Paradigm shifts in publishing…
Much of human history took place after the invention of writing. The progress from Babylonian cuneiform to the gilded manuscripts of the Middle Ages represents a span of many centuries. Gutenberg instigated the first paradigm shift by inventing movable type and a printing press around 1439, inventions that made mass book production possible. Up to Gutenberg’s time, book production was generally done by monks and academics, for monks and academics. After Gutenberg, more people had access to the written word, a definite factor in the general increase in literacy over many centuries. But there were no real paradigm shifts again until digital printing became commonplace. Sure, color was added and multiple fonts (the medieval Book of Kells, found in Trinity College in Dublin, possesses rich colors, lavishly done by hand by Irish monks), but digital printing is now having a bigger effect than Gutenberg’s inventions.
At present there are two offshoots of the digital publishing paradigm shift, POD (print-on-demand), too often called self-publishing, and eBooks. The term self-publishing conjures up images of Aunt Winnie finding a vanity press to print her book of pie and cake recipes. However, traditional vanity presses are not necessarily part of the digital revolution. In POD books are printed as buyers ask for them. For eBooks, printing is completely gone—buyers download from a supplier. Thus both POD and eBooks are produced from specially formatted digital files. Many new authors and traditional authors, frustrated with the tedious steps in the traditional publishing paradigm, are embracing the digital revolution, publishing, marketing, and selling their own books. This new face of publishing parallels what is happening in the music industry. Instead of buying an entire CD, you download individual songs to your MP3 player or iPod. Instead of buying a trade paperback, you download an eBook for your Kindle, Nook, or iPad.
While I haven’t seen stats for 2010 yet, the Assoc. of American Publishers (AAP) reported $23.9 billion in book sales in 2009. eBooks were 3.31% of that total in all of 2009 while this climbed to 9.03% during the first half of 2010. This trend will continue. R. R. Bowker’s report on 2009 book sales states that out of 1,052,803 titles, 764,448 are non-traditional publications (micropublishers, self-publication or POD, eBooks, audio books, and reprints of public domain works). As eReaders improve (there are color Kindles and Nooks now and, of course, the iPad is color-capable), the eBooks’ percentage will grow. It has already surpassed the percentage for audio books (the latter may soon be relegated to self-help and other niche-oriented nonfiction).
This paradigm shift has affected how people buy books. People on a cruise, for example, used to pack paperbacks to read as they lounged on deck. Now they pack their eReader and just download another book when they finish one. POD publishers have made it easy for authors to add an eBook option to their POD title (I recently made my last novel, The Midas Bomb, published by Infinity Publishing, available in eBook format). More than 20% of on-line book sales are not available in brick-and-mortar bookstores. Big bookstores like Borders are struggling as sales dwindle and rent increases. A N.Y. Times article on Monday was titled “Small Bookstores Struggle for Niche in Shifting Times.” Ms. Beth Puffer, the director of the Bank Street Bookstore in NYC, observed, “You have to rethink your whole business model, because the old ways really aren’t going to cut it anymore.”
Some older readers may resist this paradigm shift. As a reader, I still like to hold a book in my hands, take notes in the margins, and underline new words, but that Kindle often tempts me—it’s easy on the old eyes. I still like traditional bookstores too, especially the old, musty ones where you feel like an explorer trying to find the lost city of gold. I can do without the Starbucks coffee, though, which often tastes like burned toast, and the other gimmicks discussed in the N.Y. Times article. I do like enough comfy chairs around so I can sit down and browse through tomes of interest.
I’m not alone in my love of the mom and pop bookshops. Used bookstores are a special treat, for example. You can find lost friends and old authors that are new to you. I often feel claustrophobic in these places and will go out of my way to not interrupt someone parked in a narrow aisle paging through a book. But they have character. The Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafon, in his international bestseller La Sombra del Viento (The Shadow of the Wind—see my review, as well as the more recent El Juego del Angel or Angel’s Game), has a bookstore and a book deposit as main characters. His love of books shines through in his descriptions of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books (El Cemeterio de los Libros Olvidados).
While some older readers may resist the digital revolution, authors and the publishing industry ignore it at their peril. The Harry Potter phenomena showed that there are many young readers out there—they have no problems adapting to new things. And, of course, beware of the boomers—they read a lot, many are educated, and they are very much into new technology. My whole previous life as a scientist revolved around technology. I hopped on the POD train early on for that reason. It was probably not the right reason, but it spoiled me because I’m a control freak. While I think a good agent and/or editor can be a tremendous help in learning the publishing trade, both may become a vanishing breed with the new digital revolution. By the same token, the traditional publishing industry will have to adapt, just like the bookstores.
In an editorial today in the N.Y. Times titled “Read On,” the venerable newspaper is in denial about the effects of the digital revolution on publishing, in spite of all the statistics and their article noted above. What gives? It’s really easy to figure: the digital revolution is changing all publishing, including the newspaper and magazine industries. I read the N.Y. Times headlines (they are what they consider to be headlines, of course) in e-mail before I even see the newspaper, which I do subscribe to. I peruse CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News blogs (the latter two to avoid the strident voices and in-your-face TV personalities)—all from my computer. As a blog author, I don’t work in a vacuum—I read many other blogs. I open additional web pages to check stats and pundits’ interpretations of the stats.
I’m not alone. Commuters often take their Kindle or other eReader on the bus or train with them, preferring to read their news on-line, even newspapers (or especially newspapers—don’t we all hate arriving to work with newsprint on our hands?). The information age is upon us and the consequence is that digital technology not only democratizes information, it is making the traditional conveyors of that information obsolete. Newspapers, like the Times, have been kicking themselves for a long time because they didn’t figure out how to charge on the internet. Their loss, my gain, I say. (The corollary, however, is that I have to work harder to discriminate the true signal from the background noise—we all have to become educated consumers of information).
I would venture that in all this the boomers are leading the charge in this new information age. They are fascinated by their new digital freedoms. Older generations don’t completely understand it; younger generations are taking it for granted. In fact, the boomers might just be fomenting another new paradigm, this time in culture. POD and eBooks are enabling media—anyone, and I mean anyone, can write a book (or a blog) if they have the motivation and patience to sit down and do it. While this has always been true, the difference now is that the book can be published. That doesn’t mean it will have readers, but many people have stories to tell and opinions to opine—the digital revolution allows them to do so, which in turn is a cultural revolution of words and ideas, freedom of speech carried perhaps to the extreme. But will all the good words and ideas get lost in a sea of noise?
In a recently reported survey, according to the N.Y. Times (sorry, I stopped reading the Wall Street Journal after 2008—nah, I just can’t afford all those newspapers and our nearest public library branch recently closed), 81% of Americans feel they have a book in them. I bet that many of these wannabe authors are boomers. At any rate, while extrapolating sampling polls is dangerous, this means about 250 million potential authors, and they are now empowered to write. Already the number of non-traditional publications is daunting for an author. How does an author rise to the top in such an environment?
It seems like you are in a large and crowded restaurant trying to make yourself heard to your dining partner across the table. Mission impossible. The conversations around you just form background noise to the words you want to communicate. And given that most authors are introverted by nature and have traditionally relished solitude and quiet for writing their masterpieces, we have potentially 250 million nervous wrecks! Adding to the nerves is the fact that if you really want to go anywhere with that book you write, you have to market it. I don’t know about you, but I have very little knowledge about marketing and wouldn’t be good at it if I did—I’m one of those quiet, introverted guys.
Many people, of course, don’t have the motivation or the patience to sit down and write a book. Even a novel often requires research time that people are often not willing to spend. Still, every new writer and even experienced writers without name recognition are competing with all other writers and especially the already established ones in their genre. There is a glut of good books on the market because there are many more authors. The digital revolution is wonderful for readers—they’ve never been offered such a tremendous number of really excellent books. For authors, the digital revolution is empowering, allowing them to take their wonderful ideas all the way from their computer screen to finished product—they’re in complete control. The problem for the author is to connect to those readers that might be interested in his or her work. This is not an easy problem to solve. No one said that revolutions are bloodless.
