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April 25, 2005

Book Sales as a Technology Trend Indicator

There's a fascinating post at O'Reilly's Radar, Book Sales as a Technology Trend Indicator that sums up trends in the computer book market.

O'Reilly is doing cool things with internal mapping and trend analysis -- no surprise given their technical chops -- and they've created a detailed "Treemap" of the trends, based on Bookscan data, over the last two years.

A few highlights: we may have finally hit bottom as an industry and sales seem to be growing in 2005; database literacy is increasingly important; C# is gaining on Java but programming titles in general are down: and increased sales of Quickbooks titles may indicate more small business activity.

Photoshop Elements, iPods, and related digital lifestyle titles are the big gainers. And Mac OS, Photoshop and Dreamweaver have slowed some, probably in anticipation of the new releases.

Soft titles ala The Cult of Mac are a growing category, which I think is indicative of the overall computer book market becoming more and more like the traditional trade market. Not only do we have big publisher and author brands, we have a sense of culture now, and readers are interested in the history, personalities, and context of our industry.

O'Reilly also notes that they're one of the few large publishers to have any significant growth in the last few years (I'd probably add Peachpit to that list). O'Reilly has really expanded their scope. They've done a great job of breaking into the Mac market, and now the graphics market, two areas that were anything but synonymous with ORA five or six years ago.

Posted by matt at 12:51 PM | Comments (0)

Statistically Improbable Phrases at Braintique

Harold Davis blogs about and links to a few hilarious conversations regarding Amazon's SIP search phrases. Quoting Harold, "SIPs are phrases that appear with anomalous frequency in the inside content of the cataloged book compared with the entire the rate of occurence of the SIP in the universe of books in general."

I had to check out a few books I've repped in the past and my favorite SIP had to be on Peter Kent's Search Engine Optimization for Dummies where "rodent racing" was the lead term, followed by "keyword laden, your search engine position," and another phrase I've never heard before, "revenge rodent."

Collecting SIPs could be a diverting hobby for some. I know I won't ever look at another Amazon listing without checking out the SIPs.

Posted by matt at 6:50 AM | Comments (0)

April 20, 2005

Tim O'Reilly on Self-publishing

I missed noting Tim's blog when I listed some of the computer book bloggers out there. He has a recent blog entry on self-publishing. It has some great O'Reilly history in it (my favorite is the image of the bucket brigade), and valuable info for potential self-publishers.

Posted by matt at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)

April 12, 2005

Reganbooks to move to West Coast

Did Judith Regan read my recent blog entry????

Somehow I doubt it. Still, the big news today is that Reganbooks is moving to Los Angeles.

Of course, they're going to continue to publish a celebrity and enterainment driven list, while developing film and TV projects on the side, but it would be nice if this leads to a less Manhattan-centric worldview.

It's apt that a big Hollywood publisher would actually move there, I'm curious to see how it develops.

Posted by matt at 9:54 AM | Comments (0)

April 8, 2005

Rudy Shur and Mid-List Publishing

I found an interesting interview with Rudy Shur, the former head of Avery and founder of Square One Publishers. Rudy has been a publisher for 25 years and he has lots of solid advice for aspiring writers. And be sure to read what he says about "unique" books, it's spot-on in my experience.

He represents what I'd call "mid-list" publishing and publishers. These are the independent, entrepreneurial houses that might pay lower advances, but tend to have a long view when it comes to managing their back-list.

The interview is worth reading if you're thinking that profitable books are only published by the big name houses: it's just not true, and many smaller publishers have made huge successes with books that started out quite modestly.

A few great examples would include Chicken Soup for the Soul, which was acquired by Health Communications for a reported $2000 advance after being turned down by more than 30 houses, or a book like What Color is Your Parachute, a gold mine for Richard Bolles and Ten Speed Press alike.

Note, the "front-list" titles are the new releases that appear toward the front of a publisher's catalog and are pushed hardest by the sales reps. "Back-list" titles have smaller entries toward the back of the catalog, and "mid-list," for me, refers to those books that succeed over time. They might be revised, updated and re-released to the front-list, but tend not to be huge front list titles in the sense of a Juiced, which though it burns brightly today, will not have much of a future on the back-list.

Posted by matt at 8:08 AM | Comments (0)

April 1, 2005

Deadline Zen

This came from one of my authors, tongue in cheek, when I asked how he was progressing on his current project. I'm compelled to quote his response and the citation.

"Among Chuang-tzu's many skills, he was an expert draftsman. The king asked him to draw a crab. Chuang-tzu replied that he needed five years, a country house, and twelve servants. Five years later the drawing was still not begun. "I need another five years," said Chuang-tzu. The king granted them. At the end of these ten years, Chuang-tzu took up his brush and, in an instant, with a single stroke, he drew a crab, the most perfect crab ever seen.

"More on Chuang-tzu: Italo Calvino tells the story in 'Quickness', in Six Memos for the Next Millennium. And the story is probably originally from the Chuang Tzu text (or Zhuang-zi), which was compiled during the Tan Dynasty, 202BCE-220AD."

Obviously, this is not my advice. The best way to make deadlines is to stick to your schedule. If you're having problems, tell your agent and editor asap. It's easier to write the perfect book one chapter at a time!

Posted by matt at 7:33 AM | Comments (2)