Amazon Tablet - The Price is Right

At $199 Amazon has proved it knows how to price. The question now is whether consumers want a Rolls Royce or a mini. Despite no mike or camera and being booksize, we think Amazon have got it right especially with 3G inside.

Want one!

The Suppression of Writing

More and more authors are now considering digital publishing opportunities and are taking control of their own works. New ventures such as Unbound, are inviting them to submit their unpublished work to into a social media lottery. Barnes and Noble Pubit, Wattpad, Lulu, and Kindle publishing, are among others all offering new ways to get published. We now even have agents embroiled in heated debate, as some of their numbers are starting to wear two hats and become publishers. We also see the publisher now creating new digital ways to socially capture and sift through the mountain of submissions. Although these routes may not offer the financial rewards of the more traditional one for authors, digital is now importantly enabling everyone to be published. The democratisation of writing and storytelling is arriving.

The old world has a series of gatekeepers which conveniently stand between the hoards of aspiring writers and the infamous ‘slushpile’ and the author goal of being published. However these roadblocks are now being increasingly questioned, tested and removed, but even in this new digitally evolving world, the old world of suppression, narrow selection and often closed ‘who you know’ circles still exists and are still supported by some in the establishment as the right way to do business.

We recently attended a new literary festival and were intrigued to listen to a talk from a leading literary agent and UK publishing personality. The subject was on how to get published, but the reality was that it should have been titled ‘why you are not going to get published’.

We heard many anecdotal stories about why agents matter, the difficult task they, or their interns face, in sifting through mountains of submissions. The fact that less than 1% of their submissions they receive actually even get to the consideration phase of selection. This poor agent already has a backlog from an obvious holiday in August and basically is in shutdown with Frankfurt for ‘two months’ and then no doubt Christmas will have its impact. It was hardly surprising that they had only taken on one new author and the last few years and were clearly focused in working their existing lucrative stable. Apparently, even agents get upset when they get knocked back from publishers at the next gatekeeper post!

It appears we have built a risk adverse approach to publishing.

There are, and always will be, good and bad agents and those which are more appropriate for an author than others. However, this image of ‘X Factor auditions’ would be fine if they at least promoted writing and worked in this digital, switched on and networked community, but the reality they don’t promote but suppress writing and are still clearly based on the physical book world, lengthy lead times to market and the 256 page economic model.

‘Don’t publish digitally and expect an agent or publisher to be interested second hand,’ was delivered, not so much as advise, but as a veiled threat. ‘Every clause in a contract should be reviewed by the agent,’ was then countered by the claim that boilerplate contracts are the way forward and many clauses can now be waved through. ‘Digital royalties should be greater than the 15%,’ but the figure suggested was still somewhat shy of what many believe is appropriate.

The point is that, if we were aspiring writers then the contradictions and ‘holier than thou’ plaudits on offer would have been more of a switch off than an encouragement to write.

Agents have many valuable contributions they can make a real contribution to the creation of more works and support new talent, but this talk demonstrated what some would suggest is how out of touch some are to the world today.

Related recent articles
Agents In A Digital World June 13th 2011

Kindle Is More Than A Tablet

What are you doing on Wednesday this week? There are strong indications that Amazon are to announce its long awaited tablet offer in Manhatten. Will it change what you do from that moment on, or will it merely be more technology news and leave you waiting for the sports results?

Amazon will certainly announce its entry into the tablet market very soon with the aim of capturing that Christmas surge. Some will ask themselves why they should buy one and not the iPad and will be appreciated as a present or merely viewed as second best? Will Amazon’s entry be any different to that of Motorola, HP, Blackberry, Acer and all who have failed to register their tablet offers against Apple?

First we must forget looks that will remain with Apple. We must also forget user interface that will remain with Apple. Finally, we must forget desirability that like a sports car or any design icon will remain with Apple.

So what has Amazon got going for it? How on earth can it make its mark against such an iconic slab of technology and a brand that is so clean that everyone respects it even though they may not own one?

The answers are many but are simple and to understand them you have to first understand Amazon’s history and the basics of their consumer proposition.

Amazon doesn’t sell books, films, music and games to shift technology, but sells cheap and usable technology to shift, music, books, film, games. This is a fundamental difference which changes how the device and its interface works. Amazon didn’t have to invent agency pricing to establish a margin, it was already media retailer and understood the market, pricing and how to control it and make money.

Amazon importantly has created a global offer that is known everywhere and unlike its main book competitors Barnes and Noble and Kobo has recognised that a world really does exists outside of North America. Amazon is a media retailer and no longer a book, music or film retailer. It has integrated itself into the very fabric of the markets it serves and with a tablet will exploit this further. It supports authors, publishers, libraries, affliates. Kindle is a true cross platform offer.

Importantly, it has realised that network connectivity is important and what we saw as a Whispernet limitation in the early days is now a positive plus. Just go to any one of the 150 plus countries in which its Kindle service is supported and enjoy free connectivity, downloads and no bills. You can even download your local library book from anywhere in the world with no tethering, network charges and no hassle. This may not be important for the vast majority of US citizens that never leave the US but is very important in the rest of the world.

We hated eink and the ‘lookie likey’ readers it spawned and with the exception of the Kindle still do. The Kindle however clunky is practical and satisfies text reading, provides a somewhat crude internet browser service and can satisfy email. The keyboard may be built for tiny fingers but it works. Now think of a Kindle colour tablet with touch screen offering the same plus Amazon apps under Android and all at a price probably half of that Apple and with no extra hidden costs. The range of media will be unbeatable, the price of media will be a keen as any, you can also buy physical goods and all this will be tightly integrated into the tablet is a way that could make ‘one click’ a real bonus and create a Kindle experience.

Apple tablets will continue to evolve but we still use tablets for the basic stuff o cover the bases people want email, web access, entertainment and an extension to their mobile phone world.

The Kindle will not beat the iPad but will be part of a kindle offer that will be clearly more attractive to many seeking value for money. Apple will not be the dominant book retailer and library service provider. They will not attract authors, affiliates and never sell both digital alongside physical. Despite the success of iTunes they remain a high ticket technology company looking for consumers and technology churn and what technology they deliver today they want you to upgrade tomorrow. Amazon merely wants you to buy, rent or loan another book, film, game and track.

What is the Value of Your Direct Customer List?

Everyone in direct marketing be it mail order, ecommerce or just mailing knows the value of their list. This comprises all their customers and details when the joined, how they joined, what they have received and importantly how much they have bought and what and when they bought it. Sometimes the list itself is rented out via brokers and sometimes it is retained and reciprocal mailing is done instead.

The one given is that lists are not cheap to acquire, need constant management and pruning and a name doesn’t guarantee anything but the ability to communicate. In fact acquiring names through brokers and purchase is often fraught with disappointment as the conversion rate is nearly always single figures and the earn-out is only achieved on repeat business. It isn’t often about the size of the list but the concurrency, accuracy of the list and ability to mine it.

So we stood back with some amazement when the news broke that Barnes and Noble where buying Borders customer list and information for a staggering $13.9 million. The data is reportedly on 48 million customers but goes back years and in fact has hit a snag because the bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn has questioned whether Border’s policy covers pre 2008 customers and whether customers must give their consent before the sale can close.

While Borders' current privacy policy, which was implemented in May 2008, clears the sale of customer information, questions remain as to whether customers who joined Borders' database before May 2008 are subject to the policy and whether they must consent to a sale.

The point we would question is the value of the list of 48 million customers, the envisaged conversion rate expected and the cost of acquiring the converted names. This is brought further into question by the fact that Barnes and Noble have already diluted the list and have said that they believe that 31% of the customers are already Barnes and Noble customers. So they are buying 36 million customers.We presume that the list is been de-duped and de-seeded.

We are not privy to the detail of which customers are listed and the mix of these but obviously the two businesses did not have exactly the same profile. We presume the list include the ebook business detail which was run by Kobo but does Kobo have that detail separately as they dispatched the goods? What is proportion of gamers, video customers to book buyers? What is proportion of post only detail and what is the size of the email kist? How many are ‘live’ and have bought in the last 18 months and how has the accuracy of the list been maintained during the last 18 months whilst Borders has fought for its life?

Acquiring a list of 48 million, sorry 36 million, is fine, but delivering a return is another. Just mailing this number is a challenge in itself if they are to avoid merely being viewed as spammers and being automatically rejected at the first hurdle. Some would suggest that it would be wiser to acquire live companies with live lists or simply buying into electoral lists and directories.

Digitally Wallpapering Library Shelves?

We can now see a big question mark over who, how and what is the digital future of our public libraries. Again we need to look at the US today and recognise that although the system may be different, the direction is similar for all and the impact could be either rejuvenating, or dire for those public libraries already fighting to redefine themselves in this new world.

“Starting today, millions of Kindle customers can borrow Kindle books from their local libraries...Libraries are a critical part of our communities...we’re excited to be making Kindle books available at more than 11,000 local libraries around the country.” says Jay Marine, Director, Amazon Kindle. Amazon.com news release

Some suggest that Overdrive has merely opened the door to its demise, others that they are merely rolling over and awaiting the cheque. Whatever your thinking on the outcome of the marriage, it now has been consummated and Kindle lending is here to stay. Forget that lending has been available on other platforms it is Kindle that counts and Kindle that now resonates with ebooks in the mind of the consumer.

Library lending does have rules on the checking out e-books. In the main publishers have said that libraries must treat digital collections the same way as they treat physical collections. This means that if a library buys 5 copies of a certain book, then only 5 copies can be digitally checked out at one time. This may cause frustration for members but they then appreciate not having to visit a physical library which can be downloaded from anywhere. They also don’t have to return the books as they simply become inaccessible. Best of all they are free to members.
However, the restriction on concurrent loans could mean that members who find their desired book is already out on loan could elect to join the queue, or as is more likely, simply go and buy it from Amazon. If the library loan demand increases as expected, then its logically to assume that Amazon will benefit and pick up more sales. The more the latent demand the better it may become for Amazon.

Some publishers have not risen to the opportunity and have chosen instead to bury their heads in their bookshelves. Two major trade publishers, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster, still do not make their e-books available to libraries. HarperCollins on the other hand has annoyed some librarians by introducing a new restriction on its e-books, that limited individual checking out of a title to 26 times before it ‘digitally expired’ and had to be repurchased.

So the big question remains whether the ebook revolution is going to bring millions of readers to the public library, as predicted by Overdrive’s CEO Steve Potash, or create a springboard to a new consumer model which could actually damage the digital public library?

We think it is a great opportunity for libraries but only if publishers seek to make it happen and everyone makes sure that it is mutually beneficial.

What is astounding in today’s world is why the libraries did little to actually create their own service. Why they effectively outsourced their shelves to others and failed to aggregate themselves. Some such as the National libraries have clearly created their own digital collections, but the vast majority have simply rolled over and let in the likes of Overdrive and now Amazon wallpaper their shelves. Are public libraries to become mere 'white label' libraries in the future.

We have to ask whether that is was wise dot com?

Some of our other recent posts on this subject:
Whose going to capture the various library worlds June 20th 2011
Amazon Takes Another Step to Join the Publishing Pieces May 5th 2011
Amazon Overdrive Potentially Lock Up Libraries April 20th 2011
Freeing eLibraries to Compete? March 15th 2011
Digital Library Madness: 26 and You Are Out February 27th 2011

It's Good To Talk Socially

So is it cut and dry that Facebook rules and the rest remain ‘also rans’? It’s true that the more we invest our time and capture our information the harder it is to wean us off our favourite social network drug.

Social networks now matter to business not just to spread the word and promote their service offers but in building communities. Therefore all businesses must view these as essential communication channels and invest accordingly. The business that fails in the future may well be the one without network communication.

As consumers, we have often demonstrated as liking for joined up thinking and tightly integrated applications. Amazon, Microsoft and many others have proved that the best product doesn’t always win over that which is user friendly. Amazon’s ‘one click’ is a perfect example of something small and simple that is both attractive and compelling to many. We have also seen earlier social network service leaders stumble as users demand more joined up services and as the boundaries of the network and service functions expand.

As we master one new service we soon want it neatly joined to the rest. One of Amazon’s smartest moves was their affiliate programme which built their brand through others. The ‘one stop shop’ will continue to be attractive to many.
So what is so attractive with the social network of Google+?

Some things such as the contact ‘circles’ would appear neater but much off it looks and feels very similar to others.

However there are differences.

Conference calls have long been a essential business tools and the "mobile hangout" feature, allows Google+ users to also now enjoy video chats with groups of friends. Whilst "Hangouts on Air" would allow anyone with a video podcast to broadcast it to the widest audience. Google has not only developed the hangout service but are set to demonstrate it through the rapper star to promote his very own hangout and new medium.

So is Google+ now developing social networks and starting to compete not only Facebook, but also the likes of Skype. It certainly has the potential to adopt a holistic approach and recognise that users use search, maps, youtube, etc and wrapping them in their own social world may be more effective than presented them disparately in others.

However the 64 dollar remains- will users move their community service to others or remain with their current investment and also is any technology lead sustainable in today’s highly integrated world?

Paws in The Proceedings

Some would suggest that 12 weeks is a long time during a period of rapid change, others that it is a mere blink of an eye. For the last 12 weeks we haven’t written a line about technology, digitisation or publishing. The reasons for this paws in the proceedings were many. It wasn’t that we felt we had little to say, or that things weren’t happening, or we felt that that publishing was now digital, nor did we have writer’s block.

So what have we missed during this last 12 weeks?

Legally things have continued much as before. The Goodle Book Settlement continues to go on and on. Although Judge Chin has at least set a legal agenda and timetable the parties have now moved on from snippets to distribution and it is worse than watching paint dry. One can almost guarantee that by the time they finally settle the agenda would have some new twist, will mostly be irrelevant and the only ones to profit would be the lawyers. The Office of Fair Trading still can’t seem to get its head around agency pricing, but we must recognise this is the same body who once thought CD pricing in the UK was fair. The Authors Guild’s have lodged a case against the HaitiTrust’s digitisation of orphans, which would seem to suggest to some that the lawyers in the AG are steering the ship and making hay whilst the sun shines. Also we now have the extension of music copyright to accommodate those aging musicians and the ever youthful Cliff Richard.

As we have often said, publishing is a rights business without a rights registry and apparently trying to migrate into the digital world, using at best paper and worst telepathy.

Should we have expected any different in 12 weeks on the legal front?

Market developments however never stop and Amazon certainly keeps announcing acquisitions, partnerships and new services. Any venture that raises its head above the parapet is fair game on Amazon’s radar and if it isn’t then its probably failed. The potential acquisition by Amazon of The Book Depository would appear to be good for consumers but potentially bad for the traditional channel. However some would suggest that the traditional channel has so far failed to compete online. Amazon have also pushed forward with their Overdrive library partnership which potentially is a game changer and they are also quietly pushing their Prime service offer to underpin their services. The only cloud on their horizon continues to be US sales tax issue.

The only other market news to grab our attention was the establishment, or ‘Disneyfication’ of Harry Potter into Pottermore.com. Despite Rowling’s previous position on the digital revolution, the move was logical, but the model is somewhat limited for others and who would want to be an agent in these changing times!
Technology has been relatively quiet during the quarter. Perhaps it was summer or perhaps they are all queued up awaiting Frankfurt. Sony did continue to huff and puff with a new model based on the old same story and its hardly surprising that they are even stalling in their own backyard. They may be lifted if Waterstones once again adopt them as their ereader answer, but for now look a spent force.

Rumours of an Amazon tablet have started to firm up with some even reporting on its testing. Its hard to say whether it is a Nook beater or a iPad rival today, but it is certainly one to watch especially if tethered to Whispernet and offered on the same connection terms as the Kindle. Sorry Amazon brand managers, that should read ‘Kindle’ not the ‘the Kindle’. What is clear is that apart from THE Kindle reader black and white eink is going out of fashion.

Finally, it was interesting to see Google acquiring Motorola. This says much about the continued rise of mobile technology and could offer some very interesting options for Android and Google integration.

During the period we lost Michael Hart the founder of Wikipedia and ebook visionary and also Steve Jobs finally stepped down at Apple. Both have left a significant digital legacy and have changed publishing from the outside.

The one thing that is now starting to gain column inches and much speculation is what some call ‘Netflix for ebooks’ or in Europe ‘Spotify for ebooks’. This is a change in the consumer model, from outright purchase and ownership, to rental and subscription models. We have long argued this and Amazon well poised to move both on the consumer and now library fronts . However, the industry seems reluctant to embrace the change and is bogged down with yesterday’s contracts, terms and model.

Perhaps digital publishing is just like herding cats

Streaming Media In A YouTube World

We live in a YouTube world which is one that changes how we interact with all media. We once listened, watched and read media, but today we increasingly adapt, sample, make and recreate it. From sampling music and repurposing it to films, social networking and expressing our views online, we now want to share media at a click and online.

Today the Administrative Office of the US Courts, report that less than 50 people are charged with a criminal copyright offense a year Today the Administrative Office of the US Courts, report that less than 50 people are charged with a criminal copyright offense a year.

However a new US bill, Senate Bill 978 could make the embedding copyrighted videos a crime, punishable by five years jail. The bill extends the existing laws on the reproduction and distribution of copyrighted works with the phrase "public performances by electronic means". Today it is illegal to reproduce or distribute copyrighted works by downloading them, but streaming has been classified as a "performance" rather than distribution and has therefore has been exempt. Under this change streaming copyrighted works will no longer be a misdemeanour and once the video has to be seen by at least 10 people over the course of 180 days and if the value of the broadcast is worth more than $2,500 and the value of the copyright licenses are worth more than $5,000 it will become a felony. Ok let’s accept that the 10 people in 6 months would appear to be a very low, if not ridiculous catch all, bar and we must also question the value threshold as also being so low in comparison to what the RIAA valued a tune in their litigations.

The bill aimed at streaming services, but as we migrate from downloading to streaming media this act could further expose the widening gulf between the media industry and the consumers who are often unable to see the rules with the clarity of others. We could also face the question of those who play the movies at home being at risk. What is also clear is that there is a new generation of users who do not share the same approach to copywrite and maybe the sick approach is not the answer as they potentially are the future.

The irony the route adopted is that it is very likely stimulate demand and make more aware for the already growing number of sites that stream videos and movies legally.

Google Must Be Having A StreetView Laugh

Someone in Google must have more money than sense as they actually deployed their Street View cars to Bangalore. As I write this I am in fact in Bangalore and know too well the traffic chaos that is India and in particularly the big cities. Today I was stuck in traffic and what was on a map a short journey turned into 45 mins of honking and a tribute to the special awareness of Indian drivers who miss an accident by sometimes thin air. As for mapping the streets that conveniently often are not in English and don’t exist then that is another matter.

However we are saved for putting yet another car into this madness as Google’s cars have been grounded after an objection from the city police. Google, received a letter from the Commissioner of Police of Bangalore asking it to stop the cars. MediaNama, claim the police also have reservations regarding legality of Google's Street View in India. Street View is claimed also by some that the filming falls under the FDI (foreign direct investment) policy that governs investment and participation by foreign companies in Indian media.

Personally I don’t see the point of filming traffic jams, tut tuts, hairy vehicle movements and the odd street but it could be a super deterrent for anyone thinking they will hire a car and drive in India.

Source Times of India

Whose is going to Capture the Various Library Worlds

The library digital world is starting to undergo some serious consolidation and establish interesting partnerships. The market itself is quite diverse with public, institutional, academic, corporate and educational libraries supporting different usage and content needs and straggling not just books but learned journals, journals, reference works and information resources.

Overdrive announced a partnership arrangement with Amazon to offer the giant’s digital content through their increasingly dominant public library offer. This coupled with Amazon’s new and limited loan service begs many questions as to the exclusivity of the partnership, the long term ambitions of Amazon and their intent to move in this direction. The public library arena could become crowded with many digital supply offers and we still have Ingram in the US and many localised offers emerging around the world.

Google appears to be stuck with their settlement offer and intent to cloud cover the library world but their intent to be the information index of the world and their continuation to scan libraries and now grow their bookstore clearly indicates that they aren’t going away. However they have just announced and arrangement with The British Library to access a huge volume of out-of-copyright works for free for the first time on the internet and mirrors deals Google already has in place with more than 40 libraries around the world. The British Library deal covers some 250,000 texts dating back to the 18th Century. Google covers the cost of digitisation, producing one copy for its own use, an one copy for the library.

Smiths News bought Dawson Holding earlier this month. Dawson Books, is the largest division on the acquisition and makes for a good strategic fit, complementing Smiths Bertram's wholsale and library services division. Dawson's eBook platform provides an established digital platform, an alarming gap in Bertram's market offer. Hat more acquisitions could be undertaken.

EBSCO and The H.W. Wilson Company have recently announced a merger agreement. EBSCO and Wilson have complimentary products the merger will enable the Wilson controlled vocabularies to be integrated into EBSCO's controlled vocabularies, resulting in improved subject indexing for EBSCO databases and its search and relevancy ranking algorithms. Similarly, Wilson indexing, abstracts and full text will be fully searchable via EBSCO Discovery Service for subscribers of Wilson databases.

SwetsWise, a competitor of EBSCO, has expanded its eBook catalogue to over one million publications. Swets has achieved this with leading eBooks publishers and aggregators. This in turn compliments and enhances their librarian interface for librarians and information managers to select and acquire eBook content. Customers are able to purchase under the same pricing and purchase models offered by publishers and aggregators directly offering a single, user-friendly interface to acquire and manage both eBooks and journals.

Then we have OCLC who have their WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway to access WorldCat, the world’s largest library community of over 72,000 libraries in 170 countries which host over 230 million records of books, e-books, serials, sound recordings, images, musical scores, maps, visual materials, mixed materials and computer files.

Finally Bloomsbury have show us that a simple library shelf offer has a great appeal to public libraries and a model that has the ability for libraries to do it themselves.

Are You Selling Your eBooks Via An Honesty Box?

Imagine you have 100 ebooks and each has to be handed over to not one reselle,r but potentially many. Each reseller stores the files on their system and effectively sells copies of the file to their customers and can also sell them through other resellers to their clients. The files sold may be complete download sales and could if I have granted these could be sold as separate chapters. Some could be sold online as direct rentals, or under subscription. Some may be loaned by ‘libraries’. Revenue could be subject to an agency model on a ‘fixed price’ , or net sales as per a wholesaler terms. Whatever, the model, whatever the channel, whatever the price you only effectively learn what has been sold long after the event.

Now ask your CFO if they are happy giving the company assets to all resellers and then waiting, for them to tell you what they have sold and to pay you what some call as being ‘on consignment’ in a print world and via an ‘honesty box’ in the digital world. The difference is that in the print world you can count the units out the door and the stock in hand. In a digital world you merely hand over one copy of which many copies are made and sold, hopefully many times.

We are not questioning the integrity of any reseller service, we are merely pointing out that the digital ebook world is built on a lots of trust and not a lot of counter balances. Some aggregators do provide some statistics of sales online, others you wait for the sales report to tell you the facts after the event. In all cases money sits in cash flows waiting for yesterday’s financial processing to grind into action.

Now spare a thought for the author who is one link up the chain and has to wait until his royalty statement is produced to find out what sold and the royalties earned. It often can’t be done any sooner as it has ‘to be processed and consolidated with the old print royalty system’. We would suggest that authors may be a bit more digitally responsive with transparency and speedier in not instant reward. Some would suggest that they first have to earn out any advance on front list but on back list, we shouldn’t have the same block and maybe we should be thinking how and why rather than why not?

Digital is different but we spend far too much time dreaming up the sizzle and worrying about the formats and standards and selling and often very little focusing on how we could collect cash faster and more transparently. The next thing we will have is a new audit service to pour over the figures to validate that they are accurate or not and of course incur yet more cost to offset. The obvious candidates for this would be the likes of Nielson and Bowker.

We are living in a world of instant cash transactions, where a credit transaction made anywhere in the world can be see by all, where information is real time. We subject the ebooks to DRM authentication which automatically can validate licences in flight and the likes of Adobe can authenticate every encrypted licence of an ebook using their DRM solution in real time, yet we can’t appear to see sales and collect cash on payment. It somewhat ironic that it could be argued that Adobe today has better sales data on the transactions they licence, than the publishers! There should be no digital returns and what disputes may occur, can always be dealt with retrospectively. So why has the standards and processes not been delivered to provide live and transparent reporting of sales transactions in a standard manner. We bet its coming but not soon and probably at the same speed that the returns issue did in print.

Perhaps we have been so obsessed with readers, platforms, formats, aggregators, pricing and DRM we have forgotten to close the loop? Perhaps we shouldn’t be thinking about ‘messages’ as much as instant processes.

Bye Bye Book Of The Month

Remember those ‘Book of the Month’ Book Clubs, where you often forgot to send the unwanted title back and then spent an age sorting it out? Bertelsmann were the ‘Book club’ with the leading Book Club services in many countries and a club for every taste.

Today, the once giant club has fallen on hard times and laid the blame on the internet, Oprah, deep discounting and much more. The US Direct Group’s business alone has shrunk by some 75% from its peak. The truth is that they, like many others, thought the end would never come and they had a licence to trade for ever. Today the Direct Group has sold off most of its international subsidiaries, U.S., UK, Italy, Spain, Australia, Asia, and France, and plan to wind up the rest.

Webb bought up the UK BCA business and have proudly declared that they intend to increase sales by 30%, but after all that is easily when the beast is on its back and sales are rock bottom. Najafi Companies, a Phoenix-based private equity firm, have bought Direct Group North America and clubs such as the Book of the Month Club and Columbia House.

So what went wrong for what on reflection was an obvious internet service? After all they understood managing mail lists and direct marketing. They understood the book market and product mix. The had a diverse demographic of heavy book buyers and they did business from the armchair.

The problem was the model which was based on, locking members into buying cycles, dumping a book of the month on members and ‘twigging ‘. Twigging is were one starts with a branch, say History then that twigs into ancient civilisation, medieval, 20th century and so on and these can even twig further. They missed two significant changes; one that readers were becoming and probably always have been eclectic in their reading and secondly depth of range was becoming available in a click through the likes of Amazon. In fact Amazon is the new book club sending you alerts to titles you may be interested in and given you the range at your convience in a one click operation.

The challenges that the old Book Clubs that have not already adapted now face are huge and that is without digital content. However, their skills and ability to rise to the challenge is still possible as they still have a community or communities but will they understand that twigging is for the past? Will they open themselves up to discounting? Will they leverage their huge lists before they become inactive or die? Will they understand how to digitally direct market? Is it possible for them to step forward to take on digital rentals?

In our hearts we want them to change, throw out the old and antiquated business model and practices, but somehow in our heads we fear that leopards don’t change their spots.

Nokia Open Up A Patent Toll Both

Nokia has announced that Apple will pay to use the their technologies, and finally ends a long-running patent litigation between the companies.

First Nokia sued Apple in 2009 and that was followed by Apple countersuing and that was followed by Nokia extending the action last year. The areas of dispute included 3G, Wi-Fi technology, caller ID and touch interfaces.

Apple will make an undisclosed one-off payment to be followed by further undisclosed ongoing royalties and although the figures remain confidential it is clear from Nokia’s statement that it is likely to be significant.

The development will almost certainly mean that other manufacturers using Google’s Android platform are now likely to have to pay Nokia for using the same set of patents. This could be beneficial to Apple who may have higher margins in which to play than their competitors and may also have less of an infringement to settle. Whatever the outcome Nokia has a new source of revenues and perhaps can now use this to move forward.

Apple, Apps and eBooks

In the current series of the reality TV show, ‘The Apprentice’, Lord Sugar, set his would be entrepreneurs the task of developing an app and marketing it. The winner was not decided by the best app, the best launch pitch, or the work that went into the app. The winner was be the team that got the most hits in 24hrs and the factor that decided the result was down to one pitch to the leading app endorser, as they promoted the best new app each day to millions of consumers. The teams didn’t know that this was the ‘kingmaker’ ,but it did decide the winner. The moral being was that it is simply down to getting the backing of the man that matters, who influenced in biggest market and hey presto, you can have a hit even with a dog of an app.

Apps however aren’t for every ebook. Some publishers appear to want to use technology for technology sake, whilst others are happy to simply pour the print content unaltered into a digital jacket. However, digital often offers much more than these two extremes, but all too often it is the extremes that appear to be concerning many in the market today. We believe that digital is not constricted to the size of work and that 300 print pages may not be appropriate and that digital also offers new serialisation opportunities that may be far more appropriate to a digital work. Some would suggest that digital is not just about stuffing the unsuspecting book with games, interaction, video and technology in order to make it just ‘fatter’. After all, in many cases it’s the same book, same blurb and same stuff.

A major trade publisher we talked to recently has adopted a similar approach to developing apps as Lord Sugar. Perhaps they are followers of ‘The Apprentice’. This time the kingmaker is Apple and the do what Apple say they want to see in an app and to work with and exploit their technology. They the work with Apple to get their endorsement and hey presto, a frog can becomes a prince. So if you want success; forget what the market wants, forget what the author wants, forget the publishing input, forget the reader and do what Apple wants in order to show off on their iPad platform. This may be a simplified take on what was being advocated, but it is close enough to revive many ‘CD Rom nightmares’. It also begs the question, whether the dog is wagging the tail, or the other way around?

We found ourselves asking how many publishers had used focus groups on their digital developments, or were the simply listen to what the likes of Apple said they wanted and looking for their endorsement to push sales. Perhaps Sir Alan is right and the actual content and marketing doesn’t count nearly as much as being kissed by the likes of Apple.

Agents In A Digital World

Literary Agents fulfil many valuable roles. There will always be those that are deemed better than others and those who specialise or excel in certain areas. Some are expert ‘match makers’ and have the right contacts, in the right places, to ensure that ‘perfect’ match. Some are legal eagles and have the ability to pick through the finest of legal jargon, to ensure the interests of their clients are best served. Some are like PR Managers, who know how to exploit the author’s brand and extend the profile and earnings past the book. Some are ‘shapers’ and help hone the work and its position for the market. Some are all-rounders.

Whatever the strengths and weaknesses, agents fulfil a pivotal role and like many agents in other walks of life they are now built into the publishing system.

Today, we read about the agents becoming digital publishers and publishers circumventing agents on digital in the UK and US and we have to ask what the role of the agent is in a digital world and whether it has changed? Is the role one we have constructed and built out of genuine need, or is it one that that has creep up on us and is now merely been woven into the fabric of publishing?

Regular readers will know that we have just returned from an enlightening trip to Norway, where as well as speaking, we also listened to the industry and gained some understanding of how they did some things somewhat differently.

Norway doesn’t have literary agents sitting between the author and the publisher like we do in the UK and US. They do use agents but mainly for foreign rights sales and it appears to be somewhat of an ‘agent free’ zone. This may be based on the size of the market, the fact that it is indigenous, the size of the writing pool and manuscript pile, or just be down to evolving to a different way of doing things.

The vast majority of contracts in Norway are to a standard industry boilerplate contract. Yes in the main the construct of the contract is the same for all. Now that is novel and offers so much opportunity with respect to recording, managing and searching for rights.

If we step back and ask what the role of the agent should be in a digital world some would argue that by becoming a publisher agents loose their independence to represent authors and have a conflict of interest. Others would argue, that by grasping the digital backlist nettle they are in fact waking up publishers to the heritage they have all too often ignored and treated as ‘having had its day’.

An agent approached a friend only a few days ago asking about a digital deal on some print back list titles that had been reverted. They had a ‘great deal’ on the table and offered the author the industry ‘standard’ 25%. Was it such a good deal and were they merely looking at the opportunity to collect 20% on what was a dead title? Many questions ensued. Was this a fixed term licence or perpetual? How much marketing and sales promotion was to be done, or was it to merely be thrown onto a digital shelf? What were the sales expectations and pricing model to be applied? The questions went on and the answers became somewhat muffled.

Its ironic that in an on line world of instant sales, cash transfers, real time information and where digital sales are sold effectively on consignment, it still take months for an author to be paid their digital royalty and they can’t they see their digital sales in real time? Its as if everyone has forgotten about real time sales and still want to force digital sales through old print royalty systems.

Is it any surprise that many authors and agents are now taking their digital opportunities more seriously than some would suggest their publishers are?

There is no right or wrong answer to the question of whether agents are essential and what they role should be on digital. However, one has to respect those who have at least seen that merely throwing digital titles onto a digital shelf in order to just to tick a box and one that that was all too often missing in the contract is maybe not always the answer.

KOBO Has To Follow?

We have still to address ebooks for free from your armchair via your public library versus ebooks to buy, or licence from the internet. The challenge is real and continues to demonstrate that digital is different.

We saw Barnes and Noble and Amazon open up their respective doors to book lending and although this is still on a small scale. We have seen Amazon forging a relationship with Overdrive and providing ebooks alongside Overdrive into libraries. It is also easy to envisage that together with Google’s cloud approach books on demand, for individual rental or subscription may not too is not far away and it is easy to see Apple ticking all the boxes. It is also easy to envisage this being the way to create effective reselling or licensing of used ebooks.

Now we read that the other albeit smaller aggregator Kobo, has also an eBook lending program planned this year! Although Kobo has not divulged all of their plans for lending program it is defiantly coming and probably a must if they are to keep up with the bigger competition.

The challenge for all these new initiatives is to get Publishers to agree to it and although the bigger ones may be cautious and slow to adopt, independents are more likely to adopt a more adventurous and early adopter approach.

In order for Kobo to be on par with the biggest companies in the e-reader and ebook market, they have to implement ebook lending and also a self-publishing program.

Norwegian Wood

Norway is different but similar to many countries as it grapples with the challenges of a changing book market. It is assumed by many that they are inside the European Union but they are in fact like Switzerland and Iceland outside of the Union and voted by referendums in 1972 and 1994not to join. However, they are within other European entities and often have to follow the path set by Europe without the power of a vote. Obviously they have their own currency.

They operate a fixed book market which controls the price of a title for up to 15 months. Any title bublished with a calendar year can not be discounted until after April 30th the next year. So a title published say in October only has a fix price life of some few months. There is also a National Book Sale at the beginning of each year when unfixed priced books can also be sold in a similar way that the old National Book Sale took place in the UK under the Net Book Agreement.



Print books incur no sales tax whilst all ebooks have a 25% sales tax. This is currently under a lot of pressure from within Norway as well as from the VAT changes and current harmonisation activity within Europe.

A further consideration in Norway is the vertical nature of much of their market. The major chains are owned by the major distributors who are owned by the major publishers. For example the large Scandanvian publishers Bonnier and Egmont own Norwegian publisher Cappelen Damm who owns distributor Central Distribution and bookchain Tanum. This market contruct works both ways but is seen by many outside of the verticals as unhealthy and by many within them as healthy. The one thing that is clear just walking around Oslo is that Norwegians love books and there are bookstores around every corner. There are some 650 store in the country and these are dominated by the chains Ask, Libris, Tanum and Norli.



There are also no prices on the book jackets.



Digitally the publishers and booksellers have got together to create The National Bookdatabase which aims to accommodated all the Norwegian digital books and distribute these through the bookstores. This interesting initiative is to be applauded and if they keep control of their own indigenous literature and heritage then perhaps they are showing a way in which smaller countries should approach digital.

‘How do we Cross the Digital Divide?’

Presentation to the Norwegian Book Congress
Oslo, Norway, June 2011


I would like to start by offering four observations which I believe help forge the future of ‘the book’ and with it our digital future.I will then look at how these are reshaping the author, the publisher, the book channels and bookstore and are starting to determine the winners, survivors and the losers.

The first observation is that we now live in a YouTube society. One, where self expression and opinion can now be, heard, seen and shared in a click.

Yesterday we listened, watched and read media. Today we make it and instantly share it. Today is less about quality and more about the width.

At the start YouTube looked bad quality, with cameras often out of focus and juddering. But YouTube today has redefined video and even influenced film. It has created a new genre of film, created new stars, launched musicians and given us all very funny moments. With social networking it has redefined communication and expression.

This explosion of creativity means that Publishing must now learn to embrace the author, whose English and grammar may not be old school, but who has a story to tell and often a new language to tell it in.

Self publishing is no longer the grubby slush pile of sad unwanted titles, but a vibrant market which is increasingly engaging more and more people. This is not bad, this is not to be looked down on, but is something exciting, new and to be celebrated.

We may not have more readers today but we certainly have more writers!

We must now celebrate and learn to accommodate a new dawn of creative expression which the YouTube world has created.


The second observation is that digital is different.

This may sound silly and somewhat obvious but many publishers by their actions obviously don’t think so. Many see digital as merely replacing the physical jacket with a digital one. Same text, same blurb same stuff.Some want to enrich it by adding more media and make it in effect ‘fatter’, but it remains the same story, same stuff.

It isn’t about stuffing the unsuspecting book with multi media, gizmos and delivering digital stuff. It is about understanding how digital makes things different and creates new opportunities. The challenge is to recognise that digital offers a fundamental change in the development and delivery of content and how it is read.

Ask yourself why do we still continue to produce books with around 300 pages, or the optimum print economic model?

Why does the work even have to be complete on initial publication? After all the serialised story is not new, Dickens did it in the 19th century. The Japanese Keitai style of novel may now be more appropriate for the new mobile technology and lifestyle than today’s all or nothing 300 page tome?

Another issue is the assumption that digital rights are just an extension of print rights. Why do we continue to combine digital and print rights and surely its like combining film and print rights – sometimes relevant but far more the case it’s not.

Digital is different.


The third observation is about marketing and promoting works.

The book industry appears still locked in a 20th century time warp and in denial over the 21st century.

As an industry we have failed to deliver anything but an ISBN to identify a work and now are use it to identify everything and every part of everything. We failed to understand the need to group renditions of the same or similar works and fragments were unheard of!

The International Standard Text Code (ISTC) has long missed its opportunity and one that is not coming back again and lies buried deep in the industry labyrinth of standards.

Industry standards bodies which achieved so much to improve the print supply chain appear to be standing transfixed like rabbits in the digital headlights. They also remain focused on business to business but it is business to consumer that presents the challenge and these bodies where never set up with that focus.

Today the line between content and context is blurred.

We used to use jackets, blurbs, search inside widgets to promote and market books.
However, today we live in a YouTube world of visual real time promotion and social and viral marketing.Its ironic that everday all of us find stuff via search engines and these often care little about structured metadata and ISBNs.

We talk a lot about watching and learning from other media sectors yet we appear to have not even seen or understood music’s MTV moment.

The forth and final observation is that media in a digital form; music, film, news , games, books are moving from a world in which we bought and ‘owned’ media to one where we subscribe and licence it on demand.

Cloud computing and mobile technology is changing how we access and utilise media. Pandora, Spotify and the likes of Last FM are starting to supply whatever music we want to hear, whenever we want to hear it and wherever we want to listen to it. Online gaming is proving that many want to play and compete with others online. TV on demand’s growth is proving that we don’t want to be scheduled but to watch at our convenience.

The on demand world changes not only how we distribute and consume media but also how we licence it.In reality we now no longer own an ebook but merely licence it. This obviously impacts how we price it and what people are willing to pay for it.


So what do we draw from these brief observations and is there a way in which we should respond?

The challenge with rapid and fundamental change is that it is disruptive. Anything that takes time to adapt is probably dead before it is born. Development by committees was once needed and consensus was seen as the goal but moving at the pace of the slowest and accommodating all could now be a recipe for disaster today. Collaboration and consensus is always best, but these are no longer acceptable if it takes too long.

What is becoming increasingly clear is that the roles and value of those between the author and the reader are increasingly being questioned and are blurring. There is no divine right to survive and some will not make it across the digital divide.

I would now like to look the roles we thought we understood so well and would last forever.

I want to give you my insight into: authors, publishers, channels and bookstores. The players in today’s trade Value Chain from the Author to the Reader.

The Author

These authors all have something in common:

• Stieg Larsson
• John Steinbeck
• Ian Fleming
• JD Salinger
• Roald Dahl
• Jane Austen
• John Buchan
• Ernest Hemingway
• Catherine Cookson
• Raymond Chandler
• James Joyce
• Enid Blyton
• Joseph Heller
• Agatha Christie
• Douglas Adams
• Joseph Conrad
• Henry James
• George Orwell
• Philip K Dick
• Graham Greene
• EM Forster
• Kurt Vonnegut
• Vladimir Nabokov
• William Golding
• Aldous Huxley
• F Scott Fitzgerald

They are all dead.

Many of their works are in the public domain and are termed classics, others works remain in copyright but are out of print and some are still in print.

I’ll give you a test. Walk into any bookshop anywhere in the world and I will bet you that less than one in a thousand buyers turn first to the copyright page to see when the book was published and if it’s new. Obviously, the exception are those who seek first editions but in the main readers care less about the age of the work than its content. However some would say that publishers appear to care more about the new than the old.

Authors are for life not just for Christmas.

In the digital world an author doesn’t go out of print, do not get forgotten and filed away under ‘reprint under consideration’ and importantly can find a second audience. Digital may not generate the unit sales of print but can offer a perpetual bookshelf for all to enjoy.

Digital is just as much about rediscovery as it is about creation.

The Bloomsbury Reader programme is one example of the digital opportunity to rediscover past modern classics. There are many more now being initiated by authors themselves, by literary estates, agents as well as publishers.

Rewarding authors in a digital model is a challenge and merely replicating the old royalty system with different digital rates, is at best questionable and worst plain stupid. Its ironic that in an on line world of instant sales, cash transfers, real time information and where digital sales are sold effectively on consignment, it still take months for an author to be paid their digital royalty and they can’t they see their digital sales in real time? Its as if everyone has forgotten about real time sales and still want to force digital sales through old print royalty systems.

Is it any surprise that many authors and agents are now taking their digital opportunities more seriously than some would suggest their publishers are?

In a Youtube world we must also respect that some authors may just want their works to be available. I love this quote from music legend and folk singer Woodie Guthrie ‘This song is copyrighted in the US, under Seal of Copyright 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without permission, will be mighty good friends of ours, cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it, that’s all we wanted to do.’

The Publisher

A good friend and US publishing consultant and thinker Jim Lichtenberg once related that publishing was similar to two frogs mating. They produce thousands of spawn, which turns into hundreds of tadpoles, who eventually become tens of baby frogs swimming around avoiding their many predators. Finally, a mere handful make it to the bank and came ashore. One is kissed by Oprah Winfrey and book is turned into a ‘Prince’ and a bestseller. The moral being that you needed the thousands to get to the one best seller and predicting that is often very difficult.

Today that still prevails in printworld but in digital the stakes are somewhat lower and the returns even less predictable and more baby frogs can now make it to the bank.

However we must realise that publishing is not one industry but several that have been merely joined by a common format the book.

As digital starts to explode the book spine, then these different sectors will move often in different digital directions and at different speeds. Academic and professional is digitally different to education and they are both different to trade. Even within sectors such as trade genre will diversify.

It is interesting to observe sectors such as academic and professional consolidating into more vertical units and trying to move increasingly direct, whilst their institutional buyers are trying to take control themselves and break them up. Education publishers are now creating learning platforms where curriculum content is only part of the solution. We see Trade publishers trying to create niche and brand verticals. What is interesting is that the economies of scale and scope that prevailed in print don’t always transfer to digital where there are now newer and bigger gorillas. Nimble and agile are words that should count in digital publishing.

All too often we still see digital books being produced last as if they are an afterthought they are not seen as integral or even the primary production driver of a work.This just perpetuates yesterday and that may not be appropriate tomorrow.

Publishing should be digital and Digital publishing is publishing

The Channels

Digital and network technology together with a global economy have changed the channels we once knew. The wholesalers and distributors who thrived in the print world are increasingly finding it though against the new digital aggregators of the virtual world.

My company’s technology underpins the Gardner Books digital platform in the UK, KNV/O in Germany, Centraal Boekhuis in Holland, the Bloomsbury online library shelf and the ebog public library system in Denmark and others, so giving me some good insights to digital channels.

The US trade ebook market share today is different according to who you listen to but the general consensus is that Amazon has between 55 and 60%, Barnes and Noble between 15 and 20%, Apple 10%, Kobo between 5 and 10% with Google has to make it mark and around 2 to 5%. The rest are not worth writing about.

Do you see an opportunity for others to achieve these levels or even double digits?
Will Amazon’s number continue to fall as others grow? Are the US market shares like to prevail across all trade markets?

Interestingly I refer to these players as channels but they are increasingly vertical aggregators, providing digital platforms and selling direct or through affiliates.

The market share figures will change between countries and some US centric offers such as Barnes and Noble may find it tough where their brand is not known. The global brands such as Amazon, Google and Apple will however find it easy to use their brands and reach to dominate all markets. But will they remain focused on English language titles and other major languages, or take on all books in all languages?

Just like Barnes and Noble have demonstrated the strength of a localised brand opportunity in the US, I believe the same is true in many other markets. Countries that have their own language and an indigenous publishing heritage and industry could focus on that and learn to compliment the English language books and channels as they have with print.

However, fixed price markets that supported print may not work well with highly reactive and free markets and the lack of VAT harmony can also present a negative consumer issue.

Amazon has all the bases covered from author to reader and their recent announcement of the establishment of a full publishing division under the leadership of Larry Kirshbaum is not one to be ignored.

Barnes and Noble have long published and bought into print runs. They have also acquired Sterling Publishing and also have now launched their self publishing ebook venture Pubit.

Channels are no longer just about distributing books.

The Bookstores

So where does this leave the Bookstore?

This is an interesting picture I took of a beautiful storefront in Lille, France. The shop once was a bookstore and over the window it still says Livers modern and Livers Ancient – new books and old books but under this somewhat iconic façade is now a mobile phone shop advertising the iPad2 in its window.

Is this the future of the bookstore?









We have seen the dramatic downfall of the bookchains in the US with Borders, Angus & Robertson and Borders bookstore chains in Australia, and Whitcoulls stores in New Zealand and the UK with Waterstones being sold for chump change.

Independents continue to suffer with some making headway whilst many in the US and UK find it harder to survive against the discounting wars and their alienation from the digital world. Some believe that fixed price markets are the answer others that they often just perpetuate inefficiency and over production and we now live in a global economy that can expose localised price differences in a click.

The US ABA’s Indie Bound service may offer a digital hope for some bookstores but remember the bookstore that enters affiliate deals will be effectively handing over their brand and even clients to others. This after all is just another white label affiliate store.

The UK trade, just this month, awarded Sainsbury’s, the UK’s second largest supermarket the accolade of Best Book Chain. Sainsbury were not alone and Asda who are owned by WalMart were also in the running. This speaks volumes for the state of UK bookchains and the challenges now facing Waterstones.



This picture is of a book section within Asda early this year where they were selling books at £1 each and not a few thousand but hundreds of thousands. Interestingly they were cheaper than the gift cards in the next aisle. I recently also wrote about Carrefour supermarket book selling in France. Due to the fixed price market they are unable to offer deep discounts or the ridiculous prices of Asda. But they can enjoy high margin sales protected by the fixed pricing and high income driven by a focused range and their large footfall.

Whichever way you look at it the result is the same on the traditional bookstore.

Waterstones today may have challenges in stores but they also have an equally dire digital and online proposition. Earlier this year I wrote two articles, one of which is my second largest read of all time, entitled ‘Would You Buy an eBook Reader off this man?’ A recommended this read for anyone wishing to see how not to do it.

Last year when I spoke in Gothenberg I offered these ten tips for booksellers. I still hold to them:

1. Own The Customer Relationship
2. Create Communities
3. Sell Books
4. Think Mail Order and Internet
5. Be Promiscuous
6. Stop Competing with your allies
7. Forget POD think DOD (Digital on Demand)
8. Price Right
9. Don’t sell eReaders its not your business
10. Keep abreast of the Digital Market

All Bookstores are being squeezed by the new channels, new retailers and even the threat of Libraries loaning the ebooks for free over the internet. Amazon and Barnes and Noble also now have launched ebook loan services and Google wants to be a friend to both libraries and bookstores.

Bookstores now need to think outside of their comfort zone and into the digital one.
They may not sell digital over the counter but have to start to think of their business in a digital world.

I learnt a lot about the booktrade from my wife Annie Quigley who owns Bibliophile, the largest independent mail order bargain book club in the UK. She has just received a royal warrant for bookselling to Buckingham Palace and to the Duke of Edinburgh and she is one of only two booksellers to achieve this distinction. She has some 80,000 members which she sends a 36 page tabloid newpaper catalogue every 5 weeks, offering some 1300 titles, many of which will sell through on that catalogue. She buys firm and operates out of a warehouse in London’s East End.

This month she has just gone live with an ecatalogue.

This will go to over 50% of her members who can now order in a click off the ecatalogue and can also share it with anyone. Not only does it mimic her physical catalogue, include her unique reviews of every book, it offers annotations, bookmarks, send to a friend and much more. You can also text search across the ecatalogue. It also now holds her unique and personal Youtube book review videos and plays these within the catalogue. Best of all she now knows everyone who opened that catalogue and what pages and videos they viewed, and their orders are automatically captured within her back office.

Today the YouTube videos are of high end art or specialist and collectable books where the buyer wants to experience the book being handled and see more than just flat dry pages. They not only provide her members with a great experience but they put Annie’s enthusiasm and passion right in front of all her customers.

Forget meet the author this is a sort of, ‘meet the bookseller’.

In less than a couple of months she now has some 70 plus videos up on Facebook, YouTube and her blog and these numbers are growing every week as she buys, reviews and sells more books.

Annie is no ordinary bookseller, she is an editor and a marketer and also a publisher.

Bibliophile is digitally bringing back books she knows sell and have been forgotten.

She has just published, on the Kindle platform, her father’s ‘Lost For Words’ and ‘Diana’s Story’ which were also made into Emmy and Bafta award wining films and after a few years were forgotten by his publisher.

Next she plans to epublish her mother’s 30 historic novels and much more.

So I believe that booksellers do have a real future in the digital world.

I am pleased that here in Norway you thinking outside of the box and are working as one on your The Norwegian Bookdatabase.

It provides Norwegian Publishers and Booksellers the perfect platform to co-operate. It will also provide a viable platform to support Norwegian literature. Some may say that Norway is a small market but it supports hundreds of publishers, 650 bookstores and some 800 libraries and I don’t call that small.

Importantly, the repository is yours and you should keep it that way.

We all now live in a Brave New World and learning to compete, survive and flourish is all about ‘How we Cross the Digital Divide?’

Today I have given you four observations which I believe are things we must all take into consideration when planning our way forward. Today’s YouTube world is here, Digital is different, Digital marketing has to be consumer centric and we are from owning media to now licensing it on demand.

I have also given you some insights as how these may impact authors, publishers, channels and bookstores.

Finally a word of warning.

These are perilous and unchartered digital seas and although I may be able to teach you how to swim, I can’t stop you from drowning.

Bloomsbury Reader Is Digitally Refreshing

The easiest way to deal with orphan works is to adopt them digitally, but do so legitimately. This should not be achieved via the back door and by ‘snatching’ them off the street, but by establishing the owner, or agent and working with them to give them a second digital life. Forget what the pro Google Book Settlement advocates have long claimed, there is life in many of these works and there are lots of them out there worth adopting and that’s why Google wanted them so badly..

We have seen literary agents start to consider their back list and make bold steps to publish them. We have seen academic publishers, such as CUP and Taylor and Francis, build a significant business by keeping titles in print using on demand services. We have seen previously published authors dust down long overlooked titles and self publish them. We have seen the likes of Barnes and Noble launch Pubit and Amazon open its doors wide to publishing. We have seen Jane Friedman secure additional funding for her growing ‘Open Road‘ venture.

Now publishers are starting to waken up and realise that there is a wealth of material out there waiting to be rediscovered and adopted.

Bloomsbury has now joined forces with the Rights House to establish a new venture ‘Bloomsbury Reader’ that will publish digital versions of out-of-print titles and the service will not be exclusive but open to other literary services. Initially some 500 out-of-print titles from authors such as, Alan Clark , Roy Jenkins, Bernice Rubens, Edith Sitwell, Monica Dickens, VS Pritchett will be made available as ebooks and on print on demand.

Bloomsbury Reader is clearly aimed at addressing both that huge treasure trove of forgotten works that have long been forgotten in the trade’s obsession with its ‘grail’ quest to find that new bestseller and focus on cluster bombing front list titles onto the market. Bloomsbury have taken a logical step to work with those people who know what they have, what has been forgotten and what sold, the literary agent.

Ask any publisher what rights they are merely sitting on and are locked away in a cupboard and why these aren’t digital today and the answer will probably be somewhat muffled and the eyes adverted. We have long believed that these works should be made available and this initiative is tackling reverted rights works and those where the ownership is well established. We hope others will follow and trade publishers will unlock those rights that they are merely sitting on and give them a fresh digital start. However, publishing is not just about throwing books out into the market it is about refreshing them and promoting and distributing and the Bloomsbury Reader initiative has recognised this and built these steps into their programme. No doubt the titles will now also be built into the growing Bloomsbury Library Online service and be available to millions of library patrons.

It’s ironic that at a time when the Google Book Settlement looks thankfully lost, the trade is now starting to look hard at the orphan works and by adopting these forgotten heroes they are in fact addressing some of the issues that legislation and the Google settlement failed to come close to resolving.