Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog

Free Content, Registration Required

Author David Meerman Scott recently wrote a terrific blog post about free ebooks and how distribution is affected when registration is required.  It's easy to think that "free is free" and requiring registration shouldn't have much of an impact, but check out the stats in David's post.

OK, the numbers presented there aren't exactly ironclad or statistically irrefutable but still, it's an interesting study.  I tend to agree with David that there's a valuable trade-off in getting your content into more people's hands for possible Twittering, blogging, etc.  In many cases these benefits can greatly outweigh the value of capturing email addresses for future use.

Publishing Business Virtual Conference & Expo

Book Business magazine is hosting a terrific-looking FREE online conference next month.  The event is called Publishing Business Virtual Conference & Expo and it takes place on October 29th from 10 AM to 5:30 PM (ET).  The agenda (PDF) features a number of noteworty speakers including O'Reilly's very own e-content guru, Andrew Savikas.

Given the current state of the economy and the challenge in adding to existing travel plans, I love the idea of a virtual conference like this.  My only concern is being able to spend 7-1/2 hours online and dedicate my undivided attention to it.

Being there is one thing.  Being virtual means I'll be distracted by lots of other things.  With that in mind I hope the conference organizers record the event so that I can go back later and catch the pieces I'm highly likely to miss.

Either way, you owe it to yourself to register now.  After all, the price is unbeatable! :-)

One Author's Pre-Publication "Lending Library" Experience

I just read this terrific post by Stephen Elliott, author of The Adderall Diaries.  His summary should be required reading for every author and publisher who wants to learn more about building buzz.

Elliott's story hits on a number of important points.  First, author platform isn't just about who the author knows, it's who those people know, and in turn who the next level of people know, etc.

Second, I love it that the only requirement to participate in his pre-pub lending library was that you had to agree to read the book and pass it along to someone else.  That's it.  I would suggest taking it one step further and asking everyone who reads it to also post a review of it.  That's not asking much given that they just got to read a book for free.

Third, how about the total cost of the promotion?  It was $800 plus the cost of the free copies.  Talk about ROI! How many PR campaigns cost 10 times that or more and don't produce anywhere near the same results?!

Finally, I love it that the author took such an active role in this.  He tracked the books and did the in-home tours.  (Speaking of which, this Tupperware Party-like approach is still as effective today as it was 40 years ago.)

Kudos, Mr. Elliott.  I hope your book becomes a bestseller!

Smashwords Expands Distribution, by Anthony Policastro

By Anthony S. Policastro If you thought the eBook market was hot before, it just went super nova with Smashwords newest distribution to "major online retailers, the first of which is Barnes & Noble and their various properties including Barnesandnoble.com, Fictionwise, and their eReader app." Like the other 2,600 authors on Smashwords, I received an email recently from Smashwords owner and creator, Mark Coker announcing the new distribution arrangement:

To put everything in perspective, we're developing a process that will enable your books to receive widespread retail distribution within days or weeks of publishing on Smashwords. Some of what we're doing here has never been done before, so like I said above, please be patient as we work together to pioneer the brave new world of ebook distribution.

In addition, Barnes & Noble just ramped up its eBook efforts and currently has more than 700,000 eBook titles listed on its site and it hopes to surpass one million books within the next year. The book retailer will also be the exclusive eBook provider to Plastic Logic's upcoming eReader device - an eight and a half by eleven inch device with a touch screen and wireless capabilities for downloading content. AT&T will be the wireless carrier for the reader and this means users in Europe and parts of Asia will be able to download content. The Kindle's wireless feature works only the United States. All of these developments could be a paradigm shift in the eBook market because Barnes and Noble is opening its arms and accepting the work posted on other commercial eBook sites. They are clearly scooping up as much market share as possible to compete against the Amazon Kindle. (See the related article below in The New York Times.) Even their pricing model is similar to Amazon's with major titles selling for $9.99 - the same price as the Kindle. Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol is featured on Barnes and Noble eBook site as a preorder for $9.99. What's more significant is that you can download a book from Barnes and Noble and read it on your iPhone, iTouch, Blackberry or PC or Macintosh by simply downloading the B&N eReader software for the particular device. And they announced they will be adding additional devices. Kindle books cannot be read on the Blackberry or on a PC or Macintosh. This move could pull market share from the Kindle. It will be interesting to see how the eBook market evolves in the next few months or years with these two titans battling for the same market share on an equal playing field. If Barnes and Noble keeps its pricing in line or lower than Amazon and stays a step ahead of the technology, they could be the winner.

Smashwords photo is the official logo of Smashwords.com. The photo of Plastic Logic's new eReader is from Plastic Logic's website.

Speak Your Mind at the Next Tools of Change (TOC) Conference

The next Tools of Change (TOC) Conference is scheduled for February 22-24 in New York.  That may seem like a long way off but now is the time to submit a speaking proposal because the call for participation is only open till September 1st.

I just submitted a proposal for a session I'd like to give called "Looking Beyond the $9.99 Ebook."  Here's the abstract:

The publishing industry is currently caught up in the $9.99 ebook model popularized by Amazon's Kindle. It's time to quit whining about "the cheapening of our IP" and start thinking about new models with added value and larger revenue opportunities.

There are a number of key points I want to make and I plan to add to that list in the coming months.  This is an area I'm extremely passionate about (as you've no doubt seen in earlier Publishing 2020 posts!).

How about you?  What are you passionate about?  Why not write up a summary and submit it for TOC consideration?

You, The iPhone App

Life seemed much simpler in the pre-Twitter days. You found a blogger you liked and you grabbed their RSS feed.  These days, if I want to follow someone I still do that but I also need to keep an eye on their tweets, their Facebook updates as well as a host of other specialty networks they might be part of.  To tell you the truth, the more social networking evolves the more distant I feel from the people I (try to) follow.

That's why I look forward to the day when we'll be able to say, stealing Apple's catchphrase, "yeah, there's an app for that."

I read a great quote by Albert Einstein recently that applies here:

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

The source for this idea was an ad I saw in the latest issue of Wired.  The ad is for an iPhone app I was previously unaware of...then again, thanks to the ongoing discoverability issue with the App Store, this isn't exactly surprising.  The ad's headline is "Our Killer App" and it promotes the All Things Digital app, featuring Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher.  I immediately downloaded the free app and I love it.  I've always enjoyed reading Mossberg and now I have a single place where I can quickly and easily keep up with him; no more hunting through countless feeds.

So what does this have to do with publishing?  If you're an author looking to build your platform I'd argue you should consider creating an iPhone app that's all about you, your work, your observations, etc.  Why not give your readers a single tool they can use to keep up with everything you have to say, show and report?

Publishers should have their own iPhone apps as well.  We've released several books as iPhone apps at O'Reilly but we haven't created a single "O'Reilly iPhone App."  I think we should though and it ought to contain a number of different elements including new release summaries, excerpts, articles, industry information and more.  The base app could be free but there could be a paid subscription option as well that offers much more premium content.

What would a typical author's iPhone app look like?  It too could have multiple levels with the free version including the type of information currently shared via blogs, Twitter, etc.  The paid version might have more content and a chance for readers to speak directly to you from time to time, for example.  I'd pay for one of these from Thomas Friedman or Nassim Nicholas Taleb, for example.  These are just a couple of authors I frequently read but they probably get swamped with reader emails.  Imagine a premium iPhone app by either one that gives you direct access to them, sort of like when they speak at a smaller corporate function.  How cool is that?  Every author can't command this sort of model but the big ones certainly could and the next tier could do the same but at a lower price point.

You know how all those industry pundits say that the publishing industry needs to learn from the music business and figure out how to monetize something other than the book (like they're doing with concerts, t-shirts, etc.)?  Maybe this app model is a step in that direction.

Let's not stop with authors and publishers though.  How about conferences?  Shouldn't there be an iPhone app for every conference and trade show?  I recently attended OSCON and I could see where an iPhone app for that show would help "keep the fire burning", as my O'Reilly colleague Allen Noren likes to say.  The same goes for pretty much every other conference out there.  Why limit the event to a once-a-year activity when an iPhone app could make it year-round and encourage even more participation (as well as drive more revenue)?

The iPhone app dev world is still in a gold rush mentality.  It's a seller's market as good developers are hard to find and even harder to negotiate with.  The apps I'm describing don't all have to be different though.  They could use the same common framework, levels of functionality and be easily skinned to meet individual branding and look-and-feel requirements.  It seems like a terrific opportunity for a smart iPhone app developer to step in and corner the market with something that's both powerful and flexible.

I can think of several individual, corporate and conference-based iPhone apps I'd immediately download, several of which I'd be willing to pay an annual subscription for.  How about you?

P.S. -- I recently read that Bill Simmons, aka "The Sports Guy", is retiring from his ESPN The Mag column.  I'd buy an iPhone app featuring Simmons.  The same goes for Steve Rushin.

The Blurb Solution

A good friend of mine was recently telling me about her (almost) 13 year-old daughter and her poetry.  She told me I needed to read some of these poems to believe them.  (They're so good, in fact, that her teacher thought she plagiarized them; I thought you were presumed innocent till proven guilty in this country!)  She also wanted to know how she could go about trying to get them published.

I told her I knew nothing about the poetry publishing world, but that they'd have to either find some publishers to approach or a good agent to represent them...or, they could just go the self-publishing route.  I gave her information on a couple of options and she wound up choosing Blurb.  Within a very short period of time, my friend had her daughter's poems loaded into Blurb and ready for sale.

Self-publishing rocks!  Where else could an (almost) 13 year-old get their poems published, virtually overnight?!  And btw, her mom is right.  See for yourself by reading a couple of the poems in her new book, Thirteen: My Poems.  Use Blurb's preview feature to read the one called "I Tried to Touch the Sky" and tell me this kid doesn't have remarkable talent!

The author's name is Annie Mackowick and it just so happens that tomorrow, June 11th, is her 13th birthday.  I'm about to order a copy of this one for myself.  If you'd like to make an aspiring author's 13th birthday extra special, be sure to order a copy of your own.

P.S. -- I have no financial interest in this.  It's just my way of helping spread the word for a great service (Blurb) as well as an up-and-coming author.

CEO Roundtable Panel from O'Reilly's TOC Conference

One of the highlights from my first six months with O'Reilly Media was the opportunity to lead a CEO Roundtable panel discussion at our Tools of Change conference earlier this year.  The panel consisted of the following CEOs:

Eileen Gittins, Blurb

Michael Hyatt, Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Bob Young, Lulu

Clint Greenleaf, Greenleaf Book Group

Tim O'Reilly, O'Reilly Media, Inc.

If you were unable to attend the conference or this particular session, spend a few minutes listening to the vision of this great team of CEOs:

Guest Post from Anthony Policastro

Anthony Policastro has been regular reader and frequent commenter on my Publishing 2020 blog.  He recently launched a blog of his own called "The Dog is Chasing Ghosts."  The blog's subtitle is, "What Every Author Needs to Know about Online Marketing and then some."  He explains the meaning behind the interesting title in this guest post:

Every so often, our labradoodle, Nickie, will confidently stare into a corner of a room with no windows and bark repeatedly for several minutes.

"What is the dog barking at?" my wife would ask.

"Ghosts. I think the dog is chasing ghosts." I say.

She raises her eyebrows and her face says, "maybe," and the dog stops barking and we go about doing whatever it was we were doing.

Whether my dog is barking at ghosts or not, something is there, something triggered the keen senses of the my pet whether it was a sound, a smell or a noise.

The Internet is similar in that of all the millions of users out there, you can't see them or touch them, but you know they are there. And if you are involved with the Internet with a website, a blog or paid advertising, everyone wants to attract as many users as possible to visit our websites, read our blogs or buy our products.

So like my dog, Nickie, we too are chasing ghosts whether you want to call them that or not, but we don't want to chase them away - we want to invite them in.

And that is the hard part and that is what this blog is all about.

Anthony is one of the more insightful publishing industry people I've come across over the past few years.  I just grabbed his blog's RSS feed for my KindleFeeder service and I would encourage you to subscribe as well.

P.S. -- He's on Twitter too.  Follow him here.

O'Reilly's Tools of Change (TOC) Conference Starts Tomorrow

I've been counting down the days for this one and tomorrow it will finally be here.  I'm talking about O'Reilly's TOC conference, which starts bright and early tomorrow in NY with a series of tutorials.  I'm heading there tomorrow afternoon and plan to attend a conference-related Tweetup that's scheduled for later in the evening.  Then it's two full days packed with great sessions from morning till evening.

I've been tipped off to several exciting product announcements that will be made at TOC this week, two of which that have really caught my eye.  I can't say anything more about them just yet, but stay tuned for upcoming blog posts and Twitter tweets over the next 3 days.  Actually, I'll probably spend more time Twittering than blogging, so look for more of the former and not so much of the latter.  I also have a search panel set up in my TweetDeck feed, searching for #toc entries; there are already a lot of tweets piling up there, so if you can't make it, be sure to watch the stream from attendees.  And, if you see me tweet from within a session and have a question you'd like to ask the speaker, send me a direct message and I'll do my best to get an answer.

Finally, I'm already keeping an eye out for some of you, but if you're a Publishing 2020 reader and would like to say hi at TOC, be sure to pull me aside between sessions.