The state of the publishing industry -- The Times They Are A Changing -- by M. Scott Douglass --

THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGING…

Last month Amazon.com announced that, for the first time, it is now
selling more e-books than it is printed books. On Wednesday, August
4th, Barnes & Noble announced it was for sale because it couldn’t see
a viable way that it would be able to continue selling books. The
headline on MSNBC read: “Kindle kills the Nook.”

Multiple media reports claim there is no one out there big enough to
buy Barnes & Noble and even if there was, the industry is changing so
quickly and B&N has not kept. Most of its physical assets are the very
reason why it is losing shares and will be down graded for sale.
Nonetheless, investors think there is an opportunity here for someone.
B&N stock shot up 25% before the NYSE opened August 4.

We’ve seen changes coming and talked about it for years, but what does
all of this mean to readers, writers, booksellers, publishers and
distributors?

I’ve mentioned this before: The people most at risk with the oncoming
e-book surge are printers and distributors. Already, many big
publishers have sent their productions overseas, but even hardback
production houses in China have closed due to a lack of business. With
fewer books to distribute and big box stores teetering, look for
distributors to cut back on expensive warehouse facilities, personnel
and delivery turnaround. I expect at least one to fail by the end of
next year.

Readers will have more options as long as they are willing to consider
the e-reader format. Because e-books take nothing to produce, the
current glut of publishers will escalate even faster. There will be
more choices, but with filters diluted, quality will as well.

Writers, too, will have more options. This is the age of the writer.
Anyone can get into print—whether it’s paper print or e-print, there
are so many options, it’s hard NOT to get published somewhere. The big
question will then become: how do you make a living at it when you
are competing with so many options? Marketing techniques that were
successful only five years ago are already being replaced by tech-
savvy marketing companies, but the problem still becomes the fish in
the pond, not the type of lure, the weight of the line—the fact that
you’re still in a freaking pond? And if you venture out into the
internet ocean? Now you’re in a row boat in the middle of the
Atlantic. Yes, more writers will get published, but what will be the
payoff for their work?

Big box bookstores will need to find innovative ways to survive.
They’ll need to team up with fast food outlets, publishers—even
writers and writing groups—to justify paying the rent on the space
they fill as the way readers buy books shifts from printed material to
electronics. B&N made a strategic mistake two years ago when it issued
a memorandum to its store managers and event coordinators instructing
them not to allow signings without guaranteed sales of at least 20
copies—essentially eliminating many small press publishers and local
authors. Authors like to shop where they can find their own books on
the shelf. This decision drove many to other places to buy.

I hate to tell you this, but writers with printed books are your
market bookstores. If you ignore them, they will find somewhere else
to sell and to buy. And they did. Some Independent Bookstores embraced
the opportunity. Art galleries embraced it. There are book Tupperware
Parties. As I said in an editorial 5 years ago, small independents are
less at risk to the changeover because they don’t have as much
overhead. When they embraced local author events, it was a boon for
them, but some here in the Charlotte market are now backing away as
well. When you drive your customers somewhere else, you hasten your
own demise. Even the small independent bookstores have a limited life
expectancy moving forward. There will always be a place for collectors
and folks who prefer reading on paper, but it’s a niche market. The
items they will want are niche items. If you don’t make yourself
special by carrying those items, they may as well shop online. You
will have consigned yourself to a fate similar to B&N.

Publishers—my home arena—will make more money per book by publishing e-
books, so you can rest assured that the big houses will survive and
evolve and, as I mentioned above, newer houses will come into being
and grow. Main Street Rag will begin experimenting with e-books itself
in the near future. I do not anticipate us walking a way from print,
particularly since we own the equipment to produce it and have always
specialized in short runs, but I do see us offering certain titles
electronically in the very near future. We will start with our novels
since they are more expensive to produce and appeal to a broader
market. I still think that most poets and poetry buyers are a tactile
lot; they like holding a book in their hands. So we will continue to
produce our chapbooks and poetry books the same way. Poetry books are
also light and easy to transport and ship, so they are not our first
target, but we will eventually get to them as well.

I’ve been considering this for years. Conversion by a third party is
expensive, but I’m about to invest in software to do it myself and the
new versions of Adobe InDesign allow designers to export everything to
e-book. We’re not giving up on print, we’re just enhancing what we do
by moving with the industry. We’ll keep you posted on how it goes here
in this newsletter.

Posted on this blog with permission of

M. Scott Douglass
Publisher/Editor
Main Street Rag