We’re crazy about books and confused about ebooks.
Last December, I spent a few days at BizBookLab with Todd Sattersten and a great hodgepodge of editors, authors, publishers, and business advisors who were all business book lovers in one stripe of the other. I know, not only are we book lovers, but business book lovers as well – we weren’t quite your average cocktail crew.
Surprisingly, we didn’t really talk about the craft of writing as much as the craft of producing business products. One of the key takeaways for me far was we’re all crazy about books and that the rest of our culture is, too.
I’m well-aware that it’s a small majority of people who actually read books. Depending on the source, the average American reads one to three books a year. Let’s put it this way: if you read four books last year, you’re automatically an outlier.
The fact of the matter is, though, that you don’t have to read books to be crazy about them. Published authors command attention and respect even from the people who don’t have to budget how much they’ll spend at their local bookstore. (If you get to know Todd, be prepared to add another 1/3 to your book allotment; that’s been my experience, and I already read between 5 – 15 books a month.)
A book is a social object, to riff on Hugh McLeod’s converstion. Not only that, it’s a fetish item or physical souvenir. We gift books. We hold onto books after we’ve read them because we largely can’t make a case to let them go. For avid readers, we buy them even when we know we’re on a 17-book backlog.
Bibliophobes are just as irrational, too. They refuse to read books that they know might help them because they “don’t read.” They typify bibliophiles as eggheads, nerds, and people stuck in books. And – perhaps the most irrational behavior of all – they think that they could write a book if they wanted to.
Authors, editors, and publishers are probably the craziest of all because we’ve invested years of our lives in this craft and we still don’t quite know why people buy any particular book. We can talk about platform, credibility, promises, desired states, perceptions, and so on, but the science of book writing and publishing is founded on the shaky sand of the irrational buying process of customers in crowded, busy stores – whether those stores are physical or digital. We’re making very well-educated guesses, but guesses nonetheless.
And the fact that we’ve built are lives on that isn’t the crazy bit – most of the important parts of are lives are guided by guesses of one stripe or another. What’s crazy about this process is how much we hide the fact that we (individuals) love the chase of it. Those authors chase the dream, even when we know the chances of us hitting any given top list isn’t very good. Those editors and publishers get sold on the idea of the book and want that book to be a sleeper hit, even when the analysis says it’s going to be average.
From a traditional publishing point of view, the publishing process is a business proposition, and, from a corporate view, it’s a cold, hard process. Do the analysis, create the P&L, offer to buy the “property”, prepare the distribution, and so on. At each point in this process is a secretly crazy person going through the motions to mask that they’re not crazy and this particular book is worth the investment.
The more we make a science of the endeavor of publishing, the crazier it becomes. Building an ever harder shell around a gummy bear doesn’t dramatically transform the gummy center of the shell.
I appreciate that Todd reinforced the fact that you can’t talk about book publishing and leave emotions off the table, for I see many parallels in how we talk about business. Once we acknowledge that it’s an emotional process – from the seed of an idea to the purchase of the book to the actual reading experience – we can perhaps look at this whole endeavor with eyes that aren’t nearly as crazy.
And Confused About Ebooks
In both Todd’s workshop and Janet Goldstein’s Publishing Reset, I was a bit surprised about how confused people are about ebooks. I now know why there’s so much confusion – we’re using the words in dramatically different ways.
If you’re from the blogosphere, you probably read ‘ebook’ and immediately thought about PDF files with text and, maybe, some pretty design. If you’re not from that world, you probably read ‘ebook’ and immediately thought of a digital book that you buy and read on a Kindle, nook, or some other e-reader.
Yes, folks, we use the very same word in two distinct ways, and you have no idea how challenging this is for people teaching about publishing options. To not address the confusion is to leave people unclear about what they can do and how they can do it, and to address the confusion opens a Pandora’s box of plans, pathways, devices, and such that can often be counter to your instructional purposes.
Let me unpack that a bit. For sake of clarity – and just for this discussion – I’m going to call the pretty PDFs ‘ebooks’ and the other type ‘kindlebooks’. I recognize that a traditional publisher would slice this in the opposite way, but it’s my post so I get to pick. I also recognize that ‘kindlebook’ will give some e-reader folks the hives, but, after buying a Kindle and being in this industry, I know that you know exactly what I mean; Kindle is to e-reader as iPod is to mp3 players. ‘Digital book’ will cover both.
The strategies and processes for creating ebooks and kindlebooks share some commonality, but they also diverge considerably. The divergence doesn’t just rest in where they’ll be sold, either. If you’re wanting to create a product that has a lot of tables or worksheets, for instance, you almost exclude the kindlebook pathway since it doesn’t do those well. If you want a pretty design, again, you’re out of the kindlebook pathway.
On the other hand, if you’re wanting to piggyback off Amazon’s and Barnes and Noble’s established stores, an ebook won’t do. You’ll have to take that ebook and actually get it laid out as a book or take the text and have it converted into a kindlebook format. (If you’re thinking about doing this, talk to Chris O’Byrne – don’t do it yourself.)
Each pathway has its advantages and disadvantages, and my point is not to go into depth about it here. I wanted to give enough information for you to see that we’re talking about dramatically different strategies, pathways, and technologies. When you’re discussing this with creators, it’s easy for their minds to go in dramatically different places – and, in this case, those minds going into different places isn’t a good thing.
The other way in which we’re confused about digital books is that we’re still not quite sure how to handle them. How much content needs to go into a digital book to make it a digital book? Is the structure and format of the physical book the right one for digital books? How real are digital books, since they’re not quite the fetish item that we’re used to?
Until we creators, editors, publishers, and advisors get on the same page about digital books, we’re going to continue to talk at odds and be unable to clearly articulate the value we’re putting on the table. During this time of disruption, the last thing we need is to continue to both have the us vs. them attitude at the same time that we’re ignorant and/or confused about how we can leverage the options available.
Some of the smartest and most influential people in America are both crazy and confused – and we don’t know or acknowledge it. Then again, what else is new?
You are raising the *right* questions for those entering into book land (digital or otherwise). Too often we’re not clear on what exactly we’re building … but we start building anyway. And sometimes a lot of money and sweat equity is expended in the process … with little prospect of making a return. Yikes!
Now, with Gen Y breathing down our necks (oops, you ARE Gen Y, aren’t you?) it will be interesting to see where where digital books root themselves in popular culture, education and yes, our fetishes! Even “business ebooks” are themselves a bit of a fetish item when you think about it … amongst us digital biz types anyway 😉
Smart, insightful post Charlie!
Karri
Thanks for continuing this discussion, Charlie. I love that you brought up the distinct difference between how online publishers (bloggers & the like) & traditional publishers use digital publishing – definitely something that’s been on my mind for a while.
Where I’m really interested in exploring this difference for myself, as an aspiring author, is the point where I’m *validated* by an agent, an editor, and a publishing house. I have made a good bit of money self-publishing digital works. I will continue to do so. I imagine that is where most of my money will be made for the foreseeable future.
However, I CRAVE the validation of the traditional publishing industry. Is it because it’s an historically coveted stamp of approval? Maybe. Is it because I have issues with needing praise for my work? Maybe.
Either way, I need to evaluate what it means to me to be success so that I can join the conversation (on one side or the other) as to how digital publishing affects the industry and stop chasing after validation that may or may not mean something anymore.
I face this issue every day. There are definitely two distinct groups:
The author who has written a book as a business tool usually starts with the idea of an e-book and then (sometimes only after a little educational prompting) things about also releasing their e-book in the Kindle or ePub formats or maybe even as a POD print book.
The author who comes from the traditional point of view of hoping to be published by a traditional publisher and not have to do any more work, slowly and often after repeated disappointment, starts to look first at POD self-publishing options and then thinks about Kindle or ePub versions for e-book readers.
What I enjoy doing is teaching each group about the other side. I often work with tradition-minded authors to create a web page that incorporates the techniques that the entrepreneurial bloggers are using. I also help the business blogger see the possibilities of listing their book on Amazon, B&N, and other places traditional authors think of first.
You are right on about having 2 definitions of e-books. At a conference I recently asked a speaker – who works in traditional publishing – if she thought e-books were a good way for first-time authors to start out. She was really confused, then started talking about what you call kindlebooks. However, I was referring to self-publishing. I realized the disconnect after the fact. Hopefully we will get some clarity.
Exactly! I’m writing my first e-book now (according to your definition). For many of my clients, my e-book will be their first step into using digital products. And I realize that using the term e-book is confusing for them.
Then, in my research, I kept coming across resources for kindlebooks instead of what I was looking for. It’s been so frustrating that I’ve toyed with the idea of breaking the standard and referring to my e-book as something else. I’ve played with downloadable workshop or digital guide….then again, that runs the risk of people not finding it because they were looking for e-books.
Yeah, like you said…it’s confusing. 🙂
Laura, what if you combined the names? Perhaps something like “digital guide & e-book” or “downloadable guide & e-book” or even “guide/e-book”. This naming thing is definitely a tricky business. It’s why I prefer to call my blog posts “articles”.
Thanks Chris! Good point! I’ll be playing with all of the combos too now.
Another tempting distraction from bill-paying work….I mean, idea I had…is to create a vocabulary section on my website to help newbies navigate all of this new online vernacular. Just a thought at this point though.
I think any time you make information more accessible, it’s a good thing. The vocabulary section is a GREAT idea!
Wow Charlie, I remember when this was your side gig about 2 years ago. Total transformation – the format of this site is amazing. You ARE a business, man! Great work.
>They refuse to read books that they know might help them because they “don’t read.”
Yeesh. I can understand why people don’t read, but what kind of person actually says they “don’t read”, like it’s something beneath them? How terrible.
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