Digitise the Waste

The greatest area of waste is often where you have to get your product seen. We may well used eco friendly paper, reduce the book miles or even cut back on executive travel but given the sheer number of titles, publishers and third parties waste prevails. Promotion, publicity and marketing, not only burn money but also currently generate more paper. Anyone who receives those glossy publisher and wholesaler’s catalogues, or a constant stream of advanced information sheets, review copies or turns the pages of any trade paper is witness to the waste generated in merely the industry talking to its self.

It is estimated that between 6 and 15% of initial print runs are given away as review, gratis or inspection copies. HarperCollins, reportedly distribute around 100,000 catalogues not once but three times a year. Paper, post and labour waste, that is replicated throughout the industry.

HarperCollins is among a group of major trade publishers who have recently announced that it is planning to convert its publishing catalogues from paper to online and have called the current system both economically and environmentally indefensible. HarperCollins President Jane Friedman in an article in the Associated Press stated, "I think we are overdue. We produce thousands and thousands of catalogues, many of which go right into the wastebaskets."Interestingly, their first class statement on environmental policy posted on their UK web site covers much but says nothing on marketing and promotional waste – perhaps it’s a given.

The question now is will the booksellers respond to the new format or take the traditional route and request a paper catalogue or ignore the ecatlogue and buy elsewhere? We can all see waste but realising the saving is often difficult in a many to many supply chain. Think how long it has taken the industry to move along the obvious supply chain logistics agenda.

Digitisation offers publishing far more than ebooks, audio downloads and online and marketing is one of the big prizes.

Update from Ashley Lodge,Corporate Responsibility Manager,HarperCollins Publishers

"HarperCollins UK stopped its company-wide glossy 4-colour sales catalogues in 2006. Instead they publish a condensed one-colour stocklist on recycled paper twice a year in line with bookseller demands."

No Exclusive iPhone Deal at HarperCollins

Last Friday we followed up on a page 3 news piece from ‘The Bookseller ‘ 9th November, 2007 that stated ‘HC in exclusive iPhone Deal’. We closed by stating that ‘we hope that logic prevails and the exclusive agreement is short lived.’
Well it would appear that there is no exclusive deal and that logic does prevail. We are pleased to correct anything we get wrong and many thanks to our friend Graham Bell at HarperCollins who emailed us:

Quite simply, HarperCollins has not inked any deal with Apple to provide book content for iPhone users. There is no 'exclusive'. There is no 'free'. In fact, there is no deal...

What HarperCollins and NewsStand HAVE done is create a website and JavaScript 'application' that allows iPhone and iPod Touch users access to our Browse Inside online book previews -- and in part because of the impressive touch-screen on those two devices, it looks great. One thing you didn't mention is that you can also preview a few minutes of the audiobook versions of many of the titles. I am pleased Apple chose our website as a 'staff favourite' to feature on its directory of iPhone-compatible websites, but the fact is that ANYONE can create their own iPhone-friendly website and submit it for inclusion in the Apple directory.
But if you don't have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can preview samples of the same books -- and thousands of others -- via our main consumer website at http://www.harpercollins.co.uk. So we see the iPhone version of Browse Inside as a way of extending the reach of our existing digital marketing. The idea of exclusivity arises from the fact that HarperCollins appears to be the only publisher that has done this for the iPhone and iPod Touch, not because of any deal with Apple. And we certainly aren't preventing other publishers doing something similar.
We continue to add both backlist and frontlist books to Browse Inside, and we will extend the selection of titles available on the iPhone too. But we're also discussing with booksellers the ways they can put Browse Inside on retailer's own websites. HarperCollins really doesn't want to keep this all to itself.
There's no exclusivity here...

Second, it's worth emphasising that like our main Browse Inside, and indeed like similar widgets from other publishers, the previews can be downloaded to an iPhone or iPod Touch only for viewing purposes.

They can't be saved, extracted, printed... You can read the first few pages of the first couple of chapters, but that's all.

News, News Corp and Newstand

HarperCollins have made an interesting investment into Newstand, a company that digitizes and distributes books online and who are already working with them on their digitization programme. The press release report by Reuters states that together with NewsStand’s unit LibreDigital , HarperCollins intend to license the technology to book publishers that will allow them to typeset, produce, warehouse, distribute and market their books online. The level of investment is not know but it is sufficient for HarperCollins Group President Brian Murray to join the NewsStand board and put himself forward to speak at several events in this next quarter. This is the latest positioning by the major publishers and follows on the heels of Macmillan’s Bookstore, Random House’s and Simon and Schuster’s Content repository announcements and the purchase of Coutts by Ingram Digital Ventures. The digital arena certainly just got muddier.

It is now clear that the major’s see no difference between digital and physical distribution. They want both and they want to be the third party supplier of both digital and physical services to all and thereby offset some of their costs but more importantly minimize their risk. The statement that HarperCollins intend to license the technology to publishers is the furthest indication that their plans go past distribution and potentially upstream into production and editorial. It may seem far fetched to some but is perfectly logical to many.

The question of a publisher opening up their development to a potential competitor is always a risk, but is no different to that in the physical world today. However, the potential risks of putting all one’s eggs in one basket could be very high. It doesn’t guarantee a publisher can transfer to another easily and at a time when they are literally ‘cutting their teeth’ and the market is immature, the risk is even higher.

The ‘Brave New World’ report was about establishing consensus and commitment to the support of the existing channel and the support of booksellers in the digital world. It is ironic that in this week when publishers and booksellers sit down together to discuss this and try to establish the next steps, some are now proposing to become digital aggregators. Campaigns are already in play to get Publishers signed up but the question remains whether they will go direct or service the existing channel?