'The Bitch' Has a Message For Publishing

Sometimes the real message is not in the headlines but half hidden in the text.

The news that Jackie Collins, is to digitally self-publish a rewritten version of her bestseller,’ The Bitch’ in the US should not come as a shock. More and more authors will take their backlist and rejuvenate them digitally and pop them out at $2.99.

The interesting thing that caught our eye in the story was the quote, "If it does well, I probably will continue to e-publish, because I have a book of short stories and my publisher says short stories don't sell."

Here we either have a publisher who apparently is wedded to the print world and has failed miserably to understand digital opportunities, or one who doesn’t want to publish Collins. Short stories don’t sell if you remain wedded to the bulking up of them into collections and force them onto physical bookshelves, or you run your business based on what the form book says, ran well and sold last week, month or year. Sometime you have to look forward, not backwards and recognise that you are playing to a potentially different market, certainly a different channel and most definitely a different form factor. Did Steve Jobs make iTunes by selling albums or tracks, by adopting a million different price pints, or by adopting the norm as set out by the producers? Sometimes when you look backwards you have to understand history a bit better than just looking at the form book.

Maybe the publisher is now apprehensive about the apparent moral stance that the likes of Paypal are now taking over erotica and pornography and think that Collins may be see by some to be borderline. Mind you others would suggest even more PR can’t be a bad thing.

It’s as if there is an old guard that can’t see the new world and continues to try to shoehorn tomorrow into yesterday.

What the eDickens?

Last week we wrote about the logic of the appeal of the short story in this new digital world and yesterday we attended The Museum of London’s special 200th celebration of Charles Dickens.

What may you ask have has Dickens to do with today’s digital publishing world?
The answer is simple and is significant if we are to learn from the past and keep our literary heritage alive.

Dickens was a master of the instalment.
He not only wrote many works by the chapter, he also delivered them as ongoing works. He used the ‘penny press’ to presale the stories by instalment and in 1837 was selling some 50,000 copies of his Pickwick periodicals at a shilling a time. These contained one chapter sandwiched between pages of adverts. Many of these adverts had little to do with books or even the subject matter of the story. In fact the adverts demonstrate the diversity of the audience.

The journals appeared either weekly or monthly and given the number of chapters and volume of sales, plus the advertising revenues, should have earned him a good return. It is claimed that when Great Expectations was published in weekly instalment in 1861 it had weekly sales of some 100,000 units a week. Interestingly they didn’t diminish his book appeal but fuelled interest in the finally work.

We find ourselves again asking why we are not publishing digitally by instalment today? The Keita novels in Japan thrive through instalment and Stephen King and others have also ventured down this digital route, but why hasn’t a publisher grabbed this clear digital opportunity by the throat? Is it down to the way many write today? Has the publishing and editorial process got in the way of the instalment? Is it just too revolutionary?

Why are even short stories still seen as collections and packaged as such. Even worthy initiatives such as Quick Reads appear to be locked into what some may question as yesterday’s thinking and merely duplicating the physical offer digitally.
What is also interesting is that Dickens lived through the literacy revolution where the masses were able to read and penny fiction was a way of feeding their new habit in a digestible form.

Dickens embraced the new
The transport and communications revolution of Dickens’ time was, on reflection, as great as that we have today with technology and communications changes. He travelled extensively, especially by the new railways, used the new telegraph and postal services. Between 1858 and 1870 he gave some 472 readings of his works in the UK and US. He even had special bound reading copies in larger font and was a consummate speaker. He was a writer, social observer, pamphleteer, speaker, columnist, playwright and publisher.

Dickens enhanced his works
In Victorian times the novel was often enhanced by illustrations. The ‘Sketches by Boz’ was illustrated by George Cruikshank and as with many Dickens tales the reader was able to picture both in words and in imagery the story as it unfolded. Today we have often lost the imagery of yesterday. Does the new ebook now enable us to once again enhance and illustrate the book? There is now a new opportunity to bring back the imagery and even differentiate the different renditions.

Dickens wrote in the language of the people
Dickens was a master of not just description but narrative. He was a master of dialect and could write and express narrative to reflect a person’s origins, class and the times. He even travelled one day to Yarmouth and used the dialect he heard to paint the character he wanted. It is fascinating to hear how Dickens used the dropping of the ‘h’ , or how he could change ‘ing’ to be ‘in’ or even ‘ink’ to reflect the character. He would have been a nightmare to edit today!

But this understanding of the narrative and even the enthusiastic way Dickens would have read to his captive audiences may also be new enhanced book opportunities.

It is not hard to see the relevance of Dickens to today and why it is somewhat ironic that 2012 is the 200th celebration of his birth.

The Renaissance of The Short Story?

We now live in a sound bite word where the channel hopper often rules and where our time is often torn between many competing distractions. It is only fitting therefore that we are now starting to question and revisit the length of the story and recognise that it is just as rewarding to engage a reader on short and digestible read as a long one.

We have long argued that the digital era should herald a renaissance of the short story. As digital explodes the physical book spine, it starts to re write the economics and the need for 256 pages. No longer is it about tens of thousands of words but more about compact stories, or developing stories by the chapter.

My mother-in-law and many of her contemporaries broke into writing via short stories, which were much in demand across many magazines at the time. My Father-in-law like many started as a journalist and developed the skill of reworking, cutting back and sticking to the storyline.

Digital has started to now accommodate the short story and some such as Salt and Penguin has embraced the opportunity. The BBC has a National Short Story Award and the Quick Reads literary charity is now 5 years old and has distributed over 3.5 million ‘Quick Reads’ written by bestselling writers and celebrities aimed at engaging more people in reading.

This weekend the Telegraph dived in with a competition not based just on digital but recognising the potential to reintroduce this concise literary form that has inspired so many in the past. The British library have also launched a online service to enable everyone to enjoy the likes of Somerset Maughan, Kingsley Amis, Edna o’Brien and William Trevor reading their own works.

All these initiatives start to create a new form. Some will view them as singles that are then wrapped into a collection, others as stand alone stories that can be promoted bought and read as such and others as instalments to a greater living story. Poetry also starts to also have new opportunities to engage a wiser audience. Even those textbooks may be rented or sold by the chapter. Irrespective, the short is coming back and will give author a new opportunity to make that connection with the reader.

Kindle Direct Publishing Arrives With TED

Today we have the launch of TED Books and the rebranding of the Digital Text Platform (DTP) to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). What both ventures are focused on is the redefinition of digital works by the merging of the digital book and digital article. We have argued that for far too long the ‘book’ has straight jacketed authors into an economic print model based on pages and words. This does not make sense in the digital world and is similar to saying that all recording artists can only produce albums. Many authors in the past honed their craft in journalism and magazine articles and stories. They are ideally skilled to hone their work to a shorter format. The attention span of many readers could be better served by shorter works and the digital technology may render shorter works better than longer ones.

Those technological and culture promoters have built a huge following and stimulating programme and extending this to ‘TED Books’ makes great sense given Chris Anderson’s background and widens their audience reach further. At less than 20,000 words each they clearly are long enough to covey the messages and can be complimentary to the video. They will be available as Kindle and Kindle Reader apps at a cost of $2.99 each.

TED’s initail three tiles are:
Nic Marks: The Happiness Manifesto: How Nations and People Can Nurture Well-Being
Juan Enriquez and Steve Gullans: Homo Evolutis: Please Meet the Next Human Species
Gever Tulley: Beware Dangerism! Why We Worry About the Wrong Things, and What It’s Doing to Our Kids

Anderson now intends to have regular releases of new TED Books. Many will come from existing TED speakers who will expand topics they have presented others will come from new authors with new ideas. The initiative will certainly keep the future of the book in the minds of the world’s thinkers.

TED Books launch is part of Amazon’s Kindle Singles imprint and rebranding of their previous DTP to Kindle Direct Publishing (KPD). Books self-published through KDP can enjoy the 70% royalty program and are available across the Kindle platform. Kindle’s programme is not just about TED books and has fiction from the likes of Jodi Picoult, Rich Cohen, Pete Hamill, Darin Strauss, and Ian Ayres. Kindle Singles gives all writers the opportunity to publish shorter work that is priced between $0.99 and $4.99. Amazon collects the content, the market initiative and the extra value.

The interesting thing is that Amazon is becoming a true publishing vertical from author to reader and for others to compete they will have some catching up to do.

Amazon's Kindle Singles to be Top of the Pops?

We have long argued that the world of the short story is suited to the digital form and that we should break out of the ‘250 page’ straight jacket that has for so long restricted writers.

Now enter Amaazon again to show the way and offer a home for works of a short nature. Does it matter if the work is 10,000, 30,000 or 75,000 words? Amazon has the common sense to realise that 30 to 90 pages may well be perfect for a digital read. So offering writing by instalments as well as accommodating short stories.

"Kindle Singles” will have their own Kindle Store section and be priced very attractively to generate interest and readers.

Now comes the challenge of attracting not just would be writers but also established writers, thinkers, icons, leaders, historians to make the singles a place to be seen and read.

Combining Amazon’s platform, their channel and ability to sell volume and a novel short story idea sounds a winner.

Amazon weren’t the first internet bookstore they were the 14th but were the first to get the service proposition right. Today they may not be the first to start digital short stories but they have all the ingredients to get this right too.

Does Size Matter?

We applaud the move by Ether Books into the digital short story. It makes perfect sense to us but is a significant model change for many. We suggest that the question of whether it will work or fails, is not down to the concept, but down to the execution.

Short stories are free from the economic straight-jacket of 250 pages. They break the spine of writing as we have been conditioned to accept. They can be made into collections, be read as instalments or merely stand in their own right. Importantly they can be digested easily on the move and on today’s digital mobiles devices. They not only question the form of the book, but also the concept of the digital reader. After all who need the dedicated eInk reader when you can read it on your smartphone?

As many clamour to add media to the work and create extended books, we would question whether the answer for some is closer to home. Are we confident in the extended book, or is it merely a return to the CD Rom days?

Is the short story a bigger opportunity to today’s publishing model than all the digital devices, extended books, Book Settlements etc?

Writers do not need traditional publishers to produce short stories or even market them. They do need a channel to market, they do need services and devices to distribute and render them, but they don’t need the support infrastructure required to service the book. We personally applaud the Ether initiative but feel it isn’t about their app but about creating the market demand and awareness and perhaps restricting it to an app is like strangling it at birth?

Imagine an iTunes repository full of not albums but tracks? All are priced to buy and easy to enjoy. Imagine the story that is finished by the time the train pulls into the station. Imagine a top ten of short reads? Imagine no DRM restrictions and freedom to share and enjoy? Imagine ‘penny fiction’?

Futurologist and good friend Ray Hammond, recently made us aware of a quote from Winston Churchill, speaking to the Royal College of Physicians, 1942, “The longer you can look back, the farther you can look forward.”

One of the reasons we read newsprint and magazines is because they are readable, summarised and concise. Imagine having to read a magazine article that took all day or a news report that lasted for hours. The short story isn’t a sound bite or a dilution of literary works it is a literary work in its own right. Its just shorter than the economic print run.

Ether Books may not be the answer but we believe it is part of the answer and maybe we are seeing a return of a logical form that connects the writer to the reader. Perhaps the Keitai model will work in the western world after all. Interestingly it starts to offer the opportunity to differnutuate the physical book from the digital one without the level of cannibalisation of the market we see today and also offers a starter pack to build author brands and following and independence from the current ‘must be published or fail’ ethos. It certainly is a far more economic route than multi media for authors.

Readers Digest To Slip Into Chapter 11

It most probably would have been in a doctor’s and dentist’s waiting room, but most of us have glanced through or read a Readers Digest magazine. The model of short and serialised stories set it apart from the book and made it attractive to many. Reader’s Digest was first launched in 1921 by a husband and wife team and began as a mail-order collection of condensed articles from other magazines and evolved into direct- mail pioneer and one of the world’s largest publishers. Of its 94 magazines, 9 claim to have a circulation over 1m in the US alone, and its titles claim a combined global readership of 130m people in 78 countries.

Short stories and articles are well suited to the new eformat and better still to the mobile world. Readers Digest also already has a well honed mail order and direct mailing operation and finally their model is advertising based. If anyone was equipped to migrate into the digital age, one would think it would be Readers Digest.

However, the advertising downturn and the high charge of servicing a significant debt has forced the US arm of Reader's Digest magazines to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Chapter 11 gives firms time to straighten out their finances while continuing trade and Readers Digest aim to use it to get rid of up to 75% of its debts, cutting them from a staggering $2.2bn to $550m. This will reduce its annual interest payments on the remaining debt to less than $80m. Today's Chapter 11 filing does not apply to Reader's Digest operations in Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australasia, where the company claims to have "adequate funding" to continue publishing.

So will Readers Digest make it through today’s transition and economic difficulties and sieze their digital market opportunity, or will they like so many well placed players such as book clubs, loose their way and allow others to steal their lunch?