News You Can Use

Subject: ON CHANGES IN THE BOOK BUSINESS

by Godfrey Harris

Last night I delivered a major speech to the Book Publicists of Southern California on the changing nature of the book business. For those interested, here is a truncated version of that talk:

To understand what the future of the book business may hold, let me first quickly review how publishing got to be where it is today. We start with the fact that ALL publishing before the middle of the 19th Century was self-publishing. Rich authors sent their completed handwritten manuscripts to a printer who would design the pages, set the type, and bind the finished books. Authors would give most of this inventory away; a few would be sold and sometimes the author would collect money, sometimes not. The fact that today it still takes 90 to 180 days for publishers to get paid and all sales are contingent rather than final is a legacy of post roads, horse drawn coaches, and rich men who didn't care a toot about having to ask for payment. Point: Self-publishing is not only honorable, it is historic. In the mid-19th century new energy sources arose-first steam, then electricity-to change the publishing dynamic. Substantial amounts of leisure time and significant amounts of educational opportunity became available to more people. Suddenly printers realized that they could make a lot of money by not only printing the books, but by selling them for others to distribute.

Despite the fact that Gutenberg's invention of moveable type has been around since the 1450s, publishing is just 150 years old. And also please note that it was born as a commercial exercise, not to foster someone's writing skills, teach great moral lessons, or present new ideas to change society. The point of publishing from the start was to make money. It hasn't changed. Just as barbers evolved into surgeons and convinced the public that their new role was worth much more money than the old, so printers evolved into publishers and convinced everyone that this leopard had changed its spots as well. It hadn't, but a lot of authors still haven't figured that out given the awe in which they hold the big publishing houses. Most of them, however, have been transformed into just one of several revenue streams--and a minor one at that--for MEDIA CONGLOMERATES such as:

Bertlesmann AG
Viacom
News Corporation

Catch any famous publishing houses among those names? Ever see Viacom or News Corporation on the spine of a recent book? Take Viacom. It owns Simon & Schuster-home to a host of famous authors and 38 imprints such as Pocket Books, Scribners, the Free Press, and the like. Despite this, do you think Simon & Schuster might have trouble getting Sumner Redstone's attention among the other giant revenue earners in Viacom such as: CBS-TV, MTV, Nickelodeon, Black Entertainment Network, Paramount Pictures, UPN, Showtime, Infinity Broadcasting, Viacom Outdoor, and a lot more. They are all major players in their fields and most of them are worth more than Bill Gates and Warren Buffet combined. Here's a bulletin: Did you know that in Viacom's just announced monster restructuring to split its new media assets from its old media, Simon & Schuster doesn't even figure as old media. Its up for sale. Shows how dedicated Viacom is to publishing quality literature rather than to profit for Wall Street investors.

All of this I think proves the point that the publishing operations of these multi-billion dollar corporations have to compete with the other divisions for a share of the resources and to provide an attractive return on the investment. The bottom line, not Pulitizer Prizes, motivate how big publishers have to approach the marketplace today. That also means that they engage in petty level fraud and major league cheating--just like most small publishers who lie about the number of books they sell or the success they are having with a new title. I hear it all the time. No one in the book trade, truth be known, tells the truth. If you take nothing away from this evening, take this thought with you:

BIG PUBLISHING TODAY HAS LITTLE TO DO WITH TALENT OR QUALITY OR SOCIALLY BENEFICIAL ACTIVITIES. IT IS ABOUT MAKING MONEY. BECAUSE OF THIS, IT OFFERS A WEALTH OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR SMALL AND INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS INTERESTED IN FILLING OTHER NEEDS IN THE BOOK TRADE.

Listen to how the Editor of the Islamic Book Review, published in Cairo, puts it: “Books are the fertile soil where all nations grow their fruitful ideas and creative innovations in all walks of life.” Whoa! Because a lot of AstroTurf, it seems, is now being laid over that fertile soil by the owners of the big publishing houses, it is up to all of us in this room to try to meet this noble tradition. SMALL AND INDEPENDENT PUBLISHES HAVE TO DO A BETTER JOB THAN THEY HAVE BEEN DOING IN GETTING OUR BOOKS TO THE PUBLIC.

For example: Every major publishing house still approaches books in the same black and white way that Johann Gutenberg did. That's amazing when you think that everyone in this room will go home tonight to watch the news on a COLOR television set; will wake up tomorrow to check Email or type a letter on a COLOR computer screen; and will send or receive a cell phone call from a COLOR display? Why not color in trade books? Studies show that 60% of people respond more favorably to material in color; they read color information more carefully and color can link a message to mood.

What is so amazing about all of this is that nearly every book before Gutenberg was in color in the form of illuminated manuscripts. So why do all publishers, big and small, insist on publishing boring, dull, and less informative black and white books? Too expensive? It doesn't have to be.. The real reason, I believe, is that all publishers are shameless sheep. They do what they do because it has always been done that way. They would rather FAIL being “RIGHT” than suffer the ridicule of conventional thinkers for trying something different. The International Herald Tribune called the publishing industry a “deeply conservative business … trapped in a mind-set shaped by hot type and ink-stained galley proofs. It knows it has to change if it is to survive, but it does not want to change and greets each new proof that it has no choice in the matter with howls of dismay, bewilderment, and outrage.”

What about graphic novels? As mangas they are enormously popular in Japan, Europe, but shunned here. Why? I suspect that most teachers and librarians hated Classic Comics as an easy way to absorb Shakespeare or some other slog in high school, and the hatred carries over to any book that combines pictures and words. I have two things to say. Is it better that 57% said they read at least one novel in 1987, but now fewer than 47% report reading a book now? Guess why? More television choices, video games, concerts, movies and the like. Realize that American families earn on average about $49,000 each year, spends more than $2500 on entertainment, but only $150 on books. Faced with a disappearing market, I can't understand how some people in the book business would rather remain pure to a form and style that was popular 100 years ago rather than look for new ways and new forms to bring readers back to the joy of books.

This brings us to Harris's Axioms for Small and Independent Publishers:

(1) EVERY BOOK DESERVES TO BE WRITTEN; BUT ONLY A FEW DESERVE TO BE PUBLISHED.
(2) SELL WHAT THE MARKET WANTS, NOT WANT YOU WANT TO SELL TO THE MARKET.
(3) THINK MARKETING BEFORE SUBSTANCE, THINK SELLING BEFORE EDITING.

Let me sum up the lessons on publishing I want you to take home with you tonight:

1. Be proud to be involved in self-publishing. No more hanging your heads, no more sounding like a dentist who has doctor envy. Realize that you can innovate and be creative from such a position, publishing houses inside giant corporations cannot.
2. Figure out who will want to buy your book at every stage as you craft it.
3. Think about the readability of your book--typography, page layout, paragraphing, color instead of italics and underlining--before you worry about the words in the book.

These three lessons lead to the final Harris Axiom: PUBLISH TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, NOT TO WIN SOMEONE'S ACCEPTANCE.

Godfrey Harris
International Publishers Alliance

9200 Sunset Blvd., Suite 404
Los Angeles, CA 90069-3506 USA
Tel: + (1) 310 278 8037
Fax: + (1) 310 271 3649
EM: hrmg@aol.com
www.harrisragan.com