New Industry Report Released on Consumer Book-Buying Behaviors
Bibliographic information provider Bowker has released the "2009 U.S. Book Consumer Demographics and Buying Behaviors Annual Report," which includes consumer-based research on who buys books and why. The 2009 Annual Report is culled from more 44,000 total respondents, responsible for the purchase of 118,000 books in 2009.
According to Bowker, the report includes in-depth book data, demographics, psychographics and genre-category breakdowns. "This year's report provides data not available in any other source, with a scope that captures the changing nature of retail channels, including the growing presence of such mass merchandisers as Wal-Mart," the company reported in a press release issued this week. "Further, the report captures the explosion of new electronic formats."
"With the exponential growth of e-books, the continuously shifting channels and buying patterns of consumers, and the need to effectively micro-market to readers through social networks, Bowker's PubTrack Consumer is fast becoming an indispensable tool for today's publishing industry," says Kelly Gallagher, vice president of publisher services for Bowker. "While traditional [Point of Sale] data is still valuable, having a more complete view of today's book buyer is essential to thriving in an industry that's as fast-paced as ours."
The 2009 Annual Report has been expanded from last year's report to include exploration into quarterly trends, in-depth analysis on digital books and virtual "bookshelves" that facilitate understanding of consumer buying behavior. The content also includes Bowker's 2009 book production statistics, which reveal the growth of print-on-demand and provide a benchmark for the number of new titles—and their genre breakdowns—produced in the United States.
Some highlights from the report are:
*More than 40 percent of Americans over the age of 13 purchased a book in 2009, and the average age of the American book buyer is 42.
*Women lead men in overall purchases, contributing 64 percent of sales. Even among detective and thriller genres, women top 60 percent of the sales. Fantasy titles are purchased evenly by men and women.
*Baby-boomers are the largest purchasing generation, making up 30 percent of sales. Their elders—matures—contribute 16 percent.
*More income doesn't mean more book purchases. Thirty-two percent of the books purchased in 2009 were from households earning less than $35,000 annually, and 20 percent of those sales were for children's books.
*The top-selling non-fiction genre is biography-autobiography.
The report is available by visiting www.bookconsumer.com. Pricing starts at $999 for a single-use PDF or print copy.
Random House Children's Books Publishes Its First-Ever Exclusive E-Book Original
For the first time in the publisher's history, Random House Children's Books has released an e-book of an original, not-previously-published work. The short story, written by New York Times bestselling author Michael Scott, is entitled "The Death of Joan of Arc: A Lost Story from the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel."
The story is available exclusively in digital format and is the newest addition to Scott's series "The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel," which has sold more than 1 million copies to date in North America. Released by the Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers imprint, it retails for $0.99.
"Michael's new e-book original is certain to entertain fans and satisfy them as they wait until the publication of the next book in the six-part series, The Warlock [to be published next year]," says Beverly Horowitz, Delacorte publisher.
2010 Publishing Executive Hall of Fame Inductees Announced; Cengage SVP Among Honorees
Book Business and Publishing Executive magazines have announced the 2010 inductees into the Publishing Executive Hall of Fame, the industry's most prestigious awards recognition for excellence in book and magazine publishing production and manufacturing. Now in its 21st year, the Hall of Fame recognizes several outstanding individuals each year for their achievements in manufacturing and production, and for their significant contributions to the magazine and book publishing industries.
This year's inductees are:
* Ken Brooks , senior vice president, global production and manufacturing services, Cengage Learning
* Bill Amstutz , director of publishing operations and strategic planning, NewBay Media
* Michael Lonier , CIO, executive vice president of operations, The Deal
And this year, for the first time ever, an Honorary Induction is being awarded to:
* Robert M. Sacks , aka BoSacks, Partner, mediaIDEAS, and President, Precision Media Group
ABOUT THE INDUCTEES
Ken Brooks
As senior vice president, global production and manufacturing services at Cengage Learning (formerly Thomson Learning), Brooks is responsible for the development, production and manufacturing of textbooks and reference content in print and digital formats. Previously, he was president and founder of Publishing Dimensions, a digital content services company focused in the e-book and digital strategy space.
Over the course of his career, Brooks has founded a Philippines-based text conversion company; a public domain publishing imprint; and a distribution-center based print-on-demand operation, and worked in trade, professional, higher education and K-12 publishing sectors. He has held several senior management positions in publishing, including vice president of digital content at Barnes & Noble, vice president of operations, production, and strategic planning at Bantam Doubleday Dell, and vice president of customer operations at Simon & Schuster. Prior to his entry into publishing, he was a senior manager in Andersen Consulting's logistics strategy practice.
Bill Amstutz
As director of NewBay Media's publishing operations and planning, Amstutz oversees NewBay's production of more than 40 publications and show dailies, 30 daily and weekly e-newsletters, three expos and more than 50 custom publishing efforts annually. He has worked with NewBay since 2007. He was former managing partner of Strategic Media Operations consultancy, and chief audience officer at BizBash Media, a publisher of venue and supplier directories, magazines and e-newsletters, Web sites, trade shows and awards shows.
Prior to that, Amstutz was senior vice president of operations for CMP Media (1991-2006); senior vice president of operations for Miller Freedman; senior vice president of audience marketing and development for CMP Media. He also held positions as senior vice president at United Business Media and vice president of production at Miller Freeman, as well as customer service manager for Prepress Assembly Inc. He is a founding member of the Publishers Production Forum, serves on Publishing Executive magazine's editorial advisory board, and has served as chair of the Publishing Business Conference & Expo.
Michael Lonier
As the CIO andvice presidentof operations at The Deal LLC-a financial information provider-Lonier is responsible for digital product development, technical operations, audience development, production, manufacturing and distribution. Working closely with The Deal's CEO Kevin Worth, Lonier has led a technology and product transformation, changing The Deal from a traditional diversified b-to-b media company, with publications and related digital products and events, into a high-value enterprise-licensed financial information service provider. To drive this transformation, he assembled new IT and operations teams, built out new technology infrastructure, and replaced The Deal's content management platform, leading to the October 2008 launch of The Deal Pipeline, a proprietary blend of deal news and transaction content that is now part of the daily Web-based and mobile workflow of large law firms, investment banks, fund managers, and advisors.
Before joining The Deal five years ago, Lonier was a technology and operations executive for U.S. News and Thomson Reuters Healthcare. He also worked as a photographer, art director, and production manager at Cincinnati magazine before joining Time Inc., eventually becoming the corporate editorial production manager and then the architect of Time Inc's IMPACT Center, which pioneered the first full-color text and graphics digital prepress, producing more than 14,000 color pages annually, transmitting via private satellite network to 10 domestic and six international printing locations.
Lonier and his wife, Elaine Y. Fry, left Time to start Yuey/Lonier Inc., a technology and operations consulting firm, and soon thereafter, a division, The Color Bureau, a digital prepress and photo studio. For a decade, they managed dozens of technology and operations projects for firms such as Chemical Week, NBC, Saks, Nordstrom, The New Yorker, Times Mirror, and many others. He is member of the American Business Media Business Information Committee, the PubTec user group, and has been a member of the adjunct faculties of the Department of Photography at SUNY-FIT and the Visual Arts Dept. at Ramapo College (N.J.).
Bob Sacks
Sacks has nearly 40 years of experience in publishing, from start-ups to fortune 500 companies. He has held positions ranging from publisher, director of manufacturing and distribution, production director, editor, and sales manager. In 1998, he founded Precision Media Group, a consultancy to printers, publishers, web producers and media start-ups. He also is a partner in mediaIDEAS, a research and strategic publishing-industry consulting company, and the publisher/editor of a daily media industry newsletter, Heard on the Web.
Previously, Sacks served as director of manufacturing and distribution for Bill Communications Inc. (VNU), and was corporate director of all magazine titles and directories, where he supervised five divisions with 15 monthly titles and many sibling publications. He also negotiated contracts, purchased paper, oversaw manufacturing budgets and all production personnel, among other responsibilities. Sacks also served in other positions including group production director for CMP Publications; assistant production director for Ziff-Davis Publications; senior account manager for International Paper Corp.; and director of production for McCall's Publishing.
Perhaps his claim to fame, though, is his role as a "founding father" of High Times Magazine (Trans-High Corp.), where he served as vice president/production director from 1974-1985, with total responsibility for all production and purchasing of national monthly magazines of 600M+ circulation, including negotiation of all contracts, purchasing of all paper, 4/c separations, composition (in-house) and binding.
Sacks has been a columnist for Publishing Executive magazine for more than five years, and is a regular blogger on Publishing Executive's website, PubExec.com. He has been a member of and involved with numerous industry organizations, including Publishers Production Forum, Women in Production, Magazine Publishers of America/Paper Committee, Association of Publication Production Managers (where he was a member of the Board of Directors), among many others. He is a frequent speaker at publishing industry events and universities, and continues to serve as mentor to many publishing executives in all areas of publishing.
ABOUT THE HALL OF FAME
Each year, exceptional professionals from the printing and production industry are inducted into the Publishing Executive Hall of Fame.The inductees, nominated by their peers and then selected by Publishing Executive and Book Business magazines' editorial staff and advisory boards, represent the best of the best. Previous inductees hail from companies such as Scholastic, U.S. News & World Report, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Forbes, Wiley, Consumers Union, World Book, Condé Nast Publications, and many others. You can view previous inductees here.
The 2010 Hall of Fame inductees will be honored for their outstanding achievements and contributions to the industry at the Gold Ink Awards & Hall of Fame Gala, Monday, Oct. 4, at the Hyatt Regency, McCormick Place in Chicago, during Graph Expo.
Click here to book a table or reserve an individual seat. Or, for information on tickets or sponsorships of the Gold Ink/Hall of Fame Awards dinner, contact Mike Cooper at mcooper@napco.com or (215) 238-5434.
Editor's Note: Google Exec to Keynote Publishing Business Virtual Event
Mark Nelson, Strategic Partner Manager at Google, will be interviewed during a special keynote event, LIVE during the Publishing Business VIRTUAL Conference & Expo (produced by Book Business and Publishing Executive magazines), Sept. 16 at 10:15 a.m.-11:15 a.m. ET.
The interview will focus on "Google Editions," Google's forthcoming new service that will allow users to buy digital copies of books they discover through Google's book search, and enable book retailers to sell Google Editions through their own sites and share in the revenue from e-book sales. The foundation and distinction of Google Editions versus other online e-bookstores is its "cloud-based" platform, which provides consumers who purchase books with an "electronic bookshelf," so they can access their books anytime, anywhere, from a variety of electronic devices, via the Internet.
Nelson also will share his perspectives on the future of the book industry, among other important issues surrounding a shifting industry in which Google has been a dominant player.
The 2010 Publishing Business Virtual Conference & Expo, called "Digital Content Day @ Your Desk," is a free event featuring a full day of sessions presented by industry-leading speakers focusing on maximizing digital content. Since the event is virtual, you can participate in the event from your desk (or even from your bed, if it's just "one of those days"!). In addition to the educational sessions and discussions, must-see keynote events and exhibition and resource area, you can also network with fellow attendees and ask questions of many of the speakers.
To register for this event or for more information visit: http://bit.ly/google_keynote
Editor's Note: Free Book Business Whitepaper Available Online
Book Business' latest whitepaper is available to download for free. Offering strategic tips and advice on effectively and efficiently utilizing social media to build brand awareness and market books, "21 Tips for Book Publishers to Build an Effective Social Media Strategy " includes expert information compiled from Book Business magazine articles and Publishing Business Conference & Expo sessions.
The social media strategy whitepaper explains how to maximize online social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and others, even with limited time and resources. It can be downloaded here.
Don't miss this opportunity to increase your knowledge at no cost—a significant return, and the only investment needed is your time!
The New Arts of Book Building: Challenges for Authors, Editors and Producers (Part Two)
By Eugene G. SchwartzIn part one of this discussion, I discussed how in the word “book,” and in the various ways we hyphenate it, we set the definition and expectation of how we view our work as professionals and how content will be developed.
I also raised the question how books of the future will be built and what skill sets would be needed. To answer this question, I will look at some of the announcements now coming out of publishing houses about new “enhanced” and interactive e-books.
The Writing on the Wall
Professionals whose livelihoods, skills and inspirations reside in the making of books have also historically liked to refer to themselves as ‘book builders.” This term of art is still enshrined in the names of Bookbuilders West, Bookbuilders of Southern California, Minnesota Bookbuilders and Bookbuilders of Boston.
Holding on to a name rooted in making “things,”is the 85-year-old Bookbinders Guild of New York—the largest such trade group of book- making professionals—which gathers together the designers, editors, production managers, compositors and printers who actually practice the craft of bringing hundreds of thousands of new titles into the market each year.
“Building” a book from Gutenberg through to Desktop always consisted of (a) development: authoring and design, editing, production management; (b) prepress: composition, and making ready for press; and (c) manufacturing: printing, binding and components.
With the advent of Desktop, the transformation began. Almost overnight, pre-press vanished into development or manufacturing. Development skill sets required understanding of word processing and productivity software—but tradition in shaping text-based content made its way smoothly into the process—epitomized by the “ml” in xml, html, etc.—meaning “markup language.” And the terminology of fonts, point sizes and the variants thereof are very much with us.
Legacy era authors, editors and production people who have managed the transition from pencil and adding machine to keyboard are home free, and all of the current generations have been born free, with workflows now geared to the new technologies behind them.
Stubbornly, however, the word-based medium and its conventions remain the same—and those who are employed to create and prepare content remain schooled in those conventions.
Thus, watching with uncertainty the e-book phenomenon spread along the Internet, true book builders are wondering whether, although the printed book will probably not vanish in their lifetimes, most of their jobs might vanish—or will at least be transformed by the requirements of skill sets not embraced by their training.
Or, it may very well be that all the skill sets will not be found in one singular venue and production talent and creation and production of the new “book” will require a team effort among different enterprises.
The Job Descriptions of the Future?
So, how does the author, editor and production person prepare for the future?
Imagine some publisher posted classified ads in Book Business, Publishers Marketplace, Publishers Weekly, ForeWord Reviews, Library Journal, Printing Impressions, et al, that were worded as follows:
Wanted: Writers, editors, designers and production managers with strong traditional book experience and computer productivity skills in their specialty areas.
This generic terminology would likely deliver highly competent applicants. Yet, in many instances they would be unprepared to understand the technical judgment calls that bound the editorial and expressive potential of the various media and equipment used to deliver the new “enhanced” books (e.g., to get the most out of your book manufacturer, you have to understand how books are bound).
It is not that I don’t believe book professionals can learn the new language of interactive and multi-media development. Rather, I take a realistic assessment that, to begin with, people with these talents generally will have already found their way into video, films, theater, games, animation, graphic novels and various performing arts.
Listed below are publishing programs that typify what may be the job opportunities of the future [I excerpted and adapted all of the job description text from recent publisher press releases and/or online postings]. The questions I raise next to each highlight for me why classifying them as book publishing opportunities may not be realistic. Also noted are some that I think can be smooth or promising job opportunity, if limited, transitions:
1. Welcome to Enhanced Editions. We tailor-make e-books for the iPhone the way nature intended. Not only stacked full of brilliant, easy-to-use features, and hours of multimedia extras, but crafted with the editorial insight that only publishers can bring to a book. Watch the trailer for our first title, Nick Cave’s "The Death of Bunny Munro," and for our most recent one, Philip Pullman’s "The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ," to find out more.
Beyond editorial insight, what can strong traditional book production experience bring to the electronic execution of this product?
2. enkHouse, a new digital division under Brown Books Publishing Group, announces the launch of its joint venture with KiwiTech, the world’s leading enhanced e-book/app developer. Together they are taking the lead in the exploding market of enhanced e-books and film-based apps. You’ll not only read your favorite book on your e-reader, but you will interact with it by bringing up images, music and videos—transforming the written story into a multi-dimensional experience. In addition, e-readers will get updates and news about film adaptations and more pushed right to their smart phones or tablet computers.
In what ways would editors and production people schooled only in book traditions be able to transform a written story into a multi-media experience?
3. S&S Children’s Books, Expanded Books/Expanded Apps. S&S is transforming the format of the original Choose Your Own Adventure books that required the reader to turn to a particular page to make a choice. In U-Ventures apps, they tap the screen. Plot progression is seamless. Our developer, Expanded Apps, added sound, light and other special effects, even music and alien voices, and the author introduced a lot more variations and endings and special situations: For example, where what happens depends on whether the reader remembers a secret word. In the original books, the reader was illustrated as a boy—sometimes a girl. U-Ventures are illustrated from the point of view of the reader: What you see is what you're looking at.
How would strong book experience equip an editor to collaborate with an author in the introduction of “added sound, light and other special effects?”
4. Under our Nosy Crow imprint, we’ll publish high-quality, commercial fiction and non-fiction books for children aged from 0 to 14. In our fledgling Appiness division, we’ll make innovative and excellent apps for smart phones and other devices. These apps will use text, audio, video, animation and images in fresh new ways. We are taking off with apps for children, but our ambitions don’t stop there.
What role could editors and production people trained only in strong book experience bring to the use of ”text, audio, video, animation and images in fresh new ways?”
5. Grand Central Publishing, part of Hachette, announces an “enriched” e-book version of David Baldacci’s latest novel, "Deliver Us From Evil," to coincide with the hardcover release. The e-book producers borrowed from the film industry and included “research photos taken by the author, deleted scenes from the manuscript, an alternate ending and other special features. The early versions of these books are experimental, and, because they were developed quickly to compete with other publishers, some of the technology is new and unpolished. But eventually the books could regularly feature full-length movies and photo slideshows. For authors who are open to the concept, new books could be written with multimedia in mind.
How many authors open to the concept would, on their own, develop a story any differently with multimedia in mind?
6. Owners of iBird Explorer, a digital book produced for the iPhone by field guide publisher Mitch Waite Group, can play the songs of more than 900 bird species. Using microphones, it can also capture the chirps and warbles of wild birds and match them against a database of bird sounds to help the "reader" identify the species.
Sourcebooks proved that sound and text could be successfully married by an exceptional conventional publisher with the imagination to transform itself and recruit and build a team of the right authors, editors and producers. Leadership and risk-taking from within needed.
7. Online fan community for popular fantasy series, FanFiction.net, features hundreds of short stories based on a series of young adult novels by Scott Westerfeld called "Uglies." Fans are extending the world by creating new characters. They take apart the narrative engine and, examining the different parts, they ask how things could have been different." Authors are pulled into the scene by fans who barrage them with e-mail to share their reactions, ask how plots came about and glean hints of what will happen in the next novel.
Expressive and outgoing editors and authors with strong book experience should find working in this area promising.
8. Vook. A vook is an innovation in reading that blends a well-written book, high-quality video and the power of the Internet into a single, complete story. You can read your book, watch videos that enhance the story and connect with authors and your friends through social media all on one screen, without switching between platforms. With the web-based application, you just open your favorite browser and start reading and watching in an exciting new way. You can also download and install the mobile applications through the Apple iTunes store and sync them with your Apple mobile device. There are 62 Vooks available, including Seth Godin’s "Unleashing the Super Idea Virus" and Gary Vaynerchuk’s "Crush It!." There are also cookbooks, and Sherlock Holmes mysteries. By the end of this year, Vook will put out 250 titles. Upcoming titles include a version of Stephen Covey’s "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Discovering Your Life Mission."
My guess is that Vook’s successful execution here is an example of how a new company can bring people together of varied skills with strong backgrounds in various media to shape a new product and build new skill sets. Not your basic “book” for production people with only strong book experience to manage.
9. Open Road Integrated Media. Open Road is a digital content company that publishes and markets e-books by creating connections between authors and their audiences across multiple platforms. ORIM leverages its partners’ experience and relationships to enhance titles from literary giants and introduce new stars to readers. The company's e-books offer a 360-degree world of existing and originally produced premium content that is marketed through a new online proprietary platform. Some of our well-known authors are Pat Conroy, Josephine Hart, Iris Murdoch, William Styron and Jack Higgins.
Another new company dedicated to building “books” with a completely synthesized multiple media concept for whose realization highly skilled professionals are retraining themselves. Listening to founder Jane Friedman present on several occasions, I doubt that any major publishers could make the transition to what she is doing unless they abandoned ship and started over. I also have no doubts about her success and that there are few new companies that could assemble the resources to duplicate the effort working with blockbuster authors.
What Are the Implications for Authors and Producers?
Clearly my generic want ad job description would probably not attract the talent and skill sets needed by these new “book publishing” ventures.
At this stage, my own experience tells me that the new book forms require creative and editorial talents that need to embrace new media boundaries and mixes, terminologies and skill sets.
I don’t think it is a wall too high to climb for any author of the present to think of his narrative in multiple media, alternate scenarios, and/or interactive experiences and—especially in non-fiction and reference—as an aggregate of components that can each stand on their own.
Such authoring talents have already found their way into films, TV, games and various forms of live entertainment. The question is whether the current embrace of the electronic medium by book publishers will follow history to date—separating out the text based and narrative talent from the multi-media talents that are required by such ventures as Vook, Open Road, Sourcebooks, Enhanced Editions, Enk and Nosy Crow.
And, if that is the case—should these new electronic multi-media, interactive forms be called “e-books,” or even “enhanced e-books?” To a great degree, this will be determined by the market and the success of marketers influencing the market—witness the ease with which books are now being called “apps” in the Apple store.
To my way of thinking, the conventional e-book can hold its own in the narrative and structural expectations it sets for creators and producers and readers. “Enhanced” e-books is a term to me that is off the mark. They are either e-books with additional reference and media matter—or they are interactive multi-media works within which all these media and experiences are synthesized in the conception and execution of the work to make what is essentially a non-book reading and experiencing product.
For most writers, editors and producers who are schooled in the conventions of book development and production, the traditions of authoring and development will continue to find a market. Media and effects people will still need conventional book development talents antecedent to production and publication of “book-apps.”
How this shakes out remains to be seen—but I think the CD-ROM story I cited in Part One is instructive in three ways:
1. Development then, as now, required different skill sets to create and execute on the content.
2. Marketing and distribution then, unlike now, was awkward and didn’t enjoy the revolutionary benefits and popular acceptance of the portable devices, wireless and the Internet.
3. Book publishers really didn’t see that they were creating a different type of media product rather than an enhanced book in a different medium. That may also be the case today.
Authors clearly need to take into account that even in conventional narrative development, the major portion of the market will be reading their work on portable devices. The jury is out as to what the demand and opportunities will be for genre, length and language levels—but on the fundamentals of text-based narratives supplemented by images and references, nothing significant will have changed the rewards for good story-telling, research and presentation.
Experienced editors and production people will find that they will need to develop skills that enable bridging and synthesizing the shaping of text-based content with the needs of the reading devices and the multi-media and interactive production features publishers will be introducing through outsourcing or in-house team building.
Unquestionably, change is in the air and on the ground. The writing is on the wall. How smoothly this inevitable change will be negotiated will be facilitated by how we define and name the product we are bringing to market.
What’s in a name? Definitions and expectations—and boundaries and exclusions.
What’s in a book?
It Was Bound to Happen
As reported in The New York Times last week, a major publisher (Little, Brown) is taking its first title directly to e-book … no print version. It’s a book about immigration by Pete Hamill.
I was fortunate enough to grow up in New York City during a time that some consider part of the golden age of newspapers. There were terrific WRITERS, who were allowed to write.
Two of those reporters/writers—Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill—were instrumental in inspiring my love, at a young age, for the written word. Grabbing the NY Post or the Daily News every day from my father and reading reports or columns by these wonderful writers (as well as others, like Red Smith) pointed me in a direction. It also told me, early on, the power and passion that words could provide—along with rock and roll, of course, it’s what sustains me to this day.
I find it fascinating, that an “old newspaper guy” like Hamill is Little, Brown’s first straight-to-e-book venture. It’s also interesting that his book is about immigration in the U.S.—not just because of the emotional debates currently going on, but as a reminder of what has made this country great and is still setting new directions. And it’s amusing, but also telling, that Hamill does not even own an e-reader.
Not to blow this out of proportion, but it is telling of how far we’ve come so quickly that this scenario exists. By the same token, this does NOT signal the death-knell for the printed word. In fact, if I were running Little, Brown I would consider selling custom-printed versions of the book … if that’s what customers were still more comfortable with.
Another really interesting step in whatever direction we’re going in.