Ok, Ok, I'll try again

I have to say that I find trying to keep this blog up to be a challenging effort. I know that - at least a few - people read it, as they tell me about it. One would think that to be motivation enough, but it hasn't been in my case, and the blog has "sagged".

This past weekend, I was privileged to speak at the ECPA Publishing University. While there, I was also privileged to hear Joe Wikert from John Wiley speak about blogging. And, to me what was the most motivating about Joe's talk was to hear about how he kept his blog going. I have definitely fallen prey to many of the common blogger afflictions - according to Joe. "It takes too much time". "I can't think of anything to write today". "Is this worth it?". But hearing Joe's how-to's have inspired me again. Thanks, Joe.

To summarize what I heard him say:

1. set yourself up with RSS feeds from other blogs and online news feeds that get your brain going on a number of new ideas.

2. if it takes you more than 15 minutes to come up with an idea to write about, don't write anything that day.

3. don't spend more than 15 minutes writing.. keep the posts short - no one wants to read that much.

This makes it seem like a very 'do-able' task. Hopefully I'll keep it up, but if it slips will someone please nudge me along?

Holtzbrinck Name Change

I had done a tongue in cheek post on the topic of Holtzbrinck's name change to Macmillan but took it down when someone asked me (nicely) to do so.

But it still gives me a chuckle to think about how long this name will last, and more so to ask the question, how long will many of us simply call them "the publisher formerly known as Holtzbrinck"?

The Summer is over - What's Next?

Today is the first day of school in Newburyport, and, after a great summer, the kids are all excited and anxious about starting up again. Lot's of big smiles - and some bouncing off the walls - this morning. My guess is this will last through next week as the new schedules become more routine.

This whole transition at home has me thinking a bit about the transition in book publishing systems. Last Spring, and right up through July, many of us were skipping from conference to conference trying to understand the term, 'digital strategy'. We were pondering widgets, and Internet marketing techniques, and 're purposing our content'. And, then it seemed as though we all decided that we needed a break and took the month of August off.

So, now it's September - time to get back to work. And for me, the open question seems to be, as an industry, what are we going to do with all of this collective knowledge that we gained earlier in the year?

My guess is that we are going into a quiet period. The industry leaders all had strategies before the Spring, and they are (now) working on executing those strategies. The next tier of publisher is taking all the collected knowledge from the Spring and putting together strategies. And the last group is simply waiting to see what shakes out from all of this.

I think it will be very interesting to see what gets rolled out in January and February next year by the leading publishers. Oh, we might get a few minor announcements before then, but my money is on the big roll outs happening in the beginning of the new year - after the Christmas season is over, and before the 'Trade Show/Publishing Conference' season starts up again.

What I do expect to hear about is Fall is more consolidation. These new technology innovations are expensive, and generally out of reach for small to midsized publishers. Much like the expensive technology barrier for physical distribution, the high cost of developing electronic marketing and distribution systems is going to encourage the small and midsized publishers to 'partner' with the bigger guys.

I expect that we will see alot of fluctuation in business models as the larger 'entities' figure out how best to 'partner'. Competition to gain economies of scale (to make all this investment worthwhile) is going to be fierce among the top organizations, and the race will really be on to woo publishers into their respective folds.

I use the term 'entities' loosely as I think that there will be some shakeup in who we have all traditionally thought of as leaders. Some will rise and grow, and I believe that others will self destruct. It wouldn't surprise me if there was another 'PGW-like' collapse already in the making.

So, like my kids, I'm excited and anxious about the year ahead. I suspect that this time next year, I'll have a completely new perspective!

What do you call "Digital Strategy"?

So, what's your answer?

Having spent a significant amount of time talking to publishers about this recently, I'm really surprised at how diverse the answers to this question are. Maybe its the word "strategy" that throws people... But, many of the answers I've gotten to this question, seem alot more tactical than strategic.

I was discussing this topic with a colleague over lunch the other day, and he likened this situation to when 'Content Management' was all the rage, but everyone had a different definition of that as well. But, as the technology started to mature, the definitions for Content Management and Digital Asset Management seem to iron themselves out.

So, I guess we're just not their yet on this question. As with Content Management, it will probably take a few years before everyone is on the same page with 'Digital Strategy'. One thing is for sure though, Digital Strategy is a hot topic these days, and an elite group of individuals in the industry is working very hard to come up to speed and establish standards for the rest of us to follow.

Most of the "tacticians" I've spoken with, seem to focus on creating XML, as if that is the entirety of a digital strategy. Others focus on simply getting their print products into digital form. Some really don't have any idea what their strategy is, but they think that they need to archive their backlists and store them in some type of repository, so that when the market reveals itself, they will be prepared to spring. Others simply think that producing ebook versions of all of their printed product is a viable strategy that someday will pay back something.

But the true strategists, like my friend, Fritz Foy, from Holtzbrinck, think of the technology in a much broader context.

In a meeting with Fritz today, he reiterated Holtzbrinck's strategy to use digital forms of their content as a way to attract the online reading public - which, he points out, is much larger than the 'book reading public'. Fritz was elaborating on a theme that his boss, Brian Napack, has discussed during two recent presentations, one at BEA, and the other at the Tools of Change conference.

Speaking of Tools of Change, the folks at O'Reilly seem to have several strategies related to 'digital products'. Having heard their presentations a couple of times now, my best description of their strategy is to use their content to create and empower technology communities who will spend big money on other services (like conferences).

It seems amazing to me just how different 'strategy' feels compared to 'tactics'. The tactical companies seem to be taking approaches that inspire very little creativity or excitement. The strategic companies seem to open up all manner of ideas and opportunities, and they are very exciting. So exciting - to me - that I think they may even transform our industry in such a positive way as to save it from the slow but relentless decline that it has been facing.

So, one last time, what's your digital strategy?

When distant colleagues pass

I was hit hard today by the obituary I read in Publishers Weekly today for Perry Knowlton.

It's impossible to say that I knew him well, or that we were ever close. In fact, I don't think I've seen or heard of him in more than 15 years. Yet, today's news inspired feelings similar to what I felt when a close uncle recently passed away.

When I first started Quality Solutions in 1988, about the only mechanism I had for marketing our services was to attend BISAC meetings. After being involved with BISAC for about a year, Carol Mann approached the BISAC committee seeking a solution to the nagging problem that author royalty statements were all so dissimilar, and usually impossible to believe.

Having just spent the better part of the preceding four years building royalty systems for the likes of Random House, William Morrow, and Prentice Hall, this was an area where I thought I could help. So, the BISAC Royalty Statement Subcommittee was formed, and I was it's first chair.

It was through this work that I met Perry. Perry, and Curtis Brown were kind enough to host our meetings. While I was 'technically' the chair of the committee, there was no doubt who was in charge of the meetings. For a young man (at the time), Perry was larger than life. He inspired an incredible level of respect from everyone around him. I remember distinctly how it seemed like everyone who worked at Curtis Brown would stop what they were doing when he passed through a room. It was like something in a movie from the 1950's.

In the PW obituary, Perry's son, Timothy, was quoted, "To his family, friends and colleagues, he was always a dedicated mentor, advocate, enthusiast and enabler. He was one of the few true ‘renaissance men’ I've ever known." I've never met Timothy, but what he said here is more eloquent than anything I could ever come up with. Perry was all of these things - to me, personally - during that brief period of 2 or 3 years when the committee hammered out the first version of the standard royalty statement.

After that first version of the royalty statement standard was completed, I left the committee in the capable hands of Judy Appelbaum, and I had no further reason to be in contact with Perry or anyone else on that committee.

My sincerest condolences go out to all of Perry's family. I am sure that everyone who ever had the pleasure of working with him would agree that Perry was one of those individuals who make society stronger, just for being part of it. The world is a bit weaker today for his passing.

Amazon going underground?

This blog was never intended to be a report on Amazon, but there have been some disturbing trends coming from Seattle in recent months. In my last entry, I wrote about the issues related to descriptive copy issues that arise when a publisher changes distributors. In this entry, I'd like to talk about two other Amazon related things that have come up recently.

The first issue is related to Amazon's EDI initiatives. To their credit, Amazon wants to automate every aspect of communication with the entire supply chain - from product information to payments. But, a couple of weeks ago, several of our customers received emails from Amazon asking if they could provide the EDI 832 transaction. (I know I just lost every non-technical reader, but I'll explain). The '832' is an industry standard for product information that pre-dates ONIX. Given the rise in adoption of ONIX as a standard for product information, the '832' has almost become extinct as an electronic communication tool.

So, why bring it back? And why go to IT departments behind the backs of the account managers? For years, in account review meetings, Amazon has been telling their publisher vendors to use ONIX, ONIX, ONIX. Now, someone on the operations side of Amazon is asking for the '832'? The reason the industry went to ONIX in the first place was because of the inadequacy of the '832' to convey proper product information. The other issue here is that EDI transactions usually emanate from legacy order processing systems that have shortened titles and relatively little product information compared to Title Management tools (like the kind we supply). Product data in order processing systems is generally not regarded as good for anything but internal documents and EDI transactions, where abbreviated titles and author names are fine for labeling purposes.

So, we posed these questions to Amazon, and predictably, there was no response. To, me, this means that we hit a nerve. Amazon never even acknowledges emails when we discover an issue in their processes.

The second issue that has come up recently happened just last week. We received an email stating that Amazon was once again re-organizing it's catalog department. However in this email (which looked like a form email sent to all publishers who supply ONIX), we were told that our personal contact in the catalog department would no longer respond to our emails. We were told that if there were any data issues that we should fill out the online form, or if it was a process issue we should send an email to a generic email address.

For background, 15% of Amazon's book product information comes from our office in the form of weekly ONIX feeds. On average, we send about 5 - 10 emails per week to the catalog department to help investigate issues. These emails relate to a very small percentage of the titles we send them. Almost all are due to an unforeseen publicity event, or other extraordinary happening that requires some immediate assistance. To date, our contact in the catalog department has been incredibly helpful, and has kept the gears of the 'ONIX machine' well tended. Without a real person tending the machine, I'm am sure that it will bog down and collapse much more often than it does now.

Most of you have heard me rail against the online form. Changes made there become 'sticky' - to use Amazon's terminology. This means that once the online form is used to fix a title, then that title can NOT be updated via electronic feeds in the future. And, if publishers start using the online form instead of funneling the changes through us as they have in the past, the quality of the product information in use at Amazon will deteriorate rapidly.

I guess Amazon just doesn't care. They have 'gone underground' (credit goes to my wife for that metaphor). They are saving a head in the catalog department and that is more important than vendor relations.

I certainly hope that as publishers go through their account reviews, that they complain about this. After all, for years, Amazon has used that forum to complain to publishers about using ONIX.

Or, maybe we should just go back to the '832' and watch everyone's sales go down the toilet.

Amazon's Descriptive Content

Ok, well, now I've been told by two people that they actually read this, so I better get moving...

About six weeks or so ago, we discovered an interesting issue when we send data to Amazon. The issue is related to updating descriptive content (such as Book Descriptions, Author Bio's, etc.).

First, some background. Amazon uses the ONIX files we send them in two separate processes. The first, is what they call the bibliographic update, and the second is the descriptive copy update. Bibliograhic information - for the purposes of this entry - refers to Title, Author, price, status, Publisher, trim size, etc. This is an important distinction to make as I wouldn't want anyone to walk away from reading this thinking that the problem is bigger than it really is.

What we have found, however, is that if a Publisher changes it's Distributor (ie. vendor of record), then the Descriptive content (ONLY) cannot be updated automatically via ONIX records anymore. This is a big problem now that so many publishers have shifted distributors in the recent past.

We found this problem when several of our customers complained (independently of one another) that when they uploaded new descriptions to us, they weren't showing up on Amazon's website. Tracking through these problems and discussing them with Amazon's catalog department, only gave us the answer that these titles would have to be updated manually through the online form.

This problem has probably been around for a very long time, but it has flown under the radar - until now. Why? Because, one, publishers didn't move around very much. And, if they did, that distributor did not send data to Amazon via ONIX. Second, how often do book descriptions change after the book has been published? Not too often, but when they do, it is usually for a reason that there is some type of new publicity associated with the title, like a big endorsement, or movie tie-in. So, handling these one-offs through the catalog department was a manageable alternative to fixing the system.

But now, it's not. This is a conundrum for the publisher on three fronts:

First, publishers (at least those who use our services... plug, plug) have never had to worry about which titles they updated before. They just updated the information in the database and went about their business. The systems did the rest - identifying which titles have been changed, and which needed to be resent out to the trade via ONIX. Now, they need to track which titles have come from publishers who were distributed by someone else previously, and keep track of precisely what change was made to the record.

Second, once a publisher uses the online form to make a change to a title, that title is given a status in Amazon's systems saying it was manually updated. Amazon considers that a 'sticky' change. In other words, once a title is changed manually, nothing on that title can be changed except through the online form. So, that means that what was a descriptive copy problem now becomes a bibliographic data problem as well. So, if a publisher updates the price of a book, and that title is 'stuck', then the price update will not go through (at Amazon).

Lastly, Amazon does not have any way to give us, or any publisher a listing of which titles they consider to be 'stuck'. The only way that we can find out is to query the catalog department on a case by case basis.

So, essentially we are left with a situation where we don't know whether our ONIX updates will update Amazon's site or not. This puts all the weight back on the publisher to check and see whether Amazon really updated the information. Some of our publishers send 2000 - 5000 changes a week! There is no way to check all that!

Emails to Amazon's people about this issue have gone unanswered and unacknowledged. Hopefully, as the questions start to flood into the catalog department, now that so many publishers have changed distributors in the past 6 weeks, they will see the problem as critical enough to address. Otherwise our friend in the catalog department - who is incredibly responsive, and helps us out tremendously - won't be able to get anything else done.

Blog Restart

Last week, I had an interesting experience. I was trying to arrange a meeting with another company who I had never crossed paths with. Nothing new in that, but what was interesting was they already knew of me because of this blog!

I was shocked and delighted that anyone had read any of my entries. I still don’t know whether they agreed or disagreed with my perspective, but just the fact that my entry came up on their radar screen is indication enough to me about the awesome power of this media.

So, I guess, I’ll have to get back on the blogging circuit. I had it going for a while, but then lost my way. Now, I’m back! So, for anyone out there catching a whif of this, thanks! I’ll be talking to you soon. fpt

Too Many Book Publishing Conferences?

I just need to ask the question: are there too many conferences in our fair industry?

It seems that there was an opportunity every week so far this year to attend some type of conference on the state of our industry. I've attended at least 6 or 8 so far this year. But, that is the nature of my job - I need to be where my customers, and potential customers are. So, in a way, its a blessing, and in another, it's a curse.

Some have been very interesting and highly topical. Others have lacked. Most have included someone from a high tech company, and others have just gotten down to brass tacks.

And, the calendar seems rife with more to come. The London Book Fair, BISG's Making Information Pay, and the BEA seem like hits on everyone's list. Then there is the Canadian Book Expo, and the AAUP Annual Meeting for me. Then fortunately, everyone acknowledges that the summer is not a good time or conferences, and we get a break until September.

We live in a competitive, yet collegial environment. And, conferences at their best, inspire and teach us about ways we can improve our business. At worst, they often suck up an entire day or days that could otherwise be devoted to taking care of the issues at hand.

Does anyone have any comments?

In a Digital World, Should Bookstores & Libraries Collaborate?

In the non-digital world (5 - 10) years ago, independent bookshops and local libraries, peacefully co-existed, albeit separately, each with a seemingly separate mission. Each had it's own resources, and was somewhat limited to what those resources could supply to their communities.

Libraries are (generally) public institutions - founded for the greater good of all the citizens of a particular community (city, town, college, etc.). Bookstores are (generally) private entities, peddling their wares to individuals of a particular community (city, town, museum, market demographic).

The main difference between them though, seems that one is about providing entertainment and information for free, and the other is about providing entertainment and information for a price (note the lack of the word, 'profit').

Aside from that, however, they have many things in common. They provide similar types of materials to their patrons. They help and recommend items to their patrons. They are both under tremendous financial pressure. Neither really knows how to embrace the digital age. They both work with the community to foster reading and literacy. They both have the same suppliers (publishers), and they both 'curate' their collections to serve their communities.

At the AAP General meeting last week in NYC, I heard Ann Moore, CEO of Time, Inc. say that in a digital world, content from 'trusted providers' will be where the public turns. I also heard Peter Bloom use the word 'curation' to describe how 'trusted content providers' will be appreciated.

If you think about it, bookstores and libraries are, in their heart of hearts, curators of a certain collection of product. And, it is this concept, that they each curate on our behalf, that makes them so beloved by their communities.

So, is there a collaboration between libraries and bookstores possible? Well, my personal opinion is that they had better, or they will fall even further behind in the public's list of trusted content providers. Part of this opinion comes from the FACT, that this type of collaboration is happening already, except that it is being done by a publisher!

I am very intrigued by what I heard (and have since, seen) about what Tim O'Reilly is doing at oreilly.com. Working for a community that has never been particularly well served by either bookstores or libraries, O'Reilly has seemingly taken the best of both worlds and created a 'Library for Profit' space on the internet. O'Reilly provides tools for programmers and other technology aficionados. Note the word 'tools'. I didn't say books. I didn't say research material. And, I didn't say source code. However, he does provide all of that.

He helps programmers figure out what they need themselves by providing lots of free content, and lots of free contextual metadata. He allows educators to put custom course packs together. He provides (for a price) access to his entire library of collected works. He even allows them to comment on works in progress. And, of course, he sells books - and lots of them.

This sounds a lot (save the point about works in progress) like what bookstores and libraries do.

Now, I don't know the answer to the question of how libraries and bookstores should collaborate. What I do expect, though, that in the next few years, if they don't, we will see far fewer of them both in our communities as their individual missions will seem too anachronistic for the public to support.

In the World of POD, Is the Printing Number Relevant?

This was an interesting question that came up at the AAUP Financial Managers Meeting in San Antonio yesterday. At least that was how I interpreted the discussion.

During the meeting we heard a couple of presentations about Print On Demand technology from Caty Millar, CFO, Johns Hopkins University Press, and from David Prentice, Account Executive, from Lightning Source. David calls it Print to Order, but both were extolling the virtues of keeping books in print by keeping only virtual revenue. The key elements of the Lightning/Ingram program are:

• Books in the program are given an artificial inventory level of 100 copies at Ingram, so Amazon's website will read that the book can ship within 24 hours.
• Orders that come in for the book are printed within 8 - 12 hours after the receipt of the electronic order.
• Only the number of books ordered are printed. None go onto a shelf. (This is a huge difference from the ultra short runs they used to do).
• List price and Ingram Discount is set by the publisher.
• Publisher receives a monthly report along with a check for the price received, net Ingram's discount, and Lightnings printing costs.
• Books that work in this program should sell more than 13 per year, otherwise the storage charges will bring the entire cost structure negative for the publisher.
• Books in this program need to fit into one of the 12 standard trim sizes offered by Lightning.

This was all very compelling for the audience, as they see no cost of goods, no WIP, no Inventory, and maybe more importantly, no work for their production departments. It was clear from the conversation as well that the technology for POD (or PTO) is getting better and better, and that for scholarly texts, they could change the entire publishing budget plan for some books. It is possible to see a day, where the book is never done on a web or sheet fed press, ever.

This kind of print on demand has a few flavors, all in the category of digital printing. There is Print-to-Order (PTO), meaning one copy at a time. There is also ultra short run digital printing(USRDP), which for the sake of discussion should mean 2 - 10 copies. Lastly, there is short run digital printing (SRDP), which for the sake of discussion means 250 - 500 copies.

Now for some scholarly books SRDP is a good strategy for the first printing of a book that is not expected to sell well. While the unit cost is high, the overall cash exposure is relatively low, and if the books take off, then going to a web press is still an option. But, for most books, all the different flavors of digital printing are happening mostly on the second and subsequent printings. And this brought us to an interesting dilemma. Do we increase the "Printing Number" every time the book goes back for a reprint anymore? If a book is in the PTO program and sells 20 copies, does that mean it went back for 20 printings?

These question cropped up during the discussion of the AAUP annual Survey, where it was clear that a) there was no consensus on this topic, and b) it looked like most of the publishers felt that there was a clear distinction between the PTO model and the USRDP and SRDP models except that they didn't all make the same distinctions I made earlier - in terms of quantities. Here were the results:

out of 63 presses reporting, 20 considered each printing of POD or PTO as a unique printing, while 37 thought that SRDP should be considered a unique printing, and 43 thought that USRDP should be a distinct printing number. The only explanation I have for these results is that people didn't use the same definitions.

In the old world of four years ago when everything was printed in traditional methods, the "printing number" meant something. If a book was in its fourth printing, that was important for marketing bragging rights, as well as for citation purposes. If the book is cited in a scholarly paper, the footnote always displays the printing number of the book so as to distinguish it from earlier versions.

Also in the old world there was always a correction cut in to the film, minimally on the copyright page, but often on many other pages as well. In the digital world, the text is fixed by the publisher, and a new PDF is sent to the printer. But with USRDP/PTO, it is not always clear that new files are sent in advance of the printing. So the copyright page isn't updated. So is it really a new printing?

Bill Lindsay of Harvard University Press said that they rarely ever put printing numbers on the copyright page anymore, and they haven't seen any citation issues. Lain Adkins of Southern Illinois University Press was pretty vehement about the citation problem, and that a book can't be called a new printing if the underlying digital file hasn't changed. As the discussion continued, it appeared that the word 'printing' was the problem.

From a financial perspective, in the old world, printings had to be 'closed out'. Final costs had to be reconciled against the original estimates, WIP systems needed to be updated, and Inventory valuation had to be adjusted for the new books in the warehouse. How do you close out a printing without an estimate, without inventory, and without an invoice from the printer? Plus if a publisher has to close out 20 PTO printings a year, the overhead in the production department would cost more than the actual printing, binding, and shipping costs of the title.

This discussion never quite got finished, but it was clear that no consensus was possible on this day, and the discussion was put on the agenda for next years meeting. And I think more than a few of these CFOs are going to be wondering if they need the same production staffing levels in the future, if all the accounting, and overhead of producing reprints gets dramatically easier.

Battle of the Titans

In the world of Digital Content Distribution, battle lines are being drawn and companies are starting to shoot salvos across the bows of each other. At the AAP General Annual Meeting, representatives from Adobe, and Microsoft had their moments at the podium, and just a few blocks away, Google was making all kinds of noise as well.

At the AAP meeting, Bruce Chizen, CEO of Adobe, was asked about what kept him up at night. His response was “Microsoft, Microsoft, Microsoft, and, ah… Microsoft”. He went on to explain that Microsoft was this $50 Billion behemoth who might see that Adobe was starting to eat their lunch when it came to some of the products they were offering. Adobe, is a $3 Billion company whose products can be found on virtually every personal computer in the world. I thought that he was going to say that he was worried Microsoft would just outright purchase Adobe, but he didn’t.

What Bruce did go on to say was that Google serves as an enormous “heat shield” that distracts Microsoft from worrying about Adobe, and that allows him some measure of rest at night.

Later in the day, Bruce’s comments were validated by Tom Rubin of Microsoft, (click this link for the full text of his speech) who was there to talk about the Live Book Search program. Tom repeatedly said that he wasn’t there to attack Google, but anyone in the audience could literally feel the antagonism coming from Mr. Rubin as the name ‘Google’ crossed his lips. His main argument was that Google pays no attention to the rights of copyright holders, while Microsoft does. He also slammed their business model by essentially saying that Google will take publishers content and essentially put ads around it to monetize that content. Microsoft says that their approach is more altruistic, working with publishers to jointly make money by facilitating the sales of both traditional books as well as e-books.

Meanwhile at the Book Business show (formerly known as BookTech), Jim Gerber of Google was trashing Microsoft. I wasn’t there for that one, but as I understand it the gist is that Google feels that they are bringing more visitors to a publishers books through their program than Microsoft, and it isn’t costing the publisher a penny. This was covered in PW and Publishers Lunch.

In a world where publishers are going to have to deal with all of these companies, and also Amazon, and Yahoo! when it comes to distributing their content, none of this cross-town bickering bodes well. In order to deal with them all, some semblance of data transmission standards will need to be in place, but from the looks of things, it doesn’t appear that we’ll be able to get most of these folks around the same table.

The Rise of the Social Networks

In this morning's Shelf Awareness, it was reported that Amazon had made an investment in Shelfari - a social networking site for book lovers. Doesn't it seem like we're hearing more and more about social networks, these days?

Or, don't you really know what a social network is? I have to say that social networks aren't on my radar as an internet user, but they are certainly on the radar of my children. MySpace is the biggest social network out there, and if you are a parent of teenagers (I have 3 in that category), then you know what a wonderful - terrible place it can be. Or you may have heard of YouTube, the place where you can post video clips, this is another social networking site.

MySpace and YouTube are social networking sites that are open to just about everyone. But Shelfari is segmenting the market. They are just going after book lovers. Trying to get book lovers to recommend books to each other. I am sure that there are many other social networking sites out there, even though I don't know what they are. One thing I'm sure of though, we are going to see more and more of them.

Why am I so sure? A few reasons, one - we are a nation that has lots of communities. Some of them are generally popular, Fantasy baseball, or Nascar, or Political Commentary. Others are highly specialized, like: 17th Century Sculpture, 1969 Camaros, or Saddle Seat Horseback Riding. The internet has already allowed lovers of these more specialized communities to find each other, and soon, they will all have their own social networking sites. Now that there are a few social networking sites out there, there will soon be a technical model for building them, and then someone will create the the software to set them up quickly.

The last reason is that the search engines have indexed so much stuff, that we can’t find what we are looking for anymore. If we are looking up information about a hobby, we get so much stuff back that it is hard to sift through it all. The Social Network sites are going to serve the purpose of sifting through and culling the best information out there for us.

In an earlier post, I mentioned how one publisher I was speaking with was moaning about not being able to get their books in the top eight Google Search results. And if they go below that, will anyone ever even click through? How many of us actually click on any search results much past the second page of results? So, we have a conundrum, companies supplying product are mixed in with all the other results, and customers looking for product might not find it because it might be listed too far down in the search results.

Isn’t it interesting how we have gone through this cycle where the technology helped us so much, but now we need the human element to help the technology? The social networks will apply the human element to the technology, and the internet will once again become a place of trusted information.

There is a big opportunity for publishers in the social networks. By their very nature, the social networks will become ‘trusted’ sources of information. Books, in our culture, are already consider ‘trusted’ sources of information, so they are a perfect fit for the social network.

This week’s announcement of widgets by both HarperCollins and Random House will help publishers get their ‘shelf space’ in these social networks. The widgets are like online books that can be browsed from the social network site, and then bought through anyone who placed the widget on the site.

Now, all we need is a way to identify social networks so that they are easily distinguished from other websites and blogs. Then we can target our books to these communities. This could be a natural way for books to continue to be relevant in our digital age.

Farewell to PGW - Hello Transition Vendor

I am probably the least qualified to say this, but Goodbye, Publishers Group West! Today, 2/28/2007, is the last day in the life of this venerable company. After 30+ years of excellence in the book industry, it seems to be slipping from sight with nary a whimper.

Tomorrow, approximately 2/3 of PGW's (former) clients will start their new relationships, with Perseus, er, eh 'Transition Vendor'. For the moment most (former) PGW employees will work for 'Transition Vendor', so for many tomorrow will be business as usual, just that the load will be a little lighter.

So, what about the other 1/3 of PGW's (former) clients? Well, that is a very good question. Most are scrambling to find new distribution arrangements, having eschewed those offered by Perseus. Most are also scrambling to figure out how they are going to get their books out of PGW's (former) Indy warehouse in the next 15 days. None will know the exact status of backorders, returns, or inventory until they clear out the warehouse. And even then, questions will remain.

We here at QSI are trying to help them by hosting their bibliographic data for the next couple of months, to help ease the transition to whoever the new distributor will be.

Maybe, everyone is so busy that they don't even notice. But I noticed, and I think you should too.

Farewell!

And Here comes Random House!

Harper gets off to an early lead, bringing their 'widget' out first. But here comes Random House!

Their slicker, more functional 'widget' is now out of the shoot. So the race is on!

We've been working on a test with the Random House widget on our eloquence site. If you want to take a look at it in real life, click on the "Look Inside" link on this eloquence page.

Take a look at the way Random House has documented their widget to aid people in using it for the first time. It also has multiple features not found in Harper's. Some of the features include, displaying multiple sizes, searching for text strings inside the widget (using a Google text search), and offering ways to buy the book, and/or place the widget on your own social networking site.

Now that the widgets are out, we have a new race in the content distribution world. Whether to deliver .PDF's to search engines, or to have the search engines come to you!

It's a wild west like atmosphere out there when it comes to content distribution. I think that my friends at BISG better get their lasso out and try to corral all the players out there to get some standards in place, or no one will know what to do.

I know that Random, Harper, Ingram and others are all trying to create networks that communicate with the Google's, Amazon's, Yahoo!'s and Microsoft's of the world, and there is no clear standard emerging - yet. And there are a lot of details to work out... how much to show, where can the book be purchased from, etc.

No one has really figured out a universal monetization scheme for electronic content, but everyone knows that there is demand for a look inside like program. I am sure that several small schemes will emerge, hopefully enough to justify the expenditures in all this technology.

Digital Content Distribution - The Race is On

Somewhere a gun must have gone off. Harper's announcement this morning of their 'widget' marks the start of new race in publisher services. At least one other large publisher I know has their own plans for a widget, and my guess is that others may join the race as well. There are two big advantages to these widgets that may not be obvious from the press release.

The first is that widgets can be dropped into any blogsite or "social network". A social network is any site (blog, traditional website) where there is a community of people with common interests. It's easy to do, and it almost acts like a free 'banner ad'. Therefore, smart internet marketing types will start mailing the 'links' to their widgets to the social networks they know about who may have interest in there books. Harper has yet to show how their widget can be 'dropped on to a social network', but I expect that in the near future, they will.

The second is that if the repository that stores the content is large enough, then the larger internet providers may not need copies of every .PDF that you create in order to display your titles. All they need is the address of the widget. This helps publishers protect their copyrights, and still makes (as much of the work as the publisher wants) available to the public for viewing. So, when Google and Microsoft, and Yahoo! and Amazon come asking for your .PDF files, all you will have to do is point them to the links for your widgets.

The Independent Bookseller

Last year, I worked on behalf of the BISG office on a survey of bookstores. The survey was ostensibly about the kinds of data that bookstore buyers needed in order to make their purchases. The main hypothesis behind the survey was that publishers should focus their efforts on giving buyers the specific data elements that they need in order to make informed decisions. Part of the survey was done via an online form, and part was phone interviews with buyers. In this process, I personally spoke to buyers from 30 independent stores to get their views.

Buyers don't look at title information, the way that techies (aka product information evangelists) like me, think that they do. And, because the online form was geared around the original hypothesis, the results that came back were, unsurprisingly, useless. So, the formal survey failed, and the results were never published. However, what I learned in my phone interviews - while anecdotal from a statistical point of view - was profound to me in its simplicity.

I found two significant things during my conversations:

1. Independent bookstores that had not been put out of business by the rise of the chain stores, online retailers, big box retailers, and price clubs, were in fact, thriving.
2. The buying process is incredibly personal. Bookstore buyers, for the most part, rely heavily on the recommendations of their sales reps, the recommendations of other independent bookstores, and the feedback from their customers.

And, to a great extent, these two elements are tightly intertwined. The reasons behind these findings were equally interesting and insightful. They also gave me great confidence in the role of the independent store in the ecosystem of bookselling, and in fact, book publishing in general.

I also think that publishers can learn alot from some of these simple lessons. So, let's dive in and look at them.

Why are many independents thriving? Generally speaking it is because they have questioned the assumption that their mere presence in the community was important to the community. They have turned themselves from a business that simply received customers to a business that went out and got customers - or better said, they have gone from businesses that are generally reactive, to businesses that are generally proactive. The successful stores are the ones who are understanding and leveraging their own unique strengths in their communities.

Many of the independents I spoke to talked about their roles in the creation (and supplier) of local book clubs. Many work with and through the internet, using mass email mailings, RSS feeds, and targeted recommendations to keep themselves relevant in their customers minds. Others talked about the events they put on - especially related to authors. One very successful independent store owner, told me how she combs industry publications every week, looking for new deals that have been signed, and then proactively contacts the publisher to set up an event - even before a book has a publication schedule. Many also move these author events to venues outside the four walls of their store, so that they can bring more people into listen to what the author has to say.

Most of this transformation is eloquently described in one of the final chapters of (my favorite business book of all time), The Art of Profitability by Adrian Slywotzky. I highly recommend this book to anyone.

But, probably the most profound thing I got from my interviews was related to how personal this whole business is. Buyers at stores look through all the sales catalogs for the titles that catch their eye, but almost all (who have reps they trust) trust the recommendations of their reps. They will buy books recommended by their reps, even if they didn't see the fit of an individual title when they browsed the catalog. Equally true, they might bypass a title, that they thought might work, but the rep was lukewarm on.

And, what catches their eye? Many different things, but some are pretty obvious. Is there any connection to the geographic region of the store? Is the author from a nearby town? Does the author have some other connection (a brother, cousin, parent, or life history) to this particular community? Is the publisher putting any marketing muscle behind the title? Generally, buyers are looking for books that they can get behind personally, that their patrons will love.

It was incredibly powerful to hear time after time how important the rep was in this process. "They know our store, and they know the books". "If they say that I have to have a particular title - even if I disagree - I always buy one or two." Generally the feeling was that the rep helped the buyer cull the catalog down to those titles that the store needed, and equally important, help the buyer decide which titles they didn't need.

The importance of a title to the publisher was also a recurring theme. One buyer told me how they would heed the advice of an email that came from the VP of Sales at Random House, where he picked his favorite titles for the season. Other publishers signal their own picks by highlighting a national advertising campaign, or by publicizing the initial print run. Others, signal it through the position in the seasonal catalog. It seems clear that any help, buyers can get culling through the masses of titles being published (6,000 +/- per week) is greatly appreciated.

So what are the lessons for publishers?

1. Sell your books to the reps, and treat your reps like gold. They are the ones initiating grassroots demand for the title. In the age of the internet, the grassroots is where the power is.
2. Present as much information about the author as possible. Authors are the stars, and if the author has any type of connection to an individual community, their books will sell.
3. Layout your seasonal catalogs to make it easy for a buyer to get an understanding about whether the title will work for them. Most buyers I spoke to said that they spend less than 10 seconds on any given catalog page, so the title really needs to grab them. Leave alot of white space in a consistent place on the page so the buyer can markup the catalog.
4. Publishers need to identify and reach out to communities other than the bookselling community. When the list comes together, each title should be analyzed for the communities that may want it, and those communities should be marketed to directly.
5. As evil as it sounds, rank your titles, and make sure that the entire bookselling ecosystem knows which ones you are really behind.

comments? email me at ftoolan at qsolution dot com.

The Volitle State of the Book Industry

As I sit here and watch our beloved industry struggle to remain relevant in this digital age, a few different things come to mind:

• In the digital age, easy access to information, has created an unprecedented demand for information - especially from authoritative sources. ie. demand is increasing
• Many of the needs for information that were formerly supplied by books are now satisfied via electronic content. ie. we probably need less 'hard copy' products.
• Our affluent society has given an increasing number of us the ability to have outside interests and hobbies. ie. the demand for specialty books is increasing, and the creation of communities (of potential readers) is growing.
• Changes in technology have allowed virtually anyone to be an author of a book, and the number of new books being pushed onto the market is skyrocketing. ie. Supply is increasing.
• The demand for new fiction titles has been flat for a long time.
• Most people have limited time for pleasure reading, and are less willing to risk that time on unknown commodities - hence they choose books by authors they already enjoy, or by those recommended by someone who's taste they trust. In fiction, it is about the author, not the book.
• Independent bookstores have become closer to their customers and play a key role as a trusted recommender of new authors. Essentially, they have become the new sales rep.
• For all the technology out there, fiction still sells by word of mouth, and sales reps have a key role in passing the word from the publisher to the bookstore.
• Publishing Operations companies (otherwise known as distributors) have lowered the barrier to entry for new publishers, and have leveled the playing field in terms of opening up the major sales channels for all sized publishers.
• Most Publishing Operations companies are publishers themselves.
• Most publishers I know have margins in the single digits - many times negative.
• Most publishers I know have a ton of dead inventory in their warehouses that they refuse to writeoff. ie. Supply is outstripping demand.
• Some anecdotal evidence has shown that making books freely available on the Internet has improved the sales of those titles. This is especially true for STM titles.
• Price sensitivity for non-fiction is declining.
• Price sensitivity for mass-market fiction is declining.
• Price sensitivity for fiction remains high and is constant.
• The role of technology in the college market is changing the role of the publisher.
• Most large 'Trade' publishers that produce mostly fiction are part of larger media conglomerates.
• Most scholarly publishers (except for the very largest) are associated with a foundation, university or research institute.
• Many of the largest publishers in the STM and College markets are owned by investment bankers.
• Printing technology has evolved dramatically, but the cost to print shorter runs of books is still high.
• Libraries, once the gatekeepers of information access, are being bypassed by many individuals.
• Most publishers either have or are trying to create some form of a digital archive.
• More and more of us are referring to blogs for news and information, bypassing or supplementing other traditional media forms.
• Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Amazon are demanding content, and are trying to set themselves up as the new gatekeepers.
• Newsletters, except those that are delivered electronically, seem to be all but dead.

So, what does all this mean for the future? Has technology allowed the masses to obsolete the traditional roles of the media and information gatekeepers? Will there just be media companies and information companies who happen to produce books? Will they become the new gatekeepers - like they have in the movie industry?

It seems like we go through the cycle of market consolidation and expansion at an ever increasing rate. When the big guys get too big, a bunch of little guys pop up. When there are too many little guys for the market to handle, the big guys start acquiring the little guys. When there aren't that many little guys left, the big guys eat each other.

In Trade publishing we now have the 'Big 6', in STM, Nielsen, Elsevier, Wiley, Pearson and a very few others own the majority of the market. And, due to technology, there are literally thousands of 'little guys'.

I don't think the market can handle this situation much longer, and I expect that we are on the verge of tremendous consolidation. The resulting 'big guys' will try to assert new controls of the sales channels and their economies of scale in operations will be the only thing that allows them to be profitable.

When that feeding frenzy is over (doesn't this sound like what's going on in the PGW situation), the financial companies will figure some way to merge the big guys and suck all the cash out of them. Then... the little guys will start popping up again.

comments? email me at ftoolan at qsolution dot com

A Little Airtime

In my last post, I mentioned that we have over 900 titles in our eloquence database that are publishing in the week between 2/27 and 3/5. Of those 900, we have only 175 that contain a brief description and a price. I started to list them below, but it 'clogged the blog'. Publishers - here is yet another reason to take the time to make a complete record of your title available to the trade. Without the right information, there is very little airtime.

As you look through this, ask yourself (even at this very small sampling) how can we make any of these these titles stand out?



Children/Juvenile


"Top 10 Of Everything" Handbook by Tracey West (Scholastic, $6.99, Paperback, 9780439890470/0439890470). The hottest Fire-types. The most sizzling Electric-types. The smartest Pokemon experts. The baddest battles. And that's just the beginning.

¡Mamá Clo-cló! by Keith Baker (Libros Viajeros, $6.95, Board Books, 9780152058907/0152058907). A familiar nursery rhyme and picture book favorite, now available in Spanish

21 Proms by Scholastic (Scholastic Paperbacks, $8.99, Paperback, 9780439890292/0439890292). Authors include: Libba Bray, Jacqueline Woodson, Ned Vizzini, John Green, Sarah Mylnowski, Melissa de la Cruz, Holly Black, Brent Hartinger, Lisa Sandell, Will Leitch, Leslie Margolis, Cecily von Ziegessar, E. Lockhart, Jodi Anderson, David Levithan, Dan Ehrenhaft, Liz Craft, Aimee Friedman, and Adrienne Vrettos

Balloon Dinosaurs & Other Prehistoric Animals by (Scholastic, $9.99, Boxed Set/Slip Cased/Casebound, 9780439853443/0439853443). Bring back the dinosaurs! This kit has all you need to get started on your own prehistoric zoo. Learn how to twist, tie and transform basic balloons into wild beasts. Create a saber-toothed tiger, an ankle-biting Anklosaurus, a mighty T-rex, and much more! Includes a 64-page book with full-color photos and easy-to-follow instructions to guide you through each project. Includes a balloon pump, googly eyes, and 34 multi-colored modeling balloons. Packaged in a plastic case.

Beware Of The Haunted Eye by Dawn Barnes (The Blue Sky Press, $4.99, Paperback, 9780439856574/0439856574). In the third book in the series, we follow Max and the three other members of the top-secret Black Belt Club on another action-packed, exciting adventure in the fight against evil. In this book, they go to a Celtic-based world where the "Haunted Eye" has overtaken all who make the seasons change and life thrive. Learning about balance, nutrition, aikido, and judo, they defeat the "Haunted Eye" and learn the importance of having balance in their lives.

Big Brown Bear/El gran oso pardo by David McPhail (Green Light Readers, $12.95, Hardcover, 9780152059652/0152059652). What goes up must come down--even a big brown bear!

Big Brown Bear/El gran oso pardo by David McPhail (Green Light Readers, $3.95, Paperback, 9780152059709/0152059709). What goes up must come down--even a big brown bear!

Book 3 by Eleanor Updale (Scholastic Paperbacks, $6.99, Paperback, 9780439683440/0439683440). As the nineteenth century draws to a close, war is in the air, and influenza is sweeping the globe. After twenty years as a gentleman, Montmorency is glad to be free of Scarper, his wretched alter ego. However, when Montmorency's young friend Frank finds himself caught in the middle of a murderous political plot, Montmorency may have no choice but to call upon none other than Scarper for help. Follow Montmorency, Fox-Selwyn, Dr. Farcett, and a whole new generation of characters on their travels from London to Scotland, Italy, and America.

Book Four In The Golden Hamster Saga by Dietlof Reiche (Scholastic Paperbacks, $5.99, Paperback, 9780439531608/0439531608). Freddy Auratus--hamster extraordinaire--is absorbed in writing his latest novel (a horror story), THE LORD OF THE FERRETS, when his characters unexpectedly come to life! Not only do they haunt Freddy, but they threaten the lives of his new friends, and a colony of rabbits. Now it's up to Freddy and his old friends--Enrico and Caruso, the guinea pig poets, and Sir William, the civilized tomcat--to save the day and one another.

Catch Me If You Can!/¡A que no me alcanzas! by Bernard Most (Green Light Readers, $3.95, Paperback, 9780152059679/0152059679). Almost everyone is afraid of the biggest dinosaur of them all.

Catch Me If You Can!/¡A que no me alcanzas! by Bernard Most (Green Light Readers, $12.95, Hardcover, 9780152059644/0152059644). Almost everyone is afraid of the biggest dinosaur of them all.

Cenicienta / Cinderella by Luz Orihuela (Scholastic en Espanol, $3.99, Paperback, 9780439871956/0439871956). A beautiful bilingual tale of poor Cinderella, her evil stepsisters, and the fairy godmother who helps her get to the ball.

Chanters Of Tremaris, Book Three by Kate Constable (Scholastic Paperbacks, $5.99, Paperback, 9780439554837/0439554837). At the beginning of THE SINGER OF ALL SONGS, Calwyn fled Antaris with Darrow to defeat the ambitious chanter Samis. In THE TENTH POWER, she comes back to the mountains in hopes of rejuvenating her lost powers of chantment. But Samis's magic left terrible scars on Antaris, so Calwyn finds only conflict rather than the peace she craved. Meanwhile, Darrow suffers from a sickness that has sapped his magic as well as his strength--and Samis has returned to continue his quest for the Singer of All Songs. All of Tremaris seems to be dying. How can Calwyn save the land, and finally save them all?

Chapter Book: The Circus Comes To Town by Howie Dewin (Scholastic Paperbacks, $4.99, Paperback, 9780439897262/0439897262). Luffy and Zolo are one step closer to One Piece when they track down a map of the Grand Line. Too bad it's under lock and key in the ship of the most feared pirate on the sea-Captain Buggy! And as if that weren't bad enough, a mysterious, pirate-hating navigator named Nami is after the very same map and always seems to be one step ahead of them. Can Luffy and Zolo face down the entire crew of fearsome clowns and outwit Nami on their way?

Charlie Chick by Nick Denchfield (Red Wagon Books, $10.95, Paper Over Board, 9780152060138/0152060138). How can one little chick be so BIG?

Chestnut Soldier by Jenny Nimmo (Scholastic Audio Books, $29.95, Trade Paper and CD, 9780439925002/0439925002). Gwyn can feel danger coming in the wind. Somehow he knows the warnings have to do with the broken toy horse that holds the evil spirit of a prince who lived long ago. When Gwyn discovers that the prince's dark soul has escaped from the horse and is seeking revenge Gwyn, Emlyn, and Nia have to figure out how to save the mysterious soldier who claims to be Nia's distant cousin. With the help of the Snow Spider, can they recapture the prince's soul without hurting the Chestnut soldier?

Chestnut Soldier - Library Edition by Jenny Nimmo (Scholastic Audio Books, $54.95, Compact Disk, 9780439023394/0439023394). Gwyn can feel danger coming in the wind. Somehow he knows the warnings have to do with the broken toy horse that holds the evil spirit of a prince who lived long ago. When Gwyn discovers that the prince's dark soul has escaped from the horse and is seeking revenge Gwyn, Emlyn, and Nia have to figure our how to save the mysterious soldier who claims to be Nia's distant cousin. With the help of the Snow Spider, can they recapture the prince's soul without hurting the chestnut soldier?

Daniel's Mystery Egg/El misterioso huevo de Daniel by Alma Flor Ada (Green Light Readers, $12.95, Hardcover, 9780152059660/0152059660). Daniel finds an egg. What kind of animal will it hatch?

Daniel's Mystery Egg/El misterioso huevo de Daniel by Alma Flor Ada (Green Light Readers, $3.95, Paperback, 9780152059717/0152059717). Daniel finds an egg. What kind of animal will it hatch?

Do You Know Your Dog? by Howie Dewin (Scholastic Inc., $3.99, Paperback, 9780439843677/0439843677). Taking care of a dog means a lot more than just a good scratch behind the ears. If you want your dog to stay happy and healthy, then you have to start thinking like a dog. So scratch your ear with your foot and curl up on the couch with this book. Before you know it, you'll be thinking like a dog!

Down And Out Down Under by Geronimo Stilton (Scholastic Paperbacks, $5.99, Paperback, 9780439841208/0439841208). G'day, mate! I was searching for ideas for my new book, and my friend Petunia Pretty Paws knew just where to find them -- in Australia. Holey cheese, it sounded like a fabumouse adventure! But between surfing with sharks, being chased by poisonous snakes, and getting lost in the outback, I was beginning to wonder if this trip down under was really a good idea. Kangaroos and koalas and crocs -- oh, my! Would I ever see New Mouse City again?

Exo-force: Search For The Golden City by Greg Farshtey (Scholastic Inc., $3.99, Paperback, 9780439892031/0439892031). The EXO-FORCE team has met its match--the Striking Venom. After the last fight between the robots and the humans, the Striking Venom left the EXO-FORCE fortress in ruins. But Sensei Keiken has heard rumors of the Golden City--a legendary place of power. Even if it does exist, can the EXO-FORCE team find it in time to save the humans?

Exo-force Collector's Guide by Allison Lassieur (Scholastic Inc., $5.99, Paperback, 9780439828112/0439828112). Enter the world of the EXO-FORCE team, where every day brings another battle between the humans and the robots for control over Sentai Mountain. This full color guide will feature images of all your favorite battle machines, pilots . . .and of course, the ruthless robots. In this Official Guide you'll find out about: -- The expertly trained EXO-FORCE team pilots and battle machines. -- The robots and their merciless battle machines. -- The history of Sentai Mountain and Sentai Fortress.

Fairy Colors by Caroline Repchuk (Cartwell Books, $5.99, Board Books, 9780439887046/0439887046). "Fairy orange, fairy blue, fastening up their fairy shoes." "Rainbow fairies one and all, ready for the fairy ball!" You are invited to the fairy ball! This sturdy casebound board book teaches colors and features rhyming text and holographic foil on every spread! Glittering fairies in all the colors of the rainbow prepare to greet the fairy queen. Join the fun!

Fairy Numbers by Caroline Repchuk (Cartwell Books, $5.99, Board Books, 9780439887054/0439887054). "TEN fairies fly. NINE wave good-bye. EIGHT fairies hide, then SEVEN peep outside." Learn to count along with 10 fun-loving and mischievous fairies. This sturdy casebound board book follows a group of fairy friends as they frolic through fields and spend their days at fun and games--flying, singing, racing, hiding, and more!

Ferno The Fire Dragon by Adam Blade (Scholastic Paperbacks, $4.99, Paperback, 9780439906512/0439906512). Strange things are happening in Tom's village. First, the horses were attacked. Then, the river dried up. Now, the last of the crops has mysteriously burnt to the ground. Everyone is terrified. But Tom isn't afraid. He's always dreamed of a quest-a real quest!-and vows to go to the king and bring help for them all. But Tom soon learns that his village is not the only one in trouble. People are in trouble all over the kingdom. Hope is nearly lost. That is, until Tom is sent on the greatest quest of all--the Beast Quest.

Fire Star by Chris D'lacey (Orchard Books, $15.99, Hardcover, 9780439845823/0439845823). In this thrilling final installment of Chris d'Lacey's popular trilogy, David Rain is faced with a perilous task. ICEFIRE's evil sibyl Gwilanna is back, this time determined to resurrect the dragon Gawain on the ice cap of the Tooth of Ragnar. Can David and his friends stop her before it's too late?

Fire Within by Chris D'lacey (Scholastic Paperbacks, $6.99, Paperback, 9780439672449/0439672449). When David moves in with Liz and Lucy, he discovers a collection of hand crafted, clay dragons that comes to life and has magical powers. David's personalized dragon, Gadzooks, can forecast the future, and inspires him to write a story which reveals the truth behind an unsolved mystery close to home. The story has an unhappy ending, and when David realizes the consequences of it he is angry. Then David finds Gadzooks crying and near death, and he discovers that these special dragons die when they are not loved. Soon David is forced to save his friend and unlock the powers of the fire within.

You Know what? There are way too many to list.... if you want this list... email me at
ftoolan at qsolution dot com.

The Obscurity Problem

I just started my subscription to Shelf-Awareness, a very nice daily newsletter put out Jenn Risko, and PW veteran, John Mutter. One of the sections in Wednesday's edition was a listing of new titles that were coming out this week. This section, on the surface, seemed innocuous enough, but as I thought about it, I became more and more disturbed.

At first I noticed that none of my customer's books were there. Then I noticed that almost all of the 20 or so books listed were from the big houses - predominantly, Random House, Harper, and S&S. It made me wonder, did they pay for those listings?

So, I dug a little further, and checked our database to see what was publishing next week. I came up with a listing of over 900 titles! Well, that made me think, 'no wonder the list was so short, there is no way they could show all the titles out there'. As we have roughly 15% of the total active titles in the market in our database, if we have 900 publishing, then there must be on the order of 6,000 titles - throughout the industry - publishing this week!

In my role as the leader of Quality Solutions, I attend many different conferences. In many of them over the past couple of years, we have been hearing many people say that too many books are being published. We hear annual statistics so often that - and maybe this is just me - their impact is minor. But, when I found 900+ titles in our database publishing this week, I was truly amazed at the scale of that number.

How can so many titles be flooded into the market and hope to sell? This reminds me of when I was a little kid, learning about what happens when a dandelion sends out it's seeds. Some fall to the ground and get trampled, some get eaten by birds, and some actually find a conducive spot and grow. Is that what we - as an industry - are trying to do with our books? Throw out a flood of titles and let natural selection take over?

I know that every individual publisher we work with would disavow that assertion, but it is hard when you aggregate the numbers to ignore the issue. At the Google conference in NYC a few weeks ago, several of the speakers put a different spin on the issue. Their thesis was that it is not that too many books are being published, but that the volume is causing a problem of 'obscurity'. Each individual title is obscured because what might have been in the past, "15 minutes of fame" is now generally less than 15 seconds.

And, we are a people of many interests and many tastes. So there are markets for these titles, it is just that finding that 'fertile soil' is a rather large challenge - and maybe they are smaller markets than publishers would like.

I think that it is interesting how 'mass market paperback' retailers address this. They have limited shelf space, and every week or so they completely restock the shelves keeping only the hottest books and authors. Talk about natural selection!

In upcoming posts, I'll be visiting this topic repeatedly. If you have any comments, please email me ftoolan at qsolution dot com.

Cleaning up the Backlist - Finding Gold

When I was at the Southern Presses Conference last week, Don Collins, President of the University of Chicago Distribution Center (CDC) shared an anecdote with me that was pretty profound. CDC offers our Title Management software to its distribution clients as a tool to manage upcoming titles, and distributes that information to the trade via our eloquence service.

Don told me that one of his presses made a considerable effort at cleaning up the information in Title Management for their backlist titles. They went in and added BISAC Categories and Descriptions to as many as they could. They did this, essentially, to improve the listings on the major retail sites, in hopes of inspiring new sales. But what they got back from this effort exceeded their wildest expectations.

What they saw was a 300% increase in backlist sales through Baker & Taylor and Yankee Book Peddler. Incredulous, they called the rep from Yankee to find out why. They were told that they had some category orders from several libraries with open slots. When the rep did a search on their database by category, these titles came up, they looked like a fit, and they slotted them into the order.

The moral of this story is that your books need to be able to be found by customers in order to be sold. It's a pretty simple message, but so often overlooked by publishers that feel that it is simply an administrative pain-in-the-butt to go back and clean up all those old titles. But when you think about it, since the tools were there to take this data (input in only one place) and update databases throughout the trade, this is a pretty compelling argument to manage the backlist a little more closely.

This is the first step in helping 'Fight Obscurity' for your titles. Make your titles easily found. In the future, I'll expound on other ways to fight obscurity.

Data Certification and the End of EDRP

Last week I attended (by phone) a meeting of the BISAC Metadata committee on the subject of Data Certification.

As background, the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), parent organization to BISAC, has the strategic objective to put in place a centralized title metadata certification program, much like the ones in place in the UK and in Canada. Michael Healy, Executive Director of BISG was in attendance at this meeting, and it was chaired by Richard Stark of Barnes & Noble who is the chair of the Metadata committee.

Michael has laid out his notions about the program in a draft document, and the committee discussed this document at length as well as several other related issues.

Some of you may recall that when the idea of certification came up in the past, I was vehemently against it. This was because it looked like a private company was going to be doing the certification, which to me represented a strong conflict of interest. Now that it has come up again, this issue has been resolved, and all certification - in whatever form it turns out to be - will be the responsibility of the BISG office. Given that stipulation, I am in favor of such a process.

At present, we have a 'de facto' certification process in place and it is known as Barnes & Noble's Efficient Data Receipt Program (EDRP). EDRP has been a tremendous boon to our industry as it forced B&N's top 100+ customers to take a hard look at the quality of information that was being presented on upcoming titles. 'Forced' is not too strong a word, as the threat of financial penalties for sending poor title information hung over publishers heads like the sword of Damocles.

In the two or three years following the introduction of EDRP, the entire publishing industry saw the benefits. Not only were buyers at B&N better prepared, the information on BN.com, Amazon.com, and every other retail site visibly improved. Publishers found that fixing their process around presenting data to B&N, fixed it for the entire trade. B&N deserves a tremendous amount of credit for this.

In more recent times, however, B&N has looked to expand the program, and from all indications - they may have hit a point of diminishing returns. The newer EDRP system made publishers take 'educated guesses' at some data points like carton quantities, which seemed to undermine the process. Additionally, few if any publishers where actually ever charged back real $ for their misdeeds. Now there are indications that the EDRP system may be discontinued for an indefinite period of time.

So, back to certification. As I said before, I am in favor of this, as it keeps some kind of bar in place for publishers to reach in order to communicate good information about their titles to the trade. And, with the waning EDRP, we need this program in place sooner rather than later. Otherwise, data quality will start to slip again, and all of us who evangelize on the subject will soon lose our credibility. Many of us that evangelize on this issue know that improving data quality happens one publishing entity (Publisher, Division, Imprint, Distributed Press) at a time, and often one person (inside each entity) at a time.

I feel that a program like this may hold very little weight with publishers unless there are some strong motivations for publishers to pay attention. Michael feels strongly that we cannot discuss 'carrots' or 'sticks' in our meeting, because legally it could put BISG in a conflicted position. However, without that discussion - even if it is constrained to be outside the committee, I don't feel this program will last very long.

In the Canada and in the UK, successful certification programs are in place due to the fact that one company (in each market) with enough clout to get publishers attention, said that publishers must comply. In the UK, it is Neilson BookData who controls much of the distribution of bibliographic metadata in the UK and Europe. In Canada, it is Indigo, who refuses to work with publisher data that is not certified by BookNet Canada.

So, hopefully, a major entity with enough clout will emerge in our market and get behind the program and keep our hard-won improvements in data quality on a positive trajectory.

Slumbering Giants and Publishing Services

Maybe I feel some of the tectonic shifts in our industry more acutely than others, because our very existence as a company is so threatened by them.

Nothing illustrates this point more than the consolidation of the distribution market. From my point of view, this consolidation has been largely driven by the need to have a more efficient supply chain. This essentially means that retailers - large and small - have the tools they need to help their customers find what they are looking for and deliver it to them as quickly as possible. This is true whether it is the local corner bookstore or a behemoth online retailer.

To have a more efficient supply chain means to have the technology and industry standards in place for companies to have their computer systems talking to each other, and to automate as much of the process as possible.

This technology 'barrier to entry' in publishing is now at such a daunting level, that most publishers have realized its better to 'partner' with another company who knows how to manage the technology than to make the money and people investments necessary to do it themselves.

Fortunately, there are companies that have made all the proper investments along the way, and have built a formidable array of systems and technology services that make it easy for publishers to take advantage. Most of these companies are in the distribution business (as well).

For several years, distribution companies have thought of themselves in those terms alone - that they handled distribution. Now, most are awakening to the fact that they are really publishing services companies, and it just so happens that they are also distribution companies. Once awakened to this FACT, they start to realize that they are no longer bound only to those customers they do distribution for. Now they can start offering other services, like content management, content distribution, production management, or royalty accounting to companies they don't have any distribution arrangement with at all.

So why is this such a threat? Well, its two-fold for us. One is direct, and one is indirect. The direct threat is that there are now simply less customers for us, and for all other publishing systems providers. We, at Quality Solutions, are slightly immune to this as our systems help publishers with their core competencies - editorial, and marketing. However, the clock is clearly ticking, and it won't be long before the slumbering giants will be offering those services as well. And, while we're fortunate to have many of the large service providers as customers, our room for growth is very small.

The indirect threat is from other publishing software companies. Especially those who offer order processing and other back office systems. In a market where there were maybe 20 companies to begin with, we've seen several 'consolidations' just in the past six months. The last two being just recently - Vista and Ingenta, and the Cat's Pajama's and Media Services. These companies are swallowing each other to stay alive as their customers bolt to the larger 'publishing services' companies.

This is an indirect threat to us, because now those software companies are thinking that their future lies in what we do. This will only create more competition in an ever shrinking market, and will kill us all more quickly, as our services get commoditized. It sort of feels like the rats on a sinking ship seeking higher ground.

The only answer to this threat is to create new services! We've got several in mind, and in the coming months, we'll be announcing several in rapid fire succession. The creation of new services is often a risky business, and building things that publishers didn't even think they needed has been the hallmark of what Quality Solutions has done for the last 20 years. Stay tuned!

Blinding Flash of the Obvious

I criss-crossed the country last week talking to publishers about digital strategy. (Truth be told, I probably spent more time waiting for delayed flights in airports than talking to publishers).

During one of those conversations, the publisher was talking about his strategy for getting titles into the top 8 search results on Google when an individual typed in various search terms. We moaned about how books rarely, show up in the top 8.

This conversation dove-tailed with another about content distribution, and Google indexing PDF files. Suddenly, there was a very simple solution to get the book to come up more readily - put keywords right in the text! Two seconds later, it was obvious where to put them: the copyright page. What reader would ever feel the slightest bother of having Internet search words listed on the copyright page? None. After all, Library of Congress Catalog in Publication (CIP) terms are already there.

Here was an almost cost free way to help improve the ability for consumers to find these titles on the Internet.

We may all love our physical books, but here is an opportunity to link old school and new school thinking, and to help battle obscurity.

The only issue with this plan is that marketing needs to get involved with the book earlier in the publication life cycle than they normally do. But, that sounds like a good topic for another blog entry.

As PGW Turns

After reading that the battle over PGW between Perseus and NBN is over, I'm not sure whether to be pleased or not at the outcome. Then again, I'm not sure if I'd be pleased or not at either outcome.

As background, PGW is a client of ours. We have been working with them for at least 6 or 7 years - going back to well before their acquisition by AMS. During that time it was impossible not to respect how they respected their clients. Even after the acquisition, their inherent culture of caring for clients did not change.

Given that customer service is something that I value very highly, even when we didn't necessarily see eye to eye on an issue, that level of respect never wavered. So, I'm clearly a fan.

In some ways, I'm very happy for them. There appears to be a future. When the bankruptcy was announced, shortly thereafter followed by Perseus' acquisition of Avalon, I feared the worst. I thought that they would completely cease to exist within a very short period of time.

Now, the rhetoric that is published in our industry 'rags' would have us believe that PGW will remain in tact - at least for the moment. I truly hope this is the case. I also hope that Perseus will take the time to reflect on why PGW's clients (and suppliers) think so highly of them. PGW's intangible qualities are its greatest value. PGW is more than a distributor, they are a 'brand'.

PGW pretty much invented the distribution model for book publishers, and given how it was hamstrung by AMS, there is little wonder that it is an early casualty in the war to create 'distribution state' borders. There are very few publishers left who distribute only for themselves, so growth of distribution companies is now limited to growth by acquisition, or by offering more (paid services) to their existing clients, or by helping their clients grow their existing businesses. The bedrock of the future distribution model will be the last, and the way that will happen is through PGW-like customer service.

Publishers can now change distributors easier than they used to be able to switch to a new computer system. So, they will flock to the companies that they feel will do the best job for them, and partner with them to grow both of their businesses. PGW has always worked this way, it is part of their 'brand' identity. Perseus would do well to recognize and capitalize on this 'brand'. Perhaps even use it to redefine themselves.

AAUP Southern Presses Conference

I just spent a day and one-half at the AAUP Southern Presses Confernence, in Jacksonville, Florida. The conference was hosted by the University Press of Florida.

What struck me hardest at this show is how these presses are still struggling to find markets for their books, and how to profitably publish 'works that matter' but will only sell a few hundred (or less) copies per year. These university press publishers (and all others, I suspect) are trying to figure out how to make their titles work, in a marketplace that is shifting.

Their seemed to be few if any new ideas presented at the conference. Many of the ideas are good, but pretty worn out: Print on Demand, the Google Print program, finding new markets – have been a staple of conferences for the last few years.

What also struck me was the 'older' nature of the sponsors. Most of us were printers, and other production related companies. Quality Solutions was one of the only technology companies there. This is NOT to say that this is wrong. I am sure that the conference organizers were very happy to have every sponsor there. It just helped reinforce the feeling that collectively, we were not thinking outside the box. It also made me wonder why the rest of the 'vendor' community did not see the value of being there.

On the positive side, I have to say that I really liked being part of the conference. The intimacy of this small conference was really nice, and it reinforces the personal side of this business which is why I got into it in the first place.