The Open Author

Is the publishing industry really struggling? Well, it looks like Borders will carve out space in their stores to sell Build-A-Bear items.

This really comes down to a question of shelf space. A business is going to fill their shelves with items that make you money. This means either items that have a small markup but fly off the shelf, or items with a high markup that sell reasonable well. Those items that make you money will get more shelf space, as well as prime shelf space.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen more and more items being sold in bookstores—coffee, pastries, board games, gifts, and more. Selling Build-A-Bear items is an indication that books aren’t bringing in as much as they use to. Because of this, books are being replaced with something more profitable.

If authors are allowed to self-publish, how will be able to find the really good stuff? Won’t there be too much to process?

I hear this question a lot, and I wanted to comment on it.  First a few stats. In 2008, there were over 275,000 books published. These books were published from more than US 75,000 publishers.

Now, you might argue that this number includes all sorts of books–textbooks, travel books, medical books, etc. This is true, but look how many fiction books were published–over 47,000.  This means you would need to read roughly 128 books per day to find the really good ones.

So let’s say e-books open the floodgates (assuming that 47,000 books don’t constitute a flood already), how do we sift through all these books today to find the ones worth reading?

One way is by walking into a store and just looking around. Publishers buy prime bookshelf space in Barnes & Noble and customers just happen upon books. Prime bookshelf space doesn’t mean the book is good, but it’s an indicator that the publisher thinks it is good enough to sell well, which is why they bought the shelf space.

Another way to find books, and I’d argue a more effective way, is by word of mouth. That word of mouth may be from a critical review, it may be from a friend, it may be from a stranger on the internet. Maybe we don’t really pay attention the first time we hear about a book, but the fifteenth time somebody talks about Book X, our curiosity may be piqued.

The books that move us get talked about, and the books that get talked about get purchased. There is no reason to think that this can’t or won’t happen with self-published e-books.

This idea is reliant upon a concept called the wisdom of crowds. I’ll write more about this in a future post, because I think it’s a critical idea to understand when dealing with large amounts of information.

Kindle sales are booming. The iPad is magical, everybody wants one. That means Barnes & Noble and their Nook are dead, right?

Not so fast, says Wired magazine. Nook sales are up, and B&N still sells more hardbacks and paperbacks than anybody else. They have the advantage of being on street corners everywhere. You can’t walk into an Amazon store, pick up the Kindle, and see how it works. You don’t have clerks who can push the device. B&N has all of this.

From the article:

“Barnes & Noble has consistently gone for a hybrid strategy: providing touch and text, tightly integrating e-sales with its existing stores while also selling the Nook at Best Buy, letting its books be read on the Nook as well as other platforms. B&N’s apps for PC and Mac are arguably best-in-class (bonus points, too, for getting its Mac app out way before Amazon’s). The company is doubling down on (and rebranding) its apps for mobile devices. And it’s drawing on a solid base of neighborhood customer/members and university bookstores. Even as Amazon cuts its prices and diversifies its models to match the Nook, it can’t match Barnes & Noble’s deep reach into the real world.”

Kindle’s biggest flaw? Can’t check out library books.

Kindle called “Best Kindle yet” by PC World.

Cnet also likes the Kindle. “The third-generation Kindle’s winning combination of noteworthy upgrades–an improved screen, better battery life, lighter weight, and lower price–vaults it to the top of the e-book reader category.”

Steve Jobs claims 20% of the market share, but one blogger questions that number. He says it’s closer to 1 book sold on the iPad to every 60 percent sold on Kindle. Less that 2%.

Good recap of the lasted news around Google Editions being delayed until Fall.

Some questions you should ask before buying an e-reader.

And if you do buy one, tips and tricks on having a better reading experience.

I’ve noticed that in following the news around e-books, topics seem to come in waves. For example, this week I’ve found several articles written about ads in books. Most have been negative. By a happy coincidence, I had an post outlined on this very topic. The difference is that I support ads in books. So I find myself in the minority, but I still think ads in e-books are a good idea, as long as guidelines are followed. Allow me to explain.

First, let’s look at what ads are. Most of the time they are nothing more that irrelevant clutter. On the way home from work today I saw an ad to rent a building, an ad for coffee, an ad for industrial supplies, about a dozen ads for restaurants, and more. Not a single one of these ads pertained to me and my needs at that moment. They were clutter. I’ve heard the average person sees over two thousand ads per day.

But sometimes ads are a good thing. For example, I love boardgames. Sometimes I read a blog post or an article about a game that pushes me over the edge. I decide that I must have that game. At that moment, an ad for that game is very useful and relevant. In fact, it’s a good thing. It’s exactly what I want.

What about ads in books? First, a quick story. I first met Brandon Sanderson through Rob and Dan Wells. Once, at a signing for Elantris, I went and talked to Brandon for a good ten minutes. Nobody else stopped by (that doesn’t happen anymore, visit Brandon at a book signing and be prepared to meet many of his fans). I really enjoyed Elantris, and I enjoy that genre.

Several months later Brandon Sanderson came up to speak at a writers group in Logan. With him came a man I’d never even heard of before—David Wolverton. Brandon spoke very highly of David, as well as his books. I was introduced to David and his work through Brandon.

Brandon Sanderson can only write so many books in a given year. I can read more books that Brandon can produce. So if I really like Brandon’s books, why not have an ad in an e-book that points a reader to similar titles? An ad that introduces me to David Wolverton? I’m not talking about ads in the middle, or ads that interupted the reading experience, I’m talking about ads in the back of the books that say something like, “if you love epic fantasy, you really should check out…”

Authors should support each other. I don’t consider Rob Wells the Pepsi to my Coke. He’s the peanut butter to my jelly. There are plenty of readers out there, and as authors we should look for every opportunity to help a fellow author.

Let’s look at how this might work. Imagine I have an e-book that is selling 100 copies a month. I put an ad in my book for Author B and charge her 10 cents for each of my books that is downloaded. That would run Author B 10 dollars a month. You might argue that you’re only advertising to 100 people, you could rent a billboard and reach tens of thousands. But there is something special about those 100 people. For my book, we know their rough age, we know what genre they like, we know they already have an e-reader, and we know they have a credit card. In other words, we can be very targeted with our ads.

Let’s say 100 people see Author B’s ad and 10 of those go on to buy the book. If Author B sells his book for $2.99 on Kindle, he’s just made $21, or doubled his money. This doesn’t take into account the friends of those ten new customers who will tell their friends, and drum up even more business.

And if I run five ads in the back of my book, that brings my profits up from $2.10 per book, to $2.60, an increase of almost 25%. But more importantly, I’m helping a fellow author, as well as helping my readers find other books they will enjoy.

David Wolverton recent wrote an article that spoke out against ads. The ads he spoke of were ads that interrupted the reading experience. Imagine you’re on your iPad, and at the climax of the story you have to stop to watch an ad for a new car. You can’t skip the ad, you have to watch it all.

This does not sound like a good experience for the reader, and I agree with David that this could alienate readers. I would not want ads like this in my book, with one possible exception.

If ads like this made a book free, and readers could choose between a free ad-supported book, or to buy a book ad-free, then I would support ads of this nature. The reason I would support this is that even in our wealthy America, with libraries in every community, we could use more books in kids’ hands. If watching an ad allowed some kid somewhere to read a book he might not otherwise get a chance, then I say bring on the ads. We’ve live with ads on TV, and we’ve lived with ads on the radio. If ads put more books in more hands, then I say we don’t dismiss them too fast.

I remember getting presents as a young boy—at Christmas, on my birthday. . .presents were an exciting part of my childhood. The best part about presents was not opening them. No, the best part was waiting to open them. The box sat there under the tree or on your lap. You’d look at the size of the box and wonder what it could be. Holding a present is magical. Holding a present with your name on it puts you in a happy place.

I’ve spend the last four months going over my book line-by-line, page-by-page. I’ve trimmed about ten thousand words, and added in another five thousand. I’ve been getting some good feedback from multiple sources and I feel good about the progress I’m making.

In other words, I’m in a happy place. I’m feeling good about my writing and my book. I’m feeling hopeful.

Struggling writers are not often in a happy place, at least when it comes to the writing world. The first years are filled with rejection and insecurity. When you look critically at your work, you often have to admit you have so, so far to go.

I’m getting ready to send out my manuscript again. That means taking steps that could lead you out of the happy place. I have to open the present that is sitting on my lap and find out what’s really inside. Once you open the present there is no more hope and wonder, just reality. There’s a chance the new reality will be better than you imagined. And there’s a chance the new reality will just plain suck. If it’s the former you rejoice for a few days and then get back to the grindstone. Even if the new reality is good, the journey is still long. If the new reality is the latter, you try (once again) to pick yourself up by the bootstraps, wipe away the tears, and crack open the laptop. Only writers know how hard that feat really is.

But for now, maybe I’ll take a few more moments to linger in this happy place. I’ll sit here with the present on my lap and just wonder. Just hope. Maybe I’ll take a few seconds to dream about what might be, and enjoy the present.

A recent study is claiming that people who buy an e-reader end up reading more than they did before purchasing the device. In fact, 40% report they read more, 58% say they read about the same, leaving 2 percent saying they read less.

Amazon reports that people who buy kindle buy 3.3 times more books than before.

It must be that back-to-school season because I’m seeing more and more articles on e-book readers on campuses. This is a great article on the benefits and drawbacks of taking your e-reader instead of textbooks. It shows we’ve still got a good way to go before they really become widely adopted by students.

Unless, of course, we start to see e-books pirated. Then we’ll likely see a much quicker adoption.