So Misguided

“Better Books” is a many-part conversation between publicist Dan Wagstaff and Monique Trottier, which looks at the book publishing industry’s challenges, successes and promises from a technology perspective.

If you’re new to this conversation, or want to catch-up, here’s what we’ve been discussing.

Introduction, where we outline why the series is called Better Books. “Despite the industry’s many challenges, the greatest is to produce better books. Better in terms of quality, but also in terms of distribution, format, discoverability. Better ... define it how you wish.”

Part 1. What market challenges does the Canadian book publishing industry face.

Part 2. Dan and I debate the merits and demerits of comparing the music industry and the book industry.

Part 3. We go on a bit, discussing what we’ve learned.

Welcome to Part 4

Last week we were talking about ebooks and POD (print on demand). The question this week is

Could (or should) ebooks be something publishers offer directly?

Dan says:
Honestly, I don’t see the point in offering books to download until there’s a really good way to read them, and, more importantly, there’s evidence that consumers actually want to be able to do this!

I think our discussion in the last two weeks has shown that there is a desire to read ebooks, but not a desire on the part of publishers to make new releases available in that format.

Dan goes on to say:
Anyway, if there’s the demand, I would expect that downloads will be provided by online bookstores not by the publishers directly. I mean publishers could supply books to their customers directly now if they wanted to, but they don’t have the desire or infrastructure, etc. I don’t see this changing any time soon.

Dan and I then disparaged the publishing industry’s lack of innovation and revolutionary thinking. We might have been a bit harsh so I’ll let you speculate about what we said.

Here are my half-baked thoughts.

Monique says:
Publishers should be investing in technology that improves discoverability of their titles--on their own sites and others.

I’m particularly interested in the publishers who are investing in technology that allows them to make their titles available in search inside the book formats from their own websites.

If publishers want to create online community and drive sales to stores, I think it’s good money spent by investing in technology and getting your flipping titles up on your website. Go digital. Offer PDFs, which can be read by any computer, most hand-held devices including Palm, Blackberry, Sony Playstation Portal (PSP), etc. At least start some form of ebook publishing and experimenting with the production, costs, distribution, formats, market desires.

Google and Amazon offer Search Inside the Book. Those are two great options. Publishers should participate in both, but they also have to offer something on their own sites and on their own terms. You want to own your digital identity and part of that is archiving, storing and distributing your own books online, as well as planning, measuring success and improving. Market knowledge isn’t going to come to those who are afraid of being early adopters.

Next week we’ll talk more about publishers offering titles directly and what impact that has on booksellers.

New York Times has an interesting article on The Greatest Mystery, creating bestsellers.

There’s a quote that’s relevant to our discussion about how publishers can be interacting with readers online.

Here it is:

Publishers, by contrast, put up Web sites where, in some cases, readers can sign up for announcements of new titles. But information rarely flows the other way — from readers back to the editors.

“We need much more of a direct relationship with our readers,” said Susan Rabiner, an agent and a former editorial director. Bloggers have a much more interactive relationship with their readers than publishers do, she said. “Before Amazon, we didn’t even know what people thought of the books,” she said.

Man, I sound like a curmudgeonly luddite…

I think we disagree a little here. I am still not convinced that there is currently a sufficient demand for e-books (discounting academic and professional titles) and don’t think that there is a good (i.e. better than a book) way to read large chunks of text. I hate PDFs. There I’ve said it…

Whilst this is not to say that publishers should bury their heads in the sand, I don’t think e-books should be seen as an imperative for publishers.

The publishing industry has a lot of problems (for an interesting perspective on the business of bestsellers for example, see Sunday’s New York Times) and there is a tendency to see the technology of e-books as a magic wand that will save the day. Well, what if the content is crap? The fact your readers can download it isn’t going make it better. You’re overheads will be less but you’ll also make less money. You might gamble more on unknown talent, but then you might also decide it isn’t worth paying for it… What is that going to do the quality in the long run? 

Ok, so I’m playing devil’s advocate a little here, but ultimately trying to improve what we do is the important thing for me. At best e-books are only part of the equation. At worst, they are a distraction.

Well said Dan.

I agree, whether it’s print or digital, at the end of the day, we need to create better books. Books that people want to read.

How indeed do we create bestsellers? The New York Times pieces highlights an interesting point: we have to engage with readers.

What Amazon does in faciliating reader reviews is what publishers should be considering in terms of how they can use their online presence to engage with readers.

But it’s not just about creating bestsellers. It’s about publishing better books and understanding the potential audience size. Not all books need to be bestsellers. But all authors need to find an audience.

How do we as publishers help books find book readers and how do we help book readers find the best book for them?

The E-book debate continues at The Guardian!