here's my twitter stream from the TOC (Tools of Change) conference:
that's all she wrote - O'Reilly TOC is over for 2o1o about 7 hours ago via web
working with audiences we know that some create more value than others - Dale Dougherty -- might not be good rgrdng internet democratizing about 11 hours ago via web
enhancing ebooks is not adding bells and whistles, just enhance the reading process: Peter Meyers. #toccon about 12 hours ago via HootSuite Retweeted by you and 4 others
is electricity like content? there was once a time we paid for it, but now we expect it free. look at laptop users at the conference #toccon about 12 hours ago via web
treat twitter like a dinner party when thinking about what you say - Andy Hunter (electric literature mag) about 12 hours ago via web
you can't keep it from being available online (because of piracy), but you can decide whether you participate in the sale or not #toccon about 13 hours ago via web
so what if digital sales cannibalize print sales when people will pirate content online if its otherwise not available? #toccon about 13 hours ago via web
odets room is filling up already even before the last session ended #toccon 2:26 PM Feb 23rd via web
while at the copyright session at TOC, saw someone at this site: http://questioncopyright.org/ #toccon 2:15 PM Feb 23rd via web
blogging about TOC at http://ollav.com 2:03 PM Feb 23rd via web
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
TOC: wednesday keynotes
frances pintler
ice cream metaphor: your content is plain vanilla ice cream. your printed physical book is an ice cream cone. your ice cream sundae is an enhanced ebook.
Greco & Wharton: university presses & open access - public tax dollars should be used for online copies - cover the copy costs for the digital files - press is then open to make cash off printed copies - works for US, but academic monographs are a world wide phenomena - libraries (their budgets) are the place where global money may be able for the International Library Coalition for Access to Books (ILCAB) - this may allow the cost of a monograph to come down to $2 a copy - currently monographs sell about 400 copies at around $80 each
====================
anthony antolino (copier - DMC worldwide)
keys to customer loyalty: user experience, connections, discover meaningful content quickly and efficiently
copia unleashes boolean search to allow better UI than a secret boolean language. also uses tagging for searching. also offers mosaic view for visual search. endless shelf for browsing. combat social fatigue when engaging with social networks (import friend lists, syndicate to other networks). runs a community algorithm to find how much a title corresponds across multiple silos including user ratings and tagging
====================
ramy habeeb
the Arab publishing market is considerably behind the English language market. this is an emerging economy market. 325,000 million Arabs worldwide, 120,000 in NYC it is a market the size of the US. this market though is not necessarily aware of eBooks. 80% of Arab works are available only 5km from the publishing houses in Egypt. however in kiosks though books are readily available grouped according to genre (even Harlequin). censorship is a real problem, but it was in the English speaking market not too long ago. the best way to combat it is to develop the market. the most dangerous censorship is self censorship but again that will go away. at the moment there is no viable OCR for Arabic so it is all hand keyed. unconscious censorship happens during this process. a typist was caught not typing up some pages because he said "but what was in the book wasn't true so I didn't type it". there can be innocent unintentional censorship. the Arabic world does not know about BISAC, BIC, MARC, ePub, ONIX, or even ISBN.
of 80 million in egypt 55 m are not connected, 45m have mobile phone, 15m have internet and 5m have mobile internet. some villages don't have a library or bookstore, but two mobile phone stores so it may be a viable way to distribute books.
PoD has been a great bridge builder between US and Arabic world. It serves the 4m Arabs in the US. You just need to think differently since things like ISBN might be there. Enable people on the ground to sell your book.
In Bangladesh there was an SMS learn English tool that had hundreds of thousands of users.
====================
tim o'reilly
when trying for enhanced eBooks you are betting you are smarter, faster, and more creative then all the competition. innovation actually comes from authors. The innovation is not what publishers have traditionally done.
"The ugly stuff will always need to be done." - John Ingram
production, distribution, pricing, channel management, sales are the things a publisher needs to be good at.
"obscurity is a bigger problem for authors than piracy" - Tim O'Reilly
Power laws, weblogs and inequality - essay that points out that there are top blogs and that it did not become the voice of everyone that we though it would be. The top blogs are actually publishers. The Huffington Post is where authors write because they get more exposure and its better than their own blog. The app store is also facing this with having too many apps to wade through. Once its the size of a haystack you have a switch that favors certain bits of hay and the rest falls to obscurity.
"Large societies can function economical only if the have a redistributive economy in addition to a reciprocal economy" Guns Germs, and Steel
Those that know how to get eyeballs on their website win. It may be publishers and it may be retailers.
"The minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort" - Lessons Learned blog
What you need is the capability to create the product quickly in new formats and sell it into emerging markets.
Most of what O'Reilly does on twitter is re-tweet. He has a ton of followers (see power law) and is effectively a publisher. One of the things a publisher does is bestow status on their product and really what you do is promote authors.
If you only pay attention to your own news then you aren't as valuable to your social network community and you're not engaging in the conversation.
O'Reilly event listings are about the authors, so events are listed regardless of whether it is an O'Reilly event or not. They want to be a hub, not just an endpoint. You're also proving yourself as a status builder if you're doing it for things outside your direct product.
Analytics are the heart of SEO and this is also true of social networking. You need to have good analytics for social network marketing. Take a look for instance at PeopleBrowser. You should have a cycle: Direct Message -> reporting -> Monitoring -> Analysis -> Build Followers
eBooks will also have great analytics because an eBook knows its being read. We can discover what the prices should be because we have the technology now to experiment (which the Apple Agency model allows).
A Story for Bed is an interesting product because its one you specifically buy to share with someone else. Social media will help develop this product as it evolves.
Social media is about how you can add value, not you or your story, or your product. Create more value than you capture. It's not just about what you get out of it, it's what you put into it for others.
ice cream metaphor: your content is plain vanilla ice cream. your printed physical book is an ice cream cone. your ice cream sundae is an enhanced ebook.
Greco & Wharton: university presses & open access - public tax dollars should be used for online copies - cover the copy costs for the digital files - press is then open to make cash off printed copies - works for US, but academic monographs are a world wide phenomena - libraries (their budgets) are the place where global money may be able for the International Library Coalition for Access to Books (ILCAB) - this may allow the cost of a monograph to come down to $2 a copy - currently monographs sell about 400 copies at around $80 each
====================
anthony antolino (copier - DMC worldwide)
keys to customer loyalty: user experience, connections, discover meaningful content quickly and efficiently
copia unleashes boolean search to allow better UI than a secret boolean language. also uses tagging for searching. also offers mosaic view for visual search. endless shelf for browsing. combat social fatigue when engaging with social networks (import friend lists, syndicate to other networks). runs a community algorithm to find how much a title corresponds across multiple silos including user ratings and tagging
====================
ramy habeeb
the Arab publishing market is considerably behind the English language market. this is an emerging economy market. 325,000 million Arabs worldwide, 120,000 in NYC it is a market the size of the US. this market though is not necessarily aware of eBooks. 80% of Arab works are available only 5km from the publishing houses in Egypt. however in kiosks though books are readily available grouped according to genre (even Harlequin). censorship is a real problem, but it was in the English speaking market not too long ago. the best way to combat it is to develop the market. the most dangerous censorship is self censorship but again that will go away. at the moment there is no viable OCR for Arabic so it is all hand keyed. unconscious censorship happens during this process. a typist was caught not typing up some pages because he said "but what was in the book wasn't true so I didn't type it". there can be innocent unintentional censorship. the Arabic world does not know about BISAC, BIC, MARC, ePub, ONIX, or even ISBN.
of 80 million in egypt 55 m are not connected, 45m have mobile phone, 15m have internet and 5m have mobile internet. some villages don't have a library or bookstore, but two mobile phone stores so it may be a viable way to distribute books.
PoD has been a great bridge builder between US and Arabic world. It serves the 4m Arabs in the US. You just need to think differently since things like ISBN might be there. Enable people on the ground to sell your book.
In Bangladesh there was an SMS learn English tool that had hundreds of thousands of users.
====================
tim o'reilly
when trying for enhanced eBooks you are betting you are smarter, faster, and more creative then all the competition. innovation actually comes from authors. The innovation is not what publishers have traditionally done.
"The ugly stuff will always need to be done." - John Ingram
production, distribution, pricing, channel management, sales are the things a publisher needs to be good at.
"obscurity is a bigger problem for authors than piracy" - Tim O'Reilly
Power laws, weblogs and inequality - essay that points out that there are top blogs and that it did not become the voice of everyone that we though it would be. The top blogs are actually publishers. The Huffington Post is where authors write because they get more exposure and its better than their own blog. The app store is also facing this with having too many apps to wade through. Once its the size of a haystack you have a switch that favors certain bits of hay and the rest falls to obscurity.
"Large societies can function economical only if the have a redistributive economy in addition to a reciprocal economy" Guns Germs, and Steel
Those that know how to get eyeballs on their website win. It may be publishers and it may be retailers.
"The minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort" - Lessons Learned blog
What you need is the capability to create the product quickly in new formats and sell it into emerging markets.
Most of what O'Reilly does on twitter is re-tweet. He has a ton of followers (see power law) and is effectively a publisher. One of the things a publisher does is bestow status on their product and really what you do is promote authors.
If you only pay attention to your own news then you aren't as valuable to your social network community and you're not engaging in the conversation.
O'Reilly event listings are about the authors, so events are listed regardless of whether it is an O'Reilly event or not. They want to be a hub, not just an endpoint. You're also proving yourself as a status builder if you're doing it for things outside your direct product.
Analytics are the heart of SEO and this is also true of social networking. You need to have good analytics for social network marketing. Take a look for instance at PeopleBrowser. You should have a cycle: Direct Message -> reporting -> Monitoring -> Analysis -> Build Followers
eBooks will also have great analytics because an eBook knows its being read. We can discover what the prices should be because we have the technology now to experiment (which the Apple Agency model allows).
A Story for Bed is an interesting product because its one you specifically buy to share with someone else. Social media will help develop this product as it evolves.
Social media is about how you can add value, not you or your story, or your product. Create more value than you capture. It's not just about what you get out of it, it's what you put into it for others.
TOC: agile
dave thomas, andy hunt (the pragmatic programmers)
medium size publisher - the accidental publisher - both programmers that read books, but no nothing of the industry - riding out the current storm - would not have gotten into publishing if they knew what it meant - did all their own work when using a publisher (even had to do own indexing), so figured why not self publish
categories to satisfy: readers, authors, business, production. collectively called four axis of incompetence
in tech books too often the author tries to show off knowledge to the lowly reader. "guide by your side, not a sage on the stage" is the goal. The Dreyfus Model of skill acquisition and Bloom's Hierarchy are things to look to when figuring this out. Your reader follows the Hero's Journey where the start with a big goal of understanding the subject matter, so you start small, gain difficulty, and finally send the hero home a changed person.
Publish without DRM because they want the reader to enjoy and not have anything get in the way and so far no issues.
Readers
Focused on community via website as destination, talks, screencasts, beta programs to encourage participation. Instead of only releasing the book as a finished product some books are selected to be released when about 75% complete. People buy the book and are eligible to receive all versions until the book reaches completion. This has been a major win for readers and authors. Readers get access to the information early and the authors get instant feedback and make the books better.
Authors
No MS Word. Standard contract for everyone to keep it simple - no special deals. No advances and 50% royalties (except one title). Some titles (4%) get more than 400K in royalties. The bulk (29%) get $25-50k. They have no idea if this is great because they're the only one to publish this data [murmurs in crowd that it was "freaking awesome"]. Authors get real time sales data, real time foreign rights data. Authors get money from beta immediately, so in one way you could say they get an advance.
Cheap, lazy, close to customer.
Cheap. Always cash flow positive. No marketing really, just word of mouth. One (almost) employee full time in production area. Business mostly runs itself (once a month download some data, once a quarter cut royalty check).
Close to customer. Don't use amazon store. build direct relationships. combo packs and betas mean people come to them first. avoid 3rd party distribution (no Apple app store or amazon). Authors can upload changes to books and customers can download. Quirky - weird sense of humor: emails come from gerbils up in the cloud, an in joke. Responsive - handle own support and try to be very responsive. Customer is amazingly forgiving with problems since they get real person and no form letters. They are much happier with the personal touch.[]
Units sold have recently switched to direct sales instead of channel sales which means higher profit margin. eBooks are now roughly 50% of the business. They can't deal with channel demands such as 7 month notice on new titles, which is difficult because they create books faster than that. eBooks mean no more channels for them.
production
agile: automated, repeatable, testable, distributed, build any time, iterative
book side is almost completely automated. They can create ebook in 37 seconds while others are doing things like going from mobi to indesign in 5 days.
they use one markup language. PML (pragmatic markup language). Only one author pushed back and they canceled the book (out of 250 authors). PML is simple, logical, target-independent, used by authors editors indexers copy editors and layout folk. PML is an XML that is made to look like HTML and be easy to read. The same format is used end to end. For instance their's for the first use of a term. They didn't use docbook because it doesn't work great for authors. Most of the authors are technical so some use vi, emacs, oxygen, or whatever they want using the PML DTD.
Combine PML with assets (images, codes (code kept separate to allow easy updates and is runable & testable) ) combined in build process to go to PDF, device or paper. The build process has no hands on contact. They run one single command to build the book out.
have a centralized repository that has all books, presentations, content, publicity, accounting and is located in the cloud and backed up. When an author joins, they get a login to the repository and can check out all the tools and a skeleton book that they can work with. Editors also can connect to the cloud to work with the book and use special markup to communicate back and forth with the authors. The indexing happens their automatically. The copy editor starts editing the title directly while the author is in read only mode. In the next stage it goes to layout which is still using PML. There is continuous build so the author can always get the latest build via their author portal. There is versioning at every step. Reporting is amazingly detailed. (there's one tag called layout which allows for all print specific things such as window/orphan)
downsample images to work on smaller devices. all code has a link to download the code from their site.
pragprog.com
use malloy for paper book fulfillment. there's social DRM, they put the customer's name at the bottom of every page.
we control the relationship through the central site to better server the readers
if you give someone a spreadsheet then it means your boss thinks you are less valuable than a programmer. automation keeps mistakes from happening. do not allow special cases from author (they are special, but its because of the content they create not the special font they want). Create trust through transparency and share to everyone you can. Have direct relationships and do not give them away to amazon or apple. Use gerbils. Everyone needs gerbils.
They use amazon S3 for the cloud.
For management and career books they experimented with allowing authors to write without the tags. That worked when the content did not require the tags. They still created PML, but let the authors use an easier interface.
medium size publisher - the accidental publisher - both programmers that read books, but no nothing of the industry - riding out the current storm - would not have gotten into publishing if they knew what it meant - did all their own work when using a publisher (even had to do own indexing), so figured why not self publish
categories to satisfy: readers, authors, business, production. collectively called four axis of incompetence
in tech books too often the author tries to show off knowledge to the lowly reader. "guide by your side, not a sage on the stage" is the goal. The Dreyfus Model of skill acquisition and Bloom's Hierarchy are things to look to when figuring this out. Your reader follows the Hero's Journey where the start with a big goal of understanding the subject matter, so you start small, gain difficulty, and finally send the hero home a changed person.
Publish without DRM because they want the reader to enjoy and not have anything get in the way and so far no issues.
Readers
Focused on community via website as destination, talks, screencasts, beta programs to encourage participation. Instead of only releasing the book as a finished product some books are selected to be released when about 75% complete. People buy the book and are eligible to receive all versions until the book reaches completion. This has been a major win for readers and authors. Readers get access to the information early and the authors get instant feedback and make the books better.
Authors
No MS Word. Standard contract for everyone to keep it simple - no special deals. No advances and 50% royalties (except one title). Some titles (4%) get more than 400K in royalties. The bulk (29%) get $25-50k. They have no idea if this is great because they're the only one to publish this data [murmurs in crowd that it was "freaking awesome"]. Authors get real time sales data, real time foreign rights data. Authors get money from beta immediately, so in one way you could say they get an advance.
Cheap, lazy, close to customer.
Cheap. Always cash flow positive. No marketing really, just word of mouth. One (almost) employee full time in production area. Business mostly runs itself (once a month download some data, once a quarter cut royalty check).
Close to customer. Don't use amazon store. build direct relationships. combo packs and betas mean people come to them first. avoid 3rd party distribution (no Apple app store or amazon). Authors can upload changes to books and customers can download. Quirky - weird sense of humor: emails come from gerbils up in the cloud, an in joke. Responsive - handle own support and try to be very responsive. Customer is amazingly forgiving with problems since they get real person and no form letters. They are much happier with the personal touch.[]
Units sold have recently switched to direct sales instead of channel sales which means higher profit margin. eBooks are now roughly 50% of the business. They can't deal with channel demands such as 7 month notice on new titles, which is difficult because they create books faster than that. eBooks mean no more channels for them.
production
agile: automated, repeatable, testable, distributed, build any time, iterative
book side is almost completely automated. They can create ebook in 37 seconds while others are doing things like going from mobi to indesign in 5 days.
they use one markup language. PML (pragmatic markup language). Only one author pushed back and they canceled the book (out of 250 authors). PML is simple, logical, target-independent, used by authors editors indexers copy editors and layout folk. PML is an XML that is made to look like HTML and be easy to read. The same format is used end to end. For instance their's
Combine PML with assets (images, codes (code kept separate to allow easy updates and is runable & testable) ) combined in build process to go to PDF, device or paper. The build process has no hands on contact. They run one single command to build the book out.
have a centralized repository that has all books, presentations, content, publicity, accounting and is located in the cloud and backed up. When an author joins, they get a login to the repository and can check out all the tools and a skeleton book that they can work with. Editors also can connect to the cloud to work with the book and use special markup to communicate back and forth with the authors. The indexing happens their automatically. The copy editor starts editing the title directly while the author is in read only mode. In the next stage it goes to layout which is still using PML. There is continuous build so the author can always get the latest build via their author portal. There is versioning at every step. Reporting is amazingly detailed. (there's one tag called layout which allows for all print specific things such as window/orphan)
downsample images to work on smaller devices. all code has a link to download the code from their site.
pragprog.com
use malloy for paper book fulfillment. there's social DRM, they put the customer's name at the bottom of every page.
we control the relationship through the central site to better server the readers
if you give someone a spreadsheet then it means your boss thinks you are less valuable than a programmer. automation keeps mistakes from happening. do not allow special cases from author (they are special, but its because of the content they create not the special font they want). Create trust through transparency and share to everyone you can. Have direct relationships and do not give them away to amazon or apple. Use gerbils. Everyone needs gerbils.
They use amazon S3 for the cloud.
For management and career books they experimented with allowing authors to write without the tags. That worked when the content did not require the tags. They still created PML, but let the authors use an easier interface.
TOC: Doing Your Own Thing
dale dougherty (make magazine)
84,000 people listed their primary occupation in the US census. Amateurs like to act like pros. The audience likes this too.
entusiasts - do something that builds a following based on what they do (see guitar zero)
your idea becomes my idea
Create Your Own Economy by Tyler Cowen - twitter & facebook can be seen as tools of production, not consumption. the user is in control
what's difference about publishing today is that we use the same tools our customers use. we no longer have access to limited things like presses or distribution.
people build a me network to maintain their network (like maintaining a friendship) and not always seeking to expand it. Each of us is already connected to many social networks, both fixed and fluid, professional and personal.
social networks used to be fixed (where you grow up, where you go to work), but now anyone can build a custom network. we build a "my network" as a social stack which includes identify, relationships, and activity. we all make the news
understand things by participating in them - Jay Rosen's mindcasting
a web 2.0 media strategy seeks to build a network of users whose interactions create value. the challenge is that the interactions happen everywhere, not just on a single web site or single device. make magazine articles get more comments on facebook than their site. Google may have the right idea with their API. see Social Graph API for site connectivity data
socialgraphics will help us understand the network associated with a person via social media analytics (peopleBrowser or squawq)
working with audiences we know that some create more value than others and we may want to respond to them differently
tremendous uptake in physical things being used to create a data feed to twitter
used the term "maker" to unify those with various skills into one community
as publishers we magnify and amplify what people are doing
84,000 people listed their primary occupation in the US census. Amateurs like to act like pros. The audience likes this too.
entusiasts - do something that builds a following based on what they do (see guitar zero)
your idea becomes my idea
Create Your Own Economy by Tyler Cowen - twitter & facebook can be seen as tools of production, not consumption. the user is in control
what's difference about publishing today is that we use the same tools our customers use. we no longer have access to limited things like presses or distribution.
people build a me network to maintain their network (like maintaining a friendship) and not always seeking to expand it. Each of us is already connected to many social networks, both fixed and fluid, professional and personal.
social networks used to be fixed (where you grow up, where you go to work), but now anyone can build a custom network. we build a "my network" as a social stack which includes identify, relationships, and activity. we all make the news
understand things by participating in them - Jay Rosen's mindcasting
a web 2.0 media strategy seeks to build a network of users whose interactions create value. the challenge is that the interactions happen everywhere, not just on a single web site or single device. make magazine articles get more comments on facebook than their site. Google may have the right idea with their API. see Social Graph API for site connectivity data
socialgraphics will help us understand the network associated with a person via social media analytics (peopleBrowser or squawq)
working with audiences we know that some create more value than others and we may want to respond to them differently
tremendous uptake in physical things being used to create a data feed to twitter
used the term "maker" to unify those with various skills into one community
as publishers we magnify and amplify what people are doing
TOC: secrets of digital publishing
rick joyce, peter costanzo
he who is learning the most is likely to succeed
enhanced = organic = hard
+ rethink layout
+ casting "the shake"
+ what wants to be audio
+ takes 6 months for an app, 7 days a week
+ 3rd party development gets expensive (it costs a lot of money to get programmers to do what you want)
the fact that its hard is the reason to do it. it gets easier each time
less is more, different is good
approach an iPhone app with the thought that the author is in your pocket
we are in a world where we can be more pricing dynamic
building for speed and timeliness
eBooks can support break away titles since there's no lag at the printing press
to create an eBook in 24 hours requires a lot of thinking before hand
he who is learning the most is likely to succeed
enhanced = organic = hard
+ rethink layout
+ casting "the shake"
+ what wants to be audio
+ takes 6 months for an app, 7 days a week
+ 3rd party development gets expensive (it costs a lot of money to get programmers to do what you want)
the fact that its hard is the reason to do it. it gets easier each time
less is more, different is good
approach an iPhone app with the thought that the author is in your pocket
we are in a world where we can be more pricing dynamic
building for speed and timeliness
eBooks can support break away titles since there's no lag at the printing press
to create an eBook in 24 hours requires a lot of thinking before hand
TOC: Taking the Middle
digital democratizes as price to entry and distribution are much lower. low overhead favors small publishers who's large cost is usually in printing as opposed to large publishers who through scale do not incur high costs (relatively) for printing.
Bomb magazine - arts related since 1981 - expanded audience through website - received grant to change static site into dynamic site - put legacy content online - has more readers now online than in print - as a non-profit felt free content was part of mission - finding other sources for income: sponsorship, ads - revenue risk seems to be paying off so far - looking into making eBooks of old content - anti-DRM as a consumer but it may become a friend of the magazine
soft skull press - indy press - 15yrs old - started at Kinkos in East Village as renegade punk publisher who embraces risk - published first anti-Bush bio - dedicated to print, though excited by digital - DVD extras look like they are put together in 20 minutes by PAs - video and digital in an eBook is not necessarily a great idea - the content should match the author's vision and the work - instead of just thinking digital think of the thing that best fits the work - experimenting with street art as a promotion and using QR scanable codes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code) - has an author who twittered entire novel - DRM is an ongoing debate within the organization - personal experience is that DRM is incredibly frustrating, but concerned about bottom line - hope that you can have faith in readership that they will be honest - as an indy you are much more likely to not be ripped off by the consumer since they identify with you and want to support you unlike a big house such as Random House or S&S
N+1 magazine - politics arts culture - ugliest website for many years - planing renovation of website - looking to make the site finally somewhere where people want to linger - all profits come from subscription sales - reads XKCD geek cartoons everyday put realized that the author never got money from her - looked at online store for XKCD and thought about buying a print of the strip to put on the road - with small publishers people feel they are exercising their will by supporting indy publishers - sell things 'Radio Head Style' which is a suggested minimum - try micro payment with a returning readership - agrees with Soft Skull sentiment about indy press having personal relationship with customer that will help to combat piracy
gigantic - biannual arts magazine - on route to being a non-profit - innovative but cheap format - using digital for a grassroots diy way with facebook and twitter
has book contract that is not only for a book, but also requires 10 online posts be made - some contracts require a certain amount of activity for publicity which includes doing content - requires authors to keep their attention and thought going after the book is published and by doing it at contract time it makes the later publicity part of the creative process for the book - had authors write for gawker.com and found print sales went up for that author's books
electric literature - five streamlined short stories published in every viable medium (all devices and POD) - printing bills normally take away all profits - POD offers no up front printing costs - embraced all social media - $5000 goes to authors, $1000 to each - create media database, form relationship with authors, gain reach - published story by Rick Moody to twitter - uses 140 char limitation of twitter as a structure for story - 153 tweets as dialogue between two people - wanted it to be as big as possible, so it was stretched over 3 days - one part of the 153 was tweeted every few minutes - was new to twitter and had a small following - reached out to other publishers and readerships for co-publisher - got 30 co-publishers - reached audience of 34,000 via co-publishers - one issue was that some people were annoyed that they received the publication from multiple people they were following - lesson learned: you don't mess with people's twitter feeds - LA Times mentioned how there was concern about consumer complaints over receiving multiple comments on the same topic - media declared it a failure but that caused publicity - readership (twitter followers) was up - used publicity to be able to get on top of the media narrative with their own content - has most followers of any indy publisher in the world now - a large publisher might have pulled the project because it annoyed people but as a small publisher there was nothing to loose and ended up capitalizing on it - anti-DRM for eBook sales since only one copy of their DRM'd publication sold
Bomb magazine - arts related since 1981 - expanded audience through website - received grant to change static site into dynamic site - put legacy content online - has more readers now online than in print - as a non-profit felt free content was part of mission - finding other sources for income: sponsorship, ads - revenue risk seems to be paying off so far - looking into making eBooks of old content - anti-DRM as a consumer but it may become a friend of the magazine
soft skull press - indy press - 15yrs old - started at Kinkos in East Village as renegade punk publisher who embraces risk - published first anti-Bush bio - dedicated to print, though excited by digital - DVD extras look like they are put together in 20 minutes by PAs - video and digital in an eBook is not necessarily a great idea - the content should match the author's vision and the work - instead of just thinking digital think of the thing that best fits the work - experimenting with street art as a promotion and using QR scanable codes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code) - has an author who twittered entire novel - DRM is an ongoing debate within the organization - personal experience is that DRM is incredibly frustrating, but concerned about bottom line - hope that you can have faith in readership that they will be honest - as an indy you are much more likely to not be ripped off by the consumer since they identify with you and want to support you unlike a big house such as Random House or S&S
N+1 magazine - politics arts culture - ugliest website for many years - planing renovation of website - looking to make the site finally somewhere where people want to linger - all profits come from subscription sales - reads XKCD geek cartoons everyday put realized that the author never got money from her - looked at online store for XKCD and thought about buying a print of the strip to put on the road - with small publishers people feel they are exercising their will by supporting indy publishers - sell things 'Radio Head Style' which is a suggested minimum - try micro payment with a returning readership - agrees with Soft Skull sentiment about indy press having personal relationship with customer that will help to combat piracy
gigantic - biannual arts magazine - on route to being a non-profit - innovative but cheap format - using digital for a grassroots diy way with facebook and twitter
has book contract that is not only for a book, but also requires 10 online posts be made - some contracts require a certain amount of activity for publicity which includes doing content - requires authors to keep their attention and thought going after the book is published and by doing it at contract time it makes the later publicity part of the creative process for the book - had authors write for gawker.com and found print sales went up for that author's books
electric literature - five streamlined short stories published in every viable medium (all devices and POD) - printing bills normally take away all profits - POD offers no up front printing costs - embraced all social media - $5000 goes to authors, $1000 to each - create media database, form relationship with authors, gain reach - published story by Rick Moody to twitter - uses 140 char limitation of twitter as a structure for story - 153 tweets as dialogue between two people - wanted it to be as big as possible, so it was stretched over 3 days - one part of the 153 was tweeted every few minutes - was new to twitter and had a small following - reached out to other publishers and readerships for co-publisher - got 30 co-publishers - reached audience of 34,000 via co-publishers - one issue was that some people were annoyed that they received the publication from multiple people they were following - lesson learned: you don't mess with people's twitter feeds - LA Times mentioned how there was concern about consumer complaints over receiving multiple comments on the same topic - media declared it a failure but that caused publicity - readership (twitter followers) was up - used publicity to be able to get on top of the media narrative with their own content - has most followers of any indy publisher in the world now - a large publisher might have pulled the project because it annoyed people but as a small publisher there was nothing to loose and ended up capitalizing on it - anti-DRM for eBook sales since only one copy of their DRM'd publication sold
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
TOC: Afternoon Keynotes
ignite
==================
erin (wordnik)
data about words. smart words. looks like tagged media. where the words came from, who used them, etc.
==================
liza daly (ibis reader)
global conversation of our lives
bookworm - upload your book into the cloud
ibis is web based like bookworm but mobile focused. works on PSP3
books as autonomous agents, know things about their existence on the web. an ebook has no back cover, it spills out onto the web. it can lead you to the book's sequel.
==================
judy schwarz
wrote her book with slow publishing and an espresso book machine at her local bookstore
==================
ebooks allow you to collect and analysis the data about what works in enhanced edition ebooks. for instance bunny monroe is read from 1-2 am for a half hour and Obama is read for two hours at lunch time. also audio is used more often than any other type of content (including video). no-one read the copyright page (even by accident). respect privacy and allow people to shut off reporting (50% do). get analytics (your competitors do). experiment, be nimble, get analytics
==================
emma barnes (onixcentral.com snowbooks.com)
our world is full of infrastructure that can be glue together in new ways.
to make a catalog take your ONIX XML and run it through XSL and InDesign can understand it.
==================
richard nash (soft skull)
Community
Compainionship
Communion
get out there and put your work in the world not because it will get you published but because you love it
getting published does not make you happy. once the book is printed and on the shelf, the postpartum depression begins
being connected to writers and readers is what brings happiness
rnash@thinkCursor.com
redLemona.de
==================
bob pricthett (logos bible studies)
ebooks means no more monopolies. users can move on so easily to another book
doesn't open to a cover page, but opens to a task oriented user interface
search recognizes keywords
shows phrases that repeat by visually showing the path of sentences
linked place names
bundle related content
integrate tools and content
unique digital assets
=================
al kakowsky (question of the day - iphone app)
contact your people
get all your friends/fans to download your app on the same day
put in relevant keywords and one outlier like "kindle"
create the next world
call that guy
==================
nilofer merchant (the new how)
Batman had power because he was the ultimate collaborator. he always believed in something good. to have power we need to have sidekicks to work with us to create good things. they complete skills and tools. we also need to dawn the cape. we need to know how to have fair fights and have conflicts. focus on the how and not the what. lead us. fight fair. step up. collaboration and power for new era
==================
jamey graham (ricoh innovations)
visual search vía natural characteristics of a page. iCandy = iphone app. QR codes are here. visual search is like shazam for music. can take a picture of a page of text and get back rich media links
==================
hillel
software that coordinates kids books and video of relatives reading the book
==================
brewster kale (bookserver) "A Future for Books"
internet archive
goal of universal access to all knowledge
collect TV, moving images, audio, books, book locations (open library), webpages (way back machine)
costs $.10 a page to digitize a book. get about 6 errors per book for recent books and almost none for older ones.
all books: public domain 20% (free), out of prong 70% (borrow), in print 10% (pay) of 10 million books
the web is multiple devices, multiple search engine, and multiple sites
we have universal access to free stuff, but not universal access to knowledge
BookServer: distributed system for lending & vending on the internet. connects devices to books whether in libraries, online libraries, stores, publishers, internet archive, inkmesh
one kid one laptop has made 1.8 million books available to kids
the US has a law that says that those with a certain level of disabilities (blind & dyslexic) can have access to book content via Daisy encryption via a copyright exception. making books available to the print disabled.
==================
jim cathey (qualcomm)
mirasol - display technology with extremely low power consumption. may be a great thing for ereaders. publishers used to control all the aspects of a book (paper weight, font), but in the digital world publishers are giving up those choices to the device manufacturers. publishers need to understand the components of the device to create the presentation they want instead of handing off that responsibility. upwards of 70% of the energy of a device are used by the display. having the device last longer will allow the user to interact with it longer and keep the revenue streams open.
==================
jeff gomez (starlight runner transmedia storytelling) storyworlds
as a kid read kikaida which was a manga comic. the story continued as a TV series Kikaider 02. in the last epsiode every died. then a few weeks later there was going to be a 3D movie that concluded the story. that experience wanted to make stories like this which would make him chase the story through different media platforms. this was transmedia storytelling, the most powerful form of communication yet devised. books started transmedia storytelling, for instance Dracula became a stage play. when Superman jumped media things were added to the Superman universe that later found their way back. The Blair Witch Project was the first cross media storytelling story to start on the web.
==================
erin (wordnik)
data about words. smart words. looks like tagged media. where the words came from, who used them, etc.
==================
liza daly (ibis reader)
global conversation of our lives
bookworm - upload your book into the cloud
ibis is web based like bookworm but mobile focused. works on PSP3
books as autonomous agents, know things about their existence on the web. an ebook has no back cover, it spills out onto the web. it can lead you to the book's sequel.
==================
judy schwarz
wrote her book with slow publishing and an espresso book machine at her local bookstore
==================
ebooks allow you to collect and analysis the data about what works in enhanced edition ebooks. for instance bunny monroe is read from 1-2 am for a half hour and Obama is read for two hours at lunch time. also audio is used more often than any other type of content (including video). no-one read the copyright page (even by accident). respect privacy and allow people to shut off reporting (50% do). get analytics (your competitors do). experiment, be nimble, get analytics
==================
emma barnes (onixcentral.com snowbooks.com)
our world is full of infrastructure that can be glue together in new ways.
to make a catalog take your ONIX XML and run it through XSL and InDesign can understand it.
==================
richard nash (soft skull)
Community
Compainionship
Communion
get out there and put your work in the world not because it will get you published but because you love it
getting published does not make you happy. once the book is printed and on the shelf, the postpartum depression begins
being connected to writers and readers is what brings happiness
rnash@thinkCursor.com
redLemona.de
==================
bob pricthett (logos bible studies)
ebooks means no more monopolies. users can move on so easily to another book
doesn't open to a cover page, but opens to a task oriented user interface
search recognizes keywords
shows phrases that repeat by visually showing the path of sentences
linked place names
bundle related content
integrate tools and content
unique digital assets
=================
al kakowsky (question of the day - iphone app)
contact your people
get all your friends/fans to download your app on the same day
put in relevant keywords and one outlier like "kindle"
create the next world
call that guy
==================
nilofer merchant (the new how)
Batman had power because he was the ultimate collaborator. he always believed in something good. to have power we need to have sidekicks to work with us to create good things. they complete skills and tools. we also need to dawn the cape. we need to know how to have fair fights and have conflicts. focus on the how and not the what. lead us. fight fair. step up. collaboration and power for new era
==================
jamey graham (ricoh innovations)
visual search vía natural characteristics of a page. iCandy = iphone app. QR codes are here. visual search is like shazam for music. can take a picture of a page of text and get back rich media links
==================
hillel
software that coordinates kids books and video of relatives reading the book
==================
brewster kale (bookserver) "A Future for Books"
internet archive
goal of universal access to all knowledge
collect TV, moving images, audio, books, book locations (open library), webpages (way back machine)
costs $.10 a page to digitize a book. get about 6 errors per book for recent books and almost none for older ones.
all books: public domain 20% (free), out of prong 70% (borrow), in print 10% (pay) of 10 million books
the web is multiple devices, multiple search engine, and multiple sites
we have universal access to free stuff, but not universal access to knowledge
BookServer: distributed system for lending & vending on the internet. connects devices to books whether in libraries, online libraries, stores, publishers, internet archive, inkmesh
one kid one laptop has made 1.8 million books available to kids
the US has a law that says that those with a certain level of disabilities (blind & dyslexic) can have access to book content via Daisy encryption via a copyright exception. making books available to the print disabled.
==================
jim cathey (qualcomm)
mirasol - display technology with extremely low power consumption. may be a great thing for ereaders. publishers used to control all the aspects of a book (paper weight, font), but in the digital world publishers are giving up those choices to the device manufacturers. publishers need to understand the components of the device to create the presentation they want instead of handing off that responsibility. upwards of 70% of the energy of a device are used by the display. having the device last longer will allow the user to interact with it longer and keep the revenue streams open.
==================
jeff gomez (starlight runner transmedia storytelling) storyworlds
as a kid read kikaida which was a manga comic. the story continued as a TV series Kikaider 02. in the last epsiode every died. then a few weeks later there was going to be a 3D movie that concluded the story. that experience wanted to make stories like this which would make him chase the story through different media platforms. this was transmedia storytelling, the most powerful form of communication yet devised. books started transmedia storytelling, for instance Dracula became a stage play. when Superman jumped media things were added to the Superman universe that later found their way back. The Blair Witch Project was the first cross media storytelling story to start on the web.
TOC: DRM, digital content, and the consumer experienc: lessons learned from the music industry
kirk biglione (medialoper.com)
the future of all media is still digital. media companies are challenged by this transition. consumers have been burned by DRM and are carrying that baggage with them to the book world. even though the book industry hasn't done anything yet.
if we are not going to make the same mistakes as the music industry then we all need to agree on what those mistakes were. was adopting DRM one of the mistakes of the music industry.
in the 90's the music industry was doing really well because consumers were buying their whole collections again, this time on CD. they started developing the next medium to move consumers to. historically consumers bought what they were told (8 track, casseette, etc). the music industry didn't think consumers would go for a lower quality MP3. consumers however gained access to the tools the music industry had once had a monopoly on and everything changed. the recording industry lost touch with the power the consumer had (they had control) and also what the consumer wanted.
music industry mistakes:
1. mistaking consumer demand for piracy. the music industry has always attacked pirates, but they didn't understand that the internet pirates had different motivations. this was a new kind of pirate who wasn't interested in making money or attacking the industry. this kind of pirate was interested in getting the word out, social status, and was somewhat of a barometer of demand. from 97 to 2002 there were almost no legitimately available music tracks to download. what happens when you buy a new content device such as your first CD player or eReader? you want to by your old favorites for that device. ever try to buy a Thomas Pynhon eBook? it's not available legitimately. if you search for it online, you'll find an illegitimate source. however forget the ipod moment when the music industry suffered. we could have a CD moment when people try to fill their ereaders with old favorites and repurchase their collections
2. do not declare war on what consumer wants. the Diamond Rio came out and the RIAA sued it. the claim was that the Rio stood in the way of what consumers wanted, but actually it was exactly what they wanted
lawsuites are not a good business model (unless you're a lawyer). the RIAA sued a dead person, a family w/o a computer and a 12 yr. old girl. during this time their sales plumeted. lawsuits will not prevent change
3. assuming DRM must be the answer. this is a myth. only one physical copy is needed for online piracy. there is also a myth that DRM free means free, in fact consumers will pay. myth: DRM keeps honest consumers honest - reality: DRM often turns consumers into hackers. DRM shapes the marketplace for digital content.
CaseStudy: Microsoft PlaysForSure. The music industry began to become nervous about iTunes. MS came out with a DRM technology called PlaysForSure in 2004. A large number of manufactures and content providers adopted the technology. they branded everything that used it with their logo. by any metric it was the standard for DRM. it seemed iTunes wouldn't stand a chance. in 2006 Microsoft pulled the plug on PlaysForSure and instead wanted to push the Zune (which copied iPod). after the Zune launched most of the PlaysForSure sites closed or became DRM free.
how did this happen? consumer lust (for iPod and apple), iTunes and iPod had a superior consumer experience because of the tight integration, iPods weren't PlayForSure compatible
CaseStudy: Adobe Content Server. Adobe DRM is widely licensed and has a large number of content providers. Sony decided to move towards Adobe DRM instead of using its own proprietary DRM. B&N supported it with their Nook. then Apple came along and said that iPad ebooks will support ePub standard. seems Amazon doesn't stand a chance. there is now an ePub v.s ePub war since it is wrapped in different DRM by different companies. we have three major players. notice that Amazon is following the Apple playbook and tightly integrating their player and website. they are also looking at moving to other devices with a "kindle everywhere" approach and supporting iphone, desktop, etc. what consumers want in the end is for it "just to work". they want anyway, anyhow, anywhere I choose. this is either DRM free or Kindle if Amazon does it right. top eBook preferences: reasonable pricing, wide selection, and interoperable. remember consumers win. the top searches on medialoper.com are "who do I remove DRM" and it peaks on Christmas day.
to the consumer if Amazon makes Kindle books work on everything, then that looks like open to them. to the publisher though you are locked into one distribution partner.
"We used to fool ourselves, we used to think our content was perfect just exactly as it was. We expected our business would remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and file sharing was exploding. And of course we were wrong. How were we wrong? By standing still or moving at a glacial pace, we inadvertently went to war with consumers by denying them what they wanted and could otherwise find and as a result of course, consumers won."
-- Bronfman CEO Warner Music
the future of all media is still digital. media companies are challenged by this transition. consumers have been burned by DRM and are carrying that baggage with them to the book world. even though the book industry hasn't done anything yet.
if we are not going to make the same mistakes as the music industry then we all need to agree on what those mistakes were. was adopting DRM one of the mistakes of the music industry.
in the 90's the music industry was doing really well because consumers were buying their whole collections again, this time on CD. they started developing the next medium to move consumers to. historically consumers bought what they were told (8 track, casseette, etc). the music industry didn't think consumers would go for a lower quality MP3. consumers however gained access to the tools the music industry had once had a monopoly on and everything changed. the recording industry lost touch with the power the consumer had (they had control) and also what the consumer wanted.
music industry mistakes:
1. mistaking consumer demand for piracy. the music industry has always attacked pirates, but they didn't understand that the internet pirates had different motivations. this was a new kind of pirate who wasn't interested in making money or attacking the industry. this kind of pirate was interested in getting the word out, social status, and was somewhat of a barometer of demand. from 97 to 2002 there were almost no legitimately available music tracks to download. what happens when you buy a new content device such as your first CD player or eReader? you want to by your old favorites for that device. ever try to buy a Thomas Pynhon eBook? it's not available legitimately. if you search for it online, you'll find an illegitimate source. however forget the ipod moment when the music industry suffered. we could have a CD moment when people try to fill their ereaders with old favorites and repurchase their collections
2. do not declare war on what consumer wants. the Diamond Rio came out and the RIAA sued it. the claim was that the Rio stood in the way of what consumers wanted, but actually it was exactly what they wanted
lawsuites are not a good business model (unless you're a lawyer). the RIAA sued a dead person, a family w/o a computer and a 12 yr. old girl. during this time their sales plumeted. lawsuits will not prevent change
3. assuming DRM must be the answer. this is a myth. only one physical copy is needed for online piracy. there is also a myth that DRM free means free, in fact consumers will pay. myth: DRM keeps honest consumers honest - reality: DRM often turns consumers into hackers. DRM shapes the marketplace for digital content.
CaseStudy: Microsoft PlaysForSure. The music industry began to become nervous about iTunes. MS came out with a DRM technology called PlaysForSure in 2004. A large number of manufactures and content providers adopted the technology. they branded everything that used it with their logo. by any metric it was the standard for DRM. it seemed iTunes wouldn't stand a chance. in 2006 Microsoft pulled the plug on PlaysForSure and instead wanted to push the Zune (which copied iPod). after the Zune launched most of the PlaysForSure sites closed or became DRM free.
how did this happen? consumer lust (for iPod and apple), iTunes and iPod had a superior consumer experience because of the tight integration, iPods weren't PlayForSure compatible
CaseStudy: Adobe Content Server. Adobe DRM is widely licensed and has a large number of content providers. Sony decided to move towards Adobe DRM instead of using its own proprietary DRM. B&N supported it with their Nook. then Apple came along and said that iPad ebooks will support ePub standard. seems Amazon doesn't stand a chance. there is now an ePub v.s ePub war since it is wrapped in different DRM by different companies. we have three major players. notice that Amazon is following the Apple playbook and tightly integrating their player and website. they are also looking at moving to other devices with a "kindle everywhere" approach and supporting iphone, desktop, etc. what consumers want in the end is for it "just to work". they want anyway, anyhow, anywhere I choose. this is either DRM free or Kindle if Amazon does it right. top eBook preferences: reasonable pricing, wide selection, and interoperable. remember consumers win. the top searches on medialoper.com are "who do I remove DRM" and it peaks on Christmas day.
to the consumer if Amazon makes Kindle books work on everything, then that looks like open to them. to the publisher though you are locked into one distribution partner.
"We used to fool ourselves, we used to think our content was perfect just exactly as it was. We expected our business would remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and file sharing was exploding. And of course we were wrong. How were we wrong? By standing still or moving at a glacial pace, we inadvertently went to war with consumers by denying them what they wanted and could otherwise find and as a result of course, consumers won."
-- Bronfman CEO Warner Music
TOC: rethinking copyright in the digital world
edward colleran, rafat ali, sree sreenivasan, eric schwartz
as news publishers, 9 times out of 10 if we ask people to take something down or change it, they comply.
everyone in the world who's interested in copyright is in this room ;)
recommended sites: mashable.com readwriteweb.com lifehacker.com
hulu represented a very big moment when they allowed people to embed a certain clip from hulu into your site. in the beginning it was any clip, but now its their choice. still it represents a major mental shift to decide to not try to own every little bit of the content. the more you can do that the more your work can stand out in a crowded field. great content can die on the vine unless we can get it out to people.
3 billion photos are added to facebook every month. 5 billion pieces of content a day.
copyright law is territorial, but obviously those laws are broken down in the digital world. therefore there is an effort to harmonize. the US has been trying to catch up with European laws.
a guy setting up a music collective in Moscow was executed because an organized crime group was also trying to set up a music collective. copyright issues can be very different based on location.
60-70% of people who receive a notice that they are engaged in unlawful activity cease that activity.
MP3 trumped LP because of convenience, not audio quality.
an industry driven by fewer Harry Potters and a lot more individualism (niche).
"free is more complicated than you think"
once you put content behind a payment system, then there's an implicit promise that the content is just for the one viewer. Someone wouldn't try using an embed code from that site for instance.
sharing is a hugely gray line on line.
your content has to be discoverable and then you need to build the business around that.
one of the nice things about twitter is that people give credit to where content came from. it has a good culture. we should all become good pointers to content. pay journalists seem to have a harder time understanding this then people on twitter.
the largest reuse of materials is by other rights holders that take preexisting materials and adapt them. "fare use" for them is probably different than that for a non-profit.
this culture of acknowledging change and crediting is coming from some of the folks that got to the internet first which gave it credibility. some web sites are much better about correcting their own mistakes than the NY Times.
the media reporting on the media is a tricky area with free use. can I rebroadcast your broadcast in order to talk about your reporting style in your broadcast?
as news publishers, 9 times out of 10 if we ask people to take something down or change it, they comply.
everyone in the world who's interested in copyright is in this room ;)
recommended sites: mashable.com readwriteweb.com lifehacker.com
hulu represented a very big moment when they allowed people to embed a certain clip from hulu into your site. in the beginning it was any clip, but now its their choice. still it represents a major mental shift to decide to not try to own every little bit of the content. the more you can do that the more your work can stand out in a crowded field. great content can die on the vine unless we can get it out to people.
3 billion photos are added to facebook every month. 5 billion pieces of content a day.
copyright law is territorial, but obviously those laws are broken down in the digital world. therefore there is an effort to harmonize. the US has been trying to catch up with European laws.
a guy setting up a music collective in Moscow was executed because an organized crime group was also trying to set up a music collective. copyright issues can be very different based on location.
60-70% of people who receive a notice that they are engaged in unlawful activity cease that activity.
MP3 trumped LP because of convenience, not audio quality.
an industry driven by fewer Harry Potters and a lot more individualism (niche).
"free is more complicated than you think"
once you put content behind a payment system, then there's an implicit promise that the content is just for the one viewer. Someone wouldn't try using an embed code from that site for instance.
sharing is a hugely gray line on line.
your content has to be discoverable and then you need to build the business around that.
one of the nice things about twitter is that people give credit to where content came from. it has a good culture. we should all become good pointers to content. pay journalists seem to have a harder time understanding this then people on twitter.
the largest reuse of materials is by other rights holders that take preexisting materials and adapt them. "fare use" for them is probably different than that for a non-profit.
this culture of acknowledging change and crediting is coming from some of the folks that got to the internet first which gave it credibility. some web sites are much better about correcting their own mistakes than the NY Times.
the media reporting on the media is a tricky area with free use. can I rebroadcast your broadcast in order to talk about your reporting style in your broadcast?
TOC: a different model
kassia krozser (booksquare), anneal james (harlequin digital)
models:
publishing originals
backlist model (backlist rights will be hot topic)
fast market (news oriented, rapid, timely)
o'reilly safari (subscription model)
subscription has built in drm, when they stop paying they no longer have access
korina express is experimenting with no drm, lower/higher advance, world rights/contracts.
contract model is different at korina. 30% royalties, which means D2C. different rights, digital, print, world, all English because digital is w/o boundaries and readers want that. instead of asking for lifetime of copyright, they ask for 7 years. digital reserves don't work with the model but its a limitation based on legacy systems.
experiment with employees. for instance freelance, telecommuting editors. invest the editor in the marketing aspect.
establish brand in the digital world, far more important than physical. directs consumers to you instead of amazon. offering DRM free allows you to subvert amazon's kindle and brand.
every author writes with Word and it has the worst XML output. challenge is getting good and clean XHTML output.
paying quarterly was challenge for 2 year royalty sales. digital authors expect to be paid a month or two after on sale. one of the reason they get paid early is that they get no advance. this actually puts more money in authors hands faster which encourages them to take more risks.
the royalty system should be able to do the accounting needed.
can scheduling handle word count instead of page count?
biggest challenge is "self imposed limitations" - skip (ingram)
your customers are not the retailers, they are the readers
what percentage of online shopping carts are abandoned? why?
customer support. you're going to cry with them when you try to install ADE and it doesn't authenticate the first time. this is not the traditional role, but retailers are having to face handling customer service. by going D2C you will hear more of the consumer complaints that you otherwise would not.
how do you future proof your business when you are the future
models:
publishing originals
backlist model (backlist rights will be hot topic)
fast market (news oriented, rapid, timely)
o'reilly safari (subscription model)
subscription has built in drm, when they stop paying they no longer have access
korina express is experimenting with no drm, lower/higher advance, world rights/contracts.
contract model is different at korina. 30% royalties, which means D2C. different rights, digital, print, world, all English because digital is w/o boundaries and readers want that. instead of asking for lifetime of copyright, they ask for 7 years. digital reserves don't work with the model but its a limitation based on legacy systems.
experiment with employees. for instance freelance, telecommuting editors. invest the editor in the marketing aspect.
establish brand in the digital world, far more important than physical. directs consumers to you instead of amazon. offering DRM free allows you to subvert amazon's kindle and brand.
every author writes with Word and it has the worst XML output. challenge is getting good and clean XHTML output.
paying quarterly was challenge for 2 year royalty sales. digital authors expect to be paid a month or two after on sale. one of the reason they get paid early is that they get no advance. this actually puts more money in authors hands faster which encourages them to take more risks.
the royalty system should be able to do the accounting needed.
can scheduling handle word count instead of page count?
biggest challenge is "self imposed limitations" - skip (ingram)
your customers are not the retailers, they are the readers
what percentage of online shopping carts are abandoned? why?
customer support. you're going to cry with them when you try to install ADE and it doesn't authenticate the first time. this is not the traditional role, but retailers are having to face handling customer service. by going D2C you will hear more of the consumer complaints that you otherwise would not.
how do you future proof your business when you are the future
TOC: running two companies
dominique rachat (sourcebooks)
be a digital entrepreneur while running a traditional book publishing company
sourcebooks is entirely bootstrapped. not knowing anything about the industry was a great benefit. moved from 1 book to 300 and from 1 employee to 75.
symptio is experimenting with selling eBooks in brick and mortar locations
"we have very bad data in this industry." transformation occurs in the margins, in increments. if you have bad data you cannot interpret transformation.
What do we mean by the transformation to eBooks. Would it be greater than 50% of sales being eBooks? Maybe not. CDs comprised 65% of all music sold in the first half of 2009 compared to paid digital downloads. It can take a long time for old formats to disappear. We will be running two companies for a long time.
showed graph of another company where B2B sales dropped over time and digital B2C grew. Total company sales remained mostly constant over time, but dipped when B2C overtook B2B, but eventually returned to normal levels. It took five years to hit the tipping point when C overtook B.
where do you start? define your verticals.
mike shatzkin: verticals/categories "the organization and delivery of stuff - including information - into…"
for categories think about how you search online. verticals should be very narrow and specific, not broad. Sourcebooks had 43 verticals when they looked at their data. They can be defined by thinking about what you're good at (expertise) and what communities you're an essential part of.
Content now puts us into a bigger frame of publishers. If you publish sports writing, you're competing with ESPN. Publishing in the largest sense.
think through the content you own and lay it out on a continuum. see strategic opportunities that might fit into it. for instance maybe a different price point product or an iphone app.
when developing an app, have fun with it and that should shine through. learn and iterate. in this approach, eBooks are only one kind of content you're delivering. help authors to monetize content in various ways. the world becomes bigger this way.
one way where old media and new media overlap is dominating categories. in any category the majority of consumers are light users. For instance although some buy every baby naming book, most only by one or two. Since these people are not experts, they will buy popular products which have a "natural monopoly" in this way. on the retail side category leaders are disproportionally supported. Implications of this:
1. competition is higher in fewer categories as time goes on (make sure you have a vertical for the product)
2. greater need for collaboration between authors and publishers. we publish authors not books
they develop all of their iphone apps in house with wire frames, then send it outside to be coded. whole new set of skills to learn.
digital experiments have a real effect on print book sales
poetryspeaks.com "the most complicated and expensive" thing we tried. it's about a community of poets. discovery = marketing site for poets. took the unique approach to secure all rights for contents before posting. made baseball cards for poets. it is an experiment, not necessarily a revenue stream, but definitely a learning experience. Metrics are what counts, don't have an ego or an opinion when learning, let the data speak. comparing 6 weeks before and after it appears the site increased book sales 55%
enhanced ebooks have the campfire effect. its immersive, visceral, immediate.
technical issues: people don't want to download another platform (format), drm
content issues: create theater of the mind, content "heat", leaving the book/integration, engagement/immersion
the ipad will create an enormous future
innovation is iteration - Micahel Cader
there is no bad time to innovate - Jeff Besos
innovate yourself out of a tight box
be a digital entrepreneur while running a traditional book publishing company
sourcebooks is entirely bootstrapped. not knowing anything about the industry was a great benefit. moved from 1 book to 300 and from 1 employee to 75.
symptio is experimenting with selling eBooks in brick and mortar locations
"we have very bad data in this industry." transformation occurs in the margins, in increments. if you have bad data you cannot interpret transformation.
What do we mean by the transformation to eBooks. Would it be greater than 50% of sales being eBooks? Maybe not. CDs comprised 65% of all music sold in the first half of 2009 compared to paid digital downloads. It can take a long time for old formats to disappear. We will be running two companies for a long time.
showed graph of another company where B2B sales dropped over time and digital B2C grew. Total company sales remained mostly constant over time, but dipped when B2C overtook B2B, but eventually returned to normal levels. It took five years to hit the tipping point when C overtook B.
where do you start? define your verticals.
mike shatzkin: verticals/categories "the organization and delivery of stuff - including information - into…"
for categories think about how you search online. verticals should be very narrow and specific, not broad. Sourcebooks had 43 verticals when they looked at their data. They can be defined by thinking about what you're good at (expertise) and what communities you're an essential part of.
Content now puts us into a bigger frame of publishers. If you publish sports writing, you're competing with ESPN. Publishing in the largest sense.
think through the content you own and lay it out on a continuum. see strategic opportunities that might fit into it. for instance maybe a different price point product or an iphone app.
when developing an app, have fun with it and that should shine through. learn and iterate. in this approach, eBooks are only one kind of content you're delivering. help authors to monetize content in various ways. the world becomes bigger this way.
one way where old media and new media overlap is dominating categories. in any category the majority of consumers are light users. For instance although some buy every baby naming book, most only by one or two. Since these people are not experts, they will buy popular products which have a "natural monopoly" in this way. on the retail side category leaders are disproportionally supported. Implications of this:
1. competition is higher in fewer categories as time goes on (make sure you have a vertical for the product)
2. greater need for collaboration between authors and publishers. we publish authors not books
they develop all of their iphone apps in house with wire frames, then send it outside to be coded. whole new set of skills to learn.
digital experiments have a real effect on print book sales
poetryspeaks.com "the most complicated and expensive" thing we tried. it's about a community of poets. discovery = marketing site for poets. took the unique approach to secure all rights for contents before posting. made baseball cards for poets. it is an experiment, not necessarily a revenue stream, but definitely a learning experience. Metrics are what counts, don't have an ego or an opinion when learning, let the data speak. comparing 6 weeks before and after it appears the site increased book sales 55%
enhanced ebooks have the campfire effect. its immersive, visceral, immediate.
technical issues: people don't want to download another platform (format), drm
content issues: create theater of the mind, content "heat", leaving the book/integration, engagement/immersion
the ipad will create an enormous future
innovation is iteration - Micahel Cader
there is no bad time to innovate - Jeff Besos
innovate yourself out of a tight box
TOC: O'Reilly Tools of Change Tuesday Keynotes notes
peter collingridge (apt) "enhancing the ebook"
bookseer.com - recommends books with simple interface
25thestate.com - animation
feels book value is going down, but technology can bring it back
new company: enhanced edition - splits: consultancy developer marketer
key decision: be premium
be intuitive as possible
features: use ePub - synchronize audio to text
concept to product = one year
enhanced-editions.com
challenges: disintermediation, shift to digital, drm, price, rights territory, strutter
"publishing is currently a very linear process" (author -> agent -> publisher -> retailer -> consumer)
EE is author agent publisher reader network (author connects to network and vice versa)
the new way is not linear, though not circular, but definitely iterative
eInk is not as compelling as enhanced eBook
it is time to rethink: rights (sell vs. consolidate)
the skills will be different, but cheap to acquire (such as SEO) it just needs to be nurtured by the house
some big name authors are going on their own to have new technology built for them
it is not to replicate the current experience, but innovate the next experience. the best technology is invisible, so focus on user interface was key
"what matters most is how you walk through the fire" - Bukowski
we encourage you to download an enhanced edition eBook, but not on the TOC network as it is rather large - andrew savikas
==========================
william patry (of Google) "law is not a business solution"
though its not what you'd expect a lawyer to say, not all problems should be solved with law. if there are non-legal ways to solve problems then we should use those. Not a lot of people have respect for how the legal system solves problems, it may the single worst place to find closure on a topic. some feel the better our copyright laws. "people don't copy stuff that they don't watch". don't blame problems on copyright which are actually marketing issues. strong copyright won't make people want to watch a show they don't want to. people see copyright as a way to preserve where they are now. sending a 20 year old kid to jail won't save your bottom line. it won't make people go to more shows. its not commercial success. "regulatory capitalism" = incumbents succeed through law instead of innovation. regulation is too often used a shield to protect the status quo from new competition. rather than innovate and respond to consumer needs, incumbents seek to criminalize threatening behavior from new comers. copyright law can stop people from doing some things, but it can't make consumers buy things. no copyright law will turn a failing business around.
increasing penalties or jail time does not make a crime go away. copyright cannot create economic value. giving something copyright status does not imbue it with value.
the united states has become the fat detroit of nations. we are loosing our desire to innovate (achieve?) and instead are milking aging cows until they run dry
it takes a real manager to manage the downcycle of a product.
macmillian offered dynamic books which allows professors to edit textbooks without the permission of the original author. the ebooks are $45 instead of around 120 or so. if you have a lawful copy of something you can give it or sell it to someone else (resale, protected by copyright law, first sale doctrine). publishers have tried to recapture the lost value of resale by upping initial cost. by making the dynamic books course specific, they have little resale value hence the initial price can be set low. rather than try to break the first sale doctrine they have an innovative strategy. instead of "compete with free" they side step it.
==========================
skip richard (ingram) "are ebooks dead?"
media habits change quickly and adoption is rapid because of broadband
the ebooks of today which are a carbon copy of the old books will be gone and the enhanced ebook will take its place
3 trends: growth of online retail ('write this one down: "there is no fundamental right to survive"', "people are willing to pay if the price is right and the convenience is there"), device change (cross media reading experiences), generational differences (the line between physical and virtual is blurring, like webkinz - skip's daughter saw no distinction between the stuffed animal in her hand and the digital product on the screen)
anecdote of man in hot air balloon who's lost and calls down to guy in
suggestions to managers:
1. simplify (be awesome at just one thing - don't do everything - have unique differentiator)(a study of jams - we all love choice, but we can have analysis paralysis, so limit the variables - see also 12, less books, one a month and have 8 bestsellers - get back to basics, help content reach its destination, create innovative content - move from defense to offense with eBooks)
2. connect (find customers and know them, know who controls your destiny: the waiter controls the butter not Senator Bill Bradley who wants butter and asks don't you know who I am - watch periphery, we take our social queues from others and diminish change, just as there's defused responsibility our industry should not just watch what others are doing)
3. conquer (get out of your comfort zone - forward momentum is often slowed by self - new players change things faster because they don't know what the "limitations are supposed to be" - Art Tatum learned to play piano by following a recording of two people on a player piano and did what was previously thought impossible)
if you hear the excuse "that's the way we've always done it" then you know you're causing your own problem
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sameer sharif (impulses) "the new dynamics of publishing"
content development and audience development are the two places for innovation
audience development: social networking opens up dialog like never before. it means B2B is gone and we need to connect to audience (track & measure, optimize, maximize ROI). rather than broadcast, communicate. we move from B2B to B2C and from manufacturing to service industry. social marketing seems to work as displayed by metrics.
==========================
arianna huffington "publishing is dead"
"books don't end in print, books don't end with the printed page"
"you cannot enter into the same river twice" - ?
this is now the golden age of engagement for the consumer
"the medium is definitely not the message"
"unplug and recharge" - disconnect from devices and everyday preoccupation and concerns, and a book is the best way for that
this "magical pubdate" forget about it. there are not three days between pubdate and oblivion. start talking about your book earlier. you may have put your career on the line, why not talk about that book. don't be anonymous, the age of anonymity is over. very often its the interns that will be running the publishing house a few years down the road. the first book does not need to be a new book. online we will discover new books and old books. this idea of focusing on the new book needs to go away.
"we believe nothing is more important right now than rediscovering empathy"
"the message is platform agnostic"
we ask why people blog for free, but no one asked why they watch tav for free. also blogging is the new audition platform.
open up about your struggle and others will share. talk about your own fears and create intimacy. its less polished, first thoughts best thoughts
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