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At next week’s Tools of Change for Publishing conference, I am moderating a panel on the future of bookstores (Tuesday, 2/15, 1:40 pm, be there!). I proposed this topic because, despite today’s challenges, booksellers are critical to the publishing food chain. The loss of booksellers — traditional and innovative — is a huge blow to book discovery. My panel features Jenn Northrington of WORD Brooklyn, Jessica Stockton-Bagnulo of Greenlight Bookstore, Lori James of All Romance eBooks, Kevin Smokler of Booktour.com, and Malle Vallik of Harlequin. I’m excited about moderating this panel, particularly because it contains a mix of innovative and enthusiastic booksellers, forward-thinking publishers (yes, Kevin, you are a publisher), and, most importantly, readers who truly love reading. Nothing I say here reflects their thoughts and opinions. They may, in fact, disagree with what I say. You’ll have to attend our panel to find out! Predictions about the future are difficult, mostly because it hasn’t happened yet. Darn future! There is no doubt that the bookselling landscape will change. Some, most notably Mike Shatzkin, are wondering what the physical bookselling landscape will look like in five years. I agree with Mike that it will be vastly different. But do I think (physical) bookstores will go the way of dinosaurs? Absolutely not. We are human. We are social animals. We need someone to wait patiently while we painstakingly describe the book we want, finding it for us despite the fact we a) got the author wrong, described the cover art wrong, and c) described the entire plot wrong. We want someone to talk to us about books and guide us. My philosophy is for some books, online is awesome. For other books, I need a human, in-front-of-me professional to challenge me. I am going to be an either/and shopper for a long time. Heck, I’ve made peace with the fact that I need both Zappos and Macys in my life. Same for bookstores. Obviously, I have a vested interest in making sure the publishing ecosystem remains vibrant. If readers are, ultimately, the most critical part of publishing, then booksellers, the people with the intimate, personal relationships with consumers, are publishers’ best friends. In preparing for this panel, I was struck, at various times, by statements from various publishers about the importance of booksellers. Most recently, Carolyn Reidy, chief executive of Simon & Schuster said: “My No. 1 concern is the survival of the physical bookstore,” said Carolyn Reidy, the chief executive of Simon & Schuster. “We need that physical environment, because it’s still the place of discovery. People need to see books that they didn’t know they wanted. Her comment gave me pause for a few reasons. First, of course, I wondered what publishers were doing to ensure the survival of the physical bookstore. Setting aside the problems faced by the Borders chain, the truth is that most independent booksellers cannot compete on price, a key component of the shopping equation. Co-op dollars can be challenging to acquire. Even processing incoming shipments can be overhead-intensive due to less-than-robust packing slip and invoicing processes. I truly wonder what publishers are doing for the booksellers they understand are their best marketing asset. I cannot stop thinking about this, particularly in light of what is happening with Borders. I keep questioning whether the past few decades have created an environment where independent booksellers have a seat at the grown-ups table…a seat where they are heard in a serious manner. Then I thought about the fact that the bookseller of tomorrow — nay, today! — is not necessarily located in a physical location. In theory, we have an ecosystem that allows anyone to become a bookseller (my panel will address this notion, and they do have great thoughts on this topic). But not every bookseller occupies a bricks-and-mortar, or, heck, concrete and wood, space. That does not mean the bookseller cannot fulfill, beautifully, the same functions someone in a bricks-and-mortar store does. It’s a matter of using the medium, store or website, to serve customers best. So, for me, the question becomes one of helping independent bookstores thrive. In the mega-store, if you like, category we have Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders (yeah, but until that TKO happens), Costco, Target, Apple (in theory), and Google. Two of the above offer a highly curated, limited selection. One hasn’t demonstrated a serious interest in selling books. The others dominate the marketplace, but don’t always meet the needs of today’s consumers. The lessons of Borders, and to some extent Barnes & Noble, are not that people don’t buy and read books. Evidence suggests book sales are strong, especially when you consider the economy. And print book sales remain strong, but only a fool would underestimate rising digital sales. Any bookseller that cannot serve the digital reader is a bookseller playing catch-up. The lessons of megastores are more complex. High rents, lack of responsiveness to the community, economic blahs. The middle one, I believe, is the biggest issue. As more of our lives move online, we crave the intimacy of local business, the warmth of personal service. It seems like a paradox, but, as I talk to friend and family, makes perfect sense. We are human. I have a story. It’s personal. Recently, I received a very lovely cookbook from a friend. Gorgeous, but not a style I like to cook. So I trekked to my local Barnes & Noble to exchange it for a cookbook that better reflected my passions. I appreciated the gift receipt. Not everyone loves Italian food. I know, I know. So, time passes. I let the husband roam the geek book section while I wonder when all cookbooks settled on the $35 price point. I pondered. I compared. I thought. Then — and this is where it gets into the too much information realm — I realized I needed to take what team-building leaders call a “bio-break”. This particular store used to have public restrooms, but, alas, changed their policy. Who knew? What Barnes & Noble wanted me to do was, I do not kid, leave the store, walk a block and a half away…then, nature satisfied, return to do my shopping. Trust me when I say that once I left the store, there was no way in hell I would have come back. Still, I wanted to accomplish my exchange and head out to lunch. I pleaded an emergency (one must tell social lies for the greater good). I was grudgingly allowed access to the restroom. When I emerged, an employee was hovering in a way that made it clear I was being watched. ‘Cause I might want to lift some merchandise. Seriously, if the dude only knew how many books I get in the mail…I am not trying to add more stuff to my household. Still, I didn’t appreciate being treated like a potential criminal (be more subtle, dude!). I didn’t love the idea that a customer, someone who might browse for an hour or more, was being forced to leave the store. And I realized how much I love Vromans, my local independent. In fact, the husband and I agreed we had no need to return to that particular B&N again. When we want print books, it’s Vromans or the comic book store. We always feel welcome there. Barnes & Noble didn’t care about my business. When I went to the counter, an employee, who was on the phone, looked at me and said, “I’m not working.” It took a few minutes to find an actual employee. The results have been recounted above. The cashier pushed me too hard on joining the loyalty program. Seriously, when I say “no thank you”, I mean it the first time. Pushing me doesn’t change my mind. It pisses me off. What I believe about independents is the ones who survive and thrive — I am not naive, and I realize many indie booksellers will not be able to weather the digital transition (and that’s what we are facing) — are the booksellers who understand customer service, customer experience, customer needs. Or, put another way, booksellers who understand the community they serve. As big box stores, Costco probably excluded, shrink in book market share, indies have the opportunity to fill the space. The competition becomes Apple, Amazon, and Google, and the challenge becomes competing with these technological giants. Giants who sell books, but do not consider books a primary business (though I remain convinced that books are very important to Jeff Bezos personally). This means independents like WORD, Greenlight, and All Romance need to compete with these giants. Price is difficult, but not impossible. Format lock-in due to DRM ties customers to larger retailers. Consumer confusion abounds. What gives indies leverage? Customer service. Community. When it comes to a physical store, I go there because I want a certain level of interaction. I want human contact. I want tactile. I want readings. Events. Original content. Something unique that I can’t get anywhere else. I want to be seduced by a cover with a striking image, and, honestly, I think booksellers have a better idea of what attracts readers than publishers (especially those publishers who don’t leave New York very often). Extra points if there’s a clever shelf talker. I am a sucker for a good shelf talker. When I shop digital, I want data. I want details about the book. I want ratings, reviews, suggestions. I want to interact with like-minded readers. I want to know what they bought. I want curation. Oh, I wouldn’t mind shelf talkers. A personal review from someone who loves a book is like potato chips for me. Sincerity, authenticity, passion, these are the enemies of my credit card. (Oh, I would not mind the ability to purchase Kindle-compatible ebooks from my indie booksellers. I can already do this for some of the publishers All Romance sells, but it would be lovely if all the Kindle owners out there — the ones who, you know, don’t have a friggin’ clue about formats and DRM and compatibility — could shop at your store. Seriously, you want to focus on a problem? Focus. On. This. Now. Please. Thank. You. Especially if you believe these booksellers are all that and more.) As I wrote this, I learned that Powell’s, a major Portland bookseller, is laying off 31 employees. They cite ebooks, the economy, rising healthcare costs as reasons. It’s a mix of retail personnel and web personnel. It’s hard to parse how these elements contributed to the decision (Powell’s has been an ebook leader, though, frankly not competitive with today’s marketplace), but they didn’t close stores. That probably doesn’t offer the employees let go much comfort. Yet, despite this, and other similar news, I remain optimistic about independent booksellers, far more than I do about major chains. The latter are too big, too encumbered, too corporate (this can change, but please do not put me on the change management team. Been there, done that, realized I would prefer a root canal!). The former are able to see the market, understand the market, adapt to the market. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Result: beautiful sales. People are reading. People are buying books. They are buying books in the format that best suits their needs. They are buying from the locations (physical and virtual) that best suit their lifestyles. The booksellers who will thrive — competing with Apple, Amazon, and Google — are the booksellers who get this about their customers. And deliver. And hey, if you’re at TOC, please grab me and say hello. I’m the short one talking a mile a minute with everyone I can find. Also, if the situation should arise, politely decline to have me on your bowling team. I rarely bowl over my height in inches. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/booksquare/~4/fUX3fUKFr38 View the full article

It’s hard to believe another year has passed, and that it’s time for the annual Tools of Change for Publishing Conference. This year’s conference will be held in New York from February 14 through February 16, 2011, and (I know I say this every year) has the best possible line-up of speakers and programming. To give you a hint of what’s in store for you, I forced Kat Meyer, Conference Co-Chair to answer a few deeply important questions. And — if you haven’t already registered for the conference — at the end of this post, you can learn how to enter a drawing for a free conference pass. (If you don’t win, don’t despair! You can still register using the discount code TOC11BSQ.) So, Kat, with Tools of Change 2011 is just around the corner — February 14 – 16, 2011 — I figure you have plenty of free time to answer questions about this year’s program. Let’s start with the theme: Publishing Without Boundaries. What does that mean to you? The phrase “Publishing without boundaries” was actually coined by my co-chair, Andrew Savikas during one of our preliminary conference meetings. He didn’t suggest it as the theme, but all of us at O’Reilly loved it and agreed it fit perfectly with where the world of publishing is right now. Boundaries are disappearing. The rules that many in the industry have relied upon to make business run smoothly (for the most part), no longer apply – which is either a terrifying wakeup call or an exhilarating opportunity depending on one’s point of view. The one thing most seem to agree upon – as the old walls/boundaries come down — there’s no going back. Boundaries of who is a publisher, and who is a reader – they’re disappearing as digital production and distribution tools are more and more accessible to pretty much everyone. Boundaries of what content is available where and to whom — those boundaries are disappearing as digital content refuses to be easily confined by territorial rights restrictions…An industry that was once a rigidly defined landscape is being transformed into unchartered territory. So, the next question to consider is: as this territory is explored and claimed, what will the new boundaries look like? How will they be defined? That’s where it gets interesting, and that’s what a lot of the discussion at TOC 2011 will revolve around. I know you’re excited about every session and speaker on the panel, but can you give us some highlights from the schedule? Wow. Yes, I am excited about every session and every speaker…I’ve spent the last many months talking at length with the speakers, learning about their backgrounds, and hearing what they plan to talk about. This is a stellar group of people we’ve gathered together. It’d be intimidating to have that many brilliant people in one space, if it weren’t for the fact that they’re all incredibly nice people as well. And each thoroughly entertaining in their own way. Every speaker on this program is a highlight. I can tell you that some of the speakers have really surprised me – and I’m happy to share a few of the names that may not yet be as known as others, but who are rising stars in this community: Gus Balbontin is one person I am pretty sure everyone will learn a lot from, and also want to get to know. He’s passionate not just about the work that Lonely Planet does, but about life, and about how the two connect. His keynote is funny, and real, and the lessons he shares apply equally to publishers in transition and anyone facing tough changes in life. Keynoters Britt Iversen and Anna Gerber, co-founders of gorgeous art object/booky-book publisher Visual Editions will blow everyone away with their pure enthusiasm for creating beautiful paper books that make readers happy. They take on seemingly impossible projects because they want to see them come to life – and they make them happen. But at the same time, they’re smart business women. They’re going to make a real impression and inspire a lot of people. Marcin Wichary of Google, who is leading a workshop on HTML5 for publishers is brilliant, funny, and excited about sharing what he knows. He is one of many workshop leaders who have been spending hours and hours preparing for TOC, and I am so proud of what he, and every one of our workshop speakers has put together for the participants. Marcin and others are just bending over backwards to make sure they can answer questions and really deliver what the attendees are hoping to learn. I mention this because all of our workshop leaders (and a good number of our speakers) have indicated they’d really like to hear from TOC attendees ahead of time — so we’re encouraging TOC attendees to reach out using the “comments/questions” window located at the bottom of each session description page on the website. Neal Hoskins’ panel of app developers has morphed from being an overview of features that successful apps have incorporated into an in depth discussion of the craft, care and polish that go into well-thought out content apps. The panel is another one (we have so many) that is packed with a veritable who’s who of leaders in their field. And another really awesome panel people may not have noticed quietly take a place on the program — one on subscription models and case studies which is being moderated by Andrew Savikas, and includes Jeremy Bornstein of Subutai (creators of The Mongoliad project) and of Rich Ziade of Readability (who has a major announcement he’ll be making soon). I’m also really excited about meeting readers — it’s one of my favorite things about TOC. If I keep going, I’ll end up recreating the entire program here. We’ve got keynotes that are just insanely impressive, we’ve got speakers from around the globe, we’ve got speakers from every conceivable part of not only the publishing ecosystem, but from the academic world and from other industries. This program represents an incredible assembly of relevant and meaningful perspectives that most of us just don’t get to hear from every day. And what’s really cool? We’ll all get to be part of the conversation. Each speaker is really interested in making each session as interactive as possible. One gigantic ball of highlights, Kassia. That’s what we’ve got going on at TOC this year. http://booksquare.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif [Note: Kat's comment about hearing from attendees in advance goes for my panel, Bookselling in the 21st Century as well. Please share what you'd like to hear from this awesome group of people.] Every year, it seems certain themes, intentional or not, emerge from proposed and accepted sessions. Anything pop this year? (Yes, I’m asking so I can be on the cutting edge of cool thinking) Hmm. Now that you ask, yes – there are a few. The most prominent is directly related to the “publishing without borders” concept. It’s the theme of collaboration – collaboration within organizations, collaboration between organizations, and collaboration across industries. It’s a theme, and it’s one that is echoed in the more “big concept” keynotes, as well as in many of the more technically-focused sessions. Another theme I’m hearing from speakers is – we don’t have “the” answer. We have answers, but they may not fit your questions, and there is no solution that’s going to work for everyone. Oh, and the solutions we do have, they may work great today, but they probably won’t work forever. To put it another way – there’s a very common theme that being nimble and agile is a prerequisite for any company that wants to keep moving forward. I’d add to that there have been many speakers who are emphasizing the importance of knowing what your core strength as a business is, and not losing sight of that. I’ve heard rumors of big surprises for TOC attendees. Can you give us a hint? There are at least a few business announcements/launches taking place at TOC. For people like you and me, Kassia (and for many at TOC) at least a few of these announcements are the stuff geek girl “squees” are made of. Oh, and the speaker list (though I am receiving big sighs of exasperation from the speaker manager) may continue to grow… just a bit. So keep checking that speaker roster! Is it true Margaret Atwood is going to be on my bowling team? Well, the bowling event has gone back to the drawing board. No matter how much I tell the event team that TOC people are bowling people, they seem to think we are much more sophisticated (I have no idea where this impression was made, or by whom — clearly not at last year’s TOC karaoke Tweetup), but regardless of that happens with TOC, having met Ms. Atwood, I believe she’d join your bowling team if she thought it would make you happy. She’s maybe as kind as she is funny. And, that’s a whole lot of kindness! Now for the fun stuff! We here at Booksquare are thrilled to announce we’re giving away a free pass for this year’s Tools of Change for Publishing Conference. This pass covers the two-day conference only (Tuesday and Wednesday, February 15 and 16, 2011), workshops are not included. You are also responsible for your own airfare, hotel, and travel expenses. To enter for a chance to win this awesome prize, just tell us in the comments what you’re looking forward to most at this year’s TOC. Or, tweet a link to this post with the hashtag #BSTOC. The most random creature on the plan — Wiki Gonzalez (tabby and paper lover) — will chose a winner from all entries. Winner will be announced on Friday, January 21, 2011. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/booksquare/~4/NQx6PQCjF64 View the full article

No matter where you stand on the various issues surrounding the future of publishing, one thing is clear: without readers, what we do doesn’t matter very much. We sometimes take the privilege of our bookish lives for granted, forgetting how many people out there would give anything to be able to pick up a book and read it. Yet, this is the season of giving (and, yes, tax deductions). Every year, we here at Booksquare make a pitch for our favorite causes, hoping some of you, like us, will find a little something extra to give this now and in the future. If you have a favorite cause that relates to literacy, reading, or education, let us know in the comments. ProLiteracy — As always, our list is topped by Proliteracy.org. You can contribute either financially or by volunteering as a literacy tutor. When you are a reader, a to-your-soul reader, it’s almost impossible to imagine a world where people can’t read. The reasons vary, and the solution is not simple. Helping others learn to read should be the primary goal of the publishing industry — any way we can. If you can’t donate money, can you donate time? First Book — Just as teaching the world to read is important, getting books to children is essential. First Book gets books to children who need them. You remember your first book, you remember reading as a child. Help share that joy. Bonus! through December 31, your donation will be matched book-for-book by Random House. Girls Write Now: Girls Write Now is a non-profit organization devoted to mentoring the next generation of women writers. Focused on New York’s underserved and at-risk high school girls, this program helps them find their voices through creative writing. Donors Choose — The problem with growing up the child of a public school librarian is that you know how completely screwed up our public school financing priorities are. It is appalling that teachers and librarians are forced to finance so many projects (and supplies, essential supplies) out of their own pockets. It’s not like teachers make huge salaries. DonorsChoose.org was founded to bring educators together with people who have money to contribute to specific projects. Look at the list of projects — is there something you can help transform from wish to reality? Buy Books — You want to make a serious statement about your commitment to books? Buy everyone on your shopping list a book. Or two. Or three. No need to limit yourself. This isn’t going to turn the industry around, but, c’mon people who get free books, put some money back into the industry that’s been good to you. Here’s hoping you have a little extra to give to one or more of these causes, be it money, time, or energy. And thank you, so much, for reading BS! http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/booksquare/~4/3cksAY7pETg View the full article

Today’s links of interest: Random House Hires Ruth Reichl Good move for Random House. TOC Frankfurt Preview: “Customer Experience” is What Matters Most While we put about missing this year’s Tools of Change Frankfurt, this article about a session focusing on customer experience tells us this year’s event will be awesome! Federal appeals court tosses out method for calculating music streaming royalties Nearly missed this one. Appeals court sides with Yahoo (and, essentially, other music streaming services), indicating the formulae used to determine royalties was not proper. Time Warner CEO not a fan of 99-cent TV rentals, either Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Reversal of Royalties: A Modest Proposal Author Bob Mayer offers up an interesting idea, one we suspect most will dismiss. Don’t. Give it some thought, make it better. Amazon Launches Facebook e-Commerce Store This is bigger news than it seems. Alyson Books Will Restructure as E-book Only House; Weise Leaves Sad news with a positive angle. The hard part, as noted, is finding an experience digital publisher. Booksellers Hear Details of the Much-Delayed Google Editions More details emerge. Like, it’s likely to be six months before launch. Google Editions will be the ebook engine for ABA sites, but will also sell through Google and possibly other vendors. All interesting. Macomber Moves to Random After a long and prosperous career at Harlequin, Debbie Macomber moves to a new publisher. Wow. Publishers’ Agency Model Punishes Mid-List Authors Is it us, or is there a lot of confusion going on in this article? All sort of ideas being conflated, which obscures a potentially valid argument. When is E-Royalty Not a Royalty? When 9th Circuit Court Says It Isn’t Finally! We’ve been wondering when more people were going to mention this. Frankfurt 2010: Will Frankfurt Soon Be an E-Book Fair? Continuing the trend wherein all book events are now digital book events, the big focus at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair is ebooks. Not comments from Brian Murray in particular. Counterpoint to Close New York Office Basically, the Soft Skull office is closing, and it looks like the editorial team is departing (though they are staying on in a freelance capacity to fulfill contracted obligations). Coding Poetry for Digital Publication The HTML is hard excuse was perfectly fine in 1995. In 2010 (nearly 2011!), it’s ridiculous. New Attributor Study Tracks Demand for Pirated E-Books Publishers Weekly essentially reprints a press release from a company looking to drum up money from publishers. Of course the study will show what they want it to show…and can someone please explain the “badge” thing? Microsoft and Adobe Chiefs Meet to Discuss Apple This one is for Kirk. Is NPR Trying to Sell Michele Norris’ New Book? Interesting examination of how Michele Norris’s book received much coverage on NPR. Yes, she plays for the home team, but did they go overboard? The iBookstore six months after launch: One big failure We don’t necessarily agree, but have found the iBookstore is a holy mess of shopping experience whereas Amazon really gets how to sell books. As for reading on the iPad? Chez BS is split 50/50, though the heavier reader prefers the Kindle device. Second Biggest E-Book Sales Month Restores Confidence And your monthly ebooks sales chart, courtesy of our friends at eReads. Convergences, Real and Imagined: A Conclusion Great thinking and pondering and analysis from Richard Nash. Opportunity Virtually Knocks Many good ideas here, but the seeming dismal of ebooks as a revenue stream/opportunity for traditional booksellers is shortsighted. The Finkler Answer Excellent thinking about global language rights and how the acquisition thereof (or not) impacts a title. Penguin to launch a social network for bookworms Just the other day, we were wondering what was going on with Spinebreakers. Glad to see it’s still being used and is growing. James Patterson Joins the Kindle 1,000,000 Books Club As we all try to tease out real numbers from the various sources, we finally have one reliable data point: authors who have exceeded one million Kindle units. Get enough of those… ‘Adderall Diaries’ Blurs Books-Apps Line Quite a bit about this NYT piece on Stephen Elliott’s “Adderall Diaries” app and the involvement of the great folk from Electric Literature is worth noting. Such as: 1) the fact that Graywolf Press let the author do this, and 2) that Electric Lit is diversifying its core business. Lagardere Feels Full Impact of Meyer; HBG Digital Sales at 9% Ah, the lack of Stephenie Meyer sales is being felt. eBooks Ready To Climb Past $1 Billion Forrester predicts big growth in the market over the next four or so years. E-Books Bright Spot in Bleak September Interesting numbers. Adult trade is down. Ebooks up. Borders Announces New Web Site – Discounts More Than 100,000 Bestselling Books Another new website from Borders. Is it me, or does this happen with alarming regularity? (and is it new or just redesigned?) E-Book Growth Slows, Still Up 112% in October Sparse information, meaning no reason given for slow growth. Other markets are slow as well. E-books Entice as New Frontier for Ads Not loving this idea, and wondering how the rule of author approval is going to work. For some authors, it would have to be on an ad-by-ad basis in order to prevent the wrong kinds of ads populating some books. The Last Country House Party? E-Books and Publishing’s Phony War Interesting piece from Peter Ginna of Bloomsbury. We’ve been wondering about the budgeting issue for some time. Consider: most of the books being released over the next year or so were acquired under very different budget scenarios. Amazon Sold ‘Millions’ of Kindles in the Last 73 Days Looks like this will be a huge year for ebook readers. Which will likely be followed by a huge jump in ebook sales. Hope everyone’s prepared. Author Slams eBook Piracy, Son Outs Her As a Music Pirate Yes, piracy costs money, but when you’re complaining about how it impacts you, don’t get caught with your pants down. International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) Announces New Executive Director Bill McCoy takes over for the departing Michael Smith. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/booksquare/~4/xTjubgsFLhE View the full article

As much as the idea of enhanced ebooks brings the sexy to publishing, it doesn’t really do much for most of the books published. Enhanced, enriched, transmedia, multimedia…these are ideas best applied to those properties that lend themselves to multimedia experience (or, ahem, the associated price tag). While many focus on the bright and shiny (and mostly unfulfilled) promised of apps and enhanced ebooks, the smart kids are looking at the power of social reading. Social reading is normal reading. It’s how we already read in an offline world, and, yes, how we read in an online world. First, some historical context, all stuff that is well known. In the beginning, humans told stories around campfires*. The storytelling happened in group situations, with some stories passed from campfire to campfire, and eventually the woolly mammoth the hunter felled was a large as the Titanic. Some stories became institutionalized — myths, biblical stories, parables. Others, well, they never really gained market share. Hmm, publishing, the early days. Time passed. We developed alphabets, we coalesced around local language standards, we wrote stuff down, but the process was laborious (think rocks) or fragile (think parchment) or valuable (think illuminated manuscripts). These printed stories (using both words broadly), fiction and non-fiction, were not possessed in great numbers by common folk. Reading, or sharing of stories, was done in groups, except for those ancient-times-us who wrote stories in their heads (go ancient-times-us!). Even after the invention of the Gutenberg press, the possession of books was outside the reach of most people. We moved from campfires to candlelight, while the act of reading remained a social activity. The tradition of people reading to each other remains alive and well. I cannot think of the stories of the knights of the Round Table without remembering my mother reading them aloud to four impressionable minds. Likewise, when I remember “reading” The Island of the Blue Dolphins for the first time, I remember my third grade teacher’s voice as she read it to us. And with the reading, of course, comes the book discussion. It wasn’t until mass market books became available that reading, as we know it, was identified as a (almost-solely) solitary activity (overall literacy rates had to catch up as well, but that’s another issue). By reading as we know it, I mean selfish reading: alone in the bathtub, alone under the covers, alone on the couch, alone in a restaurant, alone in a park, alone in the bathroom while the family argues about football. Solitary reading is my preferred style, but I also make my book club’s monthly meetings for literary discussion**. (At this point, I really want to thank my dearest friends who, in all innocence, asked me “What? Social huh?”, thus leading to me writing them a very long email that ended up being the first draft of this crazy post.) Transforming the Text: An Essential Part of the Reading Experience Throughout all this, and focusing particularly on booky-books because they consist of ink and paper (which, for centuries, was a really important part of this whole phenomenon, or maybe behavior is a better word), marginalia or annotations or comments or whatever you want to call them flourished. People love making notes about what they’re reading, and, let’s be honest, they love writing in books, even though generations of librarians have discouraged this behavior. For example, my notes, if I am reviewing a book, sometimes consistent of comments like, “You have got to be kidding me!” or “Seriously? She’s practically commuting to London from the north of England. In the winter. By carriage.” Since I mostly read digital these days, my Kindle notes are similar, though sometimes it takes some re-reading to understand what I meant when I typed “!!!”. Excitement or disbelief…that is always the question. This kind annotation becomes part of the book, and is generally private unless the book is sold or shared. I once bought a used book with mini-reviews written in the covers. It was clear this was a book passed among friends, all of whom shared their thoughts. Amazingly sweet. But we do not only engage in marginalia. We write reviews about the book. We write extended analyses about the book. Speeches are given about the words written by an author. Movies are made. Plays presented in the park. As people interact with the text, many transform the text. For many of us, transforming the book is as important as reading the book. As we have developed online tools, we’ve moved our natural tendency to comment and extend text online. Someone will correct me, I’m sure, but this has been happening with increasing regularity since 1992. We annotate, review, discuss, write letters, emails, blog posts, tweets, and more. What makes this interesting to me is, with an exception of actual notations in physical books (or, ahem, some digital editions), very little of this activity is actually attached to the book. Social Reading, Social Publishing Think about that for a moment. In the analog world, it made perfect sense that publishers, authors, readers, and aggregators were unable to collect the discussion around a particular work. It is somewhat mind-boggling that we are in 2010 and the nitty gritty serious discussions around social reading are just beginning to happen — and there are many nitty gritty discussions to be had. You’d think this was the kind of control publishers would have grabbed early and often (it would be a wrong-headed attempt, as we’ll discuss in a few paragraphs). So the discussion around social reading is really a discussion about how to bring an ages-old activity into the digital age, and how to do it a way that makes sense. Though, as Aaron Miller of Bookglutton — a company that is leading the way when it comes to social reading — noted, the starting point for the discussion may more properly be the idea of “social publishing“. I like his definition: Social publishing is the natural evolution of publishing as a business. It encompasses the Web and all new digital distribution platforms, including the way people read and discover on them. It includes social reading, which is really just reading, an act that has always been social. Social publishing requires a deep interest and study of what happens to a text after it is disseminated — how readers interact with it, how they share it, how they copy it, how they talk about it — and it requires action arising from that deep study. There’s a good chance that what I’m talking about here, the idea of social reading, is really the idea of social publishing. The layer that happens after or while people are reading books. It is the user generated content tha surrounds the published work (what we call a book, but what is a book, and are getting to the point where book means many things, much as record or album does?). Are we already shifting our vocabulary? Perhaps, and maybe that’s the right thing to do. Walled Gardens Won’t Work (Unless You Cede Control to Amazon) However, I’m going to stick with social reading as my descriptor, for the moment. Mostly because I don’t want to go back and rewrite this mess of a post. I suspect my vocabulary will change soon. Very smart folks are talking about how to capture all the discussions around the book. Problematically — for me — are the walled gardens like Blio and Copia and Kindle. These discussions take place in silos, and if you, the reader, are not part of that silo, you are not part of the conversation. This is the problem with Facebook as well. It seems like everyone has a Facebook account, but this is simply not true. And while some people seem to live on Facebook, many consider it a necessary evil, interacting on the site with reluctance. The Facebook hate is, I’d say, almost perfectly balanced with the Facebook love. While Facebook has extended the social graph beyond its core site, Facebook is a walled community, albeit a large one. For book people, limiting interaction in any way seems like a dangerous proposition. In fact, as I think about this more and more, I have great concern for business models built on the expectation that people will come, when the Internet is predicated on the notion that people will aggregate where they feel most comfortable. Look at some of the biggest (U.S.) social networks: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Think about how some people are perfectly happy on Twitter but allergic to Facebook. How others prefer the slightly more formal nature of LinkedIn to Twitter. One thing I keep hearing from people who are excited about social reading is they already have enough places to go when it comes to managing their online lives. It turns out people don’t need more destinations; they need destinations that work with how they use the internets. All of them. Perhaps once upon a time, you could build it and they would come. Look at MySpace and Facebook (I’d include Twitter here, but the beauty of Twitter is that you can be part of the conversation from a thousand starting points). There has to be a compelling reason for people to come, and, much as it pains me to say it, talking about books simply isn’t enough. I know, I know. And maybe there is a magic elixir to change all this. If I get books from Amazon and Barnes & Noble and All Romance eBooks and Kobo and Books on Board and, heck, my library, I certainly want the ability to engage in annotation and commentary, but I don’t necessarily want to maintain my comments and thoughts in individual silos. That would get old in about thirty seconds. I want, oh I want, my library and annotations and thoughts in a single place where I can access them easily. (I am wondering how we, as an industry, can approach the major retailers to convince them being part of the whole community is to their benefit. Anyone want to do a study documenting how people loathe silos that don’t help them accomplish their goals?) This means allowing readers to engage in these activities where they live (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, reading applications [in particular]), while feeding the conversation into a more centralized location. This means allowing the social part of reading to reside with the work, which means consolidating editions/versions into a single item. What we are talking about is the social layer on top of the text, and thinking of the best ways to connect books from any retailer/library/resource to the social layer (and, again, I am stealing somewhat from Aaron Miller; welcome to the thieves den, Aaron!). There will be interesting challenges arising as smart people try to figure out ways to corral the entire book-related diaspora into a single place. Imagine if tweets and Facebook comments and blog mentions were nestled alongside commentary attached to the text (okay, that’s pretty huge, so let’s just add this to the great social reading wishlist). (I should note that I am engaging in some magical thinking along with my practical thinking. Gah, the mind just boggles at the idea of figuring out how to pull tweets into the social layer of a particular book. Some sort of magic and short hashtag that is unique to the book? How does one discover what that particular work’s hashtag is? Oh, metadata. Surely this problem could be solved by metadata. It seems to be the solution to all our problems.) A few weeks ago, the New York Times discovered a social reading platform called Social Books, which allows commentary to happen via Facebook and Twitter, something that is critical to the success of any social reading platform. However, as I consider the situation, I am more likely to push content from Facebook and Twitter than I am to push content to those destinations. Think about how irritated people get from Foursquare updates! This platform, which has some investment from John Ingram, seems a bit device focused. I’ll be curious to see if there is a well-integrated web component. To me, that’s absolutely essential. (Aside: I don’t know what it is about the NYT, but the approach of this article was “hey, this has never been done before!”, when, in fact, Bookglutton and GoodReads are engaged in social reading/publishing already, while Blio had just launched, and Copia, launching after the article, was certainly a high-profile start-up.) User-Generated Content vs. The World This user-generated content or UGC (marginalia, annotations, reviews, etc) would reside with a service — I believe this has to be the case, because publisher websites are not the right place for this — and the information would be extracted by other services (publishers, marketers) because that’s how life works. The readers have to feel like they have an ownership interest in their contributions, which is why I believe publishers cannot control this data (not to mention the disaster surrounding territorial rights that makes the ownership and associated conversations surrounding a specific work messy). Seriously, my advice to publishers is this: step back, let the readers do their thing, and figure out how to work with the service provider(s) to get the best possible benefit from social reading. Oh, wait there is one area where publishers can be proactive… In a recent post on this topic, Joe Wikert said this, and I think it’s important: What’s missing in the recommendation area though is a fast and easy way to share excerpts. If I come across a terrific sentence or paragraph I want to share from Drew Brees’ ebook, Coming Back Stronger (a terrific read so far, btw), what are my options? The Kindle reader on my iPad doesn’t offer a way for me to even tweet/email from within the app let alone share an excerpt. Yes, publishers could make the social part of reading and publishing easier by making it easier to share little bits and bites (bytes?) of books. I can imagine the teeth gnashing as the implications of what this means sets in. Get over it. Some people will, likely, try to share too much. But my guess is you’ll see a lot more people sharing a small percentage of the book…most often, even, sharing the same passages. Get over the fear. Embrace the fact that people love what you publish so much, they want to share it with others. Embrace the fact that people love what you publish so much, they want to talk about it with others. Figure out ways to be part of this conversation, without, you know, stepping on the conversation. Like I said, step back, but be creative. Some will argue that people don’t want this, but I would argue that a) people have been doing this for centuries and the online conversations about specific books, many specific books, are already happening. The next step is to make it happen in a more cohesive manner. If hand-selling is truly the secret sauce of bookselling, then letting real readers supplement booksellers is critical. The key to achieving critical mass is moving the conversation online, allowing the online big mouths to do their thing (big mouth being a relative term), and letting readers do what is already happening in a disconnected manner. Which is to say, let readers connect with like-minded individuals who will then expand the book’s social graph. Another key aspect of social reading in the digital context is making accommodation for synchronous and asynchronous discussion. Bob Stein discussed this in his Taxonomy of Social Reading, and I think he’d agree it’s just a beginning. The former would be useful for book clubs, classrooms, and other structured reading environments. The latter… Asynchronous marginalia reflects the reality of how books are distributed and read around the world. Encounters with books can come days, weeks, months, years — centuries! — after initial release. As a person discovers the notes and comments of readers who have gone before, what sort of thoughts are inspired? This leads to the idea that there needs to be some sort of feedback loop integrated into the social reading level. One that allows readers to opt in and out of the conversation with relative ease. How to do that as unobtrusively as possible becomes an issue. If we’re talking about a book that reaches Harry Potter level hysteria, real-time updates would be, um, irritating beyond belief. Most books, however, would inspire fewer comments. Some could inspire extended conversations; some, not so much. Do readers subscribe to the commentary on a book level, on a paragraph level, do you get updates in real-time (annoying, I’d imagine) or in daily digest format? I don’t know, and I think this is where we will see a lot of trial and error before mores develop. That’s the cool part about iterative technology. We don’t have to get it right on day one. Then there’s the challenge of connecting various versions of the work so the entire spectrum — hardcover, paperbacks, audio, enhanced, international — becomes one “book” in the mind of the social layer. As noted, this is reason one for publishers to facilitate rather than control. Now I have me thinking about supporting local language discussions…and then I wonder about including translation services. Must. Stop. Imagining. A Quick Word About Business Models The business model around the centralized location is the most problematic, hence my suggestion that the UGC be licensable to publishers and marketers, suitably anonymized of course (though one could some value in the non-anonymized content, think blurbs). This content could form the basis for book clubs. Or education material. Perhaps charging publishers for including their books in the “catalog” (what do we call this in our post-paper world?). Hosting and maintaining this middle layer will be expensive, various financial models may be required. It’s in the best interest of the publishing industry to support projects like this, if only because it’s not in the best interest of individual publishers to manage this kind of content and interaction. Imagine the social reading disaster of two publishers owning different rights to the same book. Isolated or segregated discussions are grand, but they only reach a specific audience. They feed the all-important Long Tail sales (and if you are discounting the Long Tail, you are likely relying on incomplete information, and I suggest you read the book or blog). Imagine if those isolated discussions could feed into the greater discussion. What if we managed a true social layer that integrated all discussion, from everywhere, around a book? Oh, there goes that magical thinking again. Whatever the business model is, its middle name should be “flexible” (yes, yes, you wouldn’t do that to your kid, why would you do it to your business model? Oh right…because nobody’s figured this stuff out yet.). Much experimentation will happen because it’s technology that is trying to replicate and innovate human behavior, and nobody really knows how people will respond and what features they’ll ultimately want. I’d say start small with a plan to iterate, adding and removing features…but have a master plan. A good one. Challenges, Especially Privacy As we begin discussions about creating fantastic social reading environments, challenges become obvious. How do we intersect on- and off-line discussions? What about privacy? Consider the recent North Carolina court decision that said Amazon does not have to turn over customer purchase history due to First Amendment rights. We love to talk about books, but how much of that information do we want made public? Will the systems allow readers to make their commentary private or only visible to certain people? Can I be anonymous when the need (or mood) suits me? Privacy is, as Jason Schultz from UC Berkeley put it during his “Books in Browsers” presentation, contextual. Obviously, I want to decide the right context. How will these companies protect my identity and my content? How are publishing companies doing this today? I’m not sure there’s been any extended, serious discussion about privacy issues in the age of digital books. The law certainly hasn’t been updated to cover reading or commenting in the digital realm. As we’ve learned from Facebook, sometimes technology companies forget about the privacy concerns of end users. Worse, they assume their own belief systems are indicative of popular thinking. Mark Zuckerberg suggested (can’t find link) there was something wrong with people who use pseudonyms or fake names online. He lives in a special bubble. Our reasons for protecting our privacy are varies and important, if only to us. For more thinking on this, check out the ACLU’s report on this, “Digital Books: A New Chapter for Reader Privacy”. I think about how zealously librarians protect my First Amendment rights. I want to see social reading companies approach my privacy with that same level of seriousness. This circles back to the business model discussion — I have to expect there will be some sort information sharing happening, information being the currency of the 21st century — so how can I gain comfort that my data is being protected as it’s shared? There is a permanence in digital marginalia that doesn’t exist in the print world. There will be implications. We should talk about this. A lot. How much public is public? What about potential copyright issues? UGC is copyrighted content, just as the books being discussed are. How can you balance the needs of the copyright owner and reader? How does Fair Use play into all this? And so on. Seriously, if you’re not getting excited chills thinking about all this stuff, I am going to consign you to a solid year of reading Booksquare 1.0 (the clueless stuff). The best of these projects will come from companies that focus more on user wants and needs than they do on publisher wants and needs. Creating a consumer-facing product that wholly satisfies the executives at a company is never a good idea. It’s important to talk to publishers, but even more important for publishers to listen to what these innovators have learned from their customers. I’m sure there are more thoughts to come. In fact, I know there are. * – or bonfires or roasting pits or whatever ** – Or, ahem, wine. One or the other. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/booksquare/~4/aruOzZXl-5w View the full article

I, along with a hundred or so of my peers, spent last Thursday and Friday at a conference called Books in Browsers. As one who sat on the sidelines when the first iteration of this conference was held last year, I wasted no time in inviting myself to the event. I am still processing everything I heard and saw. Much of it aligned with what I think about when I look five years down the road; some it — and this is always the best part of a conference — made me sit back and say “Whoa! I really need to consider that perspective”. I’ll be working out thoughts on both here. Of course, of course. Let’s get the most stunning thing about Books in Browsers 2010 out of the way first: the dearth of big name publishers. Seriously. Where in the hell were they? Then came the realization that Amazon was in the room, at least for the first day. Finally, and this is actually first, but it flows better this way, Brian O’Leary’s “A Unified Field Theory of Publishing” (words only via the link). It wasn’t enough that he blew open the idea of containers, oh no, he had to accompany this presentation with the type of slideshow that makes the rest of us look like rank amateurs. I may never open Keynote again. (Aside, I don’t include Bob’s Stein’s Proposing a Taxonomy of Social Reading in the above list because, well, I’m still mulling pieces big and small. Follow the link and read his ideas. Follow the link and participate in the discussion.) (Second aside, this is the first conference I’ve attended that had German philosophers as running theme on a particular day. You cannot buy this kind of serendipity.) So, you ask as you sip your coffee, what does that mean, books in browsers? Depends upon who you ask and when. For years, I’ve been ranting about the fact that publishers have ignored the web as a serious publishing platform. One speaker said, based on his conversations with most of the big houses, they see the web as a marketing tool, not a publishing tool. Talked about missing opportunities. I will humbly remind every publishing professional in this universe that the web is our one constant — if you want to reach readers on an international level, you must reach readers in the medium they use. (Third aside, and this may be a record for asides before I even get to the topic, smart use of the web for publishing content may very well be an effective tool in combatting piracy in developing digital reader territories.) So that’s my definition, but as the conference progressed, many other viewpoints emerged. Some speakers focused on the publishing platform idea, but coming from the perspective that the content management (CMS) tools we have for web publishing are also ideally suited for publishing bookish content. Plus they’re easy to use. Pay attention to this idea because smart people are making it happen, and it’s going to make things so much easier for publishers of a certain size. (Fourth aside — and she breaks a record! — if there is one thing I know for certain, it is that there are no off-the-shelf tools for creating a true digital workflow for publishers. Many houses will build their own, and that’s fine, but really smart houses will look at existing tools like content management systems as the starting point for building easy-to-use, standards-based workflow tools.) Others focused on the critical importance of user experience. Designing for how people really use text, devices, information. I know this will come as a shock to many of you, but real people rarely behave in the manner designers expect. As I look back at the launch of Blio, it is clear to me that the wrong kind of user testing was done. I base this on the fact that no real world tester would ever find downloading .NET components to be an acceptable part of the reading experience (and launching without Mac support? What were they thinking?). Not to mention the pricing mess that was the actual bookstore. As I consider the impending launch of Copia, a competitor of Blio (more on this entire world of social reading in a post TK), I realize nobody I know has actually interacted with either the system in a serious way. We’ve all seen the demos, but as Blio’s launch demonstrated there’s a world of difference between a demo and reality. Real people interact with systems in ways system architects never anticipate, despite every use case possible. My point is not to pick on a project that hasn’t launched. I know people at Copia, and I like them very much. My point is that the number one thing publishers need to consider as they move deeper into digital publishing is user experience. User experience encompasses all areas of consumer interaction with a company and its products or services. Everything from basic quality to the interface must be oriented toward meeting the needs of the consumer, including needs the consumer hasn’t realized are required. User experience incorporates all point of user interaction. As we talk about rights issues (omigod, if you’re a rights geek, we having year-round Christmas), about platforms, about interfaces, about retail, about windows, about pricing, about the soon-to-be hottest topic in publishing, social reading*…we cannot separate user experience from the discussion. It is the most essential part of everything. Think, for a moment, about how Amazon is winning the customer service war. Customer service is part of user experience. I do not — cannot! — comprehend how or why Barnes & Noble hasn’t figured out the importance of responding to consumers, but they are not winning customers and influencing readers. Worse, they’ve lost control of the conversation. Kobo, on the other hand, runs circles around B&N when it comes to responsiveness. They get the importance of “tell me what’s going on, let me see how I can help.” It will be interesting to see how Barnes and Noble handles customer service issues as people buy and interact with the new color screen Nook. I’m guessing the new device will bring new customers into the marketplace, and that’s where B&N needs to step up. I hope they do; it looks like a great device. User. Experience. It is my firm belief that the ultimate goal of publishing is to have people pay money for content (I could be wrong, but I don’t think so). I’ve chosen big chain bookstores over local independents because I knew I’d find the books I wanted at the former. I’ve chosen local indie bookstores because I know the staff can offer the assistance I need. I shop at Amazon because they (seem to) care about my experience. I shop at my secret hummus supplier for the same reason. I realized a while back that people are incredibly loyal to their tire stores. I love my tire store in the same way I love my mechanic (and I love my mechanic). In the same way I love Vromans. In the same way I love my local Mexican restaurant and wine store. They make sure I get what I want, how I want it, even if I have to pay extra for my stupid bigger-than-normal tires. Heck, I will pay extra for great service just about any time. You cannot imagine how easily seduced I am by the perception that I matter to you (oh, should not admit that). I will give you my brand loyalty if you meet my admittedly low standards of customer service (hint: I once tipped a cabbie in Tokyo…after he kicked us out of the cab because he couldn’t find our destination). So, now. Do you homework. Read Brian O’Leary. Think about that. Read Bob Stein. Think about that. Comment on both. Bring the conversation here (it ties in to the whole thing). Ask me if it’s true I saw Peter Brantley without his hat… * — I hope I am not being naive in believing the idea of enhanced ebooks has morphed into a less frenetic discussion…mostly because much of the enhanced ebook discussion so far has pointed to the fact that there is very little serious consideration of what people actually want from enhanced books, much less how user experience enters into the conversation. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/booksquare/~4/klJlwTSMoFo View the full article

I think we all know what the publisher of today looks like. The hierarchy and positions have become comfortable, established. Sort of like really nice flannel pajamas. That’s not to say nothing ever evolves; I mean, who wears the same pair of pajamas forever? And, if you talk to publishing people, you know those flannel pajamas are threadbare in parts, have a few holes, yet remain too familiar to abandon. Now the analogy falls apart, mostly because while, sure, I can talk about pajamas with great authority, I’d rather talk about new jobs and new skills for 21st century (and beyond!) publishing companies. It’s a mix of stuff I’ve discussed before (as have others), stuff I’ve been mulling over, and stuff I’m test driving. Note: there are publishers out there already implementing and hiring and rethinking. Love them. Love them. Love them. Second note: these are not single person positions. They are skills. They are woven into the job. Project Development Hands down, the coolest changes will happen in the editorial department. Editors will continue to acquire, develop, copyedit, and go to bat for great projects. No question there. You’re not going to get out of acquisitions meetings that easily. However, acquisitions editors will change how they think about — and there’s no way around this word — projects. There will be booky-books. There will be multimedia extravaganzas. The type of project will drive the final product. Just as authors and agents are starting to think big picture when it comes to works they are shopping, so, more and more, will editors. Is it text, is it a web-based community, is it an application, is it a living, interactive experience? One or more of those? The key difference between an enhanced/transmedia/fill-in-your-buzzword books and books with some additional marketing material is how it is approached in-house from day one. Enhancements must be planned, and they must be logical. This requires vision at the acquisition phase. The editor of the future will consider what serves the work rather than what serves a format, and that editor will be required to consider enhancements for every book published, deciding if they are truly transformative or merely marketing on a case-by-case basis. Our thoroughly modern editor will sometimes go by the the name project developer. Rightly so. Even today, books are projects. Acquisition, editing, artwork, production, marketing…all of these are part of the final product that is known as a book. This project must be shepherded through the entire process, guided by a strong vision. Fragmentation of vision is a guarantee of failure. Someone needs to be in charge of all aspects of the book — whatever form it takes — from beginning to end. This is particularly true if the book is slotted as a transmedia project. Nobody — nobody! — is better positioned to execute the vision than the acquiring editor. It’s a different kind of job. It’s a visionary kind of job. Note: Marketing material, those author interviews and recipes and tacked-on content, is just that. Never confuse the two, because your readers won’t. It will take a different set of skills, and not every editor will be suited to the job. This doesn’t make them less valuable. The new publishing house leverages all types of specialized and generalized skills. The coordination of a multimedia project requires the ability to see the finished project, to find the right in-house or third party talent to fulfill the vision, to keep the entire project on track, and, yep, drive the marketing machine. Editing a booky-book (which may be digital, print, or both) requires other skills. As a booky-book type person, I appreciate that editor beyond words. (In my magic world, marketing reports to the editorial team because that’s where the vision starts.) Editorial, Again Editorial staff will be on the front lines of coding manuscripts; they’ve already started this. Yes, I did say coding. There will be tools to make this job easier. They will be awesome tools. They will work the way they’re supposed to work the first time. Because this is the future and things work in the future. But the process of mark-up will originate in the editorial group and — if all goes according to plan — be finessed in what can only be called the copyediting phase (but there will be a cool job title associated with this). In order for a true XML or any digital based workflow to be effective, the manuscript handed over to production must be properly prepared. That’s the job of editorial. You cannot count on production to guess at formatting, and getting it done right by editorial means fewer passes at the manuscript. Because this is my magic world, authors will also work with Word correctly, making the lives of the editorial staff much more pleasant. (These skills are not crazy-fantasy talk. These are the skills that are — almost — innate to anyone who spends time in the online world. It’s not how old you are, it’s how comfortable you are with digital tools. Within a generation, this familiarity will be part of our DNA.) Production Obviously, the ideal is a digital file that can be output to any and/or all formats possible. The file will (ideally) be ready for a little graceful degradation — a concept that allows the book to move from a high-end system that displays all bells and whistles to the lowly eInk device (which is not so lowly). Or progressive enhancement, which is the opposite, with the same result. Right now, outsourcing is au courant. This adds costs to the product. I know publishers are bringing digital production in house, and, speaking as a consumer, it cannot happen too soon. We get too many bad conversions, be they library titles or brand-new books. Better workflow will lead to happier consumers! Oh, and production people will be involved, to a degree, with the creation of all that lovely multimedia stuff. They have talent in layout, design, typography, HTML 5, Flash (yes, okay, but yes), audio, and more. This is the staff who will handle projects great and small. Having the right people on staff is critical. They need to know the technology, today’s and tomorrow’s, because it’s impossible to make smart decisions without understanding what is being requested versus what can be done. They may not have all the talents necessary, or time necessary, for projects. But if you don’t have people on staff who understand the project, how do you communicate it to freelancers and consultants? How do you get effective (read: cost effective) bids? How do you know who to hire? Who speaks the right language? Who translates between the creative team and technical team? Who makes the decisions to outsource or handle it in-house? Hmm, overlap with marketing? I’m sure there is. It’s either the circle of life or the way teams in publishing should work. Your call. Marketing I sorta feel like I should leave marketing out of all this because there are smarter minds than mine thinking about how to connect books with readers. Marketing is tough, and if anyone has figured out the formula for marketing books, I haven’t heard it. In a perfect world, every book gets a huge marketing push and that helps it sell a bazillion copies. In the real world, that doesn’t happen. Still marketing needs to be involved early and often. Not to say that they can’t figure out how to market a book editorial loves. Marketing, I think, should be yes men. Marketing should be working with editors to figure out how to best position that book to reach the right reader. We have so many options, so many possibilities, that books should be less about can’t, and more about how. (The above paragraph should have a reasonability clause. Sometimes you need a grown-up in the room because you can definitely swing from those rafters, but someone needs to point out the rotted beams.) There are a lot of parts to the marketing job, and the work is piling on, not reducing. Today’s marketing people must know the traditional aspects of their job as well as web analytics, web development techniques (if not to build in-house, then to clearly guide contractors), online social media (meaning offline social media, too), and more. Marketing needs to be part of a partnership. When Jonathan Karp announced his reorg focusing on small teams, there was understandable skepticism. The vision of “…two editors, two publicists, and one marketing specialist…” was seen as fantastical. Clearly, this small team approach is only meant for some books, though the zeitgeist should permeate the entire Simon & Schuster publishing environment. At least I hope it will. It’s a great vision, one I’ve advocated (and probably stole from Karp somewhere along the line). As you see above, I’d add in production people in certain circumstances. Teams need to be across disciplines, based on the book, not hierarchy. I’ve worked in team environments before, and with the right team, things are amazing. There’s a flow that happens, especially when egos get checked at the door and strengths and weaknesses are accepted and embraced. I’ve worked in bad team environments as well. Made me appreciate the great teams all that much more. Marketing needs to be focused on traditional and digital. It needs to be focused on consumer-oriented, personal communication. Social media — which is our digital version of hand-selling — needs to move beyond the push approach to the conversation. Which means marketers need to be empowered to speak to consumers directly, in the places where consumers live. One of my favorite marketing initiatives of the past few years happened when the person behind the Little, Brown Twitter feed and a sales rep for Random House separately engaged in making holiday suggestions for readers. Yes, they pimped their own house books, but they also made thoughtful suggestions. To me, this is the best kind of marketing a publisher can do. I’m still thinking about it, two holiday seasons later. Consumer Relations One major publisher has, of course, looked to hire a director of piracy. In my opinion, the job description (mostly) did not describe a director-level position. Presumably there will be staff to handle the take-down notices and whatnot. That leaves a lot of free time for a director, assuming said director has staff, and if you’re a director without staff, huh?. What I propose is creating a smarter, more robust team dedicated to consumer relations. Piracy is part of this group. Macmillan’s biggest flaw — based on their job description — is the job they’ve described is entirely focused on anti-piracy initiatives, most of which are not terribly effective. There wasn’t a single proactive, consumer-focused task on the list. Which is not to say this position is not needed. Piracy is a huge problem. But focusing on fly-swatting is not a director-level job. Focusing on consumer relations? There’s a job. Especially if publishers are serious about moving into a business-to-consumer world. The customer service aspect of the job will increase. This group will be online everywhere, and will be all over the globe, talking to readers at festivals and conferences. They’ll be selling the publisher and catalog instead of a single book. They’ll be selling the value of books in smart ways. Right now, no publisher is talking to readers about what they do, how it matters, how consumers fit into the ecosystem. It’s so much easier to rip of a faceless conglomerate than it is to rip off someone you know. Consumers don’t know publishers. They don’t know the business. They don’t know how their choices impact authors. Wouldn’t it be nice if they did? Which leads me to one of the toughest consumer problems publishers face today. Handling the issues surrounding bad files and making sure readers get what they paid for (or licensed, as the case may be). I’ve spent some time trying to deal with ebook quality control issues via various the customer service areas of various publishers, and I haven’t been very pleased with the results. The best is Random House, who uses Get Satisfaction. However, the responses still haven’t been that great, questions have disappeared, and my comments have also disappeared. Also, I couldn’t figure out to get there from the RH website; a friend pointed me toward the service. Still, I did get responses, if not satisfaction. B2C means dealing with crazy ebook problems, dealing with piracy, dealing with Twitter, blog postings, Facebook, GoodReads, and any other forum where people are talking about your books. The job overlaps with marketing (which should offer a hint of where this job fits on the org chart), but focuses on what consumers are saying. This position (or positions) should have a voice, an ability to influence management. The consumer is not always right (oh boy!), but the consumer has a point-of-view that should be represented. Dealing with consumers directly is hard. Trust me, I have a nasty scar to prove it. Listening to consumers is absolutely worth it. The publishers who get this will engender great goodwill. The publishers who don’t will not. The latter is not good. I know I’ve overlooked, underanalyzed, barely considered these roles. What am I missing? What other roles need to be rethought? I’ve left out finance, I’ve left out web development. Boy, there is an entire week of essays. Most importantly, I’ve left out passion. I linked to Ami Greko’s “Three Jobs Publishing Houses Need to Fill in 2010″ at the beginning of this piece, but wanted to circle back to one job she identifies: The Passionate Insider. I particularly like her examples of passion, and at least one of the people she calls out had her work noted in this article. Passion, talent, skills. One can be taught. One can be developed. And one can be the key to success. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/booksquare/~4/oL3bb_j2PQM View the full article