Ebooks, Apps, and Collaboration

The fear of ebooks has recently been dwarfed by the growing fear of books as apps. Granted, there are a number of valid concerns, many of them economic. Yet, books as apps push the boundary of what a book is even further by their multimedia possibilities. In app form, does the book/literary content still hold the lion's share of a user's attention? Or is it an entry point into a world a multi-media related content. Can it be either?

Writing with apps in mind opens a whole world of cross-disciplinary opportunities. Collaboration with other creative genres has been difficult and limited simply by the nature of writing and reading. Graphic novels stand as the hallmark of co-op effort by allowing room for both the visual and written aspects to flourish. In most other cross-disciplinary efforts, writers tend to be on the sideline, cheering at someone else's game. It is hard to invert the process and make literary content the focal point of a collaborative effort. An app can center on literary content complemented by a selection hailing from other creative fields: musicians, game programmers, graphic designers, you name it.

We live in a remix culture; we love sampled music, fusion food, multimedia approaches. Apps give literary content a way to play in our remix culture as focus, not just a bonus.

Independent Publishers, Meet Your Audience. Lessons from Indie Labels

Ken Auletta's "thorough and thoughtful exploration into Kindle-iPad-publisher tensions leaves you with a lot to consider. As he traverses his way through the current e-book jungle, he details publishers' (non)relationship to their audience:

...It would take years for publishers to learn how to sell books directly to consumers. They do not market research, have little data on their customers and have no experience in direct retailing. With the possible exception of Harlequin Romance and Penguin paperbacks, readers have no particular association with any given publisher; in books, the author is the brand name. To attract consumers, publishers would have to build a single collaborative Web site to sell e-books, an idea that Jason Epstein, the fromer editorial director of Random House pushed for years without success.

It's an interesting point; publishers think of retailers, not readers, as their customers, thus many publishers never connect with their authors' audience. Whatever is left of a press's marketing department is devoted to authors without consideration for the company. Yet, independent publishers' potential to draw attention by their own merit is huge.

Perhaps the indie press should take note of their music label brethren. While Warner Music or EMI do not (possibly could not) create their own fans, there are intensely loyal followings for indie labels of every genre. Listeners identify with the indies for the point-of-view, personality and lifestyle that they stand for. Labels directly engage fans as well as form trust through the music they support. A label's fans will try out new artists, check out new releases, and attend record label tours because of the label as well as the musician. Heck, my sister loves Trojan Records so much she had its logo tattooed.

This type of inherent value and trust can be cultivated by indie publishers. Some are starting; more need to. After all, literary aficionados want ink too.

Amazon strikes again. What's an indie to do?

Just the Macmillian-Amazon standoff cools down, Amazon picks yet another fight. Add threatening independent publishers to the growing list of loss-leader strategies, intentional Kindle incompatibility and removal of buy buttons. Amazon is on a role.

With Apple courting indie publishers as they prepare to launch the iPad and iBookstore, Amazon is attempting to curb any power over ebooks that publishers could possibly retain. While it can't pull these antics with the big six, the company thinks it can push the smaller presses around. Amazon is betting that indies, who rely heavily on internet sales, will not be able to survive without Amazon sales. So, the company is threatening to cut them off at the knees if they sign the (more fair and balanced) Apple contract.

But there are signs of hope. Perseus Books has signed on with Apple regardless of Amazon's threats. As the largest independent publisher and distributor of another 330 independent presses, Perseus is setting up a good line of defense. If most small publishers follow suit, Amazon will have to back down lest Apple appear to offer the broader selection. On its own, an indie is a sitting duck, but collectively, Amazon needs them more than they need Amazon.

Amazon's behavior is appalling. Over and over again, the company flexes corporate muscle in order to force the entire book industry to bend to its will. Simply put, the company is trying to determine how strong its monopoly hold is. It is absolutely necessary that publishers deny this corporate bullying now. If Amazon gets away with its behaviors in these early days of digital conversion, the company will be setting the pace and the unsustainably low prices for a long time. Singlehandedly, Amazon could dismantle entirely an all ready fragile industry.

The Replacement Press releases their first book

As an infant press in the Twin Cities, the Replacement Press is a publisher to watch. Composed of a husband-and-wife team, they publish out of their apartment, maintain day jobs and pour themselves into their venture. Both in their late twenties, Andrew and Sarah De Young have one solid advantage: an ease with the social media that makes other publishers cringe. They tweet, update their facebook status, post faithfully to their blog. They see ebooks and digital readers as a possibility to diversify literary voices rather than as a death blow to independent publishing. I see them as the potential of indie publishers' future: passionate, adaptive, glocal.

Perhaps I'm drawn to Andrew and Sarah De Young's adventure because their success could go beyond the personal. Starting from a vantage point inside the new digital era, they could begin to set the pace for 21st century publishing. After reading so many blog posts and news articles about the dim future of publishing, the Replacement Press offers an encouraging counterpoint. Yes, they are young. Yes, they are a fledging company, but they are creative, flexible and fueled by new possibilities.

As their first book launches this weekend, I wish them the best and will be following their progress.

Tit for tat: what digitization means to the writing process

This post is among several recently that have questioned what changes in media formats mean for the writing process. How will writers contend with e-books and vooks? Do they change the writing process?

The implication is often that new forms will facilitate a poor quality of writing. Me, I'm not so certain that the digital formats are a threat to quality writing, but I understand the concern. Digital formats seem to be occurring in a less organic way than we're used to. Typically new formats evolved as writers push and stretch standard forms until someone breaks the barriers alla "The Wasteland" or "Ulysses." Certainly, in the cases of vooks or kindle, the experiment seems to have come before the experimenter. But this was also the case with the Gutenburg press.

Do writers who create in the new formats suffer a creative crippling because of e-structures? The writing process has always and will always take form into account. A writer does not approach an essay in the same way a novella. Structure carries its own set of restrictions and opportunities that influence the final product. Kindles and blogs are no different.

Perhaps what unnerves us is the sudden onslaught of so many new types of final products, so many new considerations. But I have faith in our literary craftsmen. A new format will not change a writer's intention. Regardless of available formats, a writer choices to produce lead or gold. Perhaps because big publishing houses are transitioning with best-sellers and pulp-style writing, we get the impression that this type of writing will set standard. Well, that's their standard for the old formats, too.

But the steps between a writer or (an indie publisher) vastly decrease with the new formats. Costs shrink, and visibility rises in a way that begging a corporate bookstore for shelf time never accomplished. So perhaps, ebooks and kindles can encourage unestablished writers. Whether or not they strike it big, their literary children can enter a world that was previously an impossibility.

Blogger to Publisher: The Daily Beast will print...eventually

This weekend Galley Cat has noted that The Daily Beast is in the midst of its first publication. For over a year, this comprehensive emag/blog has been covering current events, arts, politics and entertainment. (They even have weekly crossword puzzles). Partnered with Perseus Books, the Beast is launching their first book "Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America" authored by John Avlon.

Without even broaching political issues, the Daily Beast is ruffling the publishing industry's feathers, again. In the current, infant stage of literary digitization, most publishers stick to hard copy books first, and then, maybe, they will later release an ebook version. Not so with the Beast. Jumping right into ebook form, the Daily Beast promises a paperback to come.

While established publishers are upset at the Daily Beast's strategy, the move makes sense. Shaped from Avlon's blog posting, the book itself evolved in an untraditional manner; why should the publication be any different? The digital world is the Daily Beast's native environment. Here it has readership, presence and support, so extending its ventures first in cyberspace, where it is at its strongest, just make sense. For ink-and-paper publishers, digital moves are the ventures and experiments they must contend with; it is their last frontier. For a blogger gone publisher, the process is, more or less, reversed. Holding the book in their hands is the last unknown, the leap of faith, and the final proof the they have arrived.