Eoin Purcell's Blog

Sometimes there is just so much out there on the web it is hard to narrow down what to link to. Because of that I have decided today to do link clusters, a couple of links around each idea/concept. We will see how it works!

Promoting a book especially early in a career presents challenges in the modern atmosphere. A great post on the value of free from Jurgen Wolff’s blog should be read and his Gurellia Tactics post should not be ignored either. But by far the most impressive post to date is from A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing and is a manifesto in a post if ever I saw one. Read it; it is called Do Something and if you do not get inspired to promote your book more effectively then I just don’t know.

I know I bemoaned memes the other day and so this is exceptionally hypocritical BUT the idea just got in on me. Stainless Steel Droppings Blog has launched the Readers Imbibing Peril (R.I.P.) Autumn Challenge and the line up is impressive to say the least. You should follow SOME OF THE LINKS as they are pretty much all great book-blogs!

So there has been some incredible chat recently on Self-Publishing. Read the Blurberati Blog for the skinny on what is going on in the world of innovative self publishing facilitators. Read Wired.com for industry reaction and read Organic Research (2 different posts) for some illuminating consideration. Marginal Revolution is sceptical (like all good economists I say) and finally for something COMPLETELY different.

That is about all I can reasonably fit it for today (And yes I am vaguely conscious that it is only technically the 1st for many readers but even though it is 40 minutes from the first where I am it feels like the 1st)
Eoin

Wired.com ponders Blurb, self-publishing & blogs
A very nice post on the Organic Researcher pointed me to a Wired.com article on Blurb.com the self-publishing outfit that I have linked to several times before. The basis for the story is their new plan to introduce a blogbook.

The Booksmart Factor
I recently changed the RSS feeds on this blog to more accurately reflect the content and one of the feeds I added was the Blurberati Blog which is the blog of Blurb.com. I added it because I have been impressed by their innovation and their ability to surprise me. By far the most impressive element of their offering is their technology. The Booksmart system for creating a book is so deceptively simple. And they have upgraded this piece of software. I would heartily encourage people to download and play with this little Gizmo.

Blurb have developed a way to remove almost all the professionals between the printing press and the author. It is flattening the industry. Oh for sure Boosmart does not solve the issues of PR and promotion, but it does resolve the issue of design and layout and in a way that presents books in pretty decent templates.

On the value of Self-Publishing
There is a wonderful Old School quote from the HarperCollins CEO in the article:

HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman says self-publishing is little more than a vanity press. “A good book will get published,” she said. “Self-publishing is denying that fact. The filters of agent, editor and publisher are still essential.”

I cannot get over the arrogance of this. Faced with a functioning and effective rival Ms Friedman is simply denying reality with that kind of talk. Clearly the filters she mentions are not necessary. Even of she has said desirable or that they are useful in judging or improving a book she might have made sense but thinking yourself indispensable is surely foolish when faced with the type of challenges that mainstream publishing currently faces.

As ever Jeff Jarvis has an interesting contribution:

“Every author I know says the publishers don’t get the job done on marketing — they end up having to do their own. As for a middleman, you can sell enough books on Amazon now to make it worthwhile.”

“The face of publishing will change,” he said. “As for who wins, the big guy or the little guy — I have no idea.”

What do I think?
Blurb are clearly innovative and forward looking. i like their product if not their prices. They are far from easily dismissed and certainly for publishers in niche sectors they are to be worried about. they may at some stage make the role of the niche publisher uneconomic. This is especially true if they begin to offer softback books at reasonable prices. I say this not because such publishers could not match them for book design, price and distribution but more because for a certain type of author the freedom and control offered by Blurb may prove irresitible.

As I have said before Authors Will Drive Change and Blurb is perfectly placed to benefit from that trend. Commissioning books within niches and genres will become more difficult over time if blurb and its fellows succeed in establishing the legitimacy of their business model in the mind of the consumer. Publishers will need to change and adapt to this threat. I wonder if we can?

Enjoying the possibilities
Eoin

References:
New York Times: From Blogger to Published Author, for $30 and Up
Wired.com: Blurb.com Gets Book Smart

The Long Tail Series Part One(August/September 2006)

1) Introduction to The Long Tail for newbies
The Long Tail is basically the idea that beyond the bestseller lists and the top X hundred number of products in a given market there are many hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of alternative products that might actually be of more value to different consumers. These products are not necessarily good but amongst them there may be exceptional and wonderful products. In the book Chris Anderson of Wired discusses how this Long Tail is emerging, what forces are driving it and how companies are exploiting it and how it will benefit consumers. It started as an article and he maintains a good blog too.

And you are saying, how obvious is that? Well you are right BUT Anderson brings together some interesting insights into how the Long Tail works, the forces driving it and the reason why it is important in the current times.

2) Important notes for writers
The most interesting aspect of the Long Tail concept for authors is that it relies on tools and techniques for sorting information and building context to work and to drive user/consumers down the tail towards information that is valuable to them. He calls these tools Filters. If you are having trouble getting to grips with what tools are thing of iTunes where you can search by Genres, by Artist or by ranking and even within the genres by ranking and by sub genre.

This is exceptionally important for artists, authors and publishers because in essence these Filters are the new gatekeepers. Anderson underplays the barrier role the filters are now playing. You only benefit from Long Tail Effects if you are within their system i.e. if they can find you, process you, assign you metadata, decide who might like you, see you in other users play lists/reading lists and generally collect information on you.

Anderson keeps saying that it is important to have good tools and systems for accessing information but the sad truth is that if you don’t get within the system then you will not even register with the filters. So for say, a subscription based music model, the company controlling the subscribers can decide if your song merits attention or not. Amazon for instance is open enough to allow you join their associate system and start from there. Who knows perhaps enough reader have bought and reviewed your book to catapult you into good company on their recommendation lists and thus some extra sales.

My point here is this Long Tail Effect will not happen by accident. You need to make them happen. In the same way that publicity and PR don’t just fall from the sky you need to build contacts, encourage newspapers and radio stations. In the Long Tail World you need to build relationships, encourage friends readers and fans to write reviews and include your work on top ten lists and within their notes, general to evangelise your material or it will not even register with the filters, never be suggested to a new fan and remain in the long tail of the long tail!

More to Follow.
Eoin

UPDATE: Google Book Search finally posted on it.

Techcrunch, a site that covers technology says that Google Book Search is now facilitating download. So does BusinessWeek and PaidContent.

There is no mention of it on Inside Google Book Search at least not yet (though they do now allow yoiu to add GBS to yoiur website, a fairly nifty feature).

I am able to download Dante’s Divina Commedia. Which is absolutely amazing. Wow. Usage must be oncommercial and also must retain the Google Watermark. Seems pretty fair. Does this make Google an e-book publisher?

I like the idea of downloading classics, and I do not mind if it is Google, Penguin, HarperCollins or Nonsuch who provide them. It does strike me that this product a revenueless one. Considering the effort Google and others have gone to to get this off the ground is it realistic to belive that they will simply allow downloads for free?

I guess it is.

Fearing the day I have to pay
Eoin

Cork Graham blogs his new book and the process of submitting it for print. Early days and worthwhile.
Here

For writers considering their life online, Booksquare has an interesting and thoughtful post.
Here

Penguin tempt, you, me and everybody who likes books and the idea of serialsed books.
Here

Terry Whalin who has a wonderful blog has two very nice posts on rejection and writing for the long run.
Here and Here

Modesty prevents me from saying who the Publisher is but Litlove deserves a push for here efforts in The Publisher returns.
Here

Joe Wikert has a brief review of The Long Tail on his blog. Nice taster of what is to come on this blog. (A friend recently asked if I was getting paid per mention of this book. I assure you that I am not)
Here

Scott Karps publishing 2.0 has a nice riff on MySpace magazine idea and proposes that users could choose their own magazine content. I agree. It also echoes something that both Bloglily and I mentioned following my recent post on magazines.
Here

Sometimes being in publishing is fun. At least for Richard Charkin.
Here

I am very excited about this project NewsAssignments.net if only because I see it as a fantastic model for publishing in general. If it works for news I can see no reason why it will not work for books of all kinds!

There are many opinions on this project and not all of them favourable but I remain sure it will have excellent results and ones favourable for journalism, reporting and the professional side of the industry too.

Read more on the topic, concept and progress by Jay Rosen Here
Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine has some thoughts too Here

Paul Carr of The Friday Project got me going the other day when he talked silly talk about books/blooks but his post today is genius and not just because he uses bad language but mainly because he kills a very stupid argument very dead.
Go Read

Hugh MacLeod talks with Seth Godin about his new book and the result is a very good interview with a wider range then you would think. If it happens to have reached the same conclusion as I have on Print and Digital who am I am to argue. [Via Buzzmachine]
Here

Plagiarism Today rubbishes a long told falsehood of copyright (and gives real options, such a great site).
Here

You probably don’t know this put Project Gutenberg provide an rss feed of ebooks recentlya dded to their database. You really should get it. Free books (ebooks pr print) are always welcome in my world, especially if they are as cool as this.
Here

I Hate Memes

If there are two things that the web has enabled that I truly despise they are chain e-mails and their closely related (in my view) cousins, Blog/E-mail/WebMemes. Now I should qualify that a little, when I say memes I mean the lists, questions and quizzes that get passed from person to person and answered and reposted endlessly. They answer no questions of real value in my view and tend only to provoke stupid answers (I note some very few exceptions of quality. If you are insulted by this post consider yourself part of that select group ).

Well Not All Of Them

But sometimes an idea forces itself onto the internet and gains currency not through quizzes and tests and list but by posts and articles and that is a meme I have time for. It’s an unconscious seizing of the zeitgeist or something like that. And it is a funny thing but this week, despite the fact that I have been enormously distracted I accidentally got caught by one: The New Magazines Meme.

I posted a long piece on the idea the other day having read Chris Perason’s work. Today I see This, This and This all referring to the potential for a MySpace Magazine which makes physical my contention some time ago now that MySpace Is Already A Publishing Giant!

But The Story Is Bigger Here

But what I want to talk about is the idea of Internet Content & Print. Looking about recently you may have seen that The Friday Project is flourishing by re-publishing in print work that was originally blog content. Some others have had similar success.

The question that occurs to me is this: Is Print really dying?

We keep getting the stories about how books and newspapers are doomed by the digital tide. But perhaps like the people at Blurb.com say:

Perhaps new technologies serve to magnify the intrinsic value of the thing that came before. In an age when information is instant, dynamic and searchable, what is the intrinsic value of the book? Here’s a first cut at a top ten list (but please send your ideas):

Eileen’s Top Ten Reasons Why Books are Even More Valuable in a Wired World

1. Everyone needs a little analog in their life

2. Human readable. No technology upgrades required.

3. Wonderfully tactile

4. Immersive experience

5. Shareable and giftable (difficult to “gift” a site)

6. Well understood organizing principle

7. People buy books (but rarely content)

8. They’re beautiful artifacts

9. No batteries required

10. You can spill stuff on them and they still work

I think there is a trend Vs fad issue here

But what is it? The Trend is that we realize again the value of Print and the use we can put it to, even in this digital age. We can all too easily be driven wild with the belief that the electronic will replace the plain paper or that a new paper will replace the old one, but I suspect not. Paper’s role will shift and with it digital technologies and print will realign. There is no guarantee that we will read newspapers forever in the format they currently stand, indeed daily are potentially in great trouble but what of weekly magazines and papers, sundays and monthlies too? Are they as challenged by blogging, the stream of constantly updated news and instant access online? Not if they pitch themselves correctly and evolve to meet demand.

Similarly books will not shift entirely to e-books or blogs. They may live in both worlds and be more successful in one than the other but it is clear that print has been overly harshly treated recently. What is the trend. Print Will Recover.

What is the Fad though?

Is it the Blog book as a genre? I doubt it. If we accept that the blog is a tool for authors and everyone then surely successful blogs will either be translated directly into books or will form the basis for an authors platform and be a jumping off point for a print book or a series or even for a magazine as discussed before.

The fad is the idea of destruction and defeat of print. Mass market print will survive the arrival of digital delivery just as radio survived the arrival of television and television the arrival of video and video (in its enhanced form of DVD) is surviving the arrival of downloads. It may be forced to change, its focus may shift from immediate news to more thoroughly researched and investigated pieces supported by an online presence. It may even attract less ad revenue but then so what? Is print entitled to a high price point for any specific reason? And even that revenue fall is not guaranteed. Stop calling print dead, it’s alive and kicking and if you ignore it and concentrate on digital streams you ignore a massive market. Do that at your peril.

Dealing with dreary Dublin

Eoin