traditional publishing recognises power of ebooks

[Rachel Goodchild]

this is a really fascinating article

Frankfurt book fair seeks hope in internet's embrace | TECHNOLOGY | NEWS | tvnz.co.nz

as some know, I ambeing allowed to release one chapter of my new book with penguin as an ebook- I think that mpre and more traditional publishers will adopt similar measures.

it's exciting to see traditions alter.

[ExRat]

Hi Rachel,

Thanks, yes it is interesting.

According to studies by the Frankfurt Book Fair's Beijing satellite office (BIZ) and Chinese trade magazine Publishing Today, 20% of last year's Chinese bestsellers originated on the internet, many of them by previously unheard of authors.

"We're in this paradoxical situation where the internet is actually driving the Chinese publishing sector forward, instead of being in competition to it," says BIZ director Jing Bartz.

I bolded the part that I found exciting and italicized the part that I found amusing - they see the fact that internet publishers don't see print as competition as a paradox! They are still trying to hang onto the belief that they own the right to sell words and that no-one else does. Ahem. Who's getting the attention? Joe public online.

Regarding the unheard of authors, for me this encapsulates the opportunity that the internet presents. In any traditional/established industry, you will find the powerhouses who, once they had established themselves and had the wealth/power, proceeded to close things off for any newcomers and pretenders to the throne - as anyone would.

There is nothing more exciting than when those 'gates' are broken down and it becomes apparent that the wealth that was garnered has caused complacency at the top.

"The heirs of Gutenberg have not yet responded accordingly. We all started much too late. And then, in many cases, digitisation was treated in house like an information-technical project," he said.

Next they'll be admitting that they would like us to tell them all about life without warehouses and unsold stock, and all about instant delivery, upsells, sales funnels, digital to physical upsells, continuity, viral marketing, affiliate marketing and how to charge 10 times more for the same stuff with less work.

They better hurry up, because our gates are being constructed and fitted. But they are welcome to use the long-winded, 'it's all about who you know' application process. I'm sure they will know their way around that system.

Coelho, author of The Alchemist and Eleven Minutes is the closest thing the publishing industry has to a pop star and a poster child for the promotional power of Internet piracy.

The Brazilian author, who will make an opening address to this week's fair, has been distributing digital versions of his books for free over the Internet for years - a strategy he believes boosted his book sales in Russia, at least.

"You realise how important it is to give away. If you go to my blog ( www.paulocoelhoblog.com) you'll see a lot of free things," he said in an interview. "I don't know if it sells books, but I know that I'm sharing my soul."

I love the way the print industry classes viral marketing/giveaways/free-presells as 'internet piracy.' Moving the free line? They haven't even got a free line because they can't afford one.

The gates are closing...

[Frank Donovan]

Thanks for pointing this out, Rachel.

It's interesting that they draw a parallel with the music business. The larger publishers have tended to view the digital revolution in much the same way as the major record companies did a few years ago.

However, they make the classic mistake of believing those major corporations are "the industry".

"Some fear that book publishers could suffer the same fate as the music industry, which shut down illegal file-sharing company Napster at the turn of the century but sat on the sidelines while Apple cornered the digital music market."

In fact, music is thriving, with thousands of artists (and fans) now empowered and liberated by the new technology.

The large publishers need to learn from this and realise that they are not the "industry" - the writers (and their readers) are.


Frank