Steve Jobs’ advice to the CEO of Nike? Cut the crap. Life lesson for authors, musicians, businesspeople …
Source: FastCompany
Steve Jobs’ advice to the CEO of Nike? Cut the crap. Life lesson for authors, musicians, businesspeople …
Source: FastCompany
Apologies to Oscar Wilde for butchering “What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing” (Lady Windermere’s Fan).
I’ve been reading a worthwhile series of posts by Joel Friedlander on the cost of self-publishing. If you’re starting down the path of publishing your own book you may find Joel’s perspective helpful.
My only caution is that I believe Joel’s cost estimates are extremely low, detrimentally so. Authors need to accept that sometimes if they want a job done well they must pay well.
Here are a couple of examples from Joel’s post:
This isn’t a criticism of Joel or his maths. In fact, he probably has a post on the way in his evolving series addressing some of these concerns. But I have seen authors burnt badly, and regularly, by engaging so-called professionals who really don’t know what they’re doing. The author ends up paying twice, and then some.
And a tip to the wise, follow Joel on Twitter @JFbookman.
I’m not liking the excessive focus on the human wreckage that is the second series of MasterChef Australia. It’s nasty stuff, although for some quite compelling TV I’m sure.
Some contestants are keeping their heads down and they’ll emerge later in the series as the real contenders. But how long must we endure the seemingly endless line of pseudo-cooks breaking down every time the slightest pressure is applied? Tread carefully ye producers of MasterChef.
In mid-2007 while publishing Entertainment+Media (an online mag I founded that attracted 20k uniques/day) I suggested that record label revenues would be equally split between physical product and digital within 18-24 months. The industry is not quite there and the ‘legacy’ business isn’t yet ready to roll over … mea culpa.
Michael A. Stackpole in a Huffington Post post [always wanted to write that] titled Publishing Crashes in 2012 summarised an equally interesting article by Michael Shatzkin, Serious disruption just over the horizon.
Stackpole writes:
His thinking runs thusly: once ebook sales hit 20-25% of book sales, print run numbers will fall to a point where the current consignment system for sales will break down. Under the current system, most books can be returned for credit, so for every book sold, two are printed. Those “returned” books have the covers torn off, and the guts discarded, so they cannot be put out into the market again. Ebook sales will create smaller print runs, driving up the unit cost, forcing higher prices which, in turn, will kill sales. Game over.
Reasonable analysis except that it seems to assume a large number of variables will remain constant, which they won’t. I also expect that the book biz will mirror the music biz and that while ebook unit sales will grow significantly over the next few years growth will slow more quickly than some expect. Triple figure growth is not sustainable.
Also, the cost of printing a book is nominal; less than a couple of dollars when you’re printing a few thousand, let alone tens of thousands. The print argument is bunkum. I’d take a closer look at supply chain inefficiencies and a woeful retail business model as a more likely ‘sales killer’.
Anyhow, a recent report from Goldman Sachs media analysts (which includes the well respected Ingrid Chung) said this of book publishing trends through 2015:
Industry-wide sales will increase to US$24.9 billion in 2015 from $23.5 billion this year…. E-book sales will jump more than fourfold in the period to $3.19 billion while print book sales probably will fall 4.9 percent to $21.7 billion.
Source: Bloomberg Businessweek.
My experience analysing the music industry supports Goldman’s assessment of likely market growth trends in the book biz. As for the impact of piracy on revenues? That’s another matter entirely!
MasterChef is back on Australian TV. I enjoyed the first series and was one of the more vocal fans when the format first emerged on our screens. But I have reservations about series two.
MasterChef was never about food or cooking, just as Survivor has nothing to do with anyone’s ability to endure a tough night in the woods.
Reality TV thrives on human drama and series two of MasterChef Australia looks like taking this a little more to heart in 2010.
There is already an apparent focus on the human condition more so than the cooking. Even though MasterChef is only vaguely about whether a contestant can de-bone a chicken in less than 10 seconds, if there’s not enough cooking there will be collateral damage in ratings. And I’ll be one of the first to go.
The internet promised much for the freedom of creative expression. Of late it seems to be a battleground of vested media and corporate interests.
Yet from time to time the full power of the platform as a means for people from all corners of the globe to collaboratively create art is realised.
185 people. 12 countries. Here is one beautiful example:
I worked in the music biz for over a decade. I learnt a thing or two about ‘platforms’ – the buzz word in internet marketing – and how pointless they can be if there’s no-one actually at your gig.
As important as building a strong platform from which you can preach your message is, having a relationship with your fans – your paying customers! – is more important than the means from which you speak your truth.
Smart cookies in the music biz worked out long ago that the most valuable asset an artist has is their relationship with their fans. Investors, such as record labels, book publishers and the like, are now starting to fully understand just how much that relationship is worth. You’ll hear a lot more about ‘eyeballs’ in the coming months.
Interesting thing no doubt, this platform of eyeballs.
I have a theory, of sorts: Western culture values quantity over quality. More is better than less. Big is better than small. Perhaps it has something to do with the dualism created by Judeo-Christiana theology?
Whatever the case, it may account for the increasing length of blog posts to do with the business of publishing and writing of books. Ironic really, that people offering ‘advice’ cannot do so succinctly in an industry where getting to the point is the point.
‘Lies, lies and damn statistics’ comes to mind when reading a recent post from Publishers Weekly journalist Andrew Albanese.
Bowker recently released industry stats (see below and my post A deluge of self-published shite) indicating supposed dramatic growth in the number of self-published books released to market. While most publishers count the number of books they release by title, one company has redefined the concept by counting the number of books printed.
Publishers Weekly Albanese wrote:
When Bowker’s 2009 book industry stats were released yesterday many in the industry were stunned to see an unfamiliar company name, BiblioBazaar, leading a surging new segment of “non-traditional” publishing stats with a whopping 272,930 titles produced in 2009–almost as many titles the entire “traditional” publishing business cranked out last year. Could it be? Could one little-known company really produce so much volume?
And the twist in the tale:
“If by ‘produce’ you mean create a cover file that will print at multiple POD vendors, a book block that will print at multiple POD vendors, and metadata to sell that book in global sales channels, then yes, we did produce that many titles,” said Mitchell Davis, president of BiblioLife, parent company of BiblioBazaar.
It’s an interesting business to be sure, but counting the number of titles printed? Bowker must be issuing ISBNs at a furious rate if each print job warrants its very own ISBN.
Rather than critically examine the trend Albanese went off on a love-in with BiblioLife’s prexy Davis. Not good journalism.
Here’s the full article for those who care.
The speaker who provided the greatest number of ‘lightbulb’ moments at the creative3 forum held in Brisbane AU this week was Hugh Mason of Pembridge Partners.
Although the following slideshow is sans the ever so important context provided by Hugh at the event, it is nonetheless worth a look if you’re engaged in the creative industries and seeking finance (muso, author, film maker, shoe designer, chef …).
I’ll try my best to answer any queries via comments, but I can’t promise Hugh’s eloquence or understanding.