The Buie Knife

Coming Soon to Your Bookstore: Print-on-Demand Books Produced in Four Minutes or Less

The publishing industry is full of enormous waste -- warehouses and dumpsters full of books no one bought or wanted to read. That problem may soon end with the advent of an advanced copier that prints a 300-page book and binds it within four minutes. But will traditional printers lose their jobs over this innovation?

Dan Gilmor Discovers Free Digital Downloads Actually Help Sell Books

In 2004, Dan Gillmor released his book, We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, for the People in digital form, as a FREE PDF download. Giving away a digital copy of a book is certainly counter-intuitive to traditional publishers, but Gillmor says it didn't hurt sales at all. In fact, he is persuaded that offering a free digital download of the book enhanced sales, because it created a buzz, got people (and the trade press) talking about the ideas in the book. I had a chance to ask him about the marketing strategy for the book when he gave a talk at the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication. "I'm still getting royalty checks from the book," he said. The strategy was so successful that he is blogging his next book. "If you follow the blog closely, there will be no reason to buy the book," he says. He's betting, however, that only a fraction of potential readers will follow the blog closely, and they'll help create buzz and interest in the book. Readers still much prefer books to reading manuscripts on a computer screen.

1,000 True Fans Is All A Creator Needs

Reflecting on the phenomenon of "The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More," Wired editor Kevin Kelly writes in his "blook," The Technium -- a blog he is developing into a book -- that all a creative person really needs to make a good living these days is a good product and "1000 True Fans" -- 1000 people who are interested in his/her ideas, are likely to buy the book or CDs or art.

There's no need (and indeed it is increasingly difficult) for a creator -- author, musician -- to become a celebrity to the masses, he says. (Read his essay). Unless they are anointed by network television or some other mass medium, many people with good products can never get the attention they deserve, because attention in our society is in such short supply. We all know that some of the products from big corporate media publishers that command our attention aren't worth the time or money we spent on them.

In contrast, anyone who has a thousand or more "friends" or acquaintances/connections on Facebook or MySpace -- people who share a bond or ideas or common interests -- has a far better chance of getting attention for their product, book, CD or art at least among that 1,000 people than those who aren't on Facebook or MySpace and who are under the illusion that traditional intermediaries -- book publishers, music companies, art dealers -- are going to invest much time and money in marketing their work.

We'd rather trust the recommendations of our friends rather than traditional advertising, marketing, media hype. That's where social networking comes in. Facebook and MySpace may play an increasingly important role in the books, music and art that we purchase.

Drill Deeper:

• New Way to Market Books, Authors, Musicians, Films, Artists: Facebook and Other Social Networking Sites

Cost-Effective Electronic Publishing Will Rapidly Replace Printing and Mailing During Recession

With so many corporate, non-profit, and government budgets on the chopping block, it seems inevitable that printing and mailing costs will be slashed during the recession in favor of electronic publishing. I'm developing a seminar and a consultancy for organizations on how to slash their budgets in printing and mailing, make their materials more accessible online and increase their online readership.

In my view, you can't just eliminate mail and print publications and replace them with email. Some (many) of your clients, customers and associates already get too much email and don't want your material cluttering up their inbox. You have to use more creative ways to get their attention. Writing for the web is very different from writing for print, and yet many communicators still think online is just a place to store print-style brochures. That's wrong.

The truth is that you've got to use new tools at your disposal to engage readers: interactivity -- blogs, comment sections, syndication feeds (that appear on a Google homepage), twittering, short Youtube style videos and social networking sites like Facebook (which now has 160 million members, and growing). The "news feed" on Facebook is a great way to provide updates to clients, customers and associates with hopes that they will click through to learn more. (You have at least as good a chance of that as you do that they will actually open and read their snail mail.)

If you're interested in this idea, post a comment in the section below or contact me privately through one of the links on the left above.

Think of all the "junk mail" you get -- bills, bank statements, church and organizational newsletters, investment statements and annual reports (who actually reads the fine print?) -- many of which go unopened and unread, especially if you already get online notification of bills and bank statements. I suspect that financially-pressed organizations will start passing the printing and mailing costs onto those who insist on receiving a paper copy. 

There's a debate in Greensboro (and probably many other communities) over whether governments must continue to purchase space in newspapers to post legal notices or whether the legal notices can simply be posted online. Does online publishing on an obscure government website constitute true public notice, traditionalists ask? The newspaper industry, of course, argues that their paper product is the essential carrier of legal notices, and that cutting back will put another nail in the coffin of the newspaper industry. They have a point -- in the short run. But as newsprint readership declines (only 19% of adults 35-and-under read a newspaper. They much prefer to get their news online), it's almost inevitable that the "legal notices" ad business that newspapers have will shrink. Craigslist has already eaten newspapers' lunch on classified ads, and retailers aren't buying as many display ads due to the recession. I know the newspaper industry legitimately fears losing the legal notices business.

Government agencies can, of course, very cheaply set up email lists for "home delivery" of public legal notices such as foreclosures or public auctions.

In the long run, I think print, or pulped wood, is a dying medium and a dwindling asset. It's far more  expensive to publish and distribute on paper than electronically. In a couple of generations, I'd wager we'll reduce publishing on paper by at least half what it is today, even with population increases. And that will be good for the environment.

Related:

• In Greensboro, Sweeping Back the Tide (EdCone.com)

Previous:

• Ebooks and Print-on-Demand Books Will Take Off During Recession

E-Books and Print-on-Demand Books Will Take Off During Recession

Here are two businesses that will probably do quite well during recession: ebooks and print-on-demand book publishers. There is such huge waste in the traditional publishing industry, which gives authors such a raw deal. Why should the writer of a book get only 10 percent of the revenue? Why should students pay thousands of dollars a semester to lug around heavy textbooks when they could download these texts onto their laptops for a fraction of the hard-bound cost? Mike Egan in Computer World has the scoop on the "six trends that are conspiring to drive electronic books into the mainstream."

The move toward ebooks could also help forlorn newspaper companies develop new revenue streams, if they think of themselves as in the information business rather than in the dead tree /pulped wood business. Their archives are rich sources of local and community history that could be shaped into interesting e-books for people looking for in-depth information on specific topics.

I predicted this trend several years ago. Now it may actually come true.

Previous:

• Are Books, Newspapers, Encyclopedias and Magazines Produced from Pulped Wood Facing Demise?
• Open Source Revolution
• How to Get Published: Video About Lulu.com and Publishing on Demand
• My Blook, Teacher of Our Town, Is Now Available
• New Author's Nightmare
• What To Do With All My Books?
• Only About Half of Americans Read Any Books At All; And What Do Those Who Do Read Choose?
• Attention Deficit Reading
• Web-based Book Publishing on Demand: Up and Coming Trend
• Unsold Books (Returns) Represent $801 Million Annual Loss to Book Industry

Buie on Publishing

• Publish-on-Demand More and More Attractive to Authors
• Authors Must Work As Hard On Marketing As On Writing Book
• Aspiring Authors Take Note: Just Because You Write a Book Doesn't Mean People Will Read It
• Traditional Publishing Disadvantageous to Writers

Are Books, Newspapers, Encyclopedias and Magazines Produced from Pulped Wood Facing Demise?

A few months ago, I purchased a PocketPC phone with unlimited Internet. In spare moments, I log onto the New York Times website to read the latest news. When my wife asked me, as we were touring Ft. Macon, to explain the War of 1812, we (thankfully) were interrupted. In the interim, with my PC Phone I looked up "War of 1812" on the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. (Does ANYONE buy or consult hard-bound encyclopedias anymore??) After this refresher, I was able to explain the war in great detail. "You sure are a historian!" she exclaimed, before I confessed to her what I had done. I can't imagine purchasing a set of encyclopedias for my pre-teen since he has the Internet.

With my laptop, my wife and I peruse dozens of newspapers, magazines, online encyclopedia entries, and book summaries every week. Truth is, we peruse a lot of printed magazines, too. We are information addicts. I can only recall reading one full digital book, We the Media by Dan Gillmor, on a laptop that folds into a tablet PC. That may change soon. A Newsweek cover story (which I read online) celebrates the arrival of the AmazonKindle, a digital book reader, in which you can instantly download almost any title for $9.95. "Five centuries after Gutenberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos is betting that the future of reading is just a click away," Newsweek declared. ABC News reported that "Amazon Hopes to 'Kindle' Revolution: New Ebook Takes Publishing into the 21st Century and Digital Arena." The first batch of Kindles sold out, despite mixed reviews and the pricey $400 cost. Steven Levy reviewed the Kindle for a  Newsweek video.

Alternatively,  http://www.booksinmyphone.com offers free books for your cell phone.

Meanwhile, some manuscripts published initially as free blogs are becoming bestselling books, the New York Times reports. Increasingly, authors and their publicists are looking to the web to publicize their books, cutting physical book tours short, the Christian Science Monitor reports. "Publishers and authors are now touting books through podcasts, film tours, blog tours, book videos, and book trailers. In fact, it's unusual for a book not to have some sort of Web presence."

And Paperspine.com, seeking to be the Netflix of books, launched recently. For people who read three books a month or more, "it really pays for itself,"  co-founder Dustin Hubbard told the Seattle Post -Intelligencer.

Open Source Revolution

Intellectual property protections, such as patents, trademarks and copyrights, "are like Vitamin D. If you get too little Vitamin D, you get rickets. If you get too much Vitamin D, it will kill you." -- Bob Young, co-founder of Red Hat, a NC-based company dedicated to open source software (in contrast to Microsoft, whose software is closed to development from outsiders). Red Hat makes money by customizing the Linux operating system and creating linux-based software for businesses. 

In a talk at UNC-Chapel Hill, he pointed out that intellectual property laws and contracts are often so strict that they stifle innovation and can kill a product that might otherwise be used. Why should the copyright on a book, for example, be for the lifetime of the author plus 50 years?  On his blog, Young posted a content creator's bill of rights, among other interesting posts on intellectual property rights.

"Open source" is a growing phenomenon, not only in the software industry, but in intelligence collection and journalism.

Fifteen years ago, concerned about the potential loss of free public access to software, music, literature, art, history and other cultural artifacts, Young gave $1 million to start www.ibiblio.org at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the first web sites on the Internet. It has grown into a vast repository of open source material, processing more than 16 million documents a day, according to this UNC Tarheel article. In February, 2008, Ibiblio will celebrate its' 15th anniversary.

Young is also founder of Lulu.com, an Internet-based print-on-demand publishing company, in which writers (not publishing companies) maintain the rights to their own material, and Lulu.TV, a video upload and revenue-sharing site in which content producers (unlike at www.youtube.com) receive a percentage of revenue the site generates. Young is one of the pioneering voices in the open-source revolution.

Listen or watch parts of Young's presentation at UNC.

Making a Good Living as a Writer Requires Constantly Expanding Repertoire of Skills

Is the Internet good for writers? Yes and No, according to 10 writers sought out by RU Sirius, in a piece that's essential reading for people trying to make a living as writers, or thinking of doing so. Douglas Rushkoff summed it up best in my opinion: "Many writers — even good ones — will have to accept the fact that books can be loss-leaders or break-even propositions in a highly mediated world where showing up in person generates the most income." Hat tip to Ed Cone for this article.

In my own case, I find that making a good living as a writer requires additional skills beyond what j-school taught me -- to write concisely and quickly, report fairly and accurately, and to edit precisely.

I spent six years working for daily newspapers. It was great training, a way to witness life at its most interesting and exciting, and I wrote for the largest audiences I've ever had. Getting a front-page byline made me feel like I was at the center of the universe.

I must say, however, that I don't generally regret leaving the newspaper business. The long hours and  low pay, once you have a family to support, the emphasis in most daily newspapers on crime news and fluff, without much time to probe below the surface of subjects led me to seek out more specialized communications work. The audiences are smaller but more interested, engaged and knowledgeable of the subject matter. 

To survive as a writer in the long run, you must constantly expand your skills and ultimately must have the ability to provide communications management to organizations. To stay current and competitive in the field of communications, I find that I need to constantly expand my repertoire, to provide web site construction and management, media relations, online community-building and fundraising, video production and editing, digital storytelling, online and off-line slide shows, desktop publishing, online and offline newsletters, and the ability to produce books on demand. I find that I must have in-depth knowledge of specific subjects, such as civil rights, health care, and technology, and the ability to write both short pieces for blogs and newsletters and long pieces for magazines and books.

And even if you develop good skills and a good clientele,

• unless you can garner contracts specifying an ongoing professional relationship lasting a year or more and
• unless you have a spouse whose job provides your health care and benefits,

you may find that the cost of health care coverage as a self-employed person and the lack of benefits drives you into a job with a communications company, corporation, non-profit or advocacy organization.

How to Get Published: Video About Lulu.com and Publishing on Demand

I published my book with Lulu.com, a print-on-demand service, and I highly recommend it. Here's a video of a panel discussion about using this new technology to get published, created by Stacey Cochran.

My Blook, Teacher of Our Town, Is Now Available

No, that's not a typo in the headline. I've written a blook, not just a book, called Teacher of Our Town: Lillian Secrest Buie. That is, I started out in 2004 putting together a blog of my mother's writings. She was a compulsive keeper of journals, saver of letters and short stories, and I knew that, in her eighties, she was unlikely to take on the project of shaping a life's worth of material into a book. If I didn't do it, all those stories and "precious memories" would be lost, I knew. So I started posting a few paragraphs several times a week and within a couple of years I had enough material to start shaping it into a book manuscript. A blog provides the rough draft and a good structure for the discipline of writing a book. A blog that evolves into a book is called a blook. There's even a Blooker Prize for the best blog turned into a book. If you don't believe me, look it up.

I'm making the book available on what would have been my mother's 87th birthday. The book has grown from far more than the collection of blog postings at www.lillianbuie.com. The nature of writing books is that you can go into much more depth, you've got to create a unifying narrative, themes, chapters. The book is nearly 350 pages. I'd guess that less than 25 percent of what's in the book is on the blog. And there are some things on the blog that didn't make the book. I see blogs and books as complimentary media, cross-promotional media. Ok, so what is my book about?