Publishing the new, old way. Part II

Enormous changes are taking place in publishing even as I type. Last Tuesday Publishers Lunch broke a story that Apple has been negotiating with the Big Six (Hachette, Macmillan, Penguin, Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins) to supply content for what we all assume is the imminent arrival of a tablet device, possibly to be announced this Wednesday. The next day, the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon was changing the deal with its Desktop Publishing clients (individuals and small publishers), from a 65/35 split in Amazon's favor to a 70/30 split in the client's favor, starting in June. It's worth noting that the current Amazon deal with the Big Six is reported to be a 50/50 split. A day later, the news broke that Amazon was releasing an SDK (Software Development Kit) for the Kindle, thereby inviting developers to generate apps (applications) for the Kindle, akin to the enormously successful Apple App program for the iPhone and iTouch. What does it all mean? It means that Apple and Amazon are wrestling, and when Titans struggle, the world shakes. Meanwhile, the Gaea (mother of the Titans) of the techno-cosmos is Google, which will launch a Google Partners program in the first or second quarter of 2010 offering a 70/30 (in the client's favor) split to deliver books from their cloud to any device. IMO, this is the game changer. In any event, when corporations the size of these move this quickly, something big is happening. We live in interesting times.

For those of you who found everything I wrote in the previous paragraph either incomprehensible or noxious, there is good news. From my perch on the bleeding edge of the lunatic fringe, as volatile and unsettled as the publishing environment is these days, some fundamentals are adamantine. Let's review the basics. Publishing is a mechanism for "making public." That's not what writers and artists do. They "make." That is not changing. Editors are not publishers. Editors help writers and artists "make better" what they "make." That is not changing. When writers and artists and editors are done making what they make, then publishers do what they do. If you are a publisher, these are truly interesting times, because the old model is in deep, deep trouble in the face of economic and technological developments. If you are a writer or artist, it's the same old same old. You just need to make the best book you can make. If you are an editor, you need to navigate between the Scylla and Charybdis of the gate keepers entombed in the old publishing model and the brave new world of the unfiltered (read "unedited") deluge enabled by the internet. If you are a publisher, you need to look deep and hard at what is happening, and fish or cut bait.

But, my friends and colleagues, take comfort from the fact that writers and artists do what they do and editors do what they do and nothing about that has changed. All that is in play is who gets paid for what by whom. It is not my intention to suggest this is not important, but it isn't the most important aspect of what we do. This is good because it is definitely not in our control, and, I submit, you should never let the most important thing you do be in somebody else's control.

So, new models are emerging, but elements of the old model remain. Now anybody can publish, i.e. make public, anything. But readers won't settle for anything. Incoherent ramblings won't cut it, however freely available. Quality—however you define it—is as valuable as ever. How you get paid for that is in play. The upheaval we are living through is about marketing, sales, and distribution, not content. I take great comfort in that.

namelos annual report: a toe-hold on the lunatic fringe

We launched namelos a year ago on Inauguration Day, and we're still here. I consider this a resounding success. I promised to be forthcoming about how things are going—in the spirit of transparency and in service to the publishing community, which has been enormously supportive and encouraging. So here goes.

In the first phase of our launch we announced our "services" division, designed to help authors and artists by offering a substantial (average length: 1500 words), objective editorial evaluation in a timely manner (two weeks) for a modest price ($200). This generated some controversy and skepticism and still does. Be that as it may, we provided evaluations for 77 clients in 2009. I know of only two who felt our services were unsatisfactory, and most have expressed great satisfaction. I find this approval level acceptable. Of these 77 clients, 10 have engaged our ongoing, higher level editorial services. I find this conversion percentage acceptable. Half of our higher-level clients have agents and several have publishers. They have come to us for our editorial expertise, which pleases me. Our growth is driven by word-of-mouth. It is slow and that suits us just fine.

In September, we initiated the second phase of our launch, consisting of three new divisions.

Our ebook store went live, stocked with ebook editions of approximately 80 titles—the entire Front Street list of fiction and poetry—that we licensed from Boyds Mills Press. Moreover, we are actively seeking and acquiring rights to titles that have gone out of print and are republishing them in both print and ebook formats. I am especially pleased to be republishing Carolyn Coman's first novel, Tell Me Everything, that I originally published at FSG in 1993. The conversion process from print to electronic formats has proven interesting but we survived it and most of our titles went live on Amazon on Christmas Eve. At this point the titles are also live with Ingram and are posted in partnership with Google. We are systematically loading the books into a wide array of ebook venues. And, mirabile dictu, we are even selling books from our website as well. I want to emphacize that we (i.e. namelos and the authors) make much more money from sales on the namelos site than through other on-line stores, so if you are interested in acquiring any of our ebooks, please buy them here.

We launched our publishing program launched with Pod by Stephen Wallenfels, the first volume of a science-fiction trilogy. The first review is in: 11-year-old Robert declared it the best book he has ever read. The official publication date is April 1 (the same day I launched Front Street in 1994) but the book is available now from our website. We are breaking from the traditional publishing model by offering our books simultaneously in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats. Pod is out with all the major reviewers (who need more lead time than Robert) and we are orchestrating the distribution of materials to the rest of the review media over the next two months. I'm very excited about the book and expect good things for it. Just this week I've sent contracts off for four new books: The Forbidden Land by Betty Levin, The Sundown Rule by Wendy Townsend, The Punk Ethic by Timothy Decker, and No Name Baby by Nancy Bo Flood. In addition we have three books in the pipeline from our long-time Dutch partner, Lemniscaat: Departure Time by Truus Matti, Ramiro, Child Soldier by Ineke Holtwijk, and It's a Wonderful Life by Jesse Goossens. We are seeing more and more exciting projects coming our way.

The third division we launched is our "development" program. Our business model does not allow us to publish full-color picture books at this time, but we love to work on them. So, very, very selectivey, we have entered into agreements to develop and attempt to place some picture books with publishing partners. To date we're working on only three new projects. This year we were able to place Carolyn Coman and Rob Shepperson's The Memory Bank with Arthur Levine at Scholastic, and Donna Diamond's The Shadow with Joan Powers at Candlewick. We've also successfully introduced three authors to agents who have taken on their representation.

All well and good, you say, but what about the money? I'm not prepared to release our financials (and probably won't go quite that far, even in service to the community) but I will say that we've recovered the cash invested in launching the company, paid all our bills including fees to contributing members of our consortium, and there's enough left over to invest in the next phase of our growth.

So, there you have it. I'll close the report by saying that I haven't been this excited or challenged by publishing since my time as an editorial assistant at FSG in the late 70's and the launch of Front Street in the early 90's. We are publishing at the most elementary and fundamental level—finding authors, editing books, and bringing them to the public, and using all the skills we've acquired over decades. We are learning new things on a daily, almost hourly basis. Our authors are excited by our partnership and by the opportunities we see in the evolving publishing world. This is what publishing is all about. We're making a few good books and, maybe, just maybe, we'll make some money at it.

Thank you for your interest and support. Please, stay tuned.

Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—Of cabbages—and kings …

October 18, 2009

Of books: For many authors, a hardcover copy of their own book has a totemic significance that has nothing to do with the thing itself, das Ding an sich. It connotes an achievement on the order of being allowed to put Dr. before or Esq. after your name. On a shelf in a bookstore or a library, it is a public testimonial of achievement. All of this, I believe, is what Moses was so cranked about when he destroyed the golden calf. Be aware that when the object becomes detached from its meaning, it becomes a false idol. The ne plus ultra for an author is having his or her words in the mind of a reader and the more readers, the better. Paperback and ebook editions are ways to achieve that end. So, with all due deference to the hardcover books we adore, welcome and embrace the evolution that will extend and expand your readership.

Of Google: This week's announcement that Google will start selling books from the "cloud" early next year is cause for celebration, not because Google is the be all and end all of anything, but because it means that a major competitor has entered the marketplace to temper the dominance of Amazon and Barnes & Noble. When Apple releases it's much-anticipated tablet (possibly in early 2010), another major player will enter the fray. This competition is good for the consumer and what is good for the consumer is good for those of us who want to put our words in their minds.

Of Amazon: I've been talking with a neat group of people at Amazon this week. We hit a roadblock when we uploaded our first few titles. Amazon, burned by the Orwell incident, sought confirmation that we, in fact, had the right to sell those books. We received a form email asking that we send our contracts to the desktop people. Well, contracts contain proprietary information and publishers are loathe to share such information with disinterested third parties, especially anonymous ones (i.e. Amazon.com). With the help of a well-placed friend I was able to speak with the head of a new team established by Amazon to address author/publisher relations. These folks, at least the ones I spoke with, come from traditional book publishing and were very sympathetic to my concerns and came up with a way to resolve the situation. Amazon is enormous and, as was pointed out to me, is not a publisher. It sells stuff and sells it as well as or better than most other retailers in the world. They deal with an astronomical number of authors, publishers, and books. Their systems need to be scalable at a level that is incomprehensible to me (remember we publish only "a few good books"). Bridging the gap between their needs and ours presented a hurdle for them and for us. They could easily have ignored us: it's not like we're the tipping point. But they didn't and thanks to their new support team we've cleared the hurdle. I applaud their effort and thank them.

Of reviews: As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we have been discussing our business model and our forthcoming books with reviewers, major and minor. I am very happy to say that, without exception or abstention, they have agreed to allow us to submit our books for review. And that is all anybody can ever do. So now we just need to publish a few good books.

Of cabbages: … and other fall vegetables. I volunteer every Friday at my son-in-law's farm stand, hawking vegetables and swapping recipes. The cabbages aren't in full shriek yet, but the rutabagas, beets, potatoes, and kale are to die for. And the turnip soup I'm making will bring you back to life.

Of kings: … and queens. Norma Fox Mazer died this week. A sad loss. An enduring legacy. Requiescat in pace.

Extraordinary Publishing Delusions and the Saneness of Crowds

October 11, 2009

I'll take a break from namelos to rant about the trade book publishing industry. From my perspective on the lunatic fringe, it seems ripe for a Gibbon's-like treatment (you remember The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire). In other areas of publishing, e.g. medical/technical and scholarly, publishers are adjusting their business model to accommodate the array of challenges we all face. Trade book publishing seems to be clutching its braces, puffing out its chest, and shouting we're going to keep on doing what we've always done the way we've always done it … and even more so.
A case in point. I'm a life-long reader and rabid fan of genre fiction, primarily mystery and thrillers, and I'm a big fan of Dan Brown. I've read all his books. I have a prized first edition/printing of The DaVinci Code that I bought before it became a mega-bestseller. I thought at the time that it was very good, although not as good as his earlier books. I was surprised when it became so enormously successful. Subsequently people sought out the other books and the whole thing seemed like an example of what publishing is all about. You publish someone until, if you're lucky, a book breaks out, and he/she builds an audience, the back list flourishes, and everybody is happy.

Then came the long interim between The DaVinci Code and The Lost Symbol. Rumors would surface, mention would be made of when the new book might be published and what it might be about, and the back list titles would show another little bump in sales. Then came the frenzy and hysteria of the launch. The revelation of the jacket alone was cause for headlines. A first print run in the millions was announced. Much speculation ensued regarding how Amazon would price the ebook version. Security usually reserved for presidents and popes surrounded the printed copies. Finally, the book was published and set a first day sales record … a million copies or some such figure. I've read somewhere that the first print was 5 million and, based on the first day's sales, the publisher went back to press for 600,000 more copies. The marketing team was on steroids, pumping out smoke. Their fun-house mirrors slimming, trimming, and glittering. The book world was all aquiver. The Lost Symbol was going to save the industry. Beautiful!

But there is a problem. The book just isn't that good. To give it its due, it has all the allure of a particularly engaging crossword puzzle. But, as fiction, the characters are one-dimensional and the plot is transparent, at least the bit that involves characters. The fat lady sings well before the book ends. The long coda is reveal-ation (you have to read the book to get that reference) of the esoteric puzzle that informs the book combined with some philosophical speculation. Okay, I didn't like the book. Enough already. I'm not alone in that assessment: read Maureen Dowd's review in today's The New York Times Book Review and of the almost 1000 readers' reviews on Amazon, the majority are negative. These are people who bought the book and were disappointed enough to feel compelled to post a review!

However, the point I'm making is not about Dan Brown's success or failure. He wrote the best book he could and maybe his reach exceeded his grasp. Following an enormously successful book is always rough. I'll buy his next book and hope he hits his stride again. My real point is about our industry which is counting on the sales of this book to offset a disastrous year. We're looking for salvation to a book that is disappointing a great many of its readers. These are loyal fans who have been hyped to rush out and buy a book that does not deliver. When those 5.6 million copies don't sell through, when the mountains of them in bookstores stand undiminished on Dec. 26th, and booksellers start returning them in the new year, it will be a sad day in Mudville. This was inevitable in the biggest-is-best (whether it's any good or not) mentality that pervades trade publishing these days. Everybody is just doing what they get paid to do. But if this kind of publishing is what is supposed to save the industry, then we're in terrible trouble. If we save ourselves by disappointing our customers, we aren't worth saving. Our operating principle should not be caveat emptor. That's what I'm saying.

Reasonable Questions

October 4, 2009

The last two weeks have been busy and productive and not without frustration, but that is to be expected. We are talking about publishing, which has a lot in common with roller derby and rugby, albeit in a more psychological context. We are preparing to publish our first two titles, both first novels: Pod by Stephen Wallenfels, and Departure Time by Truus Matti. (By the way, in this case, Pod is not the acronym for print-on-demand, although it is an amusing coincidence.) To that end I have been talking with the book review editors of major and minor media, describing our business model and answering any questions they may have regarding our program. These are smart, experienced professionals and I thought it would be worthwhile to share a few of their questions and my answers. So, with no further ado, here goes.

Q. Are you self-publishing?
A. No. With the exception of my wife, Carolyn Coman, none of us are writers. Although I have published all of Carolyn's books, first when I was at Farrar, Straus and Giroux (long before we married), and then at Front Street, Carolyn's next book, The Memory Bank, which she co-created with her long-time collaborator, Rob Shepperson, will be published by Arthur A. Levine at Scholastic in the fall of 2010.

Q. Are you publishing books for a fee?
A. No. People ask us if we would publish their project for a fee and we decline. We do work with a number of authors/artists on a fee-for-services basis. If we determine at some point that a project is one we would like to publish, and the author wants to be published by namelos, we end the previous arrangement and move forward on a partnership basis.

Q. Are you an ebook publisher?
A. No. We are a publisher. ebooks are a format, just as hardcovers and paperbacks are formats. We are format independent. This means that when we publish we make the book available in whichever format the customer orders including hardcover, paperback, and ebook editions. We are pursuing a partnership that will enable us to offer our books in audio editions as well.

Q. How will you submit titles to reviewers and awards committees?
A. The same way everybody else does. We'll send ARCs (Advanced Readers Copies) to all and sundry several months prior to publication date.

Q. Will libraries be able to purchase your books?
A. Yes. Again, the same way they always purchase books. They can place an order directly with us or, more likely, they can place an order with their regular wholesaler or supplier. Our books will be available through Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Follett, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.

Q. Will bookstores be able to order your books?
A. Yes, through the same suppliers. However, our books will not be returnable and our trade discounts will be lower than booksellers are accustomed to receiving. This will impact on how we do business together but publishers and booksellers are working to sort this out and I anticipate a solution will be found in the not distant future.

My answers seemed to satisfy their concerns. In response to my question, Will you allow us to submit our books for review? the answer was, Yes. This is all a publisher can ask. Then it comes down to the quality of the books, themselves, and my confidence in the titles we are publishing knows no bounds.

That was the week that was

September 13, 2009

This week brought much appreciated attention to our launch. In a substantial article in Publishers Weekly, Karen Springen reported on our business model and discussed it with veteran industry player and observer, Richard Curtis. Curtis' comments were insightful, albeit, to my mind, skeptical. In particular, he said “namelos is open to Joe Blow, and the way it appears is that Joe Blow will be financing the development of these packages. The reading fee can be a sore point in the author community.” Yes, Joe and Jane Blow are welcome to submit to namelos and their work will get our full and undivided attention. No, I only wish the $200 income from evaluations would finance our development. And, yes, the reading fee is a sore point. I speak to the issue of why we charge for this service more fully here. I can only add that the people who have received evaluations from namelos overwhelmingly have felt they received value for their money.

But fair enough, skepticism is reasonable. Digital publishing is the new frontier and it's risky out here, as others are finding. Most notably, in a surprise announcement Quartet Press, which launched a few weeks ago and planned to publish romance digitally, pulled the plug this week. Kassia Krozser, one of the partners explains some of what they learned in "How I spent my summer vacation." Her “pain points” are illuminating.

As it happens, I, too, spent my summer vacation—actually most of the past year—the same way and, admittedly, the view from where I'm sitting is "through a glass, darkly." However, I recognize it as the same view I had when I started Front Street fifteen years ago, and I find it no more or less daunting now than then.

Many friends out there—authors and illustrators and publishers—are cheering us on. Thank you all. We will forge ahead.

To reiterate what I've already said, the old model is crumbling. The gatekeepers are still the major publishers, the so-called "Big Six", but the walls are coming down. Think of the ancient gates scattered around the centers of old Italian cities. They are lovely … and abandoned. Publishing is not there, yet, but publishers are struggling to come up with new models to accommodate the changing economic, technological, and competitive environment. namelos is our best shot.

And, so, we are stocking our shelves. Within the next few weeks we expect to have all of the books up in the three primary ebook formats—.epub, .mobi, and .pdf. If someone needs another format, let us know, and we'll convert the file. This fall we will publish our first three original titles, Pod by Stephen Wallenfels, Departure Time by Truus Matti, and Ramiro: Boy Soldier by Ineke Holtwijk. These books will be available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats. Finally, by the end of the month we expect to have our development site up and running with a few good books to show interested parties.

My intention is to post comments here on Sunday nights. I'll close each one with a question for you. I'm looking for an independent bookseller who will talk with me about ways that we can do business together. The old model doesn't work for us, and ours will be difficult for you. But we need to work together and namelos is open to any fair and reasonable arrangement. So, please, if you are or if you know a bookseller who is interested in tackling the nitty gritty of electronic and print-on-demand publishing, please contact me.

What is namelos?

First and foremost, namelos is a publisher of books for children and young adults. You can see our publishing credentials on the "About us" page, but, short form, we have been editing and publishing books for over thirty years. At namelos we will continue to do what we have done in the past: we will find, develop, and publish the best books for young readers. In this respect, we are traditional.

In all other respects, we are not traditional.

We will be format independent, publishing digital editions of our books as soon as they are ready, printing copies on demand to fill orders. In summary, our intention is to provide high quality content and let the market dictate format. We are out of the manufacturing, shipping, and storage business. Our books will not be returnable (unless defective or damaged).

Our authors and illustrators will be partners in a profit sharing contract. We will recover direct costs (exclusive of overhead) from gross revenues and split the balance 50/50.

Initially we will not publish full-color illustrated books because print-on-demand quality for full-color work is not yet where it needs to be for our business model. Therefore, we will enter into an agreement to develop picture books and place them with publishing partners. We will retain 15-25% of the revenues from such licenses.

Our marketing will be a combination of traditional and non-traditional. We will print copies for reviewers and anyone else who prefers paper to screens. We will also use social networking and web based marketing strategies, exploiting all of the new tools available on the Internet.

We do not accept unsolicited submissions but we do offer evaluations and editorial guidance through our publishing services division for a fee. All projects that we evaluate will automatically be considered for publication.

namelos is a new business model in an old business. Many of our practices are innovative. Some will be controversial. Our intention is to be as transparent in our operations as possible. To that end, and in service to the publishing community, we will post weekly a summary of how things are going. We are eager to engage in public dialogue with people in the field and we invite you to contact us.

Thank you for your interest in our venture and, please, stay tuned.