New Cambridge Venue for Bookbuilders Casual Networking

This past week's casual networking event was held at UpStairs on the Square in Cambridge.

We had a warm welcome and a good turnout. Excellent drink service. And what a cute logo!

There were about 25 people gathered, and -sniff- I think I was the oldest among them. For a fresh perspective, I'll quote from one of our new prospective members, who sent me this after the event:
 

I walked away from the event with a MUCH better sense of what the publishing world is looking for in terms of qualifications, skills, etc. and where I may fit in. I also picked up on some key terms and the language of the industry.

 

I made a couple of good contacts ... and look forward to connecting and continuing my exploration.

 

We also have an unrelated DEAL to share in this post. Last week I received an email advertisement of a course being held by the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) in New York. The event caught my attention because of the title: Book Metadata & ONIX: Practical Guidance and Best Practice. Since working for a book wholesaler and attending subsquent conferences, I came to feel that the importance of metadata has been understated in the Boston publishing community. The topic may have a different impact on textbooks, which have their own means of discoverability, but on the whole, metadata is critical for sales.

 

I am pleased to say that BISG will extend its member discount to all Bookbuilders members for this course (members: $449; nonmembers: $799). Please request a coupon code from info@bisg.org for this offer, and be sure to mention your membership in Bookbuilders of Boston. The original March 4 date is sold out, but there are still seats available for March 5. The course takes place at Random House in New York. Check it out--your career will thank you.

Change Comes to Publishing

When writing up industry events for the blog, I try to summon the standout themes: the recurring emphasis. I’m happy to start this post about “Making Information Pay” with an observation made by my colleague: “From what I have seen today, publishing is hiring.” 



Fran Toolan and Andrew Savikas (?) (center, back)

At least three conversations we had at breakfast involved people who have been with their present employers for one month or less. And that’s not even counting me! So, we start with some optimism about the state of the industry.

Another common theme among speakers was the need for new systems (shared databases) and standards (such as EPUB and ONIX). The importance of electronic content means that it can no longer be produced in a separate workflow, as an afterthought to print. Data is of increasing importance, and there is a frustration with the workflow silos that impede access to information across various publishing departments. It feels like a bit of a tipping point for old-guard publishing culture, and everyone understands the challenges of this change.

Executive sponsorship of change is critical, according to Andrew Savikas of Safari Books Online and O’Reilly Media, especially since some necessary transitions will not yield impressive ROI in the short term. Several speakers also advocated a period of experimentation with various approaches as opposed to a wholesale overhaul. As such, the present environment is not for leaders faint of heart—commitment, belief, and persistence are essential.

The stakes, however, are becoming too high to ignore. There is a growing market for “chunked” content (as opposed to whole books or even chapters), and book publishers are often not in a position to exploit this potential revenue stream. Increasingly, said David Marlin from MetaComet Systems, rights management (“content curation”) at a granular level is critical to the longevity of a publisher’s brand and its author relations.

Director of the BISG (Book Industry Study Group), Scott Lubeck, ended with the group's vision statement, which seems both current and apt. In part, the group seeks to help "build and support a new industry network enabling new opportunities for profitable growth." There was a sense that Thursday's attendees were eager to rise and transform: it is an exciting time to be in publishing.

Making Information Pay and New England Book Show

The Book Industry Study Group's (BISG's) Making Information Pay conference will take place on Thursday, May 5, 2011. The theme is "Constructing the 21st Century Publishing Enterprise," and at least two Massachusetts companies are among those speaking.

Andrew Savikas of O'Relly Media (a Bookbuilders member company) speaks at 9:40 am. His session, "Flexible & Multi-Channel Content: Real-World Examples from O'Reilly Media," promises to share O'Reilly's expertise in building a "flexible, modular and digital-first toolchain." Sponsor of the Tools of Change conference, O'Reilly is undoubtedly an industry leader in the area of innovative content delivery.

Heather Reid, my colleague at Copyright Clearance Center, contributes to the discussion of rights management best practices in the digital age. Her review of "Initial Findings from BISG & CCC's Joint Survey of Publishers and Vendors" will identify the challenges of negotiating, collecting, and managing licenses for content and content fragments.

I will attend Making Information Pay, which means, unfortunately, that I will miss the 54th Annual New England Book Show. (See last year's book show winners here.) This year's event, held at the Mary Baker Eddy Library, features a presentation by Daphne Kalotay. Boston author of Russian Winter. The program is outstanding, and I'm very sorry to miss it. Now recruiting a guest blogger to cover this flagship Bookbuilders event!

Snow's Coming: DBW, Final Day

The second full day of programming at DBW further emphasized the importance of consumer data for publishers. In a morning presentation, BISG (Book Industry Study Group, Angela Bole) and Bowker (Kelly Gallagher) revealed some demographic features of the e-book consumer. Firstly, according to Bowker, "power buyers" are apparent and very important. Constituting about 20% of buyers overall, these avid readers are most often women, aged 30-44, and they purchase e-books weekly. They are urban or suburban, and their overall profile is similar to that of the print buyer (i.e., not a new category of book consumers). They purchase books on impulse, as one often does in a bookstore.

An enthusiastic presentation on consumer sales data followed, kicked off by Bob Kohn of Royalty Share, Inc. (RoyaltyShare's Digital Advantage product was adopted by Faber and Faber to consolidate e-book sales reporting from over thirty resellers, as announced Tuesday). Kohn encouraged publishers to seek and acquire consumer demographic information from retail partners, including zip code and customer ID. The ID would allow publishers to deploy promotions to specific customers based on their past purchases without the need for their names and email addresses. 

Michael Tamblyn from Kobo, speaking on the same panel, described his company's passion for data and the need to act quickly on weekly, daily, or even hourly trends. Kobo portrays an openness to sharing data with publishers, undoubtedly a point in their favor when publishers consider resource allocation. Tamblyn described a "steady heartbeat" of core sales data received by publisher partners, as well as Kobo's willingness to research trends for publishers, "across weeks and days, frontlist versus backlist."

Even a breakout session on metadata, one of the more practical, less "social" aspects of publishing, referenced the importance of user (reader) experience. Comparing the unrestrained inclusivity of enhanced metadata to the Wild West, presenters agreed that reader comments on Facebook et al. should be reviewed and perhaps harnessed by publishers as part of the overall "consumer facing" data package for books. The appearance of linked publisher content on these sites is also a metadata concern: the tagging of appropriate images, blurbs, reviews, etc. is critical to increasing discoverability.