how ebook authors can save books from irrelevance
DESCRIPTION
Presented at the Writing for Change conference in San Francisco, November 13, 2010. This presentation explores how the book publishing industry - which has changed little over the last 50 years - has pursued business practices detrimental to the future of the book. The presentation concludes that in order to save the book and preserve its value to mankind, books and the publishing industry must change by proactively embracing technology rather than becoming victimized by it. Presented by Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords.TRANSCRIPT
The Indie Ebook Revolution
Writing for Change
San FranciscoNovember 13, 2010
Mark Coker Founder, Smashwords
My Background
About me
• Founder of Smashwords
• Free ebook publishing and distribution platform for indie authors
• We distribute ebooks to multiple major retailers (Apple, Sony, B&N, Kobo, etc.)
• Author of…
How Smashwords Works
• UPLOAD
• Author/publisher uploads a Microsoft Word file, formatted to our Style Guide
• CONVERT
• We automatically convert to 9 ebook formats
• PUBLISH
• Ready for immediate sale online
• DISTRIBUTE
• Distribute to major retailers
• GET PAID
• Authors/publishers receive 85% of net
Indie ebooks published at Smashwords
140
6,000
24,000
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
2008 2009 2010 (Nov)
A REVOLUTION IS UPON US
CHANGE IS AFOOT
ooh,pretty!
BOOKS ARE ENDANGERED
WE MUST SAVE BOOKS
Books are Precious
• Long form content essential for
• deep dive knowledge immersion
• entertainment
• Books are vessels for cultural preservation
• Noah’s ark
• Promotes cross-cultural understanding
TECHNOLOGY IS COLLIDING WITH PUBLISHING
Technology Represents the Means by Which Consumer Desires are Realized
Things Touched by Technology Usually Become Faster, Smaller, Cheaper
Books are in Jeopardy
• In a world of faster, smaller, cheaper, print books have lost ground
• Expensive
• Unaffordable to vast majority of world’s literate population
• Unavailable, inaccessible to global market
• Archaic rights practices limit distribution
• Geographic limitations of print distribution
BIG PUBLISHERS ARE MAKING THE PROBLEM WORSE
UNTIL RECENTLY, BIG PUBLISHERS HAD A MONOPOLY ON THE PRINTING PRESSES AND
DISTRIBUTION TO BOOKSTORES
Publishers were the deciders
• Publishers controlled:
• Who got published
• Who got distributed
• What readers could read
IT WAS A SWEET RACKET FOR PUBLISHERS
Readers wanted books
Publishers controlled the supply
$
$
$
$$ $
$
$
$
BUT THEN THE INTERNET HAPPENED
… THE RULES CHANGED FOREVER
TRADITIONAL PUBLISHERS ILL-EQUIPPED TO SAVE BOOKS
uh oh!
They’re too slow
• 12-18 month release cycles
… their expenses are too high
… they’re exposed to too much risk
• Pay author advances
• Can’t predict demand
• many books fail and don’t earn out
• Broken supply chain
• 30%+ of printed books returned to publisher unsold
• Amazon is eating publishers for lunch
• Vertically integrated from authors to readers
Publishers try to mitigate risk by giving bean counters increased influence
… bean counters make poor decisions in the name of risk mitigation
• Adopt author-unfriendly policies
• Acquire fewer books from unproven authors
• Paying lower advances
• Require authors to assume more editing, marketing responsibility
• Adopt customer-unfriendly policies
• Favor “commercial” books
• Scarcity tactics to maintain higher prices
• Limit worldwide distribution
WE NOW LIVE IN A WORLD OF UNLIMITED ABUNDANCEAND CONSUMER CHOICE
YET THE BUSINESS OF BOOK PUBLISHING HAS CHANGED
LITTLE IN DECADES
(change is afoot)
Readers Demand Abundance and Freedom of Choice
• Customer drivers:
• Price
• Convenience
• Selection
• What Wal-Mart did to small town businesses, what B&N and Borders did to indie book stores, what Amazon is doing to B&M bookstores, what the Internet will now do to publishing
• Don’t blame Wal-Mart, B&N or Amazon – they’re only providing what customers want
• Books, bookstores, publishers and authors must now compete against unlimited abundance
TO SAVE BOOKS, WE MUST CHANGE BOOKS
AND CHANGE PUBLISHING
How to Save Books
• To save books, we must leverage technology to make books:
• Smaller, faster, cheaper
• More available
• More discoverable
• More accessible
• More compelling than alternative content options
The Better Book is Here
• It’s called an ebook
• Same book, only better
• Smaller, faster, cheaper
• More available
• More discoverable
• More accessible
• More functional
Ebooks as a percentage of US wholesale trade market
Source: Association of American Publishers, publishers.org
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
7%
8%
9%
10%
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
As an author, the power to save books is in your hands
Indie Authors + Ebooks + New eBook Supply Chain Will Save Books
Indie Ebook Authors Have Opportunity to Better Serve the New Customer
Requirements
• Benefits of indie ebooks
• faster release cycles
• instant access to global market
• democratized distribution
• closer to customers
• lower expenses
• no paper!
• never go out of print
• can offer lower cost, higher profit books
The Economics of Indie Ebooks Will Drive Increased Indie Authorship
• Higher profits than traditional
• 70-100% net for indie e- vs. 5-25% traditional
• Price ebooks for less yet still make more per copy than traditionally pubbed print authors
• $8 indie ebook earns over $6.00, vs <$.40 trad MMP
• $.99 indie ebook earns more than $8.00 trad MMP
• Lower price = reach more readers = more sales at higher profits per sale
MMP=Mass market paperback, aka “pocket book” in some countries
My Predictions:
Ebook sales dollar volume will exceed print within 5 years
Ebook unit volume will exceed print within 3 years
Summary
• Books are essential to the future of mankind
• We must save books by changing books and changing publishing
• Books face increased competition from alternative, lower cost sources for entertainment and knowledge
• Indie ebooks can make books more available and more accessible to more people
• Thanks to ebooks, opportunity to connect readers with books has never been greater
Thank you for listening!
Q&A
Where to find Mark Coker:
Web: www.smashwords.com
Blog: blog.smashwords.com
HuffPo: huffingtonpost.com/mark-coker
Twitter: @markcoker
Email: first initial second initial
@smashwords.com