribe.

Don’t convert ‘promotion’ into an obsession or translate it into something impossible, only for experts. There is no formula for success or bestseller secrets. If you decide you want to learn something more about Twitter, which are the best images for Pinterest or study something about metadata, good for you! But if you decide not to publish a book because you’re scared with all the promotion tasks you’ve read you must do, you are missing out self-publishing opportunities.

A writer’s job is to be a good writer interacting with his tribe. A good marketer could sell many copies of his first book; a good writer can sell many copies of all of his books.   

 

We want to hear your opinion. How do you interact with your tribe? Do you feel trapped in social media? 

LIBRARIES: the hot topic

He started the discussion

Libraries ‘have had their day’, says Horrible Histories author

Libraries “have been around too long” and are “no longer relevant”, according to Horrible Histories author Terry Deary, an apparently lone literary voice to believe that libraries have “had their day”.

 “Books aren’t public property, and writers aren’t Enid Blyton, middle-class women indulging in a pleasant little hobby. They’ve got to make a living. Authors, booksellers and publishers need to eat. We don’t expect to go to a food library to be fed.”

What other industry creates a product and allows someone else to give it away, endlessly?

Librarians are lovely people and libraries are lovely places, but they are damaging the book industry. They are putting bookshops out of business, and I’m afraid we have to look at what place they have in the 21st century.”

 

 

They answered

 

Why Terry Deary is Wrong: The Case For Libraries - If someone too poor or otherwise unable to buy a specific product is given that product for free, has the product’s creator lost a sale?

In most instances, I’d argue, the answer is no. You can’t lose money that doesn’t exist in the first place, or which your potential customer is unable to spend on whatever it is you’re selling. What you’ve lost, if anything, is a specific product, and therefore the opportunity to sell it to someone who can pay. 

 

 

We gathered a few passionate statements from 20 writers that emphasize why libraries aren’t “sentimental” institutions. See what Neil Gaiman, Judy Blume, Ray Bradbury, and other writers have to contribute to the conversation.
(Ok… many of them didn’t live in the ebook era) 

 

 

 
 
 

Some fresh new air

 

It’s not what a library stocks, it’s what it shares - The first digital-only library in the US raises key questions about the broader purpose of a library - 

It will retain all the important features:more than 100 e-readersavailable to borrow, with more than 10,000 ebooks– and visitors can bring their own devices, too.

Ebooks and libraries don’t always mix well. Many libraries still mark a borrowed ebook as “out” (and therefore unavailable to other readers) just like a paper book, despite the electronic copy’s infinite reproducibility. Others insist readers visit the actual building to download and “check out” ebooks.

There are obvious problems with applying the traditional library model to ebooks; but there are also very good reasons for retaining libraries. They are not just places to read books, they are public spaces providing a range of services. These are essential to people on lower incomes, beneficial to all, and they are adjusting to different roles. 

The physical institution remains essential.

 

 

Luckily, fun never lack

 

 

 

What’s your opinion?

Ebook price: PAY what you want / as you go / what you read

Photo Credit: flattrcom (Creative Commons)


We can keep on talking about which is the most convenient price of an ebook, the struggle between the Big 5 or 6, if indie and self-pub authors set very low prices that discredit their work; OR we can begin to assess some concepts that are already hovering the universe of indie ebook authors and can give this matter a twist.


Pay What You Want. Doesn’t this sound like the end of piracy? The one who downloads an ebook without paying a cent, will continue doing it even if the book is protected, even if the PDF version is awful and even if the book costs 0,99-cents. He is a “pay-zero-reader” and he won’t affect sales or royalties books. Instead, he can increase downloads and ebooks circulation if he reads it legally. You need to focus on the rest of readers, the ones who pay for the ebook, and empower them to decide how much they would like to pay for it. Perhaps they will pay U$1,5 for the first book of a series but, if they liked it, they will pay U$5 for the second one.

This phrase toured tweetland last week: ‘The PERFECT way to make love to an author:  READ their book, write a REVIEW…and PASS it along to another friend.’ Did you notice this author says nothing about paying a fortune for his book? Read, review and pass along. Payment will be a consequence.


PWYW, but within a price range. If you aren’t willing to give a free ebook -although we could discuss that in another post!- you may let readers decide but within a price range, or simply set a minimum price. ‘Dear Reader, between 0,99 and 5, how much do you want to pay?’


Pay-As-You-Go. This is incredibly useful for textbooks, study books, researches, etc. We all know that ‘transfer and reproduction without authorization is strictly forbidden’ but we all use photocopies or free printouts textbooks fractions. If we could buy a particular chapter, just the pages we need or half of the book, why would we pay for an illegal reproduction when we could directly pay to the writer and download an optimum version?

Take a look at the student friendly ValoBox startup.


Pay what you read. An Israeli company, Total Boox, is already using this system. Readers get free access to all books and pay for what they actually read… when they read it. It’s a great service for “I-rarely- finish-a-book” readers.


Ads or sponsorships inside ebooks: yes or no? This doesn’t seem to be something that readers will appreciate or thank. By now, most advertising are in the devices and no one dares to include them within the text. The idea is still unsuccessful, but…. Who knows what will happen? Magazines and newspapers are full of advertisements and we are all used to read them that way. The clear advantage would be a cheaper or even a free ebook. May be it’s more appropriate for non-fiction books. Fiction writers can advertise their other books by linking to their sales site.


We, the readers, appreciate the trust and responsibility that the writer puts in such decision. None of these options will result in a drop of sales or profits.

Something has to change in price policy. It has to evolve. What changes would you try?


New content, small teams and pricing models: publishing changes.

Photo Credit: khalid Albaih (Creative Commons)


A lot of concepts tweeted from the Bookseller’s FutureBook 2012 Conference #fbook12 smell good for self/indie-publishing and digital content!


Publishing is changing, no doubt about that. Changing to where? Changing to small teams -of authors or the author himself- focused on their consumers rather than big publishers focused on their own business; changing to writers having the control of their work rather than delegating it to a third party.

‏@Porter_Anderson #fbook12 @rebecsmart @OspreyBooks: “Specialize… in the customer…the future will be small teams focused on their consumers.”

Writers engaged with their work and their readers. Not obsessed with social media and marketing, still ‘obsessed’ with improving their writing, but involved with these tools as part of this publishing revolution. Email lists and word of mouth, still leading.

@thecreativepenn #fbook12 email marketing still #1 for repeat shoppers & brand retention. Totally agree. Authors must focus on list building as priority!


New ideas, new formats, audience is changing. Audience isn’t looking for new books; it’s looking for new experiences WITH books. Something else to enrich the content.

@TheLitPlatform Pottermore is not an e-book sales business, these only represent 40% revenue as a business. Charlie Redmayne #Fbook12

@PublicityBooks#fbook12 our children will have new experiences with books,more interactive. We must grow new ideas and break downboundaries. #Raccah


@TheLitPlatform Shift to creating books for audience rather than finding audience for our books via crowdsourcing & conversation

Not so sure about this. It’s time to use one of the advantages of self-publishing and digital formats. Write what you want, every niche has it readers. This sounds better:

@Profwriting #fbook12 Joanna Penn- as a micro publisher I don’t have overheads you guys have, therefore I can write what I want and make. Living.


Something has to change in the pricing models. Free content and e-lending are shouting: NOW! Movie ticket sales haven’t decline since movies can be downloaded for free, watched at home or in the seat of a plane. Ebook sales won’t fall if an e-lending model without boundaries becomes reality.

“The crux of the matter is that the paid content ecosystem is getting very fragmented.” … “Such fragmentation is inevitable given the breadth of the content industry, but it is a pain for consumers and publishers alike. As a consumer buying a book I have a lot of decisions to make – where to buy it, what version I want and which platform I want to commit to. After purchasing a number of books I can end up searching through a number of different apps and websites to find the book I bought a few months ago.” Oliver Brooks in Buy once, sync anywhere blog post. 

‏@Goodereader: Pricing panel: big frustration to publisher is a customer who wants to buy ebook & can’t because in wrong country.#fbook12

‏@matteoberlucchi Ebooks aboard by RCS is pretty much the same as movies on planes. It’s a value added service and also a way to discover new books #fbook12


And last but not least: agents and middlemen will have to find their place without trying to give the impression that they have to stay where they are to avoid that the publishing industry losses prestige.  

@Porter_Anderson #fbook12 ”The Future Editorial Product” @kreeve ”I’d like to propose that we need a new role in #publishing for editorial.”

‏@thebookseller Geller: we are no longer an ‘agent’, we are ‘copyright managers’#fbook12


@TheFutureBook #fbook12 Johnson: everything has changed about the gaming industry in the past five years: the change in publishing has barely begun.

You said it!