Caleb Mason

Caleb Mason

Caleb Mason is the founder and publisher of Publerati, a literary fiction publisher employing a unique socially-responsible business model aimed at helping spread literacy via Worldreader. Caleb also writes fiction under the pen name Don Trowden (as in downtrodden), author site here. Earlier in his career, after working in bookstores, and at Little, Brown, and then co-founding Salem House Publishers (sold to News Corp), Caleb left publishing for several industries disrupted by change. These include the now-defunct 35m film and photo industry; the mostly defunct packaged goods CD-ROM software industry, and the ever-changing GPS industry. Having experienced many shifts, Mason has formed a unique perspective on the digital changes ongoing in the book industry. He shares that perspective in his blog “Outsights on Publishing.”

What Does the Future Hold for Small-Batch Publishing?

One of the great backlashes in our era of conglomerates is the steady growth of small-batch businesses. These are very small businesses that cater mostly to customers willing to spend more for a seemingly better and more controlled product offering. There are many happy consumers who will buy a four-pack of local brew for $16,…

Alas, Why? - The Problem With Big Publishing Rejection Letters

One would think well-educated, literate people, such as those who are attracted to and working in book publishing, would be able to write a rejection letter without using the dreaded “alas” word. But it’s always there, in letters written by veterans and rookies alike. I’d like to suggest we break the pattern and either use…

How Book Publishers Can Navigate the Death Squeeze

The 2016 publishing sales data shared by Author Earnings at Digital Book World reminded me of all the times I have been the sad-sack tasked with managing the “death squeeze.” I went through it in the consumer photo business, the paper atlas business, and then the CD-ROM mapping software business. Each of these industries relied…

Benefits of Mobile Reading on the iPhone 7

I upgraded to the Apple iPhone 7 for Christmas and have already doubled my reading time. And most of that doubling is because my reading is now truly mobile. Let me offer some personal examples. My wife likes to shop. A lot. I do not. While she was shopping at Goodwill last week, I read…

Trashing Paper: Why We Should Consider Time Spent With Print

No, I’m not here to trash paper. I’m here to discuss different usages of paper and the ones that are more likely to become quick trash. The recent Digital Book Printing Conference hosted by Book Business was a very interesting event with plenty of great presentations, facts, and figures. In particular, Marco Boer of IT…

The Future of Book Publishing Is All About Scale

Okay, so you’re sitting in a company meeting of fifteen people. Suddenly all fifteen people are trying to solve a problem that can only be solved by one person in the room, the head of IT. Why are we wasting the time of the other fourteen people in the room? This is an example of…

Authors Need Publishers Less than Ever

Let me preface this by saying I run a literary fiction micro-publisher operating much in the mold of how full-service traditional publishing has for years, although because my overheads are so low, I pay my authors 50% of print and 70% of ebook royalties, something I realize large publishers cannot do. As self-publishing continues evolving,…

Algorithms vs. Humans: What's the Better Path to Book Discovery?

An algorithm recently bought me a Father’s Day present I didn’t need or ask for, using my own money. You see, my wife was buying sheets from Amazon when they presented her with the book The Arm by Jeff Passan (HarperCollins) as a Father’s Day suggestion. $27.95 later my charge card was hit with the…

If You Were Amazon, Would You Open Stores in Dying American Malls?

The news from American malls just keeps getting worse, with long-time anchor stores Macy’s, JCPenney, and Sears reporting ongoing closings and bad results. Yet, we heard a leak earlier this year from General Growth Properties, one of the largest mall operators, that Amazon might be opening 400 mall stores. They quickly retracted this leak, but…

How to Sell Books That Are Good Enough to Steal

How do you know if what you’ve created is worthwhile? In my experience, it has to pass the “good enough to steal test.” Business owners, authors, artists, and musicians don’t like to hear this, but it’s true. The fact is the majority of goods and services produced do not actually meet this benchmark of success.…

With Online Book Sales, Time is of The Essence

Now is better than later because later might never come. Among the many tragic losses related to the above wisdom, one of the most trivial revolves around the topic of shopping behavior. (Apologies to the Maharishi inside us all.) And this matters a great deal in the world of books, where we know from our…

The Print-on-Demand Revolution Opens New Doors for Authors & Publishers

One of the most fascinating aspects of new technologies is how they open doors for new business models. And this is very true in the evolving world of book publishing. The book publishing model has many challenges, most notably how the established system of author advances, large superstore preorders, and returns limits what will be…

The Bookstore of the Future Is Here Today

I have finally come across the bookstore concept for the future and it’s not coming from Amazon or Barnes & Noble with their cross-channel pipe dreams. It’s Shakespeare and Co., which opened under new ownership in November 2015 and currently operates one store in the Upper East Side of New York, with more planned for…

Selling Books in a World Without Bookstores

Let’s pretend for a moment that there are no bookstores and as publishers we still need to sell books. How are we going to do that? For starters, let’s take a look at the recent trends for physical bookstore sales. There was welcome relief this year that sales at physical stores have stabilized, although I…