JD WRITES

Happy New Year!

Well, it's been a bad few weeks for the e-book
industry, but only for the big companies that threw
a bunch of money at the problem. The smaller
companies, with more moderate ambitions, seem to be
doing fine so far. An opinion column in this issue
discusses the problems and future of e-books, from
my perspective, based on conversations with people
in the industry over the past few years.

This issue's resources section features a number of
useful articles on other websites, from getting
more work, to what the book industry executives
think of the current state of their industry.

Hope your New Year's resolutions include one to:

Keep writing,

Julie

NEW THIS WEEK

ARTICLE

10 DO'S AND DON'TS FOR SELF-PUBLISHERS
Part 1

There is so much to think about when self-
publishing a book. The 21st Century Publishing
Update brings you a 10-point checklist of what to
do and what not to do when publishing and promoting
your own book. Based on conversations with self-
publishing authors and marketing experts, this is
not an exhaustive list of everything you should be
thinking about, but it is a list of some of the
most important.

1. DO: Proof everything...

...especially cover copy, press releases and
promotional copy. Better yet, have someone else
proof it (it is notoriously hard to see your own
mistakes). If your promotional materials contain
mistakes, editors and readers will assume that your
book is also riddled with mistakes. This looks
unprofessional and makes for an uncomfortable
reading experience. It can discourage people from
buying or reviewing your book.

DON'T: Advertise in Publisher's Weekly...

Yes, it's the industry bible, but you should target
readers not bookstores. Why not sell directly to
readers instead of 'selling' to bookstores who may
return your book unsold?

Advertise to readers, tell them to order the book
directly from you or your supplier, and make more
money! By selling directly you can avoid the 55%
distributor discounts (saving more of the profit
for yourself). You can also receive feedback
faster, from the people who are actually buying the
book. Wouldn't you rather have your book in the
hands of a reader than on a bookstore shelf?

Instead of advertising to the-bookselling trade,
promote your books in publications your audience is
likely to read.

2. DO: Learn about the-bookselling business...

You need to know the rules to know how to bend
them.
Readers are used to buying from bookstores.
Bookstores are used to buying from distributors at
a large discount. Distributors are used to buying
from publishing houses, at a colossal discount.
Booksellers, wholesalers and distributors think
they can order books on consignment, returning them
at any time for any reason.

If you want to sell your books differently, it
helps to know how things usually work, so that you
can work out special deals with the trade.

DON'T: Think bookstores are the ticket to big
sales...

Even if you get a bookstore to take your book, just
placing it on their shelves is no guarantee of
sales. Your book is sitting on a shelf showing a
one-inch spine, blending in to thousands of other
books' spines. Why are people going to choose your
book? They will look for it only if they have heard
of it - which means promoting your book to readers
is more important than promoting it to bookstores.
If the store doesn't carry the book, they can
always 'special order' it if readers ask for it. If
readers don't ask for it, there is no point in the-
bookstore carrying it.

And don't think a large chain bookstore is going to
feature your book on one of those tables at the
front of the store. Publishers pay tens of
thousands of dollars in 'co-op marketing' to place
their books there.

Bookstores are good, but don't think they naturally
lead to sales.


more next time...

***

COLUMN

THE PROBLEM WITH E-BOOKS

Julie Duffy

THE PAST couple of weeks have been bad ones for the
electronic book publishing industry. Some of the
major companies that got involved in electronic
publishing have ceased operations, citing the
downturn in the economy and the low adoption rates
among readers.

There was a lot of hype about electronic at Book
Expo America and at the Seybold publishing
conferences a couple of years ago. Executives were
promising that electronic books would take over the
world in five years. This seemed like too short a
time to me, a book lover and publishing
professional. I believed that electronic books
would make a lot of progress in those five years
(certainly ten years) and they have. E-books can be
read on hand-held readers from specialized book
readers, to note-books, to hand-held Palms and
Pocket PC devices (also known as PDAs). Being able
to load books on a PDA is great for the traveler or
for business people trying to catch up with the
latest hot non-fiction titles.

Display technologies are advancing and MIT keeps
promising us 'electronic paper'. These things will
combine with e-books' instant-delivery and low cost
of production to make them viable. But not in the
mass market. Not for a while.

People are buying e-books, but not a huge number.
The problems will remain

1, Display technology. It is currently very hard to
read a whole book on the screen because the
resolution is still a lot lower than that on a
page. Microsoft's Reader software goes some way to
improving the display, as do higher-resolution LCD
monitors;
2, Pricing. The major publishers' product
developers do not understand technology and the
online culture. They see the intrinsic value of the
intellectual property and price the-books
accordingly. Their business training tells them
that they should not 'devalue' the content by
pricing e-books more than 10% less than the first
edition of the title (usually hardback). Consumers,
however, see that there are no printing costs, no
distribution costs, no reason for wholesaler
discounts, when making an e-book. Consumers, quite
rightly, wonder why they should pay $18 for an e-
book when the hardback only costs $22.

3, Compatibility. Many e-book companies have fallen
for the fiction that e-book readers are going to be
the means of distribution for these-books. When
telephone companies are working with PDA
manufacturers to make integrated electronic
organizers/telephones, why companies think anyone
would want to buy a separate e-book reader, is
beyond me. This emphasis on the hardware has lead
to a variety of e-book formats being produced.
The software and publishing companies have got
together to create the Open E-book Standard, based
on XML, but the standards continue to be wide.

4, Copyright Protection. Major publishers put out
the titles that have the strongest demand. Major
publishers are also reluctant to put out those
titles in e-book formats because of copyright
protection issues. Some of the best e-book readers
(Adobe Acrobat and MSReader) do not have any built-
in copy protection. (Although Adobe does have some
now). This means that the-books can be copied and
distributed freely.
These fears leads to the development of yet more
proprietary software and formats that make it
difficult for readers to easily access titles.

5, Availability. Until the issues of compatibility
and copyright protection are solved, it will be
difficult to get a wide selection of titles for any
given format.

6, Distribution. It doesn't seem like distribution
should be a big deal. Napster showed that it is
easy to store files on a computer anywhere and
allow people to 'reach in' and grab it. Add a pay-
per-download front-end to this, and publishers
could distribute e-books more easily and cheaply
than they do print books. However, publishers don't
seem to be interested in doing this. Instead,
traditional distribution companies are trying to
find ways to aggregate titles (at a discount, of
course) and distribute them to store and
purchasers. This is an unnecessary introduction of
middle-men that will artificially drive up the
price of e-books and goes against all logic.

The availability issues are a large part of the
problem. Readers are loyal to the format they like.
I like trade paperbacks and MSReader. Given a
choice in print books I will forego the hardback in
favor of the trade paperback. Given a choice in e-
books, I will select MSReader, because it is my
favorite software. But not all e-books are
available in this format. I don't have some of the
other e-reader software and the ones I do have, I
don't like. If an e-book is not available in my
favorite format, I'll probably opt for the
paperback. And if the paperback is cheaper, well,
there is no contest.

I like e-books. I put up with some inconveniences
because I like the instant delivery, the ability to
carry five novels around on my PDA, and yes, the
coolness of being on the cutting edge. Most people,
however, just want a good book to read and a
comfortable way to read it.

The problems with e-books will be worked out. But
it will take time. The publishing and bookselling
industries are notoriously slow to change and adopt
new policies. Until they do, the majority of
readers will not embrace e-books for any reason.
Eventually, even those who love paper books will
find themselves reading electronic books for some
reasons – technical manuals, encyclopaedias, short
stories while traveling – but I don't think we have
to worry about real, hefty, paper books, smelling
of wood-pulp, ink and glue, every going away
entirely.

***

AUTHOR'S Q & A

Have a question about writing, publishing
or marketing?

Email editor@jdwrite.com

See previous Author's Q&As at

http://www.jdwrite.com/writing/question001.htm

NEWS & UPDATES

http://www.jdwrite.com/writing/updates.htm

TIME WARNER'S iPUBLISH CLOSES

AOL Time Warner's attempt to move into innovative
publishing, iPublish, has been closed.
Announced with great fanfare in 2000, the venture
opened for business a year later. The idea behind
the site had writers submitting texts to iPublish
for e-publishing and potential adoption by Time
Warner's trade book division. Readers were to read
and judge the manuscripts. The most popular titles
would be considered by TW editors for publication.

The company was criticized by some writers' groups
for small advances and taking exclusive rights to a
'first look' at a chosen author's next title.

Last month AOL Time Warner announced that they were
closing iPublish, citing the downturn in the
economy and the slow adoption rate of e-books by
readers.

more:
iPublish site:
http://www.ipublish.com
Wired article:
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,48804,00.html

MIGHTYWORDS SHUTS DOWN

MIGHTYWORDS, the e-content site, ceased operations
on January 12, 2002.

While MightWords reportedly still had several
millions of dollars in the bank, executives said
demand for e-books and e-content had not advanced
as quickly they expected and that they were
quitting while they were ahead.

Originally launched as Fatbrain.com, MightyWords
always had the feel of an experiment. It went
through several evolutionary stages, all aimed at
selling short works electronically.

The site's FAQ says "Q. Why did MightyWords close?
A. This was a difficult business decision. As of
Jan 12, 2002 Mightywords will cease operations".
Enlightening!

more:
MightyWords Site:
http://www.mightywords.com
Wired article:
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,49112,00.
html

iUNIVERSE OFFERS E-BOOKS

Print On-Demand Publishing Services Provider
iUniverse has added e-book production to its
services. Authors will be able to make their books
available in Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Reader
formats. These formats can be downloaded and read
on desktop computers or on hand-held devices such
as Palms and Pocket PCs.

more:
From iUniverse's service info
http://www.iuniverse.com/helpzone/article_display.a
sp?id=17490

RESOURCES

http://www.jdwrite.com/writing/resources.htm

THE RESOURCE section is growing and now includes...

5-A-DAY QUERY PLAN

Here's an excellent short article from Writers'
Weekly to inspire aspiring freelance writers to
bring in work. It just goes to show, sending one
query a week isn't going to cut it...Are your
expectations of yourself in the right place?

CREATE A POWERFUL BACK COVER FOR YOUR BOOK

This article from coach Judy Cullins recently
featured at Fiction Factor ezine. Unlike many
how-to articles, this one really packs in the
info: facts, figures, statistics, examples...
all in five easy points.

PUB INDUSTRY EXECS SPEAK

WRITER'S MARKET's new Market Watch columnist Debbie
Ridpath Ohi, highlighted an interesting article in
Publisher's Weekly. It features eight publishing
industry heavy-weights, talking about the state of
the industry. Useful reading for aspiring authors.

and more...

NEW LAST TIME

.............

WHAT'S IN AN AUTHOR WEBSITE?

Know you need an author website but not sure what
to put there? Read on...

http://www.jdwrite.com/writing/website.htm

ABOUT JDWRITE

JDWrite is the online home of writer, journalist and former Xlibris Director of Author Services, Julie McCarroll Duffy. Julie has expert knowledge of the new world of publishing: Print On-Demand, self-publishing, online publishing, eBooks, the evolving publishing industry and more. Her role at Xlibris was 
to work with authors to help them understand these developments, to listen to authors' needs and communicate those to the company. She has been a speaker at writers' conferences around the US and seeks to continue to educate authors to understand their ever-increasing opportunities in the publishing world. After following her husband's career from their native Scotland to the US, Julie is working on a series of e-books about Print On-Demand Publishing. 

All content copyright 2001 Julie Duffy.

For permission to reprint articles, contact the editor at 
jd@jdwrite.com.

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