Atavist - Evan
Multimedia
non-fiction short books. Kindle singles, etc. Publish through website/app.
Narrative non-fiction and software company. Create their own software and use
it to publish their content.
Paying authors
from magazine world model, no royalties. Their product was a hybrid of
magazines/books, so authors get 4 figure fee and 50% royalty on post-platform.
They get the fee from the first sale. This incentives them to help market.
Used a contract
that was based on real contracts, but for a year or so no lawyer even saw it.
World/not world rights don’t make sense these days – it’s all the world and
revenue will be split with author/publisher. They share rights with author
after 120 days if author wants to jump ship – this way they prove value and if
not author is free to go elsewhere (though atavist can still publish).
Get the author
involved with marketing in a partnership type relationship rather than let
author think they’re on their own.
Want customer
to be equally happy wherever they buy a product, but they prefer to have
customers come straight to their website which is better for them in the long
run. Want people in their world, their base.
Self funded for
first two years. Making money by licensing software so they don’t need to
actually sell content to be ok (though now they are doing well with the
content).
Use public
domain materials and freelancers, but with small efficient team feels they have
same standards as big publishers.
No inventory to
create overhead. Office can be the only overhead.
4 – 10 people
start to finish.
Publishing is
not the sexiest place for programmers to go. Started out with self taught
programmers. Have found literary engineers who have their own projects to.
Can’t really afford most engineers
Trying to build
a platform for storytelling in the long run. A unique kind of storytelling
that’s different from books and magazines.
Part of
BrightLine venture.
OpenAir Publishing - Jon
Instructional
books
Video content
is royalty only, which gets providers to market.
Customer is the
user. Thinks that way every step of the way. It translates into the higher
ratings and word of mouth.
Experiment with
free and different prices. For instance Starbucks and Crate&Barrel free
books.
Using inkling
habitat to make great books. Discover platform has seen great results already.
They share
revenue with authors rather than base it on a more common royalty structure.
3 – 10 people
start to finish. Salaries for team and fees for production.
Concentrated on
front end development at first (high end) then switched to inkling habitat.
Be the leading
digital first non-fiction digital publisher is the long term goal. To take
advantage of the new medium in new ways (like TV in the beginning which started
as plays on film but then turned into things that only work on TV)
Plympton – Jennifer 8. Lee
Serialized fiction for digital reading. Partnering with dailylit.
Great media
company needs great content and great distro.
Modest advance
for authors, but revenue share at back end. Left it open since market is
eveolveing
Higher risk
higher reward author compensation model.
You keep most
of the rights unless otherwise specified.
Contracts are
writer friendly, but tied fortunes together. Blanket contract with world
rights, digital, print, drama, merchandizing, etc. Anything to do with text
(translation, print, audio) then Plympton got higher share of royalties because
they put in more effort. With other things they knew someone else had put in
the effort. Prefer working with things from the start because of how much they
want to be a part of.
[didn’t realize
the amount (little) of effort involved in publishing on iPad but not UK]
They need to
know who purchases their copies. Via Amazon you don’t know who bought the part
of the book. Much better to manage the relationship, hence dailylit
partnership.
Facebook has
helped them build the right list (women over 40 spend more on their product and
are cheaper for Facebook ads).
They do
physical book giveaways via goodreads which builds a list that they can then
market to (pBooks made via Amazon)
Just turned
profitable.
Creating great
content at scale is not helped by technology, but marketing at scale is helped
with technology.
Got programming
from friend by trading python scripts for okcupid profile. Bartering helped
with costs. Got students to help by offering sundance tickets.
Trying to have
a route from MIT course6 into Plympton.
Want writers to
be able to write for a living. Serial
publishing is difficult right now, but they want to find the way.
Jennie started
because she wanted to make a difference in the world.
Imprints are
for publishing ego and not for this model.
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