Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog

We Are Smarter Than Me, by Barry Libert & Jon Spector

The book We Are Smarter Than Me is the first product from the website initiative with the same name.  The folks at Wharton School Publishing launched the We Are Smarter Than Me website project last year and invited everyone the world to participate in community development of a business book.

Although the community effort played a role, this particular book was primarily written by Barry Libert and Jon Spector.  Writing a book via wiki is pretty challenging given all the coordination efforts required, not to mention the various egos that undoubtedly get in the way.  Developing this book "the old fashioned way" while sprinkling in plenty of community perspective sidebars was the right formula for We Are Smarter Than Me.

This book is a very quick and enjoyable read.  You could almost think of it as a Cliff's Notes version of Don Tapscott's Wikinomics.  In fact, Tapscott wrote the Foreword for We Are Smarter Than Me.  You'll definitely find more in-depth coverage of the various community tools and platforms in Wikinomics though, so if find yourself craving more after reading We Are Smarter Than Me you should definitely read Wikinomics as well.

Libert and Spector provide an excellent overview of communities, social networking, the wisdom of crowds and much more, all packed into a book that's barely 150 pages long.  If you're looking for an easy way to get street smart on the world of communities you can't go wrong with this one.  I'm also looking forward to reading the next book from this community initiative which is currently at the case studies stage.

Rights Reversion and Out-of-Print

Technology impacts every industry and publishing is no exception.  This article from TheBookseller.com asks whether "out-of-print is outdated."  The short answer is yes, for the most part.

Publishers do indeed want to hang onto and exploit rights for as long as they can, especially as they're building out more of a digital presence.  Most also figure they made a significant investment in the project and they'd like to enjoy the long tail revenues for as many years as possible.

I agree with that logic and apply it to my own group at Wiley, but I'm also a reasonable person.  If an author figures they can do better by placing the book with another publisher (or self-publishing it) I'll generally do what I can to revert their rights.  I say "generally" and not "always" because there are plenty of factors to consider.  For example, where are we in the life cycle of the book?  It might be selling a modest quantity every month and we've got plenty of inventory on-hand; we, the publisher, invested in producing that inventory and I'd like to recoup as much of that investment as possible.  But when sales go negative (returns exceed gross sales) or we're down to single-digit sales over several months, well, that's a pretty good sign that the book has run its course.

The big question authors need to ask themselves is the one Derek Johns asks in this article: "...where else can you go?"  Is another publisher really interested in taking this book on as a new title?  If so, why?  That's important information to share with the current publisher -- it's a bit of a long shot, but maybe the current publisher could use that information to spark renewed interest and sales of the book without having to change publishers.

At the end of the day, if you (the author) feel like you'd be better served by getting your rights back, give your editor or publisher a call and have an honest discussion with them.  Regardless of what your contract says, exceptions can be made.  I still tend to think you're better off letting the current publisher do what they can to push the book as part of their backlist, but like anything else, it's best to talk it through so that you thoroughly understand the pros and cons.

Why Universal's Total Music Idea Won't Work

When I first read about UMG's Total Music project I thought, "yeah, that's for me."  But the more I think about it the more I realize they'll never pull it off.

UMG wants to create a new iTunes competitor that's totally free...well, sort of free.  They essentially want to mimic the "razor and blades" model, but in this case, the blades (songs) would be free once you buy the razor (player).  I love it, so where can it go wrong?

For starters, the hardware vendors would have to pay the labels $5/month as long as that player is in service.  That means the hardware companies need to build that cost into the price of the unit.  The BusinessWeek article linked to earlier says the typical player is used for about 18 months before the owner upgrades to a newer model, so they figure the music will cost about $90 over the life of the player (18 months x $5/month).

That sounds reasonable on the surface, but what sort of player price does that create?  When you factor in retailer discounts it quickly becomes something north of $100 that's added to the typical non-iPod pricing levels you see today.  That means these Total Music devices would likely cost more than an iPod.  I figure there are two types of consumers out there buying players: One group, and obviously the largest group, willingly pays a premium for the Apple name while the other group won't pay the premium.  Which one of these is going to switch to Total Music?  If you're willing to pay a premium you're probably more likely to buy an iPod, not a Total Music device.

Then there's this whole 18-month life cycle question.  While the majority of consumers probably do upgrade every 18 months or so, I'll bet many of those old units become hand-me-downs for someone else.  Some wind up unused in a drawer but many get sold on eBay or passed along to a friend, child, etc.  In these cases, the proposed $5/month revenue stream from hardware vendor to label doesn't end at the upgrade point.  Would the hardware vendors really sign up for an almost endless $5/month payment liability?  I doubt it, and even if they could cap it at, say, 24 months, then the artists would raise a stink for not getting paid for their songs in those later months/years.

It would be fun to see someone challenge the Apple/iTunes monster.  I'm just not convinced this is the right formula.

Google Not Planning to Extend Book Search to Magazines

According to this article, Google isn't likely to extend their Book Search program into the magazine world.  If I were a magazine publisher I'd be disappointed with this news.  It's a missed opportunity to make your archives discoverable and usable through the world's largest search platform.

Sure, some magazines offer archive search functionality as a special feature that's available only to their (paying) print subscribers.  What would happen if they'd open it up to the public?  How many paying customers would cancel their subscriptions?  Not many.  After all, how many people subscribe to a print magazine just so they can get access to the archives?  Some magazine publishers may not want to participate in this sort of program because they feel they're better off providing paid access to their archives.  Great.  Opt out of this program and see whether your competitors benefit.

The article says paper quality made scanning/digitizing the content difficult at best and that magazine publishers don't have usable archives.  Their archives may not be suitable for scanning or electronic delivery today, but wouldn't it be pretty simple to adjust the production process a bit and create an electronic rendering of the entire magazine for this purpose?  So what if you don't have archives from yesterday or last year.  Start now.

I'm surprised the amount of freely viewable content wasn't a major issue.  On the book side a publisher can set a percentage limit.  So any given visitor can only see a maximum of x% of the book at a time.  Let's say that's 15%, for example; that's a good ceiling for a 400-page book but it represents a couple of pretty long articles in a magazine, including the entire article the reader was probably searching for.

I hope Google reconsiders their position on this.  As a frequent user of their search tools I'm pretty sure I'd get a lot of mileage out of a Google Magazine Search utility.

Yikes! What Have They Done to BusinessWeek?!

My favorite phrase regarding good branding is "unique and memorable."  Great brands provide a unique and memorable experience.  Ironically, I can't remember where or when I first heard the phrase "unique and memorable" but I'm pretty sure it doesn't apply to the new BusinessWeek look.

Study that "new" logo for a moment.  Could it be any more generic?  I guess so, if they would have gone with a black background instead, but the white-on-red look is pretty darned close to the opposite of unique and memorable.

I just received my copy of the first print issue with the new design.  (To be honest, I didn't see a big problem with the old design and I seriously doubt it was the culprit for a decline in subscriptions.  Nevertheless, someone felt that something had to be done I suppose, hence this new look.)  I also recently read this article describing the rationale for the overhaul.

First of all, the headline "Imitating the Web, for the Busy Reader" makes me cringe.  The article goes on to say that, "from an advertiser's perspective, the new BusinessWeek is designed a bit more like a web site." I think you could replace the word "advertiser's" with "reader's" and it would still be true.  But is that really what we're looking for in a good magazine...for it to look more like a web site?

I go online for the most up-to-date news as well as to read short pieces of content.  My eyes start to dry up and glaze over if I'm constantly scrolling or paging through an article.  Magazines are where I go for more in-depth content; that, and some of the nicer ones do a better job with full-color images than you typically see online.  But it's really all about depth, which is why I was also disappointed to read that "the magazine will feature just two long articles a week."

If they're going to dumb down the business news every week in this magazine where am I supposed to go for the more in-depth coverage?  Why do I feel like my BusinessWeek subscription just morphed into a magazine version of USAToday?

Textbooks and eBooks

This article from TheBookseller.com talks about textbooks/ebooks and features some great insight from two executives here at Wiley: Chariman Peter Wiley and Senior VP Steve Smith.

With two kids currently in college I can tell you that I'm particularly interested in the short-term future of the textbook industry; it feels awfully antiquated and certainly doesn't leverage the technology that's readily available.  I agree with Peter Wiley's assessment that printed textbooks will eventually give way to an e-alternative.  As Steve Smith notes later in the article, we can definitely offer more value online.

I recently saw a demo of a very cool piece of software that's a classroom tool offering value to both teacher and student alike.  Despite the fact that this particular tool lends itself to the integration of textbook content, it was interesting to hear how this software vendor hadn't hooked up with any publishers yet; they've had the product adopted at a number of institutions but it's unclear how much it's actually used on campus.  This could very well be a case where the software was licensed by a school, instructors are given a quick overview of it but then it's never touched again.  That would be tragic, especially when you consider the functionality this product offers.

What's the solution?  One approach would be to have the software vendor work directly with the textbook publishers to create an offering that's more fine-tuned for the instructor's needs.  Rather than hoping professors will integrate the content with the tool, why not involve the publishers in this effort?  After all, most publishers are looking for opportunities to add value through other ancillary materials; this might be an excellent way to stand out from the crowd and drive even more adoptions.

Back to Steve Smith's point about offering more value...  A simple conversion of textbook to PDF, for example, isn't going to cut it.  That solution has existed for years and yet printed textbooks still rule.  The entire ecosystem needs to change.  In this earlier post I mentioned my own experience with Purdue's policy on providing an online listing of all required textbooks (they don't) and their relationship with the local campus bookstores.  If my experience is consistent with what others are running into elsewhere, a major revolution will be required to significantly change the current model, and it needs to feature benefits to all the current stakeholders in this complex formula (universities, professors, students, bookstores, authors and publishers).

The Three Signs of a Miserable Job, by Patrick Lencioni

Patrick Lencioni has a gift for taking complex problems, boiling them down to their critical components and then providing viable solutions in easy-to-read fable format.  His latest work, The Three Signs of a Miserable Job, is another excellent example of his talent in action.

I'll admit that I was a bit apprehensive about this one.  Everyone has aspects of their job they don't enjoy, but do you really want to read a book about why those things make you miserable, especially if you feel they can't be changed?  Having read The Three Signs, I can honestly say the answer to this question is yes, you should.  Read it if you're a manager so that you can consider Lencioni's advice for your employees.  But regardless of whether or not you're a manager, read it and see if you can encourage your manager to read it; maybe you could even leave it on his/her chair anonymously after you've read it yourself...

Here are some of my favorite excerpts from this fantastic book:

Too often, (companies) are slow to recognize that they have an employee satisfaction issue, and then when they finally do, their attempts to address it focus on the wrong issues.

(Regarding exit interviews...) The problem, of course, is that departing employees rarely tell the whole story.  By the time people decide to leave an organization, they have little incentive to tell their soon-to-be-former employer the truth -- that they are leaving because their supervisor didn't really manage them, and without a good manager, their jobs eventually become miserable.

Even in those instances when executives are able to discern that poor management is the real source of employee dissatisfaction, their response, though well-intentioned, is rarely effective.  That response usually takes the form of more management training, which often includes mandatory classes...

And so I suppose that the real shame is not that more people aren't working in positions of service to others, but that so many managers haven't yet realized that they already are.

This book has given me much to think about in my own role as both employee and manager.  Now it's up to me to figure out how to implement Lencioni's advice to improve the situation on both fronts.

Have You Tried Microsoft's Live Book Search Yet?

It's still technically in beta stage, but I've been impressed with Microsoft's Live Book search program, or as they call it "Live Search Books."  (I know the primary brand is "Live Search" and their intent is to tack on all formats after that, but "Live Search Books" sounds terribly awkward to me...)

Naming conventions aside, the service's results and usability are solid.  Here are the results for a search of the term "blogging."  If you hover your mouse over any of the titles in the left pane, the right pane changes to show the results from that title.  Those title results also include a colored bar showing search relevance throughout the book -- the darker the green the more relevant that section of the book.

I clicked on our own Naked Conversations and this screen was displayed.  Individual page links are ranked by relevance in a scrollable area on the left and the book pages themselves are shown on the right.  Notice that the relevancy bar is now displayed vertically; dragging it over the darkest green area allows you to jump directly to that passage in the book.  OK, searching for "blogging" in a book about blogs isn't a great test.  I read this book though and I recall the authors mentioned something about Lotus founder Mitch Kapor.  Here's a search for his name; as you can see, there were two references to him in the book and they're easily found via Live Search.

Live Search renders each page quickly and the results are crisp and clear.  You can't read the entire book using Live Search but you should be able to determine whether it contains the coverage you're looking for.  For example, after doing a handful of searches within Naked Conversations I still had about 40 pages of results I could read before I'd be locked out of that title.  That seems sufficient to me if I'm really just doing some research and either looking for a book to buy or a quick answer to a question.

Microsoft is in the process of adding books to this service and I'm not sure when they plan to take it out of beta stage.  The functionality is solid today though so stop by and take it for a test drive.

Kids & Intellectual Property: Where Have We Failed?

Here's a disturbing article from The New York Times.  On the surface, it's yet another story of the mean, old RIAA going after a supposedly poor, defenseless college student for stealing a song or two.  The more I thought about how this particular student reacted and what he said though, the more irritated I became.

Here's a college student (Zachary McCune) at one of the nation's finest institutions admitting that he had been warned before and "his eyes glazed over", "it was a campus cliché" and he "quickly forgot about it."  This is the sort of person who gets pulled over twice for speeding, is issued warnings both times and then becomes outraged when the third incident results in an expensive fine.

This experience pushed McCune into action: He co-founded the local chapter of Students for Free Culture.  Great idea.  I tend to agree that the language and spirit of our laws need to be revisited from time to time, especially when technology comes into play.  The group apparently has roots tied to Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture book.  (It's a great book and I reviewed it earlier here.)

Although Lessig presents numerous interesting cases and models, I seriously doubt he'd ever advocate stealing content.  That's the point students like McCune need to understand.  It's perfectly fine to swap and share in the open source world, for example, but you need to respect IP ownership in the world of copyright.  So by all means, go ahead and build, contribute to and otherwise support the exchange of free content and ideas via the use of the Creative Commons license, but don't try to apply the exact same terms to other products that are protected under other models.  I firmly believe both can co-exist and thrive, but only if everyone abides by the laws.

This reminds me that I need to sit down with my own kids and make sure they're clear on all this...

Straight Talk from the Editor, by Terry Whalin

I sometimes discover a new blog, grab the RSS feed and then neglect to keep up with it as much as I ought to.  That's exactly what happened some time ago when I found Terry Whalin's blog, The Writing Life.  Lucky for me, this was one of those days when I decided to work through my RSS feeds in reverse alphabetical order, which means his was one of the first blogs I caught up on today...

Terry is a published author, used to be an acquisitions editor and currently works as a literary agent.  Read through a few of his posts and you'll quickly agree that he brings a lot of valuable insight to the table.  But if you only have time to read one thing from Terry, make sure it's this: Straight Talk from the Editor.  That link will take you to a registration page where you'll simply provide your first name and e-mail address.  Moments later you'll receive a link to a 25-page document that lays out the "18 keys to a rejection-proof submission."  Nothing in life is guaranteed, of course, but Terry does a fine job hitting the highlights of what an editor looks for and, more importantly, what an editor doesn't want to see or hear.  He offers 6 reasons why book ideas are rejected, 6 keys to guarantee rejection and closes with the most valuable element of all: 6 ways to get an editor's attention.  Good stuff.