b.cognosco
A quest to examine, inquire, and learn.
Recently
Coming Soon!
Thursday, June 20, 2002
More on Books and Blogs
[Jeff Jarvis: Warlog] considers how his views on books have changed since 9/11, and hits on one of the key issues we must correct in current print publishing models:
I also get impatient with books that are stale by the time they come out, as so many have to be simply because the process of publishing -- pitch to agent to editor to committee to writing to editing to production to marketing to distribution -- takes so long (and costs so much) that freshness is impossible.
This is an excellent essay, but this is definitely NOT impossible. It is, in fact, quite possible -- though by no means easy -- to get good work into the market and distribution system in a timely way, at much lower costs. Companies like iUniverse and 1stBooks are accomplishing in weeks what has traditionally taken months (in some cases years.)
These Internet-based vanity presses are generally derided by the publishing establishment, but they are the leading edge of a major shift in the publishing balance of power. This is not unilaterally A Good Thing -- there are some benefits to the inherent filtering provided by barriers to entry -- but it is happening just the same. I believe the benefits far outweigh the negatives.
We are not far from having an internetwork of publishing and production services that will let an author acquire editorial and design services as needed, place a book into distribution, have it professionally manufactured, and made available on demand through physical and virtual retailers in a true zero-inventory, demand-driven model. The infrastructure for this is still developing and, as mentioned by Hugh Madison, there are always issues of audience and marketing, but we are closer to this than it seems.
(Thanks to Steve Pilgrim for pointing me to Warlog.)
How to make Money using Radio Userland
Research, consulting, and a password-protected Radio weblog. Hmm. I feel a virtual business plan coming on. Discussing an NYT article about genetic research on Iceland:
[John Robb: John Robb's Radio Weblog] Of course, the best way to build a research company now would be to start a weblog on the topic and sell research direct, without a sales team.
And Lawyers?! Now I'm worried. One of my best friends is a lawyer (I knew him long before he went to the dark side.) Ernie the Attorney has a nice, useful weblog. And then Robb posts this on Radio and KM -- from yet another lawyer. Klau lists several thoughtful uses for weblogs in his post. I'm starting to get scared.
Rick Klau writing for the Law Library Resource Xchange (LLRX): Personal KM and Radio.>>>Radio is a fantastic application - it is, without exception, the best $40 I've ever spent on software.<<<
Hugh Madison on Self-publishing
[American Invisible, Inc.] Hugh Madison shares some interesting history and perspective on the self-publishing phenomena in his essay Self Publishing 001. Hugh's idea of combining several different media into the self-publishing mix as a way to drive sales and interest is intriguing.Self-publishers still face enormous barriers to success -- even after they've crossed the very basic requirement of writing something worth reading. Two of the most difficult are how to effectively market the book and create an audience, and how to make money once you've created an audience.
Most of the money (for the foreseeable future) will come from sales of printed copies. How that can and should work is a central theme of this weblog. But Hugh's essay shows how the myriad technologies of the Internet and a little "out of the box" thinking can be used to the advantage of any self publisher.
One More Reason to Get Behind Libraries
Wired News In this Wired article Brad King points out some serious issues facing peer-to-peer networks and software companies. The hired henchmen of the Copyright Cabal are now going after individual founders and officers, trying to drive them into personal bankruptcy. Add to that the millions being spent on Congressional lobbying to buy the introduction of ill-conceived, protectionist legislation such as Senator Earnest Hollings' brain-dead Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act, which treats the Internet as nothing more than one more outlet for cable TV, and you have an ugly situation pitting well-financed thugs against innovators who are, without question, skirting the edge of law.This is not about paying authors or musicians or creators, or about spurring creativity, or even about piracy. It's all about a desperate fight to protect an outmoded, bloated business model that brings little value to either the consumer or the artist and has long since outlived its usefulness.
Why Audiogalaxy Case Matters Not. All eyes in the digital music world may have been focused on the complete surrender of the Audiogalaxy file-trading service, but for the remaining sharing systems, the real fights are yet to come. By Brad King. [Wired News]
Self-publisher Strikes Sales Agreement
[Seybold] From yesterday's Seybold Bulletin -- BookSurge, LLC, located in the genteel southern city of Charleston, SC, has signed an agreement with R. R. Bowker. Bowker's BooksInPrint.com will now link to BookSurge titles, giving BookSurge authors improved market presence.Until now BookSurge has tried to sell books only via their own book store operation or through partnerships with small publishers, which severely limits their appeal to independent authors. The company has its own print on demand (POD) operation, Digitz.net, that provides digital print services for BookSurge and other publishers.
On one page of the company's website they list "Bookselling Partners" Ingram and Baker & Taylor. It's not clear to me that BookSurge has any direct relationship with these two major independent book distributors. It could be the company prefers to focus on providing services to publishers who already have distribution agreements, but their site seems equally targeted to independent authors who could really benefit from such distribution.
| June 2002 | ||||||
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | ||||||
| May Jul | ||||||
Contact
1041 Honey Creek Road
Suite 281
Conyers, GA 30013
770-918-1937 office
404-822-6014 mobile
This Page was last updated: 2/9/2003; 11:01:04 AM
