Publishers, rejoice! A free e-business plan right here!

If you haven’t read J. A. Konrath’s excellent post on the changing face of publishing, you should. It’s excellent. The standout part for me was this:

“Publishers…seem to be pushing forward with ebooks with no real business plan. They price their ebooks too high, give authors too small a royalty, and are adding movies that can only be played on devices that people aren’t using to read on, like the iPad…”

So, let’s give them a business plan! Here you go, publishers. Some small, simple steps you can use to get yourselves underway. Perish if you are so hell-bent on doing so, but let nobody say you were not offered alternatives!

PRIORITY ONE: CONTENT AVAILABILITY

You won’t sell books if they aren’t on offer in the first place! Therefore, the first priority has to be securing the content, and there are two issues here: author backlists, and geographical restrictions.

As far as author backlists go, you have to understand that authors who own their own backlist rights (like Konrath) have alternatives. And if you don’t offer them a better deal than what they get with these other options, you won’t get their books. I understand that offering a better deal will hurt a little. But it will hurt even more to not have those books available at all for eager customers to purchase from you.

Action Point: You need to treat this like a classic, tried-and-true free market negotiation and offer them a better deal, either percentage-wise or in fringe benefits like promotion or advertising.

Now, onto geographical restrictions. I realize your hands may be tied on certain backlist titles which pre-date the internet age, but going forward you really must work together on developing some sort of consensus here. Work with lawmakers, work with literary agents, I don’t know, you’re better poised to say who the decision makers are here. But it has to end. You should not be turning away money from paying customers just because of where they live! It’s bad enough when it’s UK readers who can’t buy American books (I suppose you assume a UK publisher will offer an edition to them) but what about the expat American living in Japan? You really think a ‘local’ publisher is going to offer him Stephen King?

Action Point: I suggest that your e-solution could be to designate the internet as a region in and of itself. So, an author could sell North American print rights, European print rights, ebook English rights and so on. And no reader would have to be turned away with credit card in hand and fingertip poised on the ‘buy’ button…

PRIORITY TWO: PRICING

I know this is a sensitive area. But it is another where I strongly suggest you let go of past conceptions and focus on what will generate, for you and your authors, the most sales. The threat of piracy has been a bit of a red herring in this area—iTunes has sold over a billion songs, which proves that if the price is right, people will pay—happily—for digital content. And readers really do understand that books cost money. They’ll pay a fair price. But they are not stupid either, and they recent feeling hosed. Decades-old mass-market paperbacks available at retail in paper for $7 going for double that in ebook? Are you serious?

What you need to do is establish a baseline price point, like iTunes did, that gives the reader a reliable and consistent buying experience. Every iTunes song was 99 cents. It was simple, it was easy and everyone understood the deal. Nobody understands the deal in that way with ebooks. The agency model was supposed to standardize the prices, but it hasn’t—they still vary widely, and the only difference is that now they vary over a higher price point. I get that you want to strike while the iron is hot and get the most out of your new releases. But there does not seem to be any understanding of how a price should settle over time.

Action Point: You need to standardize your system here. So, for example, at new release the price should be X, for all books except New York Times best-sellers which will be $9.99. After six months, the price drops to X-5%, after a year it drops to X-10%. And it keeps dropping every six months until it settles at a final price point of about $4.99 (i.e. Mass market paperback price minus about $2 since you aren’t selling paper).

PRIORITY THREE: CUSTOMER RETENTION

You may be losing some profit as things switch over to this new model. Certain aspects of your production chain may be made redundant. Certain other aspects will change in different ways. You need to make up for this lost revenue, and I suggest that the way to do it is with some new customer retention programs.

Action Point: You need to rely less on the random airport gift shop customer who makes an impulse purchase for the plane, and more on the hard-core readers who buy a lot of books. Here are some ideas for ways you can fairly easily reach them:

1) Start an Author Club for popular authors. The author club should be free to sign up for, and should offer some bonus content for fans of that person. Maybe a few short stories, a periodic newsletter, a blog, perhaps a behind the scenes look at the production of the ebook? You say readers don’t understand what you do. Here is your chance to educate them. And here is the key part: every time this author releases a new book, you email a $1 off coupon or something to the club members. Perhaps you even have a secret download site where they can get the book a few days early?

2) Start a Rewards Club as a form of social media word-of-mouth selling. The reader who joins can accumulate points for things like posting a blog post about the book, reviewing it on Amazon or referring a friend (you would need some sort of promo code type setup for this where the referrer would get a link to send his buddy and if his buddy buys the book with that link, your system would recognize it). After one accumulates a certain number of points, it can be redeemed for a gift card to a favourite ebook store. Other businesses use reward clubs very effectively. In my own wallet, I have reward cards for a major drugstore chain, a local health food store and a bookstore chain. Why can’t publishers do this too?

3) Judicious use of promo codes to generate more sales. I remember a Fictionwise sale once that was called ‘Complete the Series.’ They sent me a personalized email listing some books I had purchased which were part of a series, and then there was a promo code where if I bought other books in these same series, I could get a slight discount. Yes, you’ll lose a dollar or two per book, but if the customer is buying a dozen books at a time, isn’t that worth it?

4) A reliable. predictable experience. Standardized price points, a common format that all devices can read, the easy ability to move purchases over to new devices…all these contribute to a good customer experience. The minority hell-bent on pirating just for the sake of it was never going to buy your stuff in the first place. Understand that their existence is the cost of doing business, just as the corner grocery store guy understands that he’ll lose a portion of sales to teenagers shoplifting candy bars. And base your business practices instead on serving the actual, paying customers who just want an easy way to buy your stuff. Make them happy, because happy customers buy more!

PRIORITY FOUR: LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Print won’t die, don’t worry about that. There are some types of books which are much better suited for a paper experience. Concentrate your print ecosystem on those: cookbooks, children’s books, art books etc. Cross-market them if possible: sell cookies in the bookstore coffee shop that are made from a recipe in your newly published cookbook, or market your own line of companion cookware. Why is Martha Stewart selling pots and pans herself, instead of selling them through her publisher?

Action Point: Are there authors like her who might have merchandising potential you are not exploring? The movie people are making a ton of money this way. Why aren’t you publishers?

De-clutter your production process so that your nimbler and better able to adept on your feet as things develop. There is money for you in this digital age, if only you think on your feet, and claim it!