Right place, right time for EnhancedBooks? Perhaps, but the conversation surrounding how technology is effecting publishing is clearly gaining steam. It’s defiantly a fun place to be… on the cutting edge of a revolution.
I was delighted to see a publishing professional like Joe Wikert agreeing with my recent comments on the concept that networks are good for books. As soon as authors and publishers start to really get it en masse, you’ll see a whole wave of changes happen. It’s a movement that will level the playing field so much that within 5 years, publishers who remain resistant will be blindsided by plummeting sales and who really knows what consequences. As a matter of fact, networks are already creating the sale and trade of books, as well as other goods and services. Ask yourself, are you so avid a reader that you belong to a reading club? Have you ever considered how much demand for wine and beer a reading club generates? How much coffee you’ve consumed at your local cafe discussing books with friends and acquaintances?
Also consider that a great deal of authors must go out on tour to
promote their books. There is certainly no reason why self-published
authors, or those from smaller houses with little to no budget for
travel, should not create more reach for their titles in the same ways
that the bigger guys can. Let’s also not forget that they can also
generate additional income at the same time through associated
advertising and commissions on sales of good, just like their brethren
the Bloggers. Thing like this are happening in music, where grassroots
adoption drives awareness and the network spreads the content,
awareness and consumption.
To speak to the obvious, technical books benefit tremendously from
electronic delivery; it adds a long-tail regenerative quality, not to
mention the ability for to gain insight the interests and behavior of
readers. I recall a conversation after wrapping up FlashForward 2004
with Jason Fried of 37Signals and Tim O’Reilly over coffee. Tim was showing us why he created Safari
as well as the tool he used to track the technical book market as well
as make decisions on new books based on purchasing trends. I suspect
that he was using purchasing data from Bowker,
but I have no doubt that he was correlating the data against his own.
many of the publishers we talk to would like to have this sort of
actionable insight into thier titles, but few are willing to really
take the steps to get that information.
As for Amazon, about 5 days after we put out an email press release
in October of last year, (unfortunately we don’t have a copy on http://publishers.enhancedbooks.com), Amazon put out their own press release
on November 3rd saying that they were getting into essentially the same
space that we were already in. Even some of the verbiage was strikingly
similar to ours. We took it as a spot of market validation and what
they have recently released as an answer is not really any better than
our current incarnation. If you’re interested, this is an example title
of what they are doing… "Where the Wild things are"
EnhancedBooks
goal is to open up the pages of books to provide better experiences and
knowledge exchange for the three parties around which books are
central, readers, authors and publisher. When you articulate the
concept, Authors are usually the first audience to really envision the
potential that this adds for their titles. Readers usually think it
sounds cool, but there are generally two opinions that I find in terms
of the EnhancedBook concept; those who think that it is an incredible
idea, and others who say that they would never, ever be interested in
using it. Many in the second camp come from the "I’m from a generation
who is uncomfortable with computers and the Internet". The other group
from this camp are those who are "principled" in the sacred notion of
books. ironically, I believe that these are the people who might
benefit the most from the potential "connection of mind".
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