Thursday, May 29th
Today's Stories (Click Headlines Below):
• The Skinny on Book Search and Content Giveaways
• Welcome to Hollywood
•How Can Publisher Embrace Web 2.0? "Just Do It."
•eMusic CEO Advocates End to DRM
•Pub-Forum Celebrates Online Community
The Skinny on Book Search and Content Giveaways
by Rachel Deahl
Does Google Search help publishers sell books? Do ebook giveaways and snippet samplings? These were some of the questions tossed out, if not fully answered at the IDPF-sponsored Thursday panel, “Update on Book Search and Book Widgets.” Despite the name of the panel, book widgets were only briefly touched on. After Roland Langs of Google ran down what’s new with Google Search—most notably a feature that allows publishers to transport the Google Book Search capability to their own sites so users can use Search among the publishers’ catalogue—Brent Lewis of Harlequin and Barbara Lilly of HarperCollins talked digital content.
Lewis ran down what Harlequin, long known for its success with ebooks, has been doing to get deeper into the space. Speaking to specific promotions, Lewis pointed to a Christmas promotion the house ran in which it gave away 12 downloads—“12 days, 12 different titles.” Promotions such as this, Lewis said, bring new customers both to Harlequin itself while encouraging some readers to try ebooks. The publisher has also had success, he noted, with Daily Lit, a service through which consumers can buy a book, at a retail price of about $8, and receive content digitally in chunks. The house has also zeroed in on Valentine’s Day promotions—a big holiday for Harlequin, as Lewis noted—and, for the first time, did a promotion with Sony this past Valentine’s Day. For the recent promo, Harlequin offered a customized “skin” for the e-Reader and customers received a bundle of 14 free short stories. And, last August, the house also saw success with its Spice Briefs stories—erotic short stories available for purchase in digital format only. The advantage of these stories, in addition to revenue, Lewis said, is that they’re easy to produce and help introduce readers to new authors. Harlequin has also dabbled in Second Life promotions and, thus far, has hosted two events in the alternate reality game. One, for author Deanna Raybourn, was a Victorian-themed costume ball—Raybourn had written a Victorian romance—that was so popular it drew lines out the door. For the event Harlequin offered chapter samples in Second Life and had a link to buy Raybourn’s book. The key in all of Harlequin’s promotions of this nature, Lewis said finally, is “to experiment.”
So how much can promotions like this do to spark print sales? That’s what HarperCollins is trying to find out. Lilly, who started her presentation by noting that there are still two camps in the industry—those who believe giving away ebooks and digital content snippets will cannibalize print sales and those who believe the push will boost print sales—pointed to a handful of promotions HC has been tracking. Although she noted that the data could not yet be extrapolated to point to a larger trend, she discussed some interesting results. For a recent “full-access” promotion with Neil Gaiman—the house offered limited, free online access to one of the author’s books—HC generated four million page views from 83,000 visitors and saw 1,177 users click on a buy link. (The house cannot track whether those clicks actually led to purchases.) Lilly also noted that the house found out that among those who clicked on the book, on average, users digitally flipped through 45 pages. The Gaiman promotion, along with other experiments the house is doing with free online content, are also not being driven by advertising—Lilly said HC is pushing these giveaways through blogs and social media sites.
Welcome to Hollywood
by Wendy Werris
After a week of rain and overcast skies in Los Angeles, the kick-off event of BEA ’08 took place on a beautiful, sunny afternoon at the legendary Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, as the SCIBA welcomed out-of-town booksellers to Los Angeles. The “Welcome to Hollywood” Author Reception brought together booksellers from places as diverse as Kona, Hawaii, and Baltimore, Md., to meet many of the 2006 and 2007 SCIBA Book Award winners. The authors in attendance included Karen Mack and Jennifer Kaufman, Denise Hamilton, Robin Preiss Glasser and Jonathan Kirsch.
About
250 guests mingled in the historic courtyard where glamorous movie premieres were held more than a half-century ago during the golden era of filmmaking. Authors and booksellers enjoyed California wines and pastries from of Mani’s Bakery in Los Angeles. Chef Mani Niall’s Sweet! will be published in October by Da Capo. The other book featured at the party was Laura Holmes Haddad’s Anything but Chardonnay (Stewart, Tabori & Chang); guests all received copies.
First-time BEA attendee Joyce Nelson, director of Morgan State University’s bookstore in Baltimore, is looking forward to the convention. “It’s exciting for me. We’re expanding our trade book department, so I’ll be placing orders at the show.” Nelson will also be attending the Green Issues panels on Friday in an effort to incorporate more “green spirit” into her bookstore.
Kona Stories’ Joy Vogelgesang traveled from Hawaii to attend BEA. “I’ll be focusing on sideline vendors at the show,” she said. “Our freight costs on books to Hawaii is so high—6% more than the industry standard—that it will help us to increase our sidelines inventory by 25% to 30%.”
ABA president Russ Lawrence, who will be passing the reins of leadership this weekend to Gail Shanks of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Ariz., addressed the crowd at the Egyptian Theatre. As he gave a warm welcome to the out-of-town booksellers, a gentle breeze in the surrounding palm trees seemed to second Lawrence’s motion.
How Can Publishers Embrace Web 2.0? “Just Do It”
By Lynn Andriani
Thursday’s Web 2.0 panel at BEA brought together an author, a magazine publisher and the marketing director of a books social networking site to talk about Web 2.0 and the wisdom of crowds—and how traditional publishers fit in. Jeff Gomez, senior director of online consumer sales and marketing at Penguin Group, moderated the panelists, who all agreed—despite their different businesses—that “crowd sourcing” can bring big rewards to publishers.
Fray.com (which exists in print and online) publisher Derek Powazek, Shelfari v-p of marketing Dave Hanley, and author Scott Sigler (Infected) talked about how traditional publishers need to change their business model as consumers grow increasingly used to consuming an enormous amount of information from countless Web sites and blogs, for free. As Gomez said, “Free is the new buzz word.” Yet, he asked, “The phone book should be free, but should a novel?” Sigler should know; he has given his novels away free via podcasts, with great success (more than 20,000 people have tuned in). He said that while there may not be a good reason for well-known authors to give content away at no charge, lesser known authors have much to gain. Giving content away “gives people the ability to try out your stuff,” Sigler said.
When Gomez asked the panelists how publishers can compete in a world where people are willing spend their time writing for Wikipedia, a website or blog, for nothing, Powazek, who has acted as a consultant on Web community features for Netscape, Lotus and Sony, responded that publishers must embrace that new generation of “people who come to media expecting participation.” They must look at publishing books as creating relationships with people, “not just ink on paper.”
Hanley, who said the average user spends nine and a half minutes each time they visit Shelfari, urged publishers to engage with their customers. He himself regularly interacts with Shelfari members, offering and receiving book recommendations. “Just get out there and do it,” he said. “You only learn by doing.”
eMusic CEO Advocates End to DRM
by Craig Morgan Teicher
One of the first talks at BEA 2008 on Thursday featured eMusic CEO David Pakman, who advocated for a DRM-free online marketplace for digital media. The number two e-tailer of digital music downloads, eMusic entered the dowloadable audiobook market last September, when it began selling audiobooks—it now has about 2,500 available—on a subscription plan similar to its music plans. All content on eMusic is sold in MP3 format, without DRM, a controversial choice to major media companies that fear online piracy. Pakman maintained that selling media content without DRM was one of the keys to the company’s success, and that competing with piracy is a realistic business goal, whereas stopping it is not: according to Pakman, “We can’t believe that there’s a legal remedy that’s going to solve” the stealing of media content. “the goods that we sell to consumers,” said Pakman, “have to be equal to or better than the illegal content.”
Sounding a familiar note among digital media companies, Pakman began his talk by saying “the consumer is in control,” and that the consumer will ultimately not accept restricted content when they can get it unrestricted elsewhere or illegally. He also pointed out that during format wars—which are currently raging among eBook tech companies—consumers tend to “opt out” until one format ultimately wins. Each company’s DRM software is essentially a different format—for instance, Apple’s media files are only playable on Apple-approved products. Before discussing eMusic’s success in the audiobook market, Pakman described the effects on the music industry of Apple’s controlling share of the digital music market—due largely to its exclusive use of its own DRM software—which, until recently, did not allow other retailers to compete successfully. Only in the last year have major record labels dropped the DRM requirements the forced on retailers, allowing new competitors, like Amazon.com, to get into the dowloadable music market.
Pakman maintained the market for digital audiobooks—as well as all other digital media—follows the same rules. Since September, eMusic has sold over 100,000 audiobooks, and 96% of its 2,500 titles have been downloaded at least once, according to Pakman. eMusic is now the largest DRM-free retailer of dowloadable audiobooks, though Pakman is hoping for increasing competition: “Now publishers should move to working with as many retailers as possible,” said Pakman. More online retailers means more virtual shelf space, which means “compelling reasons for publishers to create more audiobooks.” Looking forward, Pakman insinuated that DRM will have to become a thing of the past for all digital content: “This strategy is likely to prevail long term with all digital media.”
Pub-Forum Celebrates Online Community
by Claire Kirch
Pub-Forum, an online group of small presses with some 500 members, most from the U.S. and the U.K., held its annual “list dinner” Wednesday evening at Daily Grill, a landmark L.A. restaurant. Among the 30 guests at the boisterous gathering were Florrie Binford Kichler, Independent Book Publishers Association [IBPA] board president, Scott Flora, Small Publishers Association [SPAN] president, authors, publishers, publicists and media. The evening’s highlights included a group roast by self-publishing guru Dan Poynter, who described the symptoms of “list-aholism,” which included the question, “Do you delude yourself into thinking you’ll pick up some money-saving tips from the listserve?”
While Pub-Forum has held its annual list dinner for the past 11 years, the listserve itself has existed since 1996 as a resource for both experienced publishers and those new to the publishing business. A few of Pub-Forum’s early participants who’ve since gone on to fame and fortune in publishing include Ken Paolini, the original publisher of son Christopher’s debut novel, Eragon; author M.J. Rose, who self-published her first novel, Lip Service, in 1999; and, more recently, author Maggie Anton, who signed a two-book deal with Penguin, after self-publishing Rashi’s Daughters.
Originally sponsored by Publishers Marketing Association, the current incarnation of Pub-Forum spun off from PMA in 1999 and become a wholly independent entity. Three “list moms”—IT expert Michael Thompson, business consultant Marian Gropen and book designer Mayapriya Long—moderate the list, though, according to Long, the list has few rules: no spamming, no threats of bodily harm, and posters must identify themselves. Other than that, anything goes. While posts during the week must remain on topic, weekend posts may be off-topic—which often draws heated exchanges spilling over into the week.
“Pub-Forum is the extension of the French salon in the Internet Age,” asserts Al Canton, creator of the Jaya 123 program, as well as one of Pub-Forum’s co-founders and a past list mom.
“There’s a vast amount of information that’s traded and exchanged between the traditional publishing bickering and personal disagreements. It’s a place you can go and learn to be a publisher for free.”
For more information, or to join Pub-Forum, go to www.pub-forum.net.
