Charles Stross
TOR/Forge
Macmillan

Interesting analogies between the collapse of the comic book market and what could happen to books without bookstores

Apr 15 2012

Tim O'Reilly 1:59 PM - Public
Awesome analysis of the Amazon ebook strategy by Charlie Stross (@cstross). Anyone who wants to understand how Amazon is changing the game for publishers should read this post.

I agree with Charlie on every point. He is particularly compelling on the subject of how publishers played right into Amazon's hands by insisting on DRM, and how their only hope is to drop it ASAP. I've been saying this, to deaf ears in New York, for years. Publishers need to focus on interoperable ebook standards above all else. Good for them, good for readers, and good for the industry as a whole.

disintermediation

monopoly

monopsony

This post is part of “How We Will Read,” an interview series exploring the future of books from the perspectives of publishers, writers, and intellectuals. Read our kickoff post with Steven Johnson here. And check out our new homepage, a captivating new way to explore Findings.

This week, we were extremely honored to speak to Internet intellectual Clay Shirky, writer, teacher, and consultant on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. Clay is a professor at the renowned Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU and author of two books, most recently Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age.

Cat Valente's awesome response to Christopher Priest

March 29, 2012 1:02 AM
How can one describe it? For fuck’s sake, it is a quest saga and it has a talking horse. There are puns on the word ‘neigh’. Christopher Priest on the 2012 Clarke Award shortlist, the self-described "most prestigious award for science fiction in Britain".

authors (or anyone?) can manually add back any data lost from their books in Goodreads

In the entire discussion, I've seen no discussion of credible evidence of this economic harm. There's no question in my mind that piracy exists, that people around the world are enjoying creative content without paying for it, and even that some criminals are profiting by redistributing it. But is there actual economic harm?

In my experience at O'Reilly, the losses due to piracy are far outweighed by the benefits of the free flow of information, which makes the world richer, and develops new markets for legitimate content. Most of the people who are downloading unauthorized copies of O'Reilly books would never have paid us for them anyway; meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of others are buying content from us, many of them in countries that we were never able to do business with when our products were not available in digital form.

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned on this blog a situation I was in: that I was unwilling to sign a contract for an essay I had written in contribution an anthology of critical essays from Oxford University Press (OUP), because the contract stipulated that the essay would be regarded as “work for hire.” This would mean that I would have absolutely no rights as the author of the work. Whereas most academic press contracts ask you to sign away certain of your rights, by transferring copyright from yourself to the press, this contract from OUP meant that I would have no rights at all — if I signed, I would be agreeing that (as Gordon Hull put it — see the comments to the previous blog entry) “copyright was never [mine] in the first place — it belonged to OUP from the start.” It is obvious that, were this to become the norm in academic publishing, then intellectual enquiry and academic freedom, as we now know them, would cease to exist. Writers would become “knowledge workers” whose output belonged to the press that published them (or to the university at which they worked, in another variant of the scenario) in the same way that code written on the job at Microsoft, Apple, or Google belongs to those companies, and not to the writers themselves.

Posted by Joseph Esposito ⋅ Jan 10, 2012

The chances of web publishers and bloggers all rising up together to create scarcity and great design seems unlikely, but all it will take is one great success. I am reminded of a redesign project I worked on in Singapore in the 90s, The Straits Times. They had three ads on the front page, and were reluctant to simplify the page because there was so much money involved. I said, “Charge the same total for just one. Better, don’t just triple the price for a single ad, quadruple it!” And the publisher finally agreed. Well, the page looked better, readers liked it more, the visual brand was improved, and revenue increased. The advertisers bumped off the page took larger ads inside with their same budgets, and the waiting list for Page One was a year long.

Sunday 19 October 2008

Authonomy is a great use of familiar web technologies to help the remarkably backward world of traditional publishing. HarperCollins took a problem of theirs, trying to separate the wheat from the chaff in their unsolicited manuscripts, and has delegated it to the internet. It's almost obvious in retrospect: their editors don't have the time to read through every manuscript sent to them, and the internet is full of book lovers who would gladly read and rate new work, even if it is incomplete.

The design is uncluttered and reader-friendly. How many newspaper website designs can you say that about?

Tech companies handcuff our files to protect against digital pirates. The strategy isn't just annoying for customers—it could be hurting sales

By David Pogue | Tuesday, July 26, 2011

By Victor Wong May 11, 2011 12:21 PM ET

ContentNext Media is a media and information company owned by Guardian News and Media Limited. Based in New York City, the company covers the business of digital media, serving decision makers within the media, entertainment, publishing, advertising, marketing, and technology sectors.

Founded by journalist Rafat Ali in 2002, the company's news sites chronicle the economic evolution of digital content that is shaping the future of the media, information and entertainment industries. Our belief is that in the near future, all media will be digital media, and we are helping define sustainable business models and innovation within this sector.

tips, tools, and news for independent publishing on screens

The idea of creating a business class for online news where is not about buying information, but buying better experience, it’s about service and customer experience. That’s right: Customer (paying), not user (free).

By Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in New York

Published: April 14 2011 22:53 | Last updated: April 14 2011 22:53

Mandy Brown is a designer, writer, and editor with expertise in typography and web design. She is co-founder and editor for A Book Apart and a contributing editor for A List Apart. A veteran of the publishing industry, she spent a decade at W. W. Norton & Company, an independent and employee-owned publisher, where her work involved everything from book design to web design to writing about design. Now at Typekit, she serves as Community Manager and writes frequently on the Typekit blog. She lives in Brooklyn and works at Studiomates.

Since fraud and publishing fall straight into our bailiwick, I’d been meaning to do a full-dress Post about this, and may yet do so. This, rather, will be a lick-and-a-promise review of the literature.

With the cost of self-publishing approaching zero thanks to e-publishing, and with content-farms being depreciated by Google, it seems that spammers have taken to e-publishing.

As an author, when you run across an unauthorized copy of your work online you might wonder what your options are. Chances are, someone will tell you to send a DMCA notice.

What is that? It’s part of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act which allows a copyright holder to request removal of the infringing material.

Legally, DMCA notices must come from the copyright owner or their legal representative, such as an agent, publisher, or literary executor.

Since SFWA legally cannot act on behalf of anyone from whom we do not have specific permission for a specific infringement, we are instead providing a sample DMCA notice generator for use by authors.

Dave Freer (Mondays)
Rowena Cory Daniells (Tuesdays)
Sarah A. Hoyt (Wednesdays)
Kate Paulk (Thursdays)
Chris McMahon (Fridays)
Saturday Morning Post (Saturdays)
Amanda S. Green (Sundays)

Writer Beware™, a publishing industry watchdog group sponsored by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America with additional support from the Mystery Writers of America, shines a bright light into the dark corners of the shadow-world of literary scams, schemes, and pitfalls. We also provide industry news, writing advice, and a special focus on the weird and wacky things that happen at the fringes of the publishing world.

MWA is the premier organization for mystery and crime writers, professionals allied to the crime writing field, aspiring crime writers, and folks who just love to read crime fiction. In these pages, you’ll find much to enjoy about MWA, our programs, our authors and their books, including frequently updated calendars of events, announcements about our authors, their tour dates and their new releases, and a brand new blog brought to you by the leading authors of the mystery genre.

MWA is a storied organization with a golden past and an exciting present. Each Spring, we present the Edgar® Awards, widely acknowledged to be the most prestigious awards in the genre. We sponsor MWA:Reads (a vibrant youth literacy program) and numerous other symposia and events designed to enlighten and inform authors and fans alike. If you’re an author in the mystery or crime genre or an allied professional, you’ll find important services and benefits here. If you’re a reader, fan, librarian, journalist or anybody else interested in learning more about the genre, you’ve come to the right place. We hope you’ll enjoy our site, learn a lot and keep coming back for more.

Romance Writers of America® (RWA) was chartered in 1981 to serve as a nonprofit trade association for romance writers.

The mission of Romance Writers of America is to advance the professional interests of career-focused romance writers through networking and advocacy. RWA works to support the efforts of its members to earn a living, to make a full-time career out of writing romance—or a part-time one that generously supplements his/her main income.

OverDrive is a leading full-service digital distributor of eBooks, audiobooks, and other digital content. We deliver secure management, DRM protection, and download fulfillment services for publishers, libraries, schools, and retailers--serving millions of end users globally.

OverDrive currently hosts more than 500,000 premium digital titles from more than 1,000 publishers, including Random House, HarperCollins, BBC Audiobooks America, Harlequin, and Bloomsbury. Our digital distribution services are utilized by more than 13,000 libraries, schools, and colleges worldwide. For two consecutive years, OverDrive has been named to the EContent 100 as a company that matters most in the digital content industry.

Founded in 1986, OverDrive is based in Cleveland, OH.

"Holy smokes, this guy was born in Newark, sounds like my kind of writer." "Damn, she lives in Bakersfield? Gotta read this book." Is a brand that would be honed and amplified by such information even conceivable?

Me: "I'm just amazed at this. No amount of "platforming" can justify this rate. If this is the way publishers are going to try to hold onto the business, then I think they are doomed. If that's the rate they expect me to sign up for if I do a deal over there, I'm going to have to pass and save us the time working on the pages. If there is the chance of doing a book deal where I retain the e-book rights, I would be interested, but I think that's what they are really looking for anymore anyway. So guess this is it.

Good luck over there."

Sell your eBook for iPad, Kindle, Nook, and Sony Reader.
Get distribution to the hottest eBook retailers in the world. Keep 100% of the royalties! Sign up now for only $149 $99.

We've designed a one-stop solution for publishing and selling your books on the iBookstore. At this time, Lulu distributes English-language-only titles to U.S. and international iBookstores.

Apple - iTunes - Partner Programs - Book Publishers

KindleBoards is a website devoted to all things Kindle.

We’re the largest independent Kindle site on the web. The site includes a Kindle user forum, a Kindle blog, and few other goodies like our Top 10 page and our Link-Maker tool. Our forums have boards focused on Kindle books, accessories, reviews, user tips, and other Kindle-related topics. The site receives over 1.5 million pageviews per month, and currently has over 9,000 registered members.

Through our services, you can sell books, CDs, and DVDs for a fraction of the cost of traditional manufacturing, while maintaining more control over your materials. We make it simple to distribute your books, music, and video through Internet retail outlets, your own website, and other bookstores, retailers, libraries, and academic institutions.

With Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) you can self-publish your books on the Amazon Kindle Store. It's free, fast, and easy. Books self-published through KDP can participate in the 70% royalty program and are available for purchase on Kindle devices and Kindle apps for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, PC, Mac, Blackberry, and Android-based devices. With KDP, you can self-publish books in English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian and specify pricing in US Dollars and Pounds Sterling. You will also find useful information on our active community forum.

Barnes & Noble ebook publishing platform for bn.com and the nook

Smashwords is an ebook publishing and distribution platform for ebook authors, publishers and readers. We offer multi-format, DRM-free ebooks, ready for immediate sampling and purchase, and readable on any e-reading device.

For readers, Smashwords provides an opportunity to discover new voices in all categories and genres of the written word. Once you register, the site offers useful tools for search, discovery and personal library-building, and each week we add new features based on feedback from members.

At Smashwords, our authors and publishers have complete control over the sampling, pricing and marketing of their written works.

Smashwords is ideal for publishing novels, short fiction, poetry, personal memoirs, monographs, non-fiction, research reports, essays, or other written forms that haven’t even been invented yet.

It's free to publish and distribute with Smashwords.

Introducing Perfect Voices. An affordable way to have your book professionally produced and distributed without breaking the bank. We have multiple packages that tailor both the upfront costs and the royalties to your budget. We work with both established and independent authors to bring their work to audio.

But unlike most production companies, we don’t just send you on your way with your audiobook. We offer all the distribution channels that the big publishing houses have including Audible, Amazon, Barnes and Noble.com, iTunes, OverDrive, SimplyAudiobooks, Books on Board, NetLibrary and more! Our books are submitted for review both in industry perodicals and various web venues. We are a full service audio publishing service with unique capabilities and forward-thinking methods.

The Smashwords Style Guide has helped thousands of authors produce and publish high-quality ebooks. This free Guide offers simple step-by-step instructions to format an ebook, and is required reading for any author who wants to distribute their book via Smashwords to major ebook retailers such as the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo and Diesel. Updated March 11, 2010

Today I'm going to do something I've debated on doing before: I'm going to talk about what's going on with my books from a writer standpoint. I know that I talk about them a lot, but I always talk about it to inform readers.

Someone could write a graphic novel out of Robert T. Balder's quest to publish erfworld vol 1. Just another reminder that fulfillment is a lot of work and there is more to self publishing than sending a file to a printing press.

Amanda Hocking
Austin, MN, United States
Obsessive tweeter. John Hughes mourner. Unicorn enthusiast. Fraggin Aarvarks guitarist. Muppet activist. Author of the USA Today Bestselling Trylle Trilogy & My Blood Approves series.

Novelr is a blog about writing and presenting fiction on the Internet. In particular, it deals with a subset of digital publishing called ‘web fiction’. Web fiction is a relatively new method of writing fiction, usually on a blog or blog-like website. Web fiction is communal, social, and free (though the author may choose to sell eBooks and other related merchandise).

Web fiction is part of a larger trend in publishing, where the Internet is making it possible for writers to create stronger, more immediate relationships with their readers. We think this trend has implications that reach far beyond both reader and writer.

Novelr is interested in exploring these implications. It’s been doing that since 2006.

I am having trouble convincing myself why digital books will not cost 99 cents within 5 years. All books, on average. Just as the price of music does not in general change on the length or quality.

Kevin Kelly

yuki_onna
March 20th, 13:00

So [info]haikujaguar posted Novelr's post about 99 cent ebooks. She's in favor. I'm not, but that's going to get obvious. I'll just continue the dialogue here because it's too much to go into on Twitter.

Novelr gathers links about the inevitability of 99-cent e-books. I think they're right on this one. Songs are 99 cents. Why are novels $15? (Please don't tell me that songs don't take as long as novels to write. Some novels are written in a week; some songs take years. It's all art.)

Whoa. Let's back that truck up.

Erin Kissane

March 24, 2010

Because the internet is made of content. Research, debate, and ideas on strategy, writing, curation, and content wrangling of all sorts from Erin Kissane.

Content is Expensive
March 24, 2010

One of the ideas that kept pecking at my brain while I was prepping for our SXSW publishing panel was this: Content isn’t free. If it’s good, it’s very expensive to make. We can subsidize its production and maintenance in any number of ways, but we have to start being honest—with ourselves, our clients, and sometimes our readers—about its true cost. And when I said something to that effect on the panel, a nearly audible roar of agreement popped up in my Twitter feed.

This is something we need to talk about.

A print subscriber who gets “free” access to the digital bundle lets the NYT Co. keep 100 percent of the subscription revenue generated. A digital-only subscriber — at least any who pay from inside iPhone and iPad apps — will have 30 percent of his revenue sent to Apple. If that’s true — and it fits with what we’ve been told — then the Frank Rich Discount actually makes the Times an extra $71.50 a year for those customers.

In any case, as Salmon says, it doesn't appear this is going to make a material impact on the Times' finances. Which really makes you wonder what the point of it all is, except maybe to make some sort of "we must be paid" statement.

Cory Doctorow at 10:15 AM Thursday, Mar 17, 2011

Readers' Comments
The Times Announces Digital Subscription PlanBack to Article »
By JEREMY W. PETERS

Under the plan, which begins on March 28, visitors to NYTimes.com will be able to read 20 articles a month free. The most frequent users will pay $15 a month; print subscribers will have unlimited access.

Share your thoughts.

Dave Winer