More Vibrant Less Cynical

Rachel Harvey of the BBC tells educates us to some tips for aspiring authors.

"With the London Book Fair inspiring budding writers, Rachel Harvey looks at the best ways to get published."

Link

London All The Time

An interesting Art/Photography installation on London's South Bank.

"A circular photo gallery on London's Southbank is capturing images every five seconds for three days. Gabby Shawcross and Jason Bruges designed the memory project, which is touring the UK."

Link

WH Smiths

UK High street retailer reported half year profit increased 8% on the strength of motorway, airport and train station outlets. Same stores sales slipped 2% however. Kate Swann, group chief executive said: “The economic environment remains uncertain and, whilst we continue to be cautious, we are confident in the outcome for the full year”.

From the TimesOnline:

WH Smith today gave a cautiously optimistic forecast for the rest of the year despite falling sales elsewhere on the high street after the 215-year old newspaper and stationary retailer reported profits above expectations and lifted its interim dividend by 24 per cent. Shares in the company rose 5.25p to 371p in early trading after it revealed pre-tax profits rose by 8 per cent to £64 million for the six months to February 29. City analysts had expected profits between £59 million and £63 million for the period.

From the Press Release:

KEY POINTS
• Group profit before tax up 8% to £64m (2007: £59m). Profits from trading operations are £50m1 in High Street and £17m1 in Travel.
• Group total sales up 2%, with like-for-like (LFL) sales down 2%, reflecting our strategy to
rebalance the mix of our High Street business towards our core categories:
• Travel total sales up 14%, with LFL sales up 1% (excluding tobacco, LFL sales up 3%)
• High Street total sales down 2%, with LFL sales down 3%
• Gross margin improved by 70 basis points year on year.
• First half High Street cost savings of £4m delivered, in line with plan.
• Good progress with return of £90m of cash to shareholders through a special dividend and on market share buyback programme.
• Strong free cash flow of £61m.
• Underlying2 earnings per share of 26.9p (2007: 25.8p).
• Basic earnings per share of 28.3p (2007: 26.7p).
• Interim dividend of 4.6p, up 24% on last year.

Commenting on the results, Kate Swann, Group Chief Executive said:
“We have delivered another period of good profit growth, with Group profits3 up 8%. We have seen further strong performance from Travel with substantial progress in new business development in the hospital, air and motorway channels. In the High Street, we successfully continue to deliver our strategy to rebuild our authority in our core categories."

Borders 10K Report

I still don't get it. Borders appears to have mortgaged its immediate future with a short term loan that on the surface appears questionable. The company had cash on hand at the end of 2007 of $61mm versus $108.6mm in 2006; however, they also spent $123mm (versus $153.8mm in the prior period) in capital expenditures, technology improvements and new stores. Any of this could have been slowed to under $100mm if they believed they had a brewing problem. The company has announced for 2008 they will hold cap ex under $100mm and have also suspended their quarterly dividend (approx. $20mm). Importantly, the company has managed to effectively manage inventory and payables which has had a material impact in bridging the operating income stortfall to free cash. On inventory it looks like they have gained almost $120mm in cash from 2005-2007. A decent amount of good news. (Borders10k)

To the extent the company has operating issues they appear to have managed their way into them. The high costs of the Borders rewards program and the increasing costs of store occupancy costs are having a significant impact. Again, however the negative result of both of these items derive from management decisions on strategy. Pulling back on the promotions would enable the company to improve gross margin. Occupancy is a little more complicated and I suspect this is the real nub of the company's problem. The company has lost $113mm in gross margin between 2006-2008 (3%pts). In retail that is a lot to give up. Difficult to understand is whether the cost of the added bonus program has been covered in revenue growth. Revenues have gone up but the report doesn't tie one to the other directly.

Occupancy costs are also included in gross margin and the company has many long term lease obligations. It is likely that revenues are not growing fast enough to cover the rent escalations and this situation will grow worse over time. Borders has 435/509 store leases with terms that expire after 2014. If Borders can't aggressively grow top line revenues faster than these fixed occupancy costs they will continue to erode gross margin. Walden is in slightly better position with the majority of store leases expiring within 10 years. Borders can and is closing Walden stores because the leases are coming due.

The short and long of this evolving story is that we will know the fate of Borders by year end.

Here are some other highlights from the 10K:

• Opened 18 new stores in 2007
• $228/avg sales per sq ft
• Avg sales per superstore $8.6mm
• 541 Superstores (US-509, Oz-22, NZ-5, PR-3, Sing-1)
• 490 Walden stores
• 112 Paperchase stores
• Avg store sq ft is 7% less than their existing average (no explanation)
• Plan 14 concept stores in 2008
• Walden Avg sales/sq.ft: $299
• Walden avg sales/store: $1.1mm
• International: avg sales/sqft $381
• International: sales/store $8.3mm
• Closing 1 of 3 distribution locations in TN and expanding OH
• Interest expense up $13.2mm to $42.9mm in 2007
• Consolidated sales up $8.1mm due to new openings. Comp stores sales down 2.2% due to book sales decline
• Walden comp down 7.1%
• International comp up 0.1%
• Net cash from continuing operations 2007-$101.5mm, 2006-$38.7mm, 2005-$161.2
• Net cash used for investing: 2007-$123.1, 2006-$153.8mm, 2005-$57mm
• Borders retains some off balance sheet items related to leases for their sold UK store operation
• L/T liabilities to $350mm from $313.2mm

Authonomy From Harpercollins

Via Eoin Purcell an update on the Harpercollins web site to support writers and booklovers. They have launched a blog. I mentioned Authonomy last year.

Making Information Pay

The following is a reminder from the Book Industry Study Group about the upcoming Making Information Pay conference.


Making Information Pay Conference 2008: Experimentation and Innovation in the Digital Age is just weeks away. As an added value to this year’s conference we’ve put together 10 in-depth case studies based on recent publishing experiments in sales, marketing, and digital publishing.

Attendees of Making Information Pay 2008 will receive a free printed copy of the complete set of case studies and hear many of the experimenters discuss what they’ve learned and answer questions about how it affects your business.

To reserve your copy, register now at: http://www.bisg.org/conferences/mip5.html

Michael Healy
Executive Director
Book Industry Study Group


FROM: Hachette Book Group’s “Light DRM” on Audiobooks

Based on an interview with Neil DeYoung, Director of Digital Media, and David Stack,
Senior Manager, Digital Media, Hachette Book Group USA

Neil DeYoung and David Stack face a complex strategic challenge. Like other publishers with extensive audiobook lists, Hachette sees a distribution supply chain limited to two retailers (iTunes and Audible) that support the consumer-favorite iPod device with copy-protection digital rights management (DRM). There is real incentive to figure out how to diversify the distribution channels and give the consumers what they want.

Distributing digital audiobooks in MP3 format without copy-protection DRM would allow consumers to play audiobooks on the iPod and any other device, and open the door for additional distribution channels, but it carries the risk of piracy or rampant unpaid re-use. Hachette’s senior management is very concerned about piracy and felt it necessary to evaluate the risks of distribution without copy protection. HBGUSA is conducting a test, which hasn’t been simple and isn’t cheap. But the results so far have been encouraging and although they are not definitive, they support the idea that distribution without copy protection might not lead to widespread piracy of audiobooks.

For the full text of this and 9 other case studies of recent publishing experiments, register for Making Information Pay 2008 today!

Georgia State Sued For Copyright Infringement

The migration to digital delivery of course pack and text material is inexorable in today's educational environment. Unfortunately students, administrators and academics are taking matters into their own hands and digitizing publisher content without permission and without compensation. Over the past (at least) five years, AAP has taken corrective action against schools and universities that have facilitated the ability of students to access this content, and behind the scenes have been able to help institute policies that protect the rights of publishers. In egregious cases, academics have scanned entire works for all reading material required for their courses, placed this material on their intranet course websites and then broadcast the availability of this material to their students. Often they have noted 'you (the student) don't have to pay for your course material'

Many will admit that the educational publishers as a group are not moving fast enough to replace their print versions with electronic databases but fear of entering the 'valley of death' prevails. The 'valley of death' is the graphic depiction of what will happen to your revenue line as you proactively make a transition from print to digital. If you are lucky, after 3-4yrs you will regain the revenue you had in the year before you attempted to transform your business. Ultimately, the business becomes stronger and more flexible in the manner in which the publisher can seek new markets and business development. It's just that the valley looks so horrible (and no one will make their bonus) that discourages the publisher. This is the transition we went through at Bowker in the early 2000's with the added benefit that we actually had a business at the end of it.

Three publishers (and notably not AAP) have sued Georgia State for allowing course material to be made available to students that goes beyond 'fair use'. In the NYT article Brewster Kahle is looking for "innovation" but this is just plain steeling. Simply because the materials are not available in the form they want gives them no right to scan it and place it on a network. This case is no different than the Kinko's xeroxing case almost 20 yrs ago. All institutions have it in their power to set standards and policies that protect the rights of publishers. After all, many of these infractions occur on the university's computer networks. Too many universities appear to disparage the property rights of others and with not much more than a 'nod and a wink' regarding 'fair use policy' to facilitate this activity.

Harry Potter and the Rule of Law (1)

Collegues and I were having a conversation online about the J.K. Rowling lawsuit. Someone had asked about why some had refered to this as a 'Disney-like' lawsuit. I'm not completely sure but I speculate:

I can’t help thinking that to a great extent our perception of the merits of this case are clouded by the fact we know JKR is a mega-bazillionaire. Afterall we conclude, hasn’t she made enough already? Even their front page Daily News today basically called her a whiny cry-baby. I think this is entirely unfair. Regardless of how much she has made she still has the legitimate right to claim infringement and no one should begrudge her that right because of the size of her bank account. And we shouldn't root for the underdog because they are battling the odds either. This particular case is murky for a number of reasons not least of which she appears to have approved of the web site (from which the lexicon is to derive) although it seems to me that she was only encouraging a fan.

Disney has always been known as aggressive in defense of their intellectual property and characters. They are the gold standard representatives of the theory that aggressive defense is the only form of maintaining and retaining copyright. JKR will say the lexicon is both a copy of her work AND of crap quality but like Disney she is ensuring any future defense of her copyright. After all, something much bigger may come up and she is preparing for that possibility by killing this one off. Even if she looses she is establishing a track record of defense. If she allows third parties to use her property without attempting to stop them it is easier for future judges to point at this inactivity and side with the 'infringing party'.

Also mentioned in the 'conversation' was a post from Print Is Dead guy Jeff Gomez (Admittedly his title might be better than mine). This is part of what he said but you should read the whole post:

In Rowling’s case, her books are going to sell no matter what. But if she’s allowed to succeed in stopping RDR, think about all of the books about books (not to mention books about movies and plays and music) that won’t get written as a result

I believe Jeff is off the mark here. There are numerous ways in which a copyright holder like JKR can loose a case and a third party can create 'a separate and new work' which can be used by adoring fans everywhere. There are also ways to do this by avoiding the threat of the law entirely. In this case there appears to be a question of quality and plagiarism although the Judge will decide.

London Book Fair

BBC video from the London Book Fair.

Here

Digital Stuff: Random House, Macmillan, Penguin

On Monday Random House UK announced that they will make as many as 5,000 titles available for previewing on their web site. The application is available currently on everytitle that has an "open the book" icon over the cover image. Random House like other large trade publishers has been in the process of building a digital warehouse of their content for a number of years. This process looks to be well in hand and at RH and other publishers we are likely to see new and interesting applications appear with regularity. The link for the Wingfield title is here. RH has also said the tool will be available to other sites. The Guardian noted that Play.com as well as bloggers and book fans will be able to use the widget.

Other publishers with digitial news includes Penguin who let it be known they will adopt the .epub IDPF standard for ebooks and release all their titles in this format beginning later in the year.

Over at Macmillan they are experimenting in a number of different ways to create extra value with an e-version of a printed work. (At some point they become entirely different of course). This notion is similar to my suggestions in what to do about Amazon.com but the nice people at Thedigitalist actually have an example:

The idea that a special edition eBook can contain marginal material produced before, during, or after a print edition features in two other eBooks to be published by Picador this year. Sid Smith’s China Dreams, which we published in hardback in January 2007 and in paperback in January 2008, will be issued in a uniquely up-to-date edition, in the author’s latest version, with corrections, changes, and new material, and a foreword in which he considers the process of composition and revision. Cliffhanger, by T. J. Middleton (the alias of our established Picador author Tim Binding), takes this idea in the opposite direction: alongside the print edition, which we publish in October 2008, will be an urtext: a composite version of the novel as it was before it was edited here at Picador, with the text in its original form, reinstated and modified scenes and characters, and a radically different ending, also with a foreword by the author explaining the urtext’s conception and the editing process that turned it into Cliffhanger.

I am sure much more to come.

Travelling Man: Thomas Kohnstamm

My whole world shattered this morning. Thomas Kohnstamm, a travel writer for Lonely Planet actually didn't visit the country he was supposed to write about. Instead he was sunning himself in Northern California. The story hit the wires because Thomas has written a 'tell all' book "Do Travel Writers Go to Hell" about his adventures as a travel writer. Not satisfied with that riveting subject on which to write a memoir, he has thrown in lots of naughty stuff young wild (writers?) boys do when they are writing. Oh and by the way, that book he wrote on Columbia; he decided not to go there and wrote it from San Francisco. (His girlfriend was Columbian).

As you might imagine, this info seems to have put Lonely Planet on the defensive. Lucky Thomas may have generated more interest in his title than he may otherwise have deserved but it turns out he may have embellished his writing assignment. According to LP, they say he was only asked to cover the history of Columbia so there was no reason for him to visit. What of the rest of the book then?

At Berlitz we published travel guides which were updated every three years or so. (Many were on a cycle longer than that). The company also had stringers in most locations and these people helped us update the titles when they came up for review or reprint. In today's age it is inconceivable that any publisher could get away with publishing travel guides that were inaccurate for the simple reason that we have the internet! People love pointing out when you publish wrong or inaccurate information and they aren't afraid to broadcast the news to everyone.

My Wall Street Journal!

A parody of the Wall Street Journal is to be published in celebration of tax day tomorrow. Apparently some of the copies have leaked in advance and one copy has made its way to the executive suite at News Corp.




(Fake, but funny; especially the bit about Roger Ailes).

Machine Publishing

This is why statistics on annual publishing output as generally constituted are meaningless(NYTimes):

Mr. Parker has generated more than 200,000 books, as an advanced search on Amazon.com under his publishing company shows, making him, in his own words, “the most published author in the history of the planet.” And he makes money doing it. Among the books published under his name are “The Official Patient’s Sourcebook on Acne Rosacea” ($24.95 and 168 pages long); “Stickler Syndrome: A Bibliography and Dictionary for Physicians, Patients and Genome Zesearchers” ($28.95 for 126 pages); and “The 2007-2012 Outlook for Tufted Washable Scatter Rugs, Bathmats and Sets That Measure 6-Feet by 9-Feet or Smaller in India” ($495 for 144 pages).

The variation in publishing segment, tiers of publishers and the increasing numbers of new variations (or definitions of publishing) in publishing models is generally obscured by the headline grabbing "200,000 new titles published" in {fill in year}.

Subscribing to PND

Subscribers to PND continue to grow every week which is gratifying. I hope that all readers will consider referencing the site and also referring new subscribers to the blog so that readership continues to grow. I am prepared to offer the bribe of a PND T shirt to those that refer the most new subscribers. Over the past few months, the articles that current subscribers may want to forward or reference to colleagues include my posts on Amazon the Monopoly, the Borders situation and my Five Questions series.

I also have a standing invitation to anyone wishing to step on the soap box with me and offer their thoughts on the publishing industry.

Someone emailed me this week asking how to subscribe to personanondata. Other than visiting the web page directly (presumably using a bookmark), there are two subscription methods. An email subscription will deliver an update to your designated email address once per day and the message will contain any posts made since the previous email was sent. Approximately 25% of my subscribers use this method.

The second method is to use RSS. Using the PND RSS feed enables you to get updates when they are made on the site (rather than see them only in the next email message). RSS is simple to use and very functional. The RSS link is here.

Let me know if you have any problems (to do with this blog) and I hope you continue to enjoy my commentary.

michael.cairns @ infomediapartners.com

The Sell Out Of Borders

Ever get your mortgage banker to knock 25% off your interest rate? Me either. Not so those intrepid financiers at Borders. In announcing the loan rescue on their conference call, they professed due diligence seeking the best terms "under the circumstances" (what those are remain a mystery); they have now managed, no more than ten days later, to reduce their interest rate from usury 12% to a 9% rate beloved of Shylock: "Three thousand ducats for three months."

Pershing Square, the largest shareholder in Borders and the provider of this financial rescue package still retain all the advantages they had before they lowered the rate. They wouldn't have done this unless someone else offered up a better rate but even so as an insider they always had the advantage. What is troubling is that the 'due diligence' that should have occurred upfront to get the best rate clearly never happened. And remember, it is still not clear that this financial lifeboat was even necessary. The financial 'crisis' was news to every analyst that follows the company on behalf of their investors.

Great news however for all the managers at Borders since they have been able to provide a safety net for themselves. Stay bonus's galore: "For positions at the executive vice president level and above, the threshold, target and maximum bonus opportunities under the Bonus Plan as currently in effect are established at 20%, 80% and 160% of salary, respectively." This enhancement to their existing bonus plan only applies to four executives. Two of which - Jones and Wilheim (CFO) aren't going anywhere and one of the remaining is head of HR and with all due respect what is important about his contribution to the financial health of the company? And that leaves aside the question why no one lower than EVP has a package. Jones also got more options and is already in the money. There are many more insider transactions noted from last week and there was a lot of volume at the open on Monday. The stock closed at $6.54 up 6% on the day.

The company also indicated they would hold off filing their 10K.

SEC filings on Monday also saw a new strategic investor enter the fray. Gerald Catenacci who owns Highway Partners equity fund has acquired 5% of the company. Reuters also reported the news and notes no reason has been given for the investment. He evidently has something with roads: Highway, motorway, expressway, freeway are all names of investment vehicles (oopps). There doesn't appear to be any relationship between Highway and Pershing.

No Advance No Return

Type 'no-returns' and 'Harpercollins' into Google search and you get over 1600 results. Replace Harpercollins with 'no advance' and Google returns 500+ results. All of this since last Thursday when it was announced that Harpercollins would establish a new imprint managed by ex-Hyperion President Bob Miller. Such is the dearth of new thinking in publishing that this constitutes real excitement.

Bookstores will always return unsold books if they don't sell and they won't sell if no one wants them. Authors will never earn out their advances if their books are uninteresting. The potential of the new imprint at Harpercollins under Bob Miller is interesting but the focus on returns and advances is misguided. Both these aspects of our industry are easy targets for people who either don't understand the business or who are looking for easy solutions. And spare a thought for Bob who will have gotten off to just the start he wanted with all those authors! Aggressively managing returns and advances is nothing new even at the larger publishers and there have been many smaller & medium sized publishers that have established themselves while minimizing (and eliminating) advances paid to authors. The much harder discussion is the one about publishing books readers care about and are willing to buy.

The whole focus on 'no returns' and 'no advances' was probably started by the WSJ which chose to focus on this aspect of the announcement. Publishers as diverse as Public Affairs and Sourcebooks have built strong businesses and publishing programs by focusing on fairly narrow segments and limiting advances (Public Affairs) or treating books like consumer goods which has been the case at Sourcebooks. Disallowing returns and not paying advances is not going to produce a successful publishing program but producing content readers will buy will eliminate a need for returns and advances. So the solution is simple: Publish what buyers will pay for and read, and this is where Bob Miller (and all others) have their challenge. Bob's job at Harpercollins is really not that much different that the one he left at Hyperion and the focus on returns and advances continues to miss the point.

An interesting analysis (where I saw it I don't recall) was thrown up to me recently related to library book purchasing. An analysis of books owned by readers on librarything.com (I think) matched against titles held in library collections seemed to show that readers are buying (and presumably reading) more obscure titles than are being purchased by libraries. Libraries tend to buy what they are told either by B&T or by the larger publishers. The context of this analysis was to show that libraries are in danger of building generic collections while also reducing their appeal to their patrons. If there is a lesson here for Bob Miller and all the other publishers it is that they like libraries need to work harder to fill the consumers needs. The need (in marketing terms) is real but increasingly it remains unfilled by the larger publishers. Fill the need and eliminate returns: Simple really.

Harper Embarks on a Publishing Experiment

Industry veteran (and fellow Hoboken resident) Bob Miller who has headed Hyperion since 1991 is to join Harpercollins as head of a new imprint that hopes to change the traditional publishing model. The key change will be to share profits with authors in a model more akin to self-publishing than the traditional publishing model. He is expected to start his new role at the London BookFair in two weeks. The "publishing studio" division will combine traditional trade book publishing techniques with Internet-based strategies to market and publicize about 25 moderately priced books per year. (What was I saying...)

This news has been widely reported but I thought the news noted on Eoin Purcell's blog today anticipated in significant ways the immediate need for new thinking in Publishing.

Eoin noted a story in The Bookseller that claims Weidenfeld are returning author advances because they (supposedly) don't have the staff to edit the titles. This seems idiotic to me.

My comment:

There is probably more to this but it is hard to believe that if these titles were good on the fundamentals; profitable, message driven, good for the imprint(important titles), that they don't still stand up. Sadly, it probably speaks to the continued lack of focus on business principles that continues to be prevalent in publishing. Rather than cast these books off - assuming they had merit in the first place - seek another model. Take them to POD or a vanity press type model where the publisher and the author share some risk. The announcement that Harpercollins in the US is thinking differently anticipates this announcement from Weidenfeld.

I anticipate we will hear more about Bob's new venture. Good luck to him.

Amazon TextBuyIt

Everyone walks into a store with a mobile phone and virtually every product in a store has some type of barcode identifier. Marrying the these two apparently unrelated technical solutions could actually produce significant value to consumers. A few companies have attempted to produce a barcode reader software on a mobile here and here.

In the book world a number of booksellers using Amazon services have recognised the utility of combining a cell phone look-up service with the Amazon database. Essentially, booksellers looking for second hand titles to add to their stores can improve their selection and make better choices if they are able to tell if a book they see at a swap meet is in demand on the Amazon bookstore.

Amazon today announced a different approach to combining the cell phone with a look-up service. This one relys on SMS and lets customers use text messages to find and buy products sold on Amazon.com. From the press release:

With the addition of TextBuyIt to Amazon's existing mobile offering, including its mobile site and mobile iPhone site, customers can now shop, compare prices, and buy from Amazon.com virtually anywhere they are, with any mobile device, using either text messages or their mobile device's web browser.

"With today's launch of TextBuyIt, any Amazon.com customer can now use any mobile device to shop and buy from Amazon.com, at anytime, anywhere they are," said Howard Gefen, Director of Amazon Mobile Payments. "With TextBuyIt, if you're walking out of a concert and want to buy a CD from the artist you just saw, or if you're at dinner and a friend tells you about a great book you should read, all you have to do is get out your mobile device, send a text message to Amazon, reply to the response, confirm your order, and your item will be on its way. It's incredibly simple and convenient."

In less than a minute and using only text messages, Amazon.com customers can find the product they are looking for and complete a purchase using TextBuyIt. Simply send a text message to "AMAZON" (262966) with the name of the product, search term or a UPC or ISBN code, and, within seconds, Amazon replies with the product or products that match the search, along with prices. To buy an item, customers simply reply to the text message by entering the unique single digit number next to the item they want. Customers will then receive a short phone call from Amazon with the final details of their order and asking them to confirm or cancel the purchase.

So imagine you want the personal experience of visiting a store with the potential advantage of better pricing online. All you need to do is text Amazon to check prices as you walk around a store. If the margin is wide enough you can buy from Amazon rather than the store or if you don't want to carry something home you can have Amazon sent it to you. Aren't we getting closer to the time when every physical retail store is a potential showcase for Amazon products?

SharedBook And BigOven

SharedBook (which I have featured before) has struck a deal with BigOven to use the SharedBook api so that BigOven users can create their own custom cookbooks. Any registered user can both use their own recipes by adding them to the BigOven database and use any of the 160,000+ recipes already in the database. Long time users of BigOven will find this tool immediately useful since they will be able to choose from their favorites list and from lists of items they have searched specifically for in the past.

The recipes in the database range from Aunt Millie's Down Town Meat Loaf (I made that up) to recipes taken from magazines and added by users. The books can also be collaborative so in addition to creating your own best of title, a group of users can create a collaboratively generated cookbook and add their own commentary and dedications.

The finished version will be delivered looking like something you could buy in a store and it comes in two versions: A slipcased version and one that lies flat that is best for use in the kitchen.

More specifically from the press release, SharedBook notes the following:

Simply visit BigOven.com and type in anything you’d like to print a book about. Then, look on the right hand side of the search results for a “Print a Cookbook with these Recipes!” link, and that will take you right to the bridge page with the recipes queued up. You can then select which ones you would like to include and change the order.

Recipes Contributed by Any Member – visit a chef’s page and click on the “Recipes I’ve Posted” link to generate a search of all recipes that member has posted. Now, look on the search results page, right hand side, about halfway down the page. Click on the link “Print a Cookbook with these Recipes!”

Any Cooking Group – The BigOven Cookbook is an easy way for groups of friends and family to create cookbooks. Groups are free to create on BigOven.com. You can simply create a group on BigOven and join for free, post recipes to the site (at not charge), and add them to your cooking group and then, anyone can print a group cookbook at any time.

There is no question we will see more of these types of collaborative software tools enabling consumers to create their own personalized products using publishers (and others) content and adding their own material whether it be editorial, photos and probably embedded video and audio. SharedBook looks like they are making all the right moves and this deal comes on the heels of a recently announced deal with Random House.

Amazon: What Do We Do Next?

Someone emailed me today and asked what publishers should do in light of Amazon throwing their weight around and others posing threats to the industry.

My response,

Indeed, I agree that publishers don’t seem to be taking the threat seriously and I really don’t understand why. I really don’t know what the answer is (I wish I were that smart) but it should be the case that any interaction with Google, Amazon and Microsoft should be guarded. In addition, the publishers should be offering some type of counter policy – whether it is alternative options to access to their content (new pricing/subscription models, distribution/retail) – so that consumers have more options. For example, publishers have hesitated historically to mess with the retail channel and I recall in the early days of the internet there was a lot of discussion about publishers creating channel conflict with existing retailers if the publisher set up their own store front. In the past 10 years the retail channel has become far more concentrated and could become even more concentrated as more content becomes electronic.

Perhaps it is time for publishers to be more aggressive in becoming retailers as well as content producers. If so, it’s not as simple as setting up a store front that looks like a mini-version of the Amazon bookstore (obviously) since no one would switch. However, publishers do have the direct relationship with the author and can use this exclusivity to build a more robust presentation of the content. On Amazon you get the Buick version but on the Publisher site you get the Cadillac. None of the added or supplemental content would be made available elsewhere. What that extra content would be I don’t know. Maybe every author is twinned with an additional writer and site designer that builds/creates websites focused on the authors work but with far more expansive material about the works, process, background details, audio, video etc., any of which could be purchased by a consumer. This becomes the new marketing and promotions approach or the way to spend money that is traditionally allocated to print advertising, book tours and launch parties.

That’s a quick thought. Trade faces challenges. Education and Information are/have morphed into new beasts but it is less clear where trade will end up.

Later on in the day, I came across this news story about musicians and acts setting up their own social networking sites. The reasoning is simple: The artist has decided they don't have to have an intermediary between themselves and their fans. Their actions don't mean they forgo any of the other outlets such as Myspace or Facebook but they are understanding that they can insert themselves into the value chain at their choosing. Reuters:

"The thing that separates Thisis50 from MySpace is we control the e-mail database," says Chris "Broadway" Romero, director for new media at G-Unit Records, which handles Thisis50. "We can e-mail members if we want to." Thisis50 isn't meant to be a fan club, but rather a platform for 50 Cent to showcase his music and music he likes, and comment on news and user profile pages. Ludacris' WeMix.com, on the other hand, is more of a hub for aspiring artists to upload their music.

Publishers can do the same kind of thing to distinguish themselves and their authors in the minds of consumers while also establishing more balance in the relationship between producer and retailer. Change is certainly on the horizon but whether publishers move fast enough is the question.