World of Ebooks

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Do we still want book stores?

This interview by Brian Howard, Editor of Book Business Magazine, with Michael Norris of SIMBA who gathers consumer data on the book industry reiterates the doom and gloom scene of bricks and mortar book stores.

While ebooks are not creating new customers, they are obviously changing their behavior in a very significant way. I hear from lots of people that they still enjoy going into book stores to browse even though they end up buying books, in print or in digital, online. We have to realize that this isn't going to last.  We as consumers need to support those book stores if we still want the to be around.  Yes, granted that the book stores have to reinvent themselves to meet us half way, we still need to support businesses that we like and not help them die. We need to think of this from a larger scale, a higher level, beyond the immediate dollar or two you can save right now.  Is it worth it for me to pay a dollar or two to have the pleasure browsing in book stores?  My answer to that is yes. If we want to enjoy the work from the minds of brilliant people, we need to keep the ecosystem going and support the authors through the book stores.

As Michael Norris said, how can book stores improve on the experience of buying books?  Are there any book stores where they actually have PC stations for people to browse online right on the store's website if they choose to buy a digital version of a book right there and then?  How about letting consumers use the browsing stations to browse for books that are digital only?  Book stores have to become both print and digital at the same place, right there in the store and on the website. How about putting book browsing stations in coffee shops and let them read online for a limited time while having coffee?

These are just some of my stream-of-consciousness ideas which may already exist but not out there enough for people to talk about or notice.  In any case, you get the point.  The bottom line is the we consumers should support businesses that we like and the businesses have to meet consumers' new interests as well.

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Outsider's View of Publishers

I went to one of the best meetups this week named NYC Publishing Innovators organized by Ned Lomigora and Deni Auclair. After organizing a successful group in the Boston area, they decided to do the same in NYC, after all it is the publishing capital of U.S. 

There was a lively discussion put on by a panel that consisted of people from traditional publishers as well as startup tech entrepreneurs. The theme of the night's discussion was how can publishers help authors get closer to their readers. Companies represented were O'Reilly Media, John Wiley and Sons, Turner Publishing, Semi-Linear, PubSlush, Zeeen and Grub Street.  Great Panel.

One of the best things brought on by the digital transformation is that there are now tools and platforms where anyone can connect with anyone. Authors are now able to connect with readers personally without the help of a publisher.  So then what is the role of a publisher and how is it changing?

Traditionally, consumers (I am one) didn't really have any idea of what a publisher does.  All we knew was that we go into a book store, find the books we like and we pick them off the shelves never questioning how they got there.  We heard about books from friends, media reviews and just browsing in the stores.  Most of us never cared or knew who the publisher was.

So in those days, part of the job of the publisher was to market the book and arrange distribution, connecting the authors' creations to the consumers.  It was nearly impossible for authors not to have a publisher. That was a pretty good arrangement since most authors don't know much about marketing and would prefer not to.  Their brains are generally not wired that way.

In the fast moving digital age, publishers are finding it difficult to deal with all the social media channels multiplied by the number of books AND on top of the traditional marketing.  They just can't do it all anymore.  Instead, they expect the authors to do their own marketing, social media, web pages, blogs, etc. They have set up training centers to give authors the necessary training.

Increasingly then the authors are asking what is the value that publishers bring to them if not marketing and distribution? Direct distribution to large retailers is widely available already.  This then boils down to editorial side of things that ensure quality such as editing, book covers and having the understanding of what will likely sell.

The panel never reached an agreement as to who's responsibility is it to do the marketing, the author or the publisher? What is the role of the publisher?  I think these issue will continue to evolve. The ultimate question is what does it mean to the consumer.

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Netflix for Ebooks

Netflix reported that for the month of June their customers streamed over one billion hours of viewing.  That's an astonishing stat, translating into an hour of streaming per customer per day, as noted by Tech Crunch.

Think now, what would it be like if there was a similar platform for ebooks.  I've wondered why there isn't one out there yet, or I should say a successful one out there.  Seems like a no brainer to me from a consumer standpoint.  I would love to just pay a reasonable monthly fee to read from a great collection of ebooks.

I recently talked to Mike Kaltschnee at Hacking Netflix who has been keeping track of Netflix since 2003 to get his take on the subscription model.

Just a little history first.  Back in 1998 Netflix was a DVD rental business for $4 per disc.  The idea was to compete with the brick and mortar rental stores by not having all the real estate and staffing costs.  The founders also hated late fees. With this, they really didn't make much of a dent in the industry.  

The real significant change which propelled their growth was going to the subscription model in early 2000 and dropping the single rentals. Consumers liked the hassle-free, all-you-can-watch plan.  The subscription model took away the buying decision that consumers used to have to make every time they rented a disc.  The subscription fee became an inconsequential single digit number on their credit card statements.

What still works today and keeps Netflix as the top movie/TV subscription service is value for money, streaming convenience and content.  Many friends and families would sit and watch an entire season of TV shows.

Let's get back to ebooks.  So if we apply the subscription model to ebooks, what can we learn from the challenges Netflix experienced? Here's what Mike has to say: listen to customers, don't rely solely on data to drive features and offerings and don't be swayed too much by the vocal minority. Sound advice I'd say, after what they've gone through in the last couple of years.

Here are then two very important questions.  How much would you pay for an ebook subscription service? What kinds of content would you like to see? Please feel free to tweet me @vleeobooks or email at [email protected]

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View From the Outside In

Now that I've reached the third week, I guess I can officially call myself a blogger.  Don't think I'll ever get use to that. 

At this point, I should just back track a bit.  When I started the first blog, I really had no idea what I would write from week to week.  I just knew that there should be some kind of a theme or purpose to this endeavor, something that will connect the blogs from week to week. What comes to mind then is that I'd like to make this about my personal experience of building an ebook startup.  In particular, from the viewpoint of someone who is not and has never seen the inside of the book publishing industry looking in. Just to set some expectations, I am not a professional business writer. As a matter of fact, I've always thought writing was one of my weaknesses.  So think of this as just me talking.

Sometimes being naive has its advantages.  You don't know what is not possible.  You think of something and just go do it.  Repeat that until you run into walls or dead ends, much like a mouse learning a maze.  The good thing is that eventually you'll come out the other side.  This is pretty much what I've been doing for the past year trying to learn about the book business.

So this week is just about setting the stage. Starting next week I will get into my actual experiences, issues that are driving the digital transformation of the book industry, and anything else about building a startup.  Hopefully, I will get some advice and learn new stuff that I can share along the way.

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You don't have to see the top of the stairs to take the first step.

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Getting Rid of Old Baggage

This is one of the very very few times that I have actually accomplished a New Year's Resolution.  Never mind it took six months to do, five of those were just procrastination.  I got rid of the storage unit that I've had for two years for which I was paying rent to store things that I have not used during that entire time.  For the amount I've paid to rent the unit, I could've bought all of it brand new.

This got me thinking about its analogy to the book publishing industry. Although the industry in general has made some progress in making the transition into digital, it is still not adequately meeting the demands of readers or authors.  I think the pain point has finally reached the peak where hanging on to old baggage is costing them more than creating new business models.

In creating new business models, experimentation is the key.  Just do it.  Don't worry about getting everything right or have all the details down. Just take the first step, then the next, and the next...it will eventually lead you to the top of the stairs.

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To Niche or Not To Niche

So I am starting a business in ebooks.  First thing people say is "We already have Amazon, why do we need you?"  Amazon has millions of ebooks and they sell tons of them.  How does one attract customers against competition that's like a monopoly?

One of the answers that has come across several times is: you gotta focus on a niche market, like romance, sci-fi or comics.  These seem to be the most popular genres.  People are looking for a better experience and to connect with people with similar interest.  Once you've built up a sizable user base, then you can expand to other genres.

Well, that make sense, kind of.  But if your goal is to go BIG, like Netflix, Spotify, Pandora, etc., having a large selection and broad breath of content seem to be the way to go. Although this approach may take time to build the content database and hence users, it will eventually generate more users across different demographics.  Will this translate into ebooks?  I think so.