It's the End of the Book Publishing World as We Know It and I Feel Fine (?)
Monday, December 8, 2008 at 7:18PM 
Lately, I've been quiet.
And, as someone who lacks a certain amount of impulse control, for me, being quiet is an exercise in restraint. I have to work at it.
It's not that I haven't been thinking about, or wanting to babble on and on about pretty shiny book type things, but - things being what they are lately in the world of book publishing, I've been uncharacteristically short of words.
Why?
Hmm. Well, I get that things about the economy suck. We all get that.
And, I am aware that something must be done to save the world. And, therein, the world of the book.
But, I've assumed that someone will sweep in to take care of this.
I've been waiting for someone smarter than me to make sense of it all. I've been waiting for someone smarter than me to fix it.
So far, nothing. Aside from the shrieks of staff members being cut, I hear nada. Crickets...
Not one corporate publishing voice standing up and suggesting a way to regroup and move forward to save the book publishing world. Not one corporate publishing board member vocallizing a wish to make good books make good cents.
And, given the crickets, I'm starting to think maybe there's no one out there who is any smarter than me -- than us. And, maybe that's the way it's always been.
Maybe, all the people in charge of the business of book publishing were wrong. Maybe those of use whose ideas kept getting shelved and pooh poohed, were right, and maybe our crazy ideas to bring good books to the world could work.
Maybe this is a good time for us to not only speak up, but maybe and perhaps it's an ideal time to...
just do it.
Long live book publishing!
(What do we have to lose?)
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Reader Comments (8)
As a wise man (who just happened to be elected president) said (and I paraphrase), "We are the change we're looking for." Or maybe it just takes a village (can you tell I've been talking politics tonight?). I think there are a lot of bright ideas (I'm interested in what Nicola Griffith is saying) and a lot of solutions. Books are this big, broad thing, and fixing the business will not be dependent on one solution, but many. So let's just do it. We can all try our ideas, test our plans, gravitate together or apart as the need arises.
Also, Pattern Recognition rocks, but you have to also read Idoru. Just sayin'.
Hmmm. Hang in there Kat.
Things are going to work out.
It is like the industry is dieting not dying.
~mb
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here is someone pretty smart that people tend to listen to ...
http://www.idealog.com/speeches/endoftrade.htm
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The publishing industry is the only one I've encountered that doesn't have a very strong business model for sales.
I was surprised that new books are considered "old" after three months.
Most don't promote titles (except for big names) and focus on upcoming releases.
Also, booksellers can return the product just because they didn't sell them.
I am wondering just how many other businesses that sell product do this? My hunch is few.
Next, booksellers can't compete with the deep discounts being given to big box stores who sell the books at wholesale prices. This has helped put many of those hand selling bookstores out of business.
Doesn't seem very smart from a business perspective and I am sure contributes to the demise of the state of this industry as we know it...change is in the air.
>>>Also, Pattern Recognition rocks, but you have to also read Idoru. Just sayin'.
Flashbacks to the Lucky Dragon (was that it?) franchises. Sheesh. ALL of Gibson's novels from a certain period tie together -- more less like a knot in one's hair. Then he went all retro-po-mo and we wind up with Now stories.
HarperCollins is a Wonderful Example of publisher FAIL. Not only couldn't they get a PAPER review book copy to me -- it turns out the thing is a eBOOK too! They could have frikkin EMAILED me a copy of THAT!
By & large you are right, but there are a bunch of interesting moves. HarperStudio/the26thstory.com ... Pan MacMillan's thedigitalist.net and Penguin's new Penguin2.0 ... all those deals with Stanza.
Stuff is happening, but I think the real innovation (like Stanza) will have to come from outside the industry. Big companies are just too big to lead a transformation ... it'll be the rest of us, I hope.
An anecdotal observation: there's an increase in self-publishing despite the downtown in the economy. We're seeing a lot of requests for book designs of these titles and not all are POD. Indeed, some of our authors are reporting that they're going this route rather than wait for publishers to figure out how that end of the industry will shake out.
Perhaps this is another sign as the previous commenter suggested that the transformation of the industry will come from the bottom up.
Jeff -- very interesting to hear that self publishing design requests are up at Soro. The production and distribution side of books is getting figured out much more quickly by the indies (and individuals) than by the big pubs, and with the design side skill sets of companies like yours available, there's no reason self-publishing can't be a really big part of the answer. I love that self-publishers seeking out excellent editorial and design resources before committing their projects to print (or audio, or ebook...). It gives me great hope!
And agreed with everyone else here - the change is coming, and coming quickly from the indies. As well as from some indie-minded imprints of the bigger guys.
Another big part of the puzzle that needs to be figured out is how to educate the consumers/the readers/the book or content buyer about the choices out there. With the old guard review media all but dead, and marketing/distribution avenues changing so rapidly, it increasingly falls upon sales reps, indie booksellers (on and offline), book bloggers, agents and acquiring editors, online/social media marketeers, and authors themselves to be very vocal about the great books they are bringing to shelves (b&m and virtual).
speaking of which - i had better get to work!
Thanks everyone for being part of this really exciting conversation. And, thanks Kassia and Mike - I'll be buying Idoru later today!
hi,
me&my husband now is running an indie book publisher in jakarta, indonesia.
it's nice to read ur article.
long live book publishing! :)
cheers