Report on the Digital State of the Book Nation

Gordon Burgett is a publishing industry sage. Here's a link to his discussion of a report on the future of digital publishing.

http://www.gordonburgett.com/digitalfuture.htm

An important point--the report notes that any digital product will be able to stay current, because it can be updated quickly and easily. But, a print product will become dated.

This is very important. If you are writing a book with a lot of links, or even with an addendum with references, these can quickly become obsolete. Even product references can become antiquated. I've experience this as people who own copies of Scrapbook Storytelling have emailed me trying to find various suppliers who, alas, are no longer in business.

Now that doesn't stop me from adding product references in my books, but it does mean that the public's ability to contact you or to visit you on your website takes on new importance. People do know how to contact you, right? Make it as easy as possible, is my mantra. Even when I email people back to to say, "Sorry, those suppliers are no longer in business," I've taken the time to further my relationship with the person writing the email. Usually people will tell me how surprised they are that I personally have responded.

Why shouldn't I? Oh, sure, it takes time, but I figure it's the least I can do. They spent money and time with my product. I owe them a response.

Also note that POD (print on demand) technology continues to improve. Many years ago, a Japanese concept call JIT (Just In Time) sourcing revolutionized the auto industry. With JIT, a car manufacturer such as Toyota could order parts and know they'd arrive "just in time." This saved the cost of warehousing. Now, you might think, "So what?" But let's use a little imagination, shall we? Suppose are an American manufacturer who has ordered all the parts to build a month's worth of cars. You have to unload those parts from a carrier (+ labor/workman's comp for a job prone to injuries), warehouse them (+ labor, + insurance on the building, + inventorying supplies, + knowing where the supplies are, + rent), store them until used (+ cost of overhead and any damages if there's a leak in your roof, insurance), then ship them to your factory floor. Compare this to: the parts arrive and are taken directly to the factory. Hello!

It's the same with books. If you print them all in advance, they must be boxed and shipped to your warehouse. If the warehouse is damp, if the books get rained on during shipment, if the number of books in the book isn't the correct amount to send out in any one order (and they need to be repacked), you have incurred costs in addition to publishing your books.

Oh, don't look for everything to change overnight. Some time ago, the music industry introduced kiosks where folks could order sheet music and have it printed as they waited. The prediction was that there'd be a kiosk in every music instrument store. It hasn't quite happened. But on the other hand, more and more scrapbookers are storing their photos digitally and printing them out as they need them, either at home or through vendors.

There's a change coming to this industry. It bodes well for all of us...but as to who will be the big winners and losers, well, we'll just have to wait and see.

Should You Self-Publish?

Should you self-publish?

That's a tough question, and you're the only one who can answer it. I can't tell you what to do...but I since I've been both self-published and traditionally published, I can share some insights.

The biggest question you need to ask yourself is: What's my goal? And as you ponder that question, mull over these four considerations:

1. If your goal is to make money...

Unless you can snag a big advance, you might be able to make more money fast self-publishing. Of course, it depends on whether you can buy your books at a reasonable price and if you have a way to sell them. But let's say you do. Let's say you're a motivational speaker, a job I did full-time for years. Since I was already in front of audiences, selling books was a way to add income to my speaker's fee. So, yes, it's possible that self-publishing will quickly put more money in your pocket. By contrast, with traditional publishing, you have to first repay your advance, and then wait for the publisher to calculate your royalties. (And know that publishing houses hold out a portion of those royalties until they see what your returns are.)

2. If your goal is to minimalize your risk...

You won't want to self-publish. At the very least, you won't want to act like a traditional publisher, a job which includes book design, cover design, getting the ISBN, setting the price, paying for the printing, shipping and warehousing books, and getting distribution. But, you might want to self-publish through a POD (print on demand) publisher or through an ebook publisher.

3. If your goal is to be known as an author...

This one is tricky. Yes, if you self-publish you can call yourself an author. You will be able to point to a book with your name on the cover. However, in the hierarchy of author-dom, and yes, there is definitely a food-chain, you probably won't get a lot of respect. So if you want to be accepted in almost every venue--such as author's conferences and at booksignings--you probably won't want to self-publish. (By the way, to the best of my understanding, the food chain starts with literary authors at the top of the pyramid, then thriller and suspense writers, then hard-and medium boiled mysteries, and finally cozies. Yeah, I'm probably wrong. This is pretty much on the basis of my observations. And yeah, I have NO idea why it seems to be like this...but even Stephen King admits that his commercial success hasn't always brought him respect as an author. It's a weird, weird world.)

4. If your goal is to have a career...

Um, self-publishing will not ruin your career. I know, I know. You've heard it said it will. But if your self-publish a great book--one that's well-written, well-edited, and professionally produced--you aren't going to deep six your career. That said, if you self-publish a product which is shoddy, you take your chances. And if you only feel you have one GREAT book in you, then self-publishing it is risky because once your book is out there, you might (and I emphasize MIGHT) have issues with copyright. (But I'm not a lawyer, so don't take this as legal advice.) Do realize that ebooks are much trickier when it comes to protecting your rights. Anything on the Internet is harder to monitor and control. The biggest fear you should have is how your final product witll reflect on you as an author. On your professionalism. Frankly, this is incredibly important. (At least to me!)

So now I've given you four considerations. There are more, and I'll cover them in another post.