June 15, 2007
Reasons to Buy Local: Amazon to take a hit on Harry Potter
Don't get me wrong. I love Amazon. I buy lots of books from Amazon, and I link to my new books at Amazon as a matter of course, but this galls me. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows could be a great boon to the entire book business and to small bookstores everywhere, but many stores are taking a hit on the final Potter book or not stocking many copies because they can't compete with Amazon's deep discounts. And now we know that even Amazon isn't making any money on the deal:
Amazon.com Inc. has taken more than a million pre-orders for the final "Harry Potter" book due out in July, but the world's largest Web retailer won't make a profit, Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos told shareholders at the company's annual meeting Thursday. Amazon's handling of the "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" release - a $17 discount off cover price, a free shipping offer and guaranteed on-time delivery - showed yet again that the company is willing to take a hit to cement customer loyalty.
I guess that's no surprise, but I'd encourage you to think about where you buy your books and whether your purchase supports your local economy, your local tax base and small businesses, or whether your purchase supports an admitted loss leader and predatory discounting that is ultimately killing your own local bookstore.
This is one book we're buying from our local bookseller.
Link, via Publishers Lunch.
Posted by matt at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)
June 7, 2007
My book deal ruined my life :-( or :-)? (NY Observer)
This has got to be one of the more pathetic (or funny) things I've ever read, along the lines of boy, that promotion screwed with my head or could it be that cancer isn't so bad, try writing a book?
Of course we all know that dying is easy, comedy is hard, so maybe this is no surprise, or maybe it's a joke. It's hard to say. No matter what, it's nice to remember that there are certainly more important things in life than your book deal! As for me, I'd put my relationship, my kids, my job, my own sense of self worth, all that and more, far ahead of any book.
Posted by matt at 9:47 AM | Comments (0)
June 6, 2007
"It's the backlist, stupid," Random House "Profit Calculator"
Funny short piece in New York mag, via Galleycat.
Money quote --
"Many books are unprofitable,” says CEO Peter Olson. Fifteen to twenty best sellers at a time and a huge volume of steadily selling older titles support Random House, a unit of German media giant Bertelsmann. Every week, the country’s biggest trade publisher releases 67 new books, but it’s the the 33,000-book backlist (Ian McEwan’s Atonement, for example) that supplies 80 percent of its profit.
Below that there's some funny math --
Most authors do not see a 15% list royalty on paperback sales, that figure is decidedly fishy.
Posted by matt at 9:35 AM | Comments (0)
May 31, 2007
Mike Shatzkin on "the end of trade publishing"
Mike Shatzkin's BEA talk is absolutely essential reading for anyone involved in trade publishing. He looks into the future and forecasts that "general trade publishing" will increasingly lose ground to "niches and community," and I don't doubt for a second that it's true.
Change is seldom sought; it is usually forced. But in the media world, more than in most others, we are living in an era of blistering change. The future web -- and even unconnected digital devices enabled by the web -- are going to be more content-rich than we have ever imagined, and much of the content will be free.
That's our biggest competitor right now in numerous markets -- Free!
Tech, travel, cooking, gardening, how-to, all of these categories are eminently "nicheable." The key will be to become involved, known, trusted, and linked-to in the online communities that you aspire to reach. Publishers and authors both will need to bring a laser-like focus to individual markets.
Via Publisher's Lunch
Posted by matt at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2007
Chronicle Books Turns 40, Goes Green, Starts a Blog
Congrats to Chronicle Books: a new blog, a new building, and now they're one of the sponsors for the upcoming Maker's Faire in San Mateo. That's how I found their blog. I love their list and I hope I can sell them something this year.
My last book with Chronicle was the very cool Jamming the Media by Gareth Branwyn, but that was 10 years ago!
I admire their green aspirations --
"As a publisher, though, you can’t help but feel guilty about all the trees that go into our craft. That’s one reason we prefer to print our books and stationery titles on papers from sustainable forest growth. We’ve also tried to refurbish the building in an environmentally conscious way. For example, we’ve installed solar panels on the roof. All the old carpet tile was removed and immediately reinstalled in two local projects. And many of the furnishings are crafted here in the Bay Area and have been created from recycled materials."
Posted by matt at 12:44 PM | Comments (0)
February 20, 2007
Harlequin and NASCAR, a match made in pit row?
Not my genre and not my thing, so hey, maybe it will be successful, but for now I just think it's weird. Harlequin and NASCAR ink up for NASCAR themed romances. At GalleyCat, Linked.
This sounds like a genre ripe for fan fiction if there ever was one.
Whoa, I Googled it and I can tell you there really is such a thing! For NASCAR fan fiction check out TrackBunnies.
Posted by matt at 9:40 AM | Comments (0)
January 11, 2007
PGW RIP?
The AMS-PGW mess has been covered many places, and especially well by Michael Cader at Publisher's Marketplace, but Radio Free PGW has the perhaps the most poignant and personal take on the crisis and PGW's history, Publisher's Group West, 1976-2007.
I always liked PGW. I loved their broad list and diversity of publishers.
I saw many pioneering computer book publishers grow up in their stable (including Peachpit, No Starch, The Waite Group, and many more), and appreciated the fact that this west coast outfit was such a significant force in the publishing world at large.
Not to mention that they pretty much always had the best parties.
I hope as many publishers and authors as can escape unscathed. It looks like Avalon already has, per Galleycat, Today in AMS: Avalon Signs with Perseus, but that deal sounds like it was already coming.
Posted by matt at 1:04 PM | Comments (0)
January 4, 2007
AMS bankruptcy = hell for PGW publishers
AMS (Advanced Marketing Services) is a San Diego based distributor that helped publishers sell huge quantities of books to the big-box retailers like Costco. AMS experienced great growth in the 90s when big-box retailers were opening right and left.
But discount clubs are a small margin business and distributor profits depend to a great degree on what other services (i.e. advertising and placement fees) they can bundle for publishers. It also depends on huge volume. So of course AMS was always trying to find bigger margin business and found that to a degree in packaging books themselves, and eventually went on to buy well-regarded Berkeley distributor and sometime publisher PGW (Publisher's Group West).
Now that AMS has declared bankruptcy on the heels of numerous legal and financial problems, it spells potential disaster for PGW distributed publishers.
Galley Cat has decent overview coverage here.
It's scary. PGW distributes a great list of publishers, and this is awful news for them. And to me it's proof positive that consolidation is not always a good thing for the industry.
It also gives you something to think about. Many publishers use third party distributors and it's not unheard of to see small publishers go out of business when their distributors fail. Keep your fingers crossed for these folks.
Posted by matt at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2006
More "variable pricing" -- Free Online Because You Won't Find it In Stores
via Mediabistro, Free Online Because You Won't Find it in Stores.
Science fiction author Peter Watts has released his most recent novel, Blindsight (Tor), as a pdf under a Creative Commons license, which is cool and may spur more sales, but it's driven by the fact that his publisher only printed and shipped 3700 copies and didn't find wide distribution. Sadly, this is somewhat contrary to Boing Boing's first take that "the book is selling so fast that readers are having a hard time laying their hands on copies."
I assume he reserved these rights in his contract, you can't just decide to release your book via pdf without your publisher's permission.
It'll be interesting to see if this helps sales. I sure hope it does.
Here's the Amazon page, Blindsight.
And here's the novel itself, Blindsight in html.
And here's a very cool add-on, 7 alternate covers to the book.
Posted by matt at 11:02 AM | Comments (0)
December 12, 2006
The Bible and the Iraq Study Group Report: portraits of two bestsellers
A couple of interesting articles about bestsellers crossed my screen this week.
The Bible and the ripped-from-the-headlines Iraq Study Group Report are books that you don't ordinarily think of when you hear the word "bestseller," but each story can tell you a lot about the business of publishing, and maybe something about the future of this business.
Peter Osnos's latest Platform is about the behind-the-scenes maneuvering for the rights to be first publisher to print the Iraq Study Group Report, linked.
His take on variable pricing is of note --
"What makes all this robust sales activity notable (aside from public interest in its content) is that millions more people accessed the 142-page report gratis from all the Web sites where it was posted. In the first day, the U.S. Institute of Peace, said it alone had 730,000 downloads. The process was instantaneous and the layout exactly the same as in the book that carries retail price of $10.95."
Plus, the latest New Yorker has a great piece about the bestselling book in America, clocking in at some 25 millions copies a year, your friendly Bible, in all its variations, and sliced, diced, and interpreted many different ways -- The Good Book Business.
Money quote, "The amount spent annually on Bibles has been put at more than half a billion dollars."
Wow.
One thing in common with both books? No royalties. Well, unless maybe you have a superstar like Max Lucado involved.
Another thing in common? Most everyone already has a Bible and most anyone can download the Iraq Report for free.
Both bestsellers show you some of what readers truly value, and the "success" (hate to use that word in this case) of the Iraq Study Group Report clearly demonstrates the massive interest and concern about the war in Iraq (in case that wasn't clear from the election!).
Posted by matt at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)
December 1, 2006
Forbes special report on the book industry
Via Boing Boing, Forbes has a great special report about the book publishing industry, Linked.
Interesting articles include:
Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow on ebooks and free downloads, Giving it Away,
Institute of the Future of the Book's Ben Vershbow on The Networked Book,
and a sobering piece about Robert Jordan, My Author, My Life, about his recent illness and the response of his fans. I didn't know he was sick but I've always admired the commitment and passion of his fans, online and off. I hope he gets well and finishes his Wheel of Time.
Plus articles on Dave Eggers, Amazon Reviewers, and more. All in all, great book coverage, I'd say cutting-edge even. It's well worth checking out, especially for anyone jaded with the industry and concerned about the future of books.
Posted by matt at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)
November 6, 2006
Notes on the for Dummies "Authors' Unconference"
I drove "down the hill" (as we say up here on the hill) to speak at the (for Dummies) Authors' Unconference on Saturday and wanted to share my brief impressions.
Good: Conference organizer Alan Rubin and crew did a great job of attracting press notice and scheduled numerous author book signings and media events throughout the area.
Bad: The loneliness of the poorly attended book signing.
Ugly: Some signings were scheduled during the panel sessions.
Good: I missed this session, but Wiley execs made a point of showing up in force and sharing lots of info about the Dummies brand and the company in general.
Bad: some of the authors told me that they felt Powerpointed into submission ;-)
Ugly: I wasn't able to stay for the Wiley cocktail party or dinner.
Good: I had fun on the agent's panel and I hope I gave a few helpful answers (and thanks to Carol McClendon from Waterside who shared the panel with me).
Bad: I rambled before the Q&A came back on track.
Ugly: I didn't follow my notes at all, here they are --
A good agent can help you to:
- Find books you might not hear about yourself
- Develop your book proposals
- Submit proposals to publishers you can’t approach on your own
- Negotiate your contract
- Choose which books to do
- Manage your schedule
- Manage co-author relationships and contracts
- Coax your publisher on all fronts
- Manage and sell your sub-rights
- Manage your expectations
Good: Authors sharing.
Bad: Maybe too much sharing at some points. It's wise to be careful in what you say about your publisher (in public).
Ugly: "My last agent thought I was high maintenance."
Good: Paul Aiken, Executive Director of the Authors Guild, led a great discussion about the Wiley contract.
Bad: Nothing bad here but the ultimate question is "how many Dummies authors does it take to change the Wiley contract?"
Ugly: You could see authors deflate when they understood the difference between "net" and "list" royalties.
The guild discussion was great. It's too bad that some authors missed it.
Regarding the guild discussion, I am poised somewhere between the idealism of the guild and the realism of an agent who often works with series publishers.
Paul noted that reasonable author contracts create a profit sharing relationship between the author and publisher, and that after all expenses are deducted, in the trade at least, that ideally balances out to around a 50% share of the profit for each side. So far, so good.
But a series publisher often holds substantial (and expensive) assets: trademarks and trade dress, style guidelines and templates, a large editorial machine, existing licensing partners, and hopefully, a successful sales and marketing team. The author may hold fewer cards in this situation, and the publisher itself may have higher costs (editorial development, especially).
If you choose to work with a series that has its own strong brand and infrastructure you become a "franchiser" of sorts (i.e. you "rent" the brand) and it can skew the ultimate deal percentage.
This doesn't mean that it's a bad idea to write a series title, not at all. I love series publishing. These books can do very well for their authors, and can help an author to create their own platform and brand that they can leverage into future books, and even at a reduced rate an author may make more money on the series deal. There are plenty of publishers who can publish your book on wedding planning, but there's only one that can publish Wedding Planning for Dummies.
With any agreement, you need to understand the pros and cons of your contract before you sign it, and it's equally important to understand and appreciate what your publisher brings to the table. Use the Guild attorneys, use an experienced agent, or hire a publishing attorney, but make sure you understand your contract. Change what you can, live with what you can, and remember that you can always walk if the deal doesn't work for you. Just make sure you walk for the right reasons.
Posted by matt at 9:14 AM | Comments (0)
October 9, 2006
How some indie bookstores make do
Also not retiring, some indie booksellers who find that in the age of cut-rate online booksellers they need focus, creativity and community. At Wired News, via Boing Boing, Linked.
Posted by matt at 2:42 PM | Comments (0)
Publishing is dead, long live publishing
A client called my attention to well-respected copywriter and advertising author Bob Bly's Finis, his post about retiring from writing books.
Bob's writing about exactly my market: the non-fiction book caught in the headlights of Google. I feel his pain and I share many of his concerns, and I'm sorry that he has decided to retire from the business, but I'm not retiring from the book business just yet.
Alas, publishing is dead again. Really, it keeps dying over and over. This time it's the Internet.
And boy, the children's book market was in the doldrums before J.K. Rowling and Daniel Handler showed up.
Uh oh, flat is the new up in the computer book market. And what happened to home and garden books and all those "nesters?" They too have hit the skids.
And why doesn't anyone talk about how high gas prices have also affected the book market?
Year to year sales at B&N and Borders, honestly, aren't that great. It's true. And I agree with Bob that the decline in the importance of books in our culture is a huge problem for the industry. We need to encourage our kids to read and we need to create books that rival or complement other experiences.
I also agree that there are lots of crap books published. Who cares about a novel "written" by the "famous for being famous though not as famous as Paris," Nicole Richie? Well, sadly, more than 100,000 buyers did.
But, is the Internet killing the non-fiction book?
Well, some kinds of non-fiction books, sure. Encyclopedias have had a heck of a time. Straight-ahead references, well I can find pretty much any answer I need at Google or Wikipedia. Still, somehow, the "for Dummies" and the "Missing Manual" series continue to grow.
And the internet seems to be actually helping the writers at Boing Boing, who turned a cool but obscure zine into one of the top blogs in the world.
Plus, it looks like new franchises such as O'Reilly's Head First series, which does books that are immersive and can't be easily duplicated by online Q&A, are doing just fine. Not to mention MAKE or CRAFT, which aren't just books but are also marketed as magazines.
And Rachel Ray is doing very well in all media everywhere, thank you very much. Tell me, was she even a blip on anyone's consciousness five years ago?
In the sales and marketing arena I guarantee you that Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell are seeing great advances and selling lots of books, and they've built incredible unique selling propositions, some may even call it a platform: namely, hundreds of thousands of people care what they have to say.
And about those crowded shelves? Not to be arch, but Bob Bly himself told his readers to write books so that they could become known as experts in their field and generate multiple streams of income. It's still good advice, but it sure has a way of crowding those shelves!
Honestly, publisher obsession about "platform" is okay. Publisher curiosity about the sales on your previous books is fair. Lower advances in a time of diminished expectations, that's a drag and I know that from personal experience, but over time new books and authors will enter the market and some authors will write meaningful and useful books that sell well regardless of the advance.
Fundamentally, it's hard to be relevant and new every year. What's increasingly difficult about publishing is simply competition and the authors and publishers who are suffering are either not publishing books that readers want or need, or need to re-assess their own priorities and goals. Much as Bob has.
I know that with our new baby we spent at least as much time at BabyCenter.com as we did reading What to Expect or Ina May. Publishing has to change, but it has always had to change, and it will continue to change.
The "new new thing" eventually gets out front. The problem is that no one is in charge but the marketplace, which is always disconcerting to the establishment!
New writers will emerge that will topple old sales records. New series will emerge too.
And George W. Bush's advance for his memoir will probably exceed Bill Clinton's.
C'est la vie.
The king is dead, long live the king.
Posted by matt at 9:48 AM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2006
Convenience and Quality: Peter Osnos
Found via Mediabistro, this short post, Convenience and Quality, from noted publisher Peter Osnos.
The Caravan Project is simultaneously releasing books in multiple formats. Peter writes
"About two dozen books will be released simultaneously in the traditional printed version in hardcover or paperback supplemented, if necessary to keep the book in ready supply, by the latest version of print-on-demand technology. At the same time, the book will be available in digital formats for reading on computers (desk, lap, and hand) either in full or in parts. An audio version will be read by its author or a professional reader and downloadable on to your favored listening device. Finally (at least so far) the books will be rendered in a large-type format."
That's really cool and a great experiment, though it's odd to think that it's groundbreaking. I know there's a strong economic incentive to release in hardcover first, and that makes sense, but what's so revolutionary about releasing multiple formats?
What's funny to me is that the book industry (including its bloggers and reporters) seems oblivious to that fact that the tech market has been way out front with alternative publishing strategies, from ebook subscriptions services such as Safari or Books24X7 to publishers asking that books be delivered in XML format and therefore ready for all sorts of electronic slicing and dicing from the get-go. Not to mention that for obvious reasons the tech book market is probably the best environment to explore ebooks (note too O'Reilly's Rough Cuts or Pragmatic Programmer's Beta Books. You'd also want to look at companies like Wiley, which is a leader in the electronic journals market.
Of course in the reference world there's more incentive to get information fast and to stay on top of the newest technologies.
Osnos says "Books, particularly the serious nonfiction and specialized works in the Caravan demonstration, have always been limited in distribution. As the technology enables them to be always available in so many different ways, it is fair to predict they will be more widely used."
Yep. That's true. Interestingly, that's also a big selling point for Google's Book Search.
The biggest challenge with multiple formats, and one not solved in the tech market, is piracy. With increasing frequency, books that are available in electronic form are available for download for free on warez sites throughout the world. The hope is always that downloaders will convert to purchasers, but that hasn't happened yet.
Posted by matt at 10:22 AM | Comments (0)
July 28, 2006
Dave Taylor on the "Long Tail"
Dave Taylor has a great post on the Long Tail this morning (Chris Anderson's new bestselling book, and his blog of the same name).
I'm a big believer in a key tenet of the Long Tail -- that with the advent of the internet more obscure books, movies, and products can have a meaningful and productive sales history and might become profit centers in their own right, or as Dave puts it, "the inherent implication (is) that as the Internet grows you'll be able to find more and more obscure information."
I like obscure, I studied the obscure in college.
But based on my experience as an agent, I know the Long Tail will work best when you also have the "Huge Backlist," and ideally a "Big Head" to boot. Amazon can make money on the Long Tail, and so can iTunes, or Random House, but it will be harder for Joe Author with the obscure backlist book. Sure, he can see improved sales, but they're not going to make him rich.
A Huge Backlist has a way of paying for operations -- your publishing company will grow as big as your backlist allows -- but it's the Big Head of hits that pays for growth, and your executive bonuses, sales conferences in Florida, and your bestselling author's million dollar home.
The Long Tail can be a boon to authors who have a steady backlist, a self-published book with a higher profit margin, or some variation of multiple streams of income, and backlist provides critical income for any thriving agency, but I think Dave is right when he says that the real money remains in hits.
And I'm sure that Chris Anderson would also prefer to be in the Big Head.
Posted by matt at 6:46 AM | Comments (1)
July 27, 2006
Holy Hollywood Batman, Amazon Options a Book for the Movies
Talk about putting your finger in every pie, this is straight from the pages of Variety and stolen directly from Publisher's Lunch --
"Amazon has optioned screen rights to Keith Donohue's bestselling novel The Stolen Child. Amazon will move to secure a filmmaker and then a studio partner to turn the fantasy into a live-action feature."
I get it. Big-deal old-time tycoons like Howard Hughes built defense contractors, bought Vegas and made movies.
Big-deal dot-com tycoons like Jeff Bezos build e-tailers, start space travel companies, and... make movies.
I'm just jealous. This is a well-reviewed book published by Nan Talese. I can't wait to see Amazon make hay as a movie producer. Could be fun. Will they scare DVD producers as much as they do publishers?
Posted by matt at 4:28 PM | Comments (0)
July 24, 2006
Apple to do eBooks on the iPod?
Rumor via publisher's lunch, and courtesy of engadget. Linked.
They need a bigger screen for sure but this makes sense any way you look at it. If someone is going to make a breakthrough with ebooks, why not expect if from the company with the platform (and store) that's already selling the largest number digital downloads?
Posted by matt at 7:25 AM | Comments (3)
July 20, 2006
Best laid plans of mice and men....on pulling a submission
An author team and I just pulled the plug on submitting an awesome proposal that I was sure would sell.
The proposal was extremely well done. The sample chapters, wonderful. The topic (name withheld to protect the innocent) represents a life-changing issue for literally millions of couples in the US alone.
In fact, we had a great run at publishers, and lots of interest with editors pitching to editorial boards throughout the process, but the one element we couldn't control decided our fate: the bookscan numbers on similar titles just weren't good enough. As one editor said, "this is a big problem but not a big market."
In fact, had I repped a book on this topic before I might have known that publishers were at their wits end. Here's an important health issue with lots of potential readers but for some reasons these folks aren't buying books.
I'm going to keep this proposal on my desk. Something might change. You never know when a surprise bestseller might re-ignite a category, or a TV show or movie might do the same trick, but for now it's the most bittersweet moment: we did a great job, but we couldn't sell the book.
Posted by matt at 9:06 AM | Comments (2)
June 21, 2006
How the "net generation" learns
via Publisher's Lunch, here's an interesting article summarizing the recent Association of American University Presses conference in New Orleans.
Textbook publishers have been struggling more than most in light of a robust used textbook market, and in being dependent on the leading edge of "net generation" learners who are increasingly used to learning online and expect information for free.
Plenty of money quotes here about this new audience. It's worth reading.
Posted by matt at 7:31 AM | Comments (0)
June 14, 2006
Scholastic Kids and Family Reading Report
Scholastic Books and Yankelovich have released a study on reading trends among kids and families.
This is important reading for anyone who wonders about the future generations of readers. You can find the pdf and the press release linked here.
Critical takeways:
While more than 40% of "kids ages 5-8 are high frequency readers," that drops to "29% among kids aged 9-11." (High frequency readers read every day)
"Children of high frequency reading parents are more likely than other youth to regularly engage in reading for fun."
Age 8 seems the critical drop-off point, according to the study.
I don't know what the larger solution is but I come from a reading family where books were something like our religion, and for me access was one of the main drivers of my reading habit. That meant lots of trips to the library, and lots of books all over the house, and time spent quietly reading as a family.
Today that somehow seems quaint and old-fashioned but my fondest memories of growing up include scenes of sitting around and reading with my parents.
The main point of the study is that parents can set a better example, Read every day for pleasure yourself and you'll teach your children the importance of a good reading habit.
Posted by matt at 7:34 AM | Comments (0)
June 1, 2006
BookExpo Podcasts
Via The Book Standard, get your Book Expo of America Podcasts here.
I'm listening to John Updike's talk.
I've been to BEA 8 or 9 times but I've never sat in on one of the bookseller breakfasts! Very cool.
Posted by matt at 2:21 PM | Comments (0)
May 25, 2006
Lulu notes "shortened life expectancy" for bestsellers
Here's an interesting Lulu.com press release via Boing Boing,
Life Expectancy of Bestsellers Plummets
In a lovely bit of PR framing Lulu founder Bob Young says "The plummeting life-expectancy of a fiction bestseller reflects the way that the publishing industry is unravelling, in an age of over-production, plus media fragmentation and now disruptive new technologies such as the Internet and print-on-demand: 'The publishing revolution is nigh.'"
Nigh?
I'm as much a fan of the Long Tail as anyone, and I think that the internet is creating all sorts of new opportunities for authors (including self-publishing authors) but I'm not really looking forward to a universe of 2 million new books published each year that go on to sell 1000 copies each, and I think that this Lulu statistic is shallow and misleading.
Why look at only the time spent at the top by the #1 book? Why not include figures like total books sold as a percentage of population? The time each novel spent on the top ten? Foreign rights and overseas publishing success? The number of movies or TV shows hatched from books? Overall author royalties?
There are so many other metrics of publishing success.
I'd see an abbreviated reign of books at #1 as being maybe something right with the industry, an improvement in distribution and opportunity, and evidence of a more interesting, and varied, culture, and a sign that the publishing industry despite all sorts of challenges (TV, the Internet, Gaming) is competitive and healthy.
Lulu seems pretty cool compared to many of the POD presses, they don't seem to over-promise and they have a book that I've actually seen on an Amazon category bestseller list, but blockbusters are alive and well, and I think that the larger than 10 million copy laydown of the last Harry Potter might be proof of that.
A more cogent analysis might suggest that culture moves more quickly these days, fads expire quickly, people read the next big thing more quickly.
Even more evidence of cultural fragmentation, didn't I hear somewhere that Pink Floyd fell off the billboard chart? No, Dark Side of the Moon has been on the chart for a (non-consecutive) 1500 Weeks! That's a while, eh?
Posted by matt at 12:06 PM | Comments (0)
May 22, 2006
Amazon P.O.D. for O.O.P.
I knew that Amazon had purchased BookSurge and I also knew that that they had plans to launch their POD (print-on-demand) service but today is the first time I've seen
"I own the rights to this title and would like to make it available again through Amazon."
Which takes you here.
I know that a few other players really pushed for the OOP (out-of-print) market but I would venture that Amazon has a pretty good footprint for this kind of thing. I'm only surprised it took them so long.
Of course, they're offering the same POD service to publishers, The recent BEA news release is covered here.
Posted by matt at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)
May 17, 2006
Scary Books
I recently read The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century, by James Howard Kuntsler, a grim analysis of what may happen to our modern civilization after we hit peak oil (which we may already have). The book feels flawed near the end where he spins off into all sorts of possible dystopias but in spite of that the message is often terrifying.
I also read John Barry's The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History, a sort of Avian flu preview which was a great and again a scary read, and Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, another great book though plodding in places and not as compelling as his Guns, Germs and Steel.
I'm not sure why I'm in the mood for these bleak books but I'll make the publishing note that each has a great sub-title.
I had trouble sleeping while I was reading the The Great Influenza, and I slept even less while reading The Long Emergency. But which of these books is scariest?
If you check Amazon's "Customers who bought this item also bought" you'll find that only the readers of The Long Emergency are buying how-to books like When Technology Fails, or The Encyclopedia of Country Living, while readers of Collapse and The Great Influenza seem content to read a broad swath of popular non-fiction, like 1776 or Blink.
The Long Emergency wins.
Surprisingly, there's no activity on this book's wiki or forum though there's plenty of back and forth in the review section.
I'm going to read something light-hearted next.
Posted by matt at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
May 10, 2006
Bowker tracks drop in US title count
Via yesterday's Publisher's Lunch, Bowker has a preliminary report that shows an 18,000 title drop in 2005 U.S. book production (the U.K. was up).
From the press release --
"Based on preliminary figures from U.S. publishers, Bowker is projecting that U.S. title output in 2005 decreased by more than 18,000 to 172,000 new titles and editions. This is the first decline in U.S. title output since 1999, and only the 10th downturn recorded in the last 50 years. It follows the record increase of more than 19,000 new books in 2004."
That's a pretty big drop and might illustrate what Tim O'Reilly discussed in regards to recent tech book market trends: sales growth is concentrated among bestsellers, and publishers are being more conservative.
Note too the comment about the rising price of paper impacting publisher decisions --
"In 2005, publishers were more cautious and disciplined when it came to their lists," said Gary Aiello, chief operating officer of New Providence, N.J.-based Bowker. "We see that trend continuing in 2006. The price of paper has already gone up twice this year, and publishers, especially the small ones, will have to think very carefully about what to publish."
I wonder too if this reflects some of the passage of a pent up demand for self-publishing and POD that helped to account for a 19,000 increase from 2003 to 2004. I have to imagine that plays a part.
Here's the rough stat sheet but the numbers don't exactly match the press release.
Posted by matt at 5:00 PM | Comments (0)
March 30, 2006
Great article about Copper Canyon Press
I don't represent poetry or even fiction at this point but I remember Copper Canyon's name very well from my days buying poetry for the Boulder Bookstore in 1986: I always thought that poetry was an important category in the town that hosted a great seasonal surge in poets for the readings at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics!
There's a great profile of Copper Canyon in the Seattle Post Intelligencer today, linked here. (I've stolen this directly from Publisher's Lunch, which always has the best daily round-up of publishing stories across the web.)
We should all have a soft spot in our hearts for small publishers who prize quality, craftsmanship, and patience, and I think it's a great testament to the press that W.S. Merwin chose Copper Canyon over Knopf for his most recent book of collected poems. It makes for an inspirational read. In fact I liked the story so much I went ahead and ordered Merwin's Migration, which is probably not a bad idea for anyone interested in poetry, as it won the 2005 National Book Award.
Posted by matt at 2:27 PM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2006
Interview with Chris Van Buren, Moon Handbooks Brazil
My good friend, former client and Waterside colleague Chris Van Buren is living a dream that many folks have: moving overseas to an exotic locale while still managing to make a living.
Chris first visited, then moved to Brazil, and continues to make his living there as a writer and artist. His new book, Moon Handbooks Brazil, was just published in January, and I thought he'd be up for a short interview to discuss his move and also what it's like to write a travel guide, especially in relation to tech titles, of which he's written quite a few.
How did you find yourself moving to Brazil?
A friend of mine, after traveling to Brazil, told me this was a place that I would really like -- not just Brazil, but a specific historical town called Ouro Preto, in the middle of the country. She was right. I fell in love with Ouro Preto right away and within three years, I had moved to Brazil completely, tapered down and finally quit my activities as an agent, and went back to writing -- together with a new and fledgling (but promising) profession as a fine artist (something I studied in college but never did professionally).
It wasn´t as easy a transition as I would have liked. Book projects have been getting harder and harder to land and my profession as an artist suffered major setbacks during the economic crisis that began in 2003 (nobody wants art when they´re worried about war). So I supplemented my two professions with a third -- and began teaching English to Brazilian students.
Had you planned to write a travel guide? Did you solicit many publishers? How did you come to choose Moon (or vice versa, how did they come to choose you?)
I routinely check for writing projects on various online boards, in addition to keeping my ears to the publishing world as best I can from abroad. When a Brazil travel guide popped up on one of the boards, I quickly checked out the publisher and related publishers. I decided then that I was going to do whatever it took to get this contract. I spent the next four days preparing a proposal. It came to 50 pages including outline and samples.
But I don´t recommend to authors that they sit around watching for projects to appear on the Internet. In most cases, you have to find holes in publishers' lists and create projects to fill them. You can work the other way around (create the project and then find the publisher for it) if you´re highly specialized and well-known in your field.
I imagine that the travel book process would be very similar to how the tech book market functions. Did the process differ much?
Avalon Publishing is more traditional than most computer publishers. They schedule books way in advance and the process is a bit slower and more painstaking. But there are many similarities--such as the experience of working within a publisher's existing series, something common in computer publishing. Also, the writing process is similar (the process, not the writing itself). You have to present information in parcels and organize yourself in a similar way. Computer writing prepared me quite well for the sheer quantity of output that is expected in a short amount of time in guidebook writing. I can´t imagine most writers being able to keep up. Only computer book writers and maybe hardcore journalists have the pace and stamina to produce, say, ten finished pages a day for four straight months. Even still, I reached a point where I had to break through my previous levels. Of course, this was also my first travel book, so there was the learning curve too.
Do you have any advice for writers who plan to move overseas? For instance, how to keep paying work going when you're at greater distance?
It can work really well if the exchange rate is in your favor. But you have to keep a steady stream of work -- or set up a couple of regular gigs that you can count on, even if small. And you have to keep a couple of very trustworthy contacts in the states to handle your money issues. The rest is about coping with the new environment and getting yourself installed in the new system. Each system has its little tricks and challenges. I learned a lot of things the hard way.
I know of a lot of free-lance editors working from overseas for the publishing company that used to employ them. I don´t know as many writers doing this (other than journalists) because most writers need part-time jobs to supplement the writing work and that can be difficult to get in a foreign country. More and more, writing is becoming less and less of a paid endeavor. Today, many writers create their books and articles with the sole intention of promoting themselves and their other activities. With all the free information exchange on the Internet, article-sized pieces are not pulling the kinds of per-word payments that they used to. Most go unpaid. This will likely continue as publishers re-position themselves in this new environment. Thankfully, more than 80% of the Internet is still English based--so one can always teach English overseas.
Posted by matt at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)
March 8, 2006
Entrepreneurial Proverbs
Marc Hedlund at the O'Reilly Radar has an inspiring post today, Entrepreneurial Proverbs, which has great application to any author thinking about writing a non-fiction book as well.
That makes sense because in many ways writing a book is similar to creating your own start-up. His entire post is worth reading in this vein but I'll recast a few comments for authors.
Pay attention to the idea that won't leave you alone. Great advice for authors, and taken from Paul Hawken's highly recommended Growing a Business. Find an idea that won't let you sleep at night.
If you keep your secrets from the market, the market will keep its secrets from you. Too many prospective authors believe they have an entirely unique idea that maybe agents or publishers will steal wholesale from them. It's just not true, agents and publishers are bombarded with a huge number of proposals on a daily basis and your up front request for an nda probably won't help your cause. The idea and the execution are both key and if you're afraid to talk to anyone for fear of losing your idea, you'll never see it realized.
Your ideas will get better the more you know about business. For publishing this is true in the extreme, your ideas will get better the more you know about publishing. I've seen too many proposals that tell me "this book will sell great if you shelve it at the cash register" without any appreciation at all for what it takes ($$$) to be shelved next to the cash register. It's critical that you understand as well as possible not only your reader, but where they will buy your book, why they will buy your book, and how the channel works. Sure, your agent may (and should) fill in some of the details here for you, but a solid appreciation and knowledge of how and where books are sold is critical to your ultimate success and even governs the flavor of your pitch.
Build the simplest thing possible. Here's advice that I've ignored many times myself to my own peril and it goes right back to the last point, if you don't know where and how your book is going to be shelved you're at a huge disadvantage. Combining genres is tough in this business and while certainly some books break out, you're going to have a hard time if your book doesn't really belong specifically in humor or travel. Narrow it down, solve a unique problem or question and be specific about your audience.
That's just a snapshot, I'm sure readers can find many more gems of wisdom in Marc's post.
Posted by matt at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)
January 26, 2006
A Million Little Retractions
Well, James Frey is on Oprah today and Oprah is angry after all. That's more what I would expect. She can't very well sell her show on the premise that her guests are probably lying.
Still, I wouldn't go so far as to sue Frey and Doubleday for "lost time," as some folks in Seattle are doing. C'mon, it's a book. We all should lose some time in books. These readers just want to get on TV themselves. Sheesh. Write your own book. If you want to sue someone, sue the government for violating our civil liberties, sue big tobacco, sue somebody worthwhile.
I'd file both episodes under "not cool."
Posted by matt at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2006
Liars and Fraudsters
I don't have much to add to the voices chattering on about James Frey or "JT Leroy."
Both come off as performance artists to me. Of the two I'd say the Leroy fraud is more appalling to me in the sense that he/she/they took advantage of many supporters who were there for "JT" for reasons totally unrelated to literature. It's the same kind of fraud as practiced by those folks down the hill in Sacramento who pretended to be from New Orleans in order to scarf up on the relief funds.
Re Frey, I'm surprised that Oprah defended him on Larry King. I thought that authenticity was her hallmark. If I were Oprah, I'd be pissed.
A Million Little Pieces is number two on Amazon's bestseller list as I write this, so the controversy hasn't seemed to hurt sales yet.
The deeper problem for publishers and authors is that many other modern memoirists now become suspect.
It's a shame, but in fact the list of literary pranks and liars is quite long.
Remember Hitler's Diary? Howard Hughes's autobiography?
Fraud of a different sort caught my eye last week, something that's probably more insidious and dangerous than "memoir fiction" or imaginary authors: science fraud and fudging aided and abetted by Photoshop.
Perhaps everything we read and every picture we see should come with a disclaimer.
Posted by matt at 10:06 AM | Comments (1)
January 6, 2006
The most shop-lifted book is...the Bible???
Via Publisher's Lunch -- this article from the Detroit News is worth reading.
Makes you think about those used books sales on Amazon, which cause some publisher and author consternation already. Although I'm sure that the great majority of them are legitimate, I've heard of a few cases recently where thieves were hitting stores and stealing books "to order" for online sales.
Posted by matt at 10:15 AM | Comments (1)
December 21, 2005
Google Book Search now Google's 5th Most Popular Program
SearchEngineWatch via Publisher's Lunch.
The headline calls it a "service," though it's fine to call it a "program" for now. We'll wait to see if the courts decide it's a "service" or not.
This means the program already has more traffic than Froogle, Google Maps, and Google Earth.
Posted by matt at 8:32 AM | Comments (1)
October 18, 2005
I'm on a teleconference tomorrow
I'm the featured guest on a Guerilla Marketing Association teleconference this Wednesday afternoon at 4 PM PST. Clients and potential clients are welcome to call in, just send me a note and I'll send you the number and access code. The show is run by Roger C. Parker and Jay Conrad Levinson, both bestselling authors with many years of publishing experience. The questions we're covering include --
* What do publishers want these days?
* What is a "platform," and why is it so important?
* Publishing alternatives: what are the advantages and disadvantages of trade
book publishing, as compared to self-publishing or print-on-demand?
* What are some of the common characteristics shared by the best-selling books
you've represented?
* What can a literary agent do for you that you can't do for yourself?
* How do you locate a literary agent?
* What do you say, or write, when contacting a potential agent for the first
time?
* What are most important parts of a book proposal?
* What types of books are in great demand these days?
Posted by matt at 9:36 AM | Comments (0)
October 3, 2005
More Google Library
Jim Minatel at Wiley weighs in with a dissenting opinion on Google Library with Even Tim O'Reilly isn't always right, and later adds a wry response to Rogers Cadenhead's Throw the Book at Google.
Whether Tim is right or not, he's certainly notable in putting his money where his mouth is.
Google indexes everything it can on the web, and most of that information is under copyright already, including this web page just by virtue of my posting it. Google indexes my copyrighted information every five days or so, and if I posted every day maybe the Google bots would come around more often.
Now, Google is taking that conceit to the next level by asserting they can index information whether it's online already or not -- don't forget that with Google Maps they're also indexing the Earth.
I don't blame publishers or authors for taking umbrage at Google Library. In fact, I'm sure that it's almost essential to challenge Google's stance to the point that the companies who aspire to index "the universe and everything" have some sort of rational limits placed upon how they might profit unfairly from, or decrease sales of, copyrighted works. As Rogers Cadenhead says, "Thank God we have wealthy corporations with high-powered intellectual property lawyers who can answer this question for us."
But I think that in the longer run, we're talking about a revolutionary idea that will benefit authors and publishers alike. It's really an amazing idea, that we can create a repository for all books, isn't it? No shades of Fahrenheit 451 here. Who knows what long out of print but still under copyright (post 1923) books might be brought to our attention?
Of course, Yahoo has taken advantage of the Google tumult to officially announce their own library index that will, pointedly, focus only on works in the public domain or those with express publisher consent (Tim O'Reilly is here too). The Yahoo effort is also ambitious but much more polite, and is getting much more positive spin from the publishing industry and APA President Patricia Schroeder.
Posted by matt at 1:11 PM | Comments (0)
September 30, 2005
Google Print and Google Library
I've been on the fence on the Google Print and Google Library services, but I'm leaning toward Google's side these days.
To summarize my understanding: Google Print is an electronic delivery system wherein Google is working hand in hand with publishers to secure rights for books that can generate advertising revenue for copyright holders, while Google Library is meant to be a searchable index of millions of books held in a few University libraries, with search "hits" limited to the book title and author and a few lines of text before and after the indexed passage. (Client and library science pro, Shirl Kennedy pointed me to this detailed legal overview written by Copyright lawyer Jonathan Band (it's a pdf and it's pro Google but worth reading).
And for more information, Tim O'Reilly wrote a compelling op-ed piece about the Author's Guild suit for the NY Times this week, and he's helpfully posted it to his site. Keep in mind that Tim's position is in the minority among most publishers I've spoken to.
I don't think that the dissenting publishers or authors are being knee jerk about this at all, and I totally understand their position about Google's "opt-out" message (which displays a certain arrogance) but I think that in the long term the biggest challenge authors will face is being found and Google Library may be a boon for long OOP (out of print) books and information, becoming the sort of knowledge base the like of which we haven't seen since the Alexandria Library.
The most salient concerns I've seen from the Guild and the APA are --
1) Google's "opt out or else position" is the start of a slippery slope in copyright law. Once one company indexes all books what's to stop others from doing the same, and the more of these we see the more likely it will be that someone will flout any pretense of fair use entirely, and
2) How safe is the data? How will Google protect these files from piracy? And what if a disaffected Google employee leaves the company with 200,000 book files (anonymous exec quoted in PW this week). How can Google protect publisher and author rights? I think this is a very relevant concern, and honestly, I don't know if I would feel the same if Microsoft was indexing all of these books. I guess the question is how far can Google's stated "Do No Evil" credo go?
There's no doubt that the internet is changing everything, but frankly I am as concerned about how effectively Google and publishers track the advertising micropayments due their Google Print authors, as I am about whether indexing obscure or long OOP books at Google Library will negatively impact author's rights and opportunities.
As an aside, a rep from Penn State University pubbed an opinion piece in Publishing Weekly this week that suggests that Google provide copies of their digital files of OOP books to publishers as one of the perks to the affected University publishers, without realizing perhaps that the vast majority of OOP books are owned by the authors, not the publishers. It seems that copyright arrogance cuts both ways.
I welcome any comments on this. I'm probably an oddball on this as an agent in taking a position different from the Author's Guild, so please feel free to fire away.
Posted by matt at 9:58 AM | Comments (0)
September 8, 2005
LaunchBooks is Open for Business
Congratulations to David Fugate, my longtime colleague at Waterside Productions, and one of my best friends.
David recently left Waterside to found LaunchBooks Literary Agency. David is a great agent and a wonderful person, and he's sure to do well on his own.
For me, it will be nice to have company as an independent agent, and I look forward to working with him on select projects.
Posted by matt at 8:28 AM | Comments (0)
August 19, 2005
Amazon Shorts Launched Today
Amazon is now offering Amazon Shorts, allowing customers to sample the works of new authors through "exclusive short form literature, for 49 cents each." These mini books can be downloaded as pdfs or read on the site. Either way, they remain available online in the customer's personal "digital locker." They're not currently copy protected.
The first question is what took them so long?
Although they're pitching many well-known, mainstream authors in their first release -- including folks like Danielle Steele, Robin Cook and Kim Stanley Robinson -- the shorts program will allow even unknown authors to easily hawk their "short form" wares at the largest bookstore on earth, and I think the program is uniquely suited to reference and how-to.
They tout the benefits of buidling backlist most of all: from their site --
Benefits of participation in Amazon Shorts:
Access a powerful marketing tool to promote an author's backlist in a new and meaningful way
Create an author profile page with biography, photo, and complete backlist
Maintain author's visibility between published projects
Establish a more direct and frequent communication with readers
Introduce readers to unfamiliar writers
Provide a new outlet to sell short fiction and nonfiction
It will be interesting to see how this develops, and of course I'm trying to learn what the royalty pay-out will look like.
Posted by matt at 7:15 AM | Comments (2)
July 18, 2005
The "Age of the Conglomerate" and Harry Potter
Recently, Viacom mogul Summer Redstone declared that he was dividing Viacom, and that the "age of the (media) conglomerate" was over.
This is interesting news because Redstone was one of the foremost practitioners of "growth by acquisition." The media kingdoms built alongside the dot com bubble, such as Viacom or The Company Formerly Known as AOL Time Warner, have had relatively poor results, and most have had a difficult time integrating all of their media properties or benefiting from the supposed synergies. Disney itself has struggled, even as it continues to roll out such successful films as Pirates of the Caribbean, or television hits like Desparate Housewives.
The biggest bonanzas often grow from the bottom up, and the best case in point today might be the absolutely huge sales of the latest Pottter book.
The first Potter title was pubbed by U.K. publisher Bloomsbury, and the U.S. rights were picked up by Scholastic. The movie rights were nabbed by Warner Bros. No one company controlled or directed the Potter phenomenon. Instead, the various entities work together as best they can, and are dependent upon the good graces of J.K. Rowling, who retains ultimate control over the Potter empire and, most importantly, a god-like grasp over the lives of her characters. Thankfully, the best and most enduring books aren't written by committee.
Posted by matt at 6:35 AM | Comments (0)
June 10, 2005
Former "for Dummies" Editor Rules Roost at Rodale
The title is as Variety might put it ;-)
Congratulations to Tami Booth Corwin.
Posted by matt at 10:11 AM | Comments (1)
May 24, 2005
More titles published but fewer books sold
By way of Tim O'Reilly's blog, this piece from the Salt Lake City Tribune.
This flurry of publishing, including the huge growth in POD, reminds me of my experience buying for the poetry and drama shelves at the Boulder Bookstore many years ago. It seemed that everyone wanted to write poetry (and pitch their books to the local bookstore) but that few poets actually bought it.
Also, there's no doubt at all that DVDs, video games, and the internet are cutting into reading time. I'm an avid reader, and I always will be, but I also watched four seasons of 24 in the last five months, 3 on DVD.
Posted by matt at 8:51 AM | Comments (0)
About a gazillion books were published in 2004
Or, as Bowker (Books In Print) estimates, 195,000, a 14% increase from 2003.
A couple highlights: POD publishers accounted for at least 20,000 new titles; adult fiction grew 43% (I bet much of that is also POD, and this figure doesn't include literary fiction, which fell); University Presses increased output by 12.3%; religion, travel and home economics grew the most among non-fiction categories.
11,458 new publishers registered with the U.S. ISBN agency. Books In Print covers data from 81,000 publishers in the U.S. Wow.
Posted by matt at 8:14 AM | Comments (2)
May 19, 2005
Quirkbooks, Home of Irreference
I've pitched Quirk Books a couple of projects in the last few months. I've had no success with them yet, but I love their list, which includes, most notably, the Worst Case Scenario Handbooks published by Chronicle.
Here's a nice article about their growth from a packager to independent publisher. They've done a great job with non-book outlets such as Urban Outfitters, and Restoration Hardware, where, according to this article, their Field Guide to Stains is the only book featured.
I'd love to see any proposals for "irreference." Especially those geared toward the hip, urban reader Quirk favors.
Posted by matt at 7:08 AM | Comments (0)
May 10, 2005
Weekly Publishing Industry Moves
Here's a nifty page that tracks the moves of execs and editors throughout the publishing industry, compiling info from a variety of sources, Publisher's Weekly, Publisher's Marketplace, and others. You can subscribe to a free weekly update.
Posted by matt at 10:45 AM | Comments (0)
April 25, 2005
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 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)
March 28, 2005
California Publishers
One of my biggest frustrations in repping some really interesting (to me) titles with a western bent, is finding a regional bias with New York publishers.
I have one book in particular that would have huge appeal to Californians. The state has an estimated population upwards of 35 million as of 2003, which looks to me like a substantial potential readership, but the biggest trade houses see this as a "regional" title with little national appeal, and have begged off so far. The proposal is great, the author is a very well known journalist and he's one of the most qualified people to write this story, but so far no go.
California (and the West) has plenty of publishers, but they're mostly category publishers: computer book, travel, gift book, spirituality, business, novelty and how-to publishers. We have few publishers who do serious narrative non-fiction: I don't mean to slight U.C. Press or Berrett Koehler, they're both great houses, but I'm looking for someone with more range.
When a California publisher does rise to prominence, they're often sold to the bigger houses back east, editors are let go, and the entrepreneurs who founded the companies retire comfortably to their own pursuits.
Nothing against that. I'm happy that Ted Nace (Peachpit, sold to Pearson), Ben Dominitz (Prima, sold to Random House) and Jeremy Tarcher (Tarcher, sold to Putnam) were able to found thriving companies and succeed here. But I do miss having a publisher like Prima that had such a wide range of interests and was not afraid to tackle serious non-fiction, especially for topics that were important to residents here.
I figured I'd share my list of California publishers of note, with the explicit invitation for comments. Anyone can add to this list and/or especially point me to someone who is publishing serious non-fiction on current affairs. This list is in no way exhaustive. Here are the California publishers of note as I see them:
Gift books, novelty, and reference:
Chronicle Books, though to be fair they also publish many artsy titles and some literary fiction. They've done a great job with the Worst Case Scenario Handbooks.
Ten Speed Press, is the home of such classics as What Color is Your Parachute and great gift titles like Why Cats Paint. Ten Speed has a phenomenal grasp of alternative distribution and sold books in places like National Parks and Health Food stores long before other publishers saw these markets clearly. They also own Tricycle Press, Crossing Press and Celestial Arts.
Big Corporate Houses:
Okay, Harper San Francisco does still have an office in San Francisco and does a very good job with religion, philosophy, and spirituality.
And Harcourt has a presence in San Diego but I think the California group focuses mostly on the children's book market, and houses sales and marketing activities.
Inspiration and Health:
The grandmother of the category, Hay House Press, which publishes Wayne Dyer and Louise Hay, is based in Southern California. Hay House is a great innovator, and they're also doing some interesting things these days with their own internet radio network.
New age heavyweight New World Library, based in Novato, has published Eckhardt Tolle, among others. (Note, I originally included Deepak Chopra here but he was actually published by Amber-Allen, another Northern California publisher).
Travel and Recreation:
Originally a travel publisher, Ulysses Press now publishes much more general reference as well, covering topics such as yoga, health and money-matters.
Computer book publisher Tim O'Reilly co-founded Traveler's Tales with his brother James, and they've published a distinguished list of travel oriented narrative non-fiction for the past ten years.
Former Peachpit ed, Rosalyn Bullas, heads acquisitions at Wilderness Press, which has been in business publishing books for backpackers and outdoor enthusiasts of all kinds for over thirty years.
Houses that Used to Call California Home:
I'm pleased that we still have the old beat house City Lights Books. A few literary houses that used to call California home: Ecco Press (now w/Harper), Black Sparrow Press (now w/David Godine, a great place to be), and North Point Press (now w/FSG). It's sad, or maybe it's telling somehow, that these more literary houses have all moved elsewhere.
Computer Books:
I'll leave off without going into the computer book publishers for now. I have enough to say about them for an entirely new entry. Suffice it to say that companies like O'Reilly, Sybex, IDG, Osborne, No Starch, A Press, the Waite Group and Peachpit were all founded in California. It's proven that there's a wealth of talent here when we talk about high tech and business. I wish we had the same richness of experience and talent working on serious, mainstream non-fiction. And, although I didn't always get along with him or agree with him, I wish we had someone with the energy of Prima's Ben Dominitz publishing in California again.
Posted by matt at 11:16 AM | Comments (2)
March 1, 2005
An excellent article from Richard Curtis
The eminent agent Richard Curtis has an interesting article at Bookspace that confirms much of what I see happening in the world of publishing: that is, the steady disintermediation of publishers, booksellers, and yes, agents, due to the technologies that allow authors to connect directly at their target market and make a name for themselves independent of the PR machine of the publishing companies.
This might be clearest with the number of bloggers and web authors who have recently signed book deals, but what's most significant is that these successful bloggers were already cultivating an audience and generating income without ever involving a publisher. The book is the icing on the cake.
Point in case, after my last post I went ahead and purchased Adam Katz's ebook on dog training, and it was definitely worth the $50 I spent to get the information instantly and also to have the resources of his extensive site and community. I didn't just purchase a book, I bought into a ongoing relationship with Adam Katz. All in all, this feels like a much better investment to me than five similar books I may have found at the bookstore. And Adam didn't earn a few bucks from the book, he earned the entire $50, less the credit card processing costs. That's quite a return.
Posted by matt at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)
February 11, 2005
Really poor sales for some big business titles
Slate has an interesting article about James Stewart's DisneyWar. Author Daniel Gross projects great sales for this title, and from reading the New Yorker excerpt, it looks promising to me too, but what's really startling are the absolutely terrible sales record of many recent "business dramas." The lowlights are three books about the AOL/Time Warner merger: Fools Rush In, 5,000 copies; There Must Be A Pony In Here Somewhere, 3,744 copies; and Stealing Time, 9,176.
Even the top Enron book did only 70,000.
I can't verify his numbers, but still...even if this is bookscan data and 30% low, that's still pretty bad.
Daniel Gross lays the blame on media saturation and the lack of any real news in these books, and suggests that all the scandals and bad corporate decisions of the last ten years have somehow melted together in our minds.
My favorite Disney book remains Carl Hiaasen's Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World. Carl's not a very big Disney fan, and that's an understatement....
Posted by matt at 7:58 AM | Comments (0)
February 8, 2005
Report Card: this is fun, fulfilling and creative work
I'm slightly more than a month into doing my own thing and it's the best time I've had as an agent. Sure, I won't see royalty checks for maybe a year, and those are the ultimate report cards for any agency, but I have three deals pretty much down, and more on the way. That's not bad for starters.
I've spent much of the first month prospecting, and my first signed contract is with an author I found via her blog. She's not only a kick, she has great potential for future books.
I have to thank the publishers who have been generous with their time and their wish lists, which really helps me to focus. In fact, I'm in the midst of a big push right now and couldn't do it without the partners I've worked with over the last fifteen years.
Authors always acknowledge the folks who contribute to their work, and I'd like to do the same thing on occasion. I have to give a huge thanks to Harold and Phyllis Davis for their encouragement that I go out on my own, as well as for their longstanding friendship. And I thank Dave Taylor and Deke McClelland for their similar encouragement, and Andy Rathbone, John Mueller and Barrie Sosinsky for choosing to bring new projects to me. And thanks to Joe Hutsko and Phil Reed for numerous referrals.
On the publisher side I've had great support from folks at Sams Technical Publishing, Que, Wiley, Peachpit, O'Reilly, McGraw-Hill and many more.
As the header says, this is fun, fulfilling, and creative work for me, and that wouldn't be the case if I didn't have such great partners.
And, as regards my foremost partner, there is no way I could do this without the constant support of my girlfriend, Amy.
I'll have many more acknowledgements to come and I know I've missed some folks, but I have to get back to work.
Posted by matt at 12:32 PM | Comments (0)
January 19, 2005
One editor's definition of "platform"
Since I mentioned platform before, I thought I'd share this straight from a colleague's email --
"By 'platform,' I mean a president of a company who can buy back books for resale, someone involved with a high-profile website where the book can be promoted, or a speaker who gives seminars (to a significant number of people) where books can be sold."
When you're talking about buy-backs to make a book work, it sounds like vanity publishing, and this is from one of the larger houses, but even then some books will break through. And I'd love to work with anyone who meets the criteria above, but it does illustrate that you often need much more than a great idea to make a book work.
Posted by matt at 2:15 PM | Comments (2)
January 3, 2005
My debut
Today is the first day I've spent working as Fresh Books. I spent the last week tying up loose ends with Waterside Productions.
It's a great feeling to have the sense that everything lies before me. I know that segments of the publishing industry are in the doldrums, but I'm confident that I can wrangle up a great list of books, and I'm excited about the new client contacts I'm making even today.
I will continue to represent computer and tech books, and though the numbers are down there are plenty of strong publishers and authors, and quite often the books we do are better than ever.
I will also rep business, lifestyle, and reference titles, and, though I plan to be extremely selective, I may front the odd novel. I'm especially looking for books on sustainable lifestyles, books on popular science (it's the Centennial of Einstein's year of breakthroughs -- have you noticed all the Einstein books lately?), and books on health, fitness, and medicine that may appeal to the boomers.
Stay tuned to this space for more news about what I find. After 15 years and a great ride with one company, I am psyched to be doing my own thing.
Posted by matt at 9:14 AM | Comments (1)
November 5, 2004
What's Your Platform?
Probably the biggest misconception I see with first time authors is that a great idea and great execution can guarantee a book deal. Maybe ten years ago this was the case, but today the key question from most publishers is "what's your platform?"
What the heck does this mean?
Well, it's publisher and agent slang for visibility. And visibility _really_ helps. With so much competition for shelf-space, advertising space, and reviews, publishers have found that they need authors with pre-existing public platforms to help promote the book. A platform can be as grand as a day-time talk show -- as evidenced by the bestseller list -- or it can be as modest as a newspaper column, but whatever you do when you plan to launch your book you need to think about how you're going to sell it.
In the old days they say that editors edited, and publishers marketed books. But with some 75,000 books a year being published, there's too much going through the channel for publishers to give more than maybe 10% of their titles a proper sending off, if that, and the slack in promotion falls to the author.
This really hurts mid-list books across the board. Some publishers fight this by creating strong brands that can help to ensure shelving: so you see the "for Dummies" guides from Wiley or the "Everything" guides from Adams Media, series that capitalize on a consistent look and feel and selling proposition, and that reap the advantage of marketing dollars spread across many titles to make the economics work.
For almost all mainstream non-fiction titles, publishers demand that the author is already a nationally recognized expert. As a new author, or an author who wants to branch out to doing different kinds of books, that's your biggest hurdle. I'll share some ideas on how to deal with this soon.
Posted by matt at 8:55 AM | Comments (0)