David Sirota has a nice post up on book-related anxiety as a publication date becomes imminent. The good news, as I've discovered, is that either my book is universally beloved (unlikely, but if true perhaps not reassuring to other authors) or else that in general people who don't like one's book are too polite to say so (reassuring).
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Angst
04 May 2008 11:24 am
Comments (18)
Does this apply to dissertations, I wonder?
Once I get that done and defended, I might actually read your book =)
As an author, why publish books at all? You could probably sell Heads in the Sand as a PDF for $3 and make the same money like it was some game self-published module for a role-playing game. Books obviously have more conventional prestige attached to them but any user who is dying to have your book could pay a premium to get a bound copy. I don't really think John Wiley & Sons adds so much value to your work though marketing and editing to justify the 600% premium over just sending you three bucks.
If you adopted the 'Send me $3 for a PDF' model of publishing you could probably publish 9 books a year including a few on basketball and comic books or whatever else floats your boat. When readers who have bought your PDF say "Hey, this PDF you sold me has 18 typos and is missing page 11" you could say "I'll fix that in a bit and you can get an updated PDF for free. What do you want for three bucks?".
Maybe Brookings and AEI wouldn't find that approach very serious but since they are fetid ponds stocked with stupid fish who really cares what they think?
JoeJoeJoe raises some interesting points. Certainly I imagine some new paradigm will overtake the publishing industry fairly soon.
Does this apply to dissertations, I wonder?
not to worry, nobody ever reads dissertations
Your book sounds pretty tepid, in that it doesn't seem to be saying anything that standard center-left types haven't been saying about foreign policy since 2004. I might borrow it from my library at some point, but I've got a long list of books that look more interesting to go through first.
Matt Y--
You mean authors working on spec, no advance, with a self-publishing distribution channel? B&N and Borders sell quite a large fraction of total books sold. You're giving up that market?
You mean without an editor? I realize the joejoejoe may not know how much more an editor does than line edit, but you certainly do.
You mean without a designer? Default Word font, Word margins, 8.5 x 11 trim size? No cover design. No blurbs on a back flap? Just hyperlinks to a pdf that the reader prints on three hole punch paper, (using his consumables) and then puts into a generice three ring binder?
Finally, publishing is a tournament. Adopting the model joejoejoe suggests is withdrawing from the tournament.
I don't really think John Wiley & Sons adds so much value to your work though marketing and editing
And it is revealed that joejoejoe has never before read this blog.
Most of my my PDF publishing idea I stole from 37signals.com who sells Getting Real: The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application as a PDF for $19 (I undersold you Matt, my apologies), as a physical book for $25, and offers the book online for free. They want to sell you the PDF because they get the biggest margin but are happy to sell you a physical book at a smaller margin if that's what you want. I think the concept is that without the option of the physical book many people don't take your work seriously (at least circa 2008) but with just the option of the physical book readers will say "Screw it, I just want to have this available to me, I'll snag the PDF". The ability to read the book for free online is considered an advertisement but you can't print or save any part of the book, whereas if I bought the HITS PDF I could print out a chapter and read it at McDonald's and not worry if I get grease on it. Or read it on a laptop or iPhone.
My crazy low $3 figure came from fantasy RPG supplements that are sold online as PDFs by scores of independent authors. I don't play these games but I learned about the concept trying to learn more about self-publishing online. DriveThruRPG.com is a good example. People publishing an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons module set in Al Capone's Chicago aren't going to find a publisher in print. Selling that same PDF might reach the niche market of 5,000 people in a country of 300 million that is interested in such a thing and instead of handing out 23 page pamphlets that you stapled together yourself to unenthusiastic friends you can sell you Green Mill dungeon plans and +3 Tommy Gun descriptions at a profit.
Tim O'Reilly, publisher O'Reilly Media (one of the most respected technical publishers in the computer industry), started as a self-publisher and many technical "books" are sold as PDFs because the speed that instruction manuals and technical manuals are needed for new technological products is faster than the spool up time for conventional publishing. The day after the iPhone is released there is demand for iPhone techninal books but conventional publishing would take many weeks at best for small-third party experst to offer their wares. So sellling PDFs is already commonplace in technical fields. PDF sales allow for all kinds of new relationships between author and reader including free updates, paid updates, and ongoing revisions (along with almost limitless space for retention of old versions) that would not be possible with traditional publishing.
My comments are many times the length of the original post so there is probably more value in editing then I'm suggesting.
Just finished reading it last night. I thought it was a pretty crystal clear diagnosis of what's gone wrong for democrats over the last few decades. And how they need to start thinking about foreign policy if they ever want to own the issue.
But I still can't believe the publishers actually put Ezra's blurb on the cover. Pretty funny.
Hey -- are you planning on any events in the SF Bay area while you're in CA?
strasmangelo jones - I here you but I like Matt's righting just the weigh it is.
The good news, as I've discovered, is that either my book is universally beloved (unlikely, but if true perhaps not reassuring to other authors) or else that in general people who don't like one's book are too polite to say so (reassuring).
Well, also the people who will buy the book are self-selecting, no? I mean, I bought the book and will probably disagree with a good deal of it (when I read it - i'm still finishing Three Cups of Tea), but I'm the exception. I'm guessing that there aren't a lot of people out there buying the book who don't already agree with it.
Yes, joejoejoe's analysis of the economics is completely correct, though obviously there's a lag-time between technological changes and the widespread absorption of those technological changes by the mainstream.
I'd argue that the biggest current issue is the important role of publishers as gatekeepers to credibility, and the support they therefore provide in getting books reviewed in the mainstream and elite media. But that will certainly change over time.
Also, at present the PDF format still just isn't convenient for one-line book reading---the files are much too big---but that will also change.
Eventually, "electronic books" distributed almost entirely through amazon.com or someone like that will probably capture the bulk of the reading public. I'd give the process another 3-5 years.
Mind you I am not saying there are not complementary forms of publishing stemming from the web and the pdf standard to the bound book, acquired and edited by an editor, designed by a designer with an advance against royalties.
None of the examples joejoejoe offers, except _maybe_ O'Reilly would currently be candidates for bound books. And,for one, don't understand why my cell phone and other electronic devices come with bound manuals, for just the reasons jjj posted above.
I just think you guys don't have a real understanding of what a publisher does (or ftm, an editor). The editor doesn't manage the text. The editor runs the project, which has, in the end, about a dozen distinct resources on it. It's a non-trivial undertaking, and results in a better book than would be possible through alternative publishing methods, with better access to wide distribution channels.
That doesn't mean that fanfic won't make people money in a model like this one, but that the original author will make much much more--to take another example of where this model makes sense.
You'll be happy to know Matt that I finally picked up a copy of your book on Friday, and may even at some point in the near future take the time to actually begin reading it. If so, I'll let you know what one of us ordinary folk thinks about it.
"They want to sell you the PDF because they get the biggest margin but are happy to sell you a physical book at a smaller margin if that's what you want."
I had read a couple of people discussing releasing books as pdfs or what not as the new medium of publication a few years back.
I personally much prefer hard copies, but it does seem strange that more people don't try dual track publication with versions available. It's hard to see how it could lose you money.
I'm not too polite to say so, and I haven't read the damn thing.
Joejoejoe: You're right about O'Reilly. However, they have one minor problem. Those PDF versions get hijacked and distributed over Usenet and FTP download sites. I probably have every O'Reilly book published that I had an interest in and I never paid a dime for them (except my Linux in a Nutshell reference and two small ones on Oracle PL/SQL). One of my edges as an IT consultant is my library of ebooks.
Book publishing is going to go the way of the physical CD. It will take longer because books are used differently than listening to music and the available means of reading them on a device is still not perfect. But it will happen, especially for reference works. Any IP that can be digitized will be - and once digitized it will become essentially free if you know where to look - and eventually you won't have to know where to look, it will just be there.
Eventually the open source model will take over publishing as it is software. People may complain about Wikipedia's errors, but by and large it's an incredibly valuable resource that demonstrates the power of open source content. There are plenty of errors in an edited physical textbook as well.
Not to mention that I frequently don't even need to use my library of ebooks. It's frequently faster to just check Wikipedia or do a Google search.
The arguments about how editors and publishers provide a "valuable service" as a "market maker" that justifies their getting ninety percent of the profit is the same one the music industry makes about their A&R and production people. And it's just as bogus as any musician or book writer will tell you.
The notion of book publishing being a "tournament" is a demonstration of how wrong thinking evolves. Just trying to be bigger than the millions of other people involved in a process is obviously the wrong way to go about something. The key is always to find and milk your own specific niche.
Very few people hit "the big time". Trying to is basically a prescription for worry. Instead, concentrate on first making a living, then figure out how to expand in ways that allow you to "hit the big time" without depending on someone else deciding to MAKE you the "big time" - which is what music and movie and book publishers do.
I liked your book, even though my own proclivities are anti-imperialist. I quibble with your prescriptions on that account, but I thought your critique of the way the Democrats played the Iraq War was crystal clear and invaluable. (Invaluable, perhaps, to a political party that wanted to be softly imperialist rather than bull-in-china-shop imperialist. But I take what I can get.)
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Heads in the Sand
Based on your blog, I have great faith in your book and look forward to purchasing my own copy.
Posted by BarryG | May 4, 2008 11:32 AM