With three new publisher partnerships launching this fall, and more to come, digital upstart Open Road is betting that while formats, technology and strategies may change, good digital publishing will be built on the same foundation as good traditional publishing—niches, backlist, and great marketing. The latest partnerships, with literary publisher Delphinium, Philosophical Library, and spirituality publisher Shambhala, will see a host of new e-book titles and digital marketing efforts rolled out in the coming weeks and months—and they mark another step forward for Open Road’s business
For Delphinium, and Philosophical Library, the partnerships include marketing, digitization and distribution of e-book titles. For Delphinium, marketing efforts began this week with three fiction titles—Joseph Caldwell’s The Pig Trilogy. In 2011, the arrangement will expand, beginning in January with a nonfiction work, William Davidow’s Overconnected, which examines the role of the Internet in the global financial crisis.
For Philosophical Library, the partnership begins with The Wisdom Series—31 titles, ranging from the wisdom of the Talmud to the wisdom of Thomas Jefferson. All 31 titles in the series will be launched by November 16 with more books being planned from their deep backlist for early 2011.
For Shambhala, the partnership is exclusively a marketing deal—Shambhala print books are distributed by Random House,and the publisher distributes its own e-books. In its partnership, Shambhala is using Open Road’s platform to market new e-book editions of four of Shambhala’s leading authors: Pema Chodron, the first American woman to become an ordained Buddhist nun; Natalie Goldberg, author Writing Down the Bones; relationship expert David Richo; and Chögyam Trungpa, founder of the Naropa Institute, in Boulder, CO.
While its new “e-riginal” titles and the big names in Open Road’s “author-brand” backlist program, like William Styron and Iris Murdoch, may draw more media attention, the “publisher partnerships” are a critical part of Open Road’s business. The program officially launched this spring with initial partner, Kensington, featuring titles from popular authors Beverly Barton, Richelle Mead, Kevin O’Brien, Mary Monroe, and Johnny Diaz, with more titles and authors on the way.
Indeed the “partnerships” seem like a classic win-win: Open Road offers a fresh approach to digital publication for content already produced—and paid for—by traditional publishers, much of which has never been exploited in the digital realm and in some cases, has been undervalued in the traditional publishing world—especially those niche titles that can’t quite compete for table space at traditional chain stores. In exchange for an equal stake in e-book sales, Open Road creates e-book editions (in some but not all cases) and uses its proprietary online platform to market the works, taking advantage of social media. And without having to invest in authorship of the works, Open Road instead puts its resources into the production of high quality original videos (see the video below for an example) and other original marketing materials.
For former HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman, a former Vintage paperback publisher, pursuing a niche, backlist, marketing-based strategy at Open Road makes perfect sense. “I’ve always liked niches, and I’ve always tried to publish niche titles,” Friedman told PW. “And my life has been spent on backlist publishing. Kensington was just perfect. Shambhala, I’ve known them for almost 40 years, always wanted to publish into that niche. The same with Philosophical Library, I just love the content they have. Delphinium I knew from Harper, and I always liked the books very much, it is a very literary, very publicizable and marketable list.”
Delphinium publisher Christopher Lehmann-Haupt says the prospect of partnering with Open Road was an attractive option. “We had no arrangements as far as e-books go, so we got in touch[ with Open Road],” he said. “Jane’s been a visionary in the many ways she’s promoted books, and the synergy of her and her co-founder creating a dedicated e-book platform and combining it with a marketing vision that emphasizes Internet publicity, blogs, original videos, it seemed like a dream. Open Road gets it, and is willing to take on the tasks, and initial investment on a various array of platforms.” When he visited the Open Road offices, Lehmann-Haupt says he found the company’s pitch almost amusing, “because we thought they had more to offer us that we had to offer them.”
“It really is conceived very much as a partnership,” Shambhala’s Peter Turner notes of the arrangement. “We work together to create digital content for marketing books. Creating awareness is critical to digital content being successful. And It has to be done in a different way, a scalable approach that is not just tied to the original publication but that is supported throughout the life of the book. It’s a different concept than we normally have with books." And one, Turner said, will likely benefit both print and digital sales. “I think Open Road’s marketing efforts are going to reach people that want the content—and some are going to want that content in print form.”
Meanwhile, as the industry engages in an often amped up debate over royalty splits for e-books, Open Road’s partnership model seems to represent a simpler, more elegant approach, and one that emphasizes that selling more content is the key to making more money. “To me, a partnership means 50/50,” Friedman said. “You give us the content, we give you the marketing. That’s it. I have to tell you, this wasn’t a Harvard Business School Study.”
