[A2k] McGuire: What Publishing Can Learn From Music

[Manon Ress]

Hugh McGuire in Huffpo

What Publishing Can Learn From Music
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hugh-mcguire/what-publishing-can-learn_b_134456.html

The modern publishing business has been in existence since about 1800,
but things are not looking so rosy in the ink-stained world. The
publishing business is scared: if stagnating book sales and the
creeping digital shakeup were not enough, the market meltdown has many
tightening their belts while trying to figure out the future.

Still, there is no indication that books are going away, or are any
less useful, needed or wanted now than they were 200 years ago. Books
are still essential. People still love them.

The book publishing business has a great advantage over other big
media industries. For various reasons, publishing is late to the
digital party. So it can look to all the many mistakes the music
business made in the past decade, and decide how to move into the
uncertain future. Here is some unsolicited advice to ponder while
ignoring the Dow.

Five Lessons Publishing Should Learn from Music

1. An iPod for Books Will Change Everything

The Internet, Napster, and Bit Torrents have all shaken up the music
business, but it was the iPod that put the final nail in the coffin of
the old business models: radio doesn't matter anymore, and barely
anyone can remember what a CD is for. All of a sudden, the world is
full of people who want to fill up their little white devices with
music. In the book business, we've yet to see an iconic, affordable e-
reader that people love. When we do, the game will change. Kindle Two
apparently shows promise. The new Sony Reader is getting lots of good
reviews. And Stanza, the new e-book app for the iPhone, makes Apple's
handheld the most popular e-book reader in the world. What's more,
Stanza has converted many e-book skeptics I know personally. Question
for publishers: do you want to be where the readers are? Then find out
where they are, and go there.

2. Think Beyond DRM

Big media has reacted to the web with alarm and terror, and their
favorite answer to the challenges of the future has been digital
rights management (DRM). This has been a disaster for media customers,
and it's not doing much good for the music business, is it? Have you
heard any happy reports about how DRM is saving music? Nope. In the
case of book buyers, DRM stops many people from embracing e-books,
because it makes things too complicated, and limits what you can do
with them. We want to read our books on different devices, how and
when we want. We don't want to be treated like criminals, or told what
devices we're allowed to read on. Experiment a little, make some
gambles, see what works best. Try it without DRM, you might like it.

3. If You Help Us, We Will Buy

The music business and Hollywood made a big mistake by fighting online
distribution. If, early on, big media had built (or allowed others to
build) the tools to let us all download movies and music at reasonable
prices, we would have come. Instead, they fought digital distribution
with every bit of litigious animosity they could muster. Result:
alternate/illegal means of getting entertained filled the void.

So, to publishers: Make your stuff available online. Make it easy to
find. Make it easy to buy. And don't insult us: if a physical book --
with the cost of production, distribution and retail overhead -- is
worth $20, a digital book is not. Cut the price accordingly. Take your
margin, but don't abuse your customers with outrageous prices for e-
books (otherwise, we will find other ways to get our books).

4. Don't Be Afraid of Free

Do you remember how in the olden days, the publishing business lead a
massive effort to shut down public libraries, because free was the
enemy of the publishing business? How they fought to stop people
giving a gift of their favorite books to a friend? Me neither.
Libraries help readers, they help publishers, they help books in
general. And giving away a book is one of the most powerful marketing
signals in the universe. The mainstream book business seems to live in
terror of free, and yet free access to books has traditionally been
the cornerstone of the publishing business. You don't have to give
everything away, but remember how much good "free" has done for you in
the past.

5. Find Out What Your Customers Want

Then build your business around that. This is the most important
point. Readers love books. They love reading. They love writers. We
will support the publishing business, and writers, but you have to
find out how we want to do it. Don't try to shoehorn us into an old
business model that doesn't make sense with new technology. Your job
is not to force customers to behave the way you want them to. Your job
is to find out what your customers want, and then deliver it to them.
Times are changing. Find out what we want, what we need, and then help
us get it.

There are some encouraging signs that the publishing business are
trying to make some good changes. Let's hope they keep going in the
right direction.

END of QUOTE

For "encouraging signs" see:
Sara Lloyd: A book publisher's manifesto for the 21st century Part I
http://thedigitalist.net/?p=137

A Book publisher's manifesto Part II
http://thedigitalist.net/?p=140