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We had a lot of discussion, in fits and starts, about the roles of authors and publishers. Consolidation in the 1980s brought things to a point where, as Molly Tinsley stressed, the large publishers were no longer invested in or investing in authors–they were more often generating bestsellers and maximizing profits. Naturally we talked at lot about the economics of books—what it costs to produce a book book versus an ebook (and what it costs to produce an audiobook) And there’s the impact of the Thor decision, changing the worth of unsold inventory.

With digital books it’s all different and much cheaper to produce (especially is you skimp on editing, proofing or design [DON’T—trust me on this]). But while, it turns out that self-publishing is not that hard or that expensive, it’s not just a matter of writing something brilliant and expecting the world to discover it. Self-publishing is easy; self-editing and self marketing is where the hard work is.

Good publishing still requires a commitment to editing and killing one’s darlings, but even more it requires authors being businesslike and active partners in the publishing process—or, if they self-publish to be serious entrepreneurs. The co-publishing model is one good examples, where author and publisher collaborate to invest in and produce a book connected to an author’s other platform (i.e., as a consultant or public speaker).

We talked about marketing and the importance of tailoring marketing to the book and to the strengths and platform of the author (hence the long author questionnaires). And everyone stresses the importance (necessity) of social media, blogging, review sites like Goodreads, book trailers and virtual book tours. The traditional publisher-driven marketing—ads in the New York Times, etc.—was really only something available to bestsellers in any case. (And, what is impact of ebooks on the free advertising that books used to get when someone saw you reading them on the bus; with ebooks, no one knows what you are reading (except Amazon, Apple or whoever sold it to you…)).

The importance of social media to literary marketing raises another question: what makes an author interesting to Facebook friends and Twitter followers? It’s more than just endlessly promoting books, appearances and project. What do people want from authors?

[to be continued…]

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I enjoyed the history of publishing papers from the spring term and as I file them away (well, really just find a place to pile them in my needs-to-be-tidied up office) I’m thinking about some of big topics we covered and the perspectives that the class explored—the nature and consequences of ebooks (the epocalyse), the evolution and surprising stability of the bestseller list (with its recurring self-help and celebrity fallbacks). Papers looked at choices to be made in self-publishing and in choosing books for translation and at the complexities of publishing in table top games and comics. One even explored handwriting and its relation to the written and printed word.

It was a term in which the Department of Justice sued Apple and the five (other) 6 publishers for price fixing, in which Microsoft invested several hundred million in the Barnes & Noble Nook, in which 50 Shades of Gray dominated (so to speak) the bestseller list, and in which we learned about new plans by Oregon heavyweights Blackstone and Ingram to complete in new ways in the ebook marketplace.

We looked at books as artifacts and as products, even folding paper at one point to make book signatures, and we talked about the evolution books from rock painting to the invention of paper to the epub and mobi formats and Amazon select (or if you prefer, from stone tablets to digital ones, and hey, were the early cave paintings the first comic books!?).

I’m scratching around at the mental itch that this change to ebooks somehow echoes earlier publishing revolutions (the printing press, cheap paper, offset printing) and may end the same way, which a period of grass roots indie and self-publishing followed by a new round of consolidation, gate-keeping and—as one student last year put it—censorship by business model. We’ll see. There are too many moving parts for a clear picture, at least for me.

Ebooks and audiobooks are also converging and our consideration of these led to some fun (and yes, it’s an adjective—look it up) discussion of what it means to read. Is listening to an audiobook reading? The class was split on whether reading is engagement with a text or whether it involved some connection with letters, spelling and the like.

[to be continued…]