This is the BIG question to my mind currently running through many publishers mind. I think that there is no doubt that content needs to be multi platform compliant, but it falls into a similar area as advertising as to justifying the cost of delivering it.
There is no doubt in my mind that if you can give information in as many platforms as possible, then more people will hear about it and potentially be interested in what the content is saying. There is also no doubt that people having bought into something want to own it and therefore if ownership is a book, they will buy it. When we are looking to publish new books, we are keen to explore whether there are different ways of delivering the content via video, audio or words in anything from website / you-tube / myspace / second life etc. Reading yesterdays Financial Times articles on publishing, it is clear that it is not just us small independents that this is seen as an opportunity to reach new audiences.
However the issue is the cost of making it available.
We know that when you aggregate content, if you know what you hope to do with that content prior to the aggregation, it is cheaper and cost effective to make it available. We have an analogy of sausages and pigs - namely when publishers have made their sausages, it is hard to make it back into pig to make a different sausage. If however you have a pig and a need to make a variety of sausages, then making them all at once is the way forward.
Publisher with BIG backlists, have a problem of paying for the process of making their sausages back to pigs and then making new sausages.
Smaller publishers have the issue of having the budget to allocate to creating content deliverable on multi platofrm. This is where we fall. I am happy and keen to do author interviews for the web. I am happy to make the books available on line free for all. The issue is that we have already made our sausages!
However, watch this space though as we had a meeting recently with a possible author who has ways of reaching audiences which do not require PIGS! (sounds like a beer)
Wednesday, 21 March 2007
Tuesday, 20 March 2007
Double Standards
Well I have even surprised myself. I would see myself as being quite focused. Other people even think I am stubborn. If I set my mind to things then I tend to be almost obsessive until I have done them. Setting up Eye Books is a classic example of this.
Some months ago I read about, and people asked me what I thought of Second Life. I was horrified by it and felt that it was a really dangerous place to go. It was going to be full off people who wanted to create a virtual persona as they can't cope with their real life. Escapism that could only go wrong and have a number of crimes committed as a result of people not being able to relate to the way to behave in the real world because of their chosen way to behave in this new virtual world. I had no interest in it and did not even want to look at it.
Today I created an avatar!!!
I have been equally dismissive about 'me to' publishing and the general 'bandwagon' idea that people follow trends. I am proud to think that I do not want to join the crowd and am happy to stand in my space and not be worried about the noise coming from the popular corner. Guess what has driven me to join this virtual world! The fact that 2 friends in publishing have not only set up a virtual bookshop (and apparently they sell books!) but one has now launched a virtual Book Fair and invited me to exhibit. Whilst I give myself a little break as bookfairs that you do not actually have to go to appeal, I am afraid to admit that there has been a slight feeling of wanting to see what people are talking about.
Well I wont tell you what my name is, but will let you know how life in this virtual world is!
Some months ago I read about, and people asked me what I thought of Second Life. I was horrified by it and felt that it was a really dangerous place to go. It was going to be full off people who wanted to create a virtual persona as they can't cope with their real life. Escapism that could only go wrong and have a number of crimes committed as a result of people not being able to relate to the way to behave in the real world because of their chosen way to behave in this new virtual world. I had no interest in it and did not even want to look at it.
Today I created an avatar!!!
I have been equally dismissive about 'me to' publishing and the general 'bandwagon' idea that people follow trends. I am proud to think that I do not want to join the crowd and am happy to stand in my space and not be worried about the noise coming from the popular corner. Guess what has driven me to join this virtual world! The fact that 2 friends in publishing have not only set up a virtual bookshop (and apparently they sell books!) but one has now launched a virtual Book Fair and invited me to exhibit. Whilst I give myself a little break as bookfairs that you do not actually have to go to appeal, I am afraid to admit that there has been a slight feeling of wanting to see what people are talking about.
Well I wont tell you what my name is, but will let you know how life in this virtual world is!
Tuesday, 13 March 2007
How to get the message across - help welcome
Someone came into the office today to chat about publishing. They had an idea and wanted to see how best to progress it and what their options were. They know one of the people who works here (hence them coming in) but had not seen him for ages and were not aware of the focus of our books.
As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am amazed that our Goldmine Giveaway has not attracted more media attention and more public support. I have started thinking that perhaps the author and I had just misjudged what people were interested in and that they did not get it. Either that or they have not heard about or seen it.
If you ever come to our office, you will see that the meeting area is at the back and the main area has a table in the centre which displays our books and our desks skirt this central island.
Whilst waiting to go to the meeting area, they starting browsing at our books (which is what we thought everyone would do but a surprising amount do not!). On seeing the one giving a free sq ft of a gold mine, she became very excited. My desk is right by this area and seeing her reaction gave great pleasure and realisation that Dorian and I were not off the mark with the idea. Here was someone who got it and loved it. She bought 6 copies and left almost evangelical about what a great idea and present this was and that she would make all her friends buy one. Since then I have had a smile on my face and the desire to find out a way of getting to see people's reactions when looking at our books.
It is very easy when sitting in an office and not having contact with the people who buy our books to loose sight of what type of reaction they can conjure. I would love to get more feedback from all of you as to what you like and don't like about what we are trying to do. So do not be afraid - throw your likes and dislikes about Eye to me and they will be welcomed and appreciated with open arms.
People can sometimes try and hide from things and not face reality. The world is full of unknowns and once they become knowns we can deal with them and move on. When we hide away from things in case they are not what we want to hear, see or face, it does nothing but add to our woes.
I am always excited about finding out stuff - good or bad, coz then I can grow. Change is scary but only the thought of it.
On reading that back I see it is all quite quick - going from a person coming in and buying a few copies of our books to the philosophy of life! Ohhps - perhaps I had better stop here.
As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am amazed that our Goldmine Giveaway has not attracted more media attention and more public support. I have started thinking that perhaps the author and I had just misjudged what people were interested in and that they did not get it. Either that or they have not heard about or seen it.
If you ever come to our office, you will see that the meeting area is at the back and the main area has a table in the centre which displays our books and our desks skirt this central island.
Whilst waiting to go to the meeting area, they starting browsing at our books (which is what we thought everyone would do but a surprising amount do not!). On seeing the one giving a free sq ft of a gold mine, she became very excited. My desk is right by this area and seeing her reaction gave great pleasure and realisation that Dorian and I were not off the mark with the idea. Here was someone who got it and loved it. She bought 6 copies and left almost evangelical about what a great idea and present this was and that she would make all her friends buy one. Since then I have had a smile on my face and the desire to find out a way of getting to see people's reactions when looking at our books.
It is very easy when sitting in an office and not having contact with the people who buy our books to loose sight of what type of reaction they can conjure. I would love to get more feedback from all of you as to what you like and don't like about what we are trying to do. So do not be afraid - throw your likes and dislikes about Eye to me and they will be welcomed and appreciated with open arms.
People can sometimes try and hide from things and not face reality. The world is full of unknowns and once they become knowns we can deal with them and move on. When we hide away from things in case they are not what we want to hear, see or face, it does nothing but add to our woes.
I am always excited about finding out stuff - good or bad, coz then I can grow. Change is scary but only the thought of it.
On reading that back I see it is all quite quick - going from a person coming in and buying a few copies of our books to the philosophy of life! Ohhps - perhaps I had better stop here.
Friday, 2 March 2007
Challenging the way we do things
I can't believe it is that time of year again where we need to describe in 250 keystrokes the company for The Frankfurt Book fair catalogue. For each of the last few years, we have always ended up not really changing it for catalogues or website and it needs a change. How do I know this? Yesterday we had a communications expert in the office to help with a few details of communication and it really can make a difference and attract people (or, as importantly put people off) if you get it wrong. This has got me thinking:
I am really proud to be independent.
I am really proud of the fact our books champion people who live as opposed to simply exist.
I am really proud that we are not simply publishing 'fillers' to introduce economies of scale.
I am really proud that we accept unsolicited manuscripts and are accessible to authors and 'would be' authors.
However, as I look at that, am not sure that if I read that about another publisher I would want to explore working with them. So what does matter?
The fact that we got so much publicity (more than £1million worth if we had paid for the equivalent in advertising).
The fact that we had 40% of our books last year selected as Xmas Campaign titles.
Again not sure that it really matters. Probably need to start to be nominated and win awards and accolades. There are two challenges with this.
First - you have to enter yourself and say why you should win. This is something I am not comfortable with. My feeling is that awards are things which people should be nominated for rather than nominate themselves. 'Naive' I hear you say and it is, because even if that were the case, then people would still manipulate the entries by agreeing to work together.
Second - having overcome the above (which I am just about to) you have to be good enough to win or influence the judges.
I would be grateful for any comments on what we should put for our profile description from your point of view and also grateful as to any suggestions for awards and accolades that we could enter to boost our chance of addressing this challenge in time for next year!
What we are currently working with is:
I am really proud to be independent.
I am really proud of the fact our books champion people who live as opposed to simply exist.
I am really proud that we are not simply publishing 'fillers' to introduce economies of scale.
I am really proud that we accept unsolicited manuscripts and are accessible to authors and 'would be' authors.
However, as I look at that, am not sure that if I read that about another publisher I would want to explore working with them. So what does matter?
The fact that we got so much publicity (more than £1million worth if we had paid for the equivalent in advertising).
The fact that we had 40% of our books last year selected as Xmas Campaign titles.
Again not sure that it really matters. Probably need to start to be nominated and win awards and accolades. There are two challenges with this.
First - you have to enter yourself and say why you should win. This is something I am not comfortable with. My feeling is that awards are things which people should be nominated for rather than nominate themselves. 'Naive' I hear you say and it is, because even if that were the case, then people would still manipulate the entries by agreeing to work together.
Second - having overcome the above (which I am just about to) you have to be good enough to win or influence the judges.
I would be grateful for any comments on what we should put for our profile description from your point of view and also grateful as to any suggestions for awards and accolades that we could enter to boost our chance of addressing this challenge in time for next year!
What we are currently working with is:
At Eye Books, we celebrate individuals who have taken their dreams and lived them, creating out of their ‘ordinary’ lives ‘extraordinary’ accomplishments.
Our books inspire and motivate us to celebrate our imagination, passion and dreams.
Tuesday, 27 February 2007
The name is Bond
I do not know if you saw it, but at the Vanity Fair party after the Oscars this week there was a photo taken of a woman wearing a pretty floral dress who was obviously sat by my namesake aka Bond. In true 007 style, Daniel Craig leans forward and stares into the lens. Meanwhile the girl leans back behind him and makes a gun gesture with her hand and pulls a face implying she is hard aka Bond. It is really funny and cracked me up.
However, only a matter of a week or so ago, an arse did a similar thing behind David Cameron when he was visiting troubled housing estates in Bristol.
Same type of action and meaning meant (as in gun gesture), but delivered by two different people and creating completely different responses!
The teenager went on to brag about how he took drugs and was able to get real guns etc. He made a point of telling the paper interviewing him that he did not tell his family and it was supposed to be a secret!! Hello! He was later arrested and spent two days in custody over possessing a small amount of cannabis. It fills me with anger and dread knowing this is the brain power of certain people and that they have no drive or ambition for any positive change on their lives or the society they live in and yet the judge expressed concern for the way he had been treated and kept in custody!
The current coverage of what causes this type of behaviour and attitude comes around again and what will be done. Column inches and discussion (like this) but no real change. Meanwhile we have more and more people like the bloke above thinking it is OK to behave like they do.
Whilst at university I put the media on trial as being the leading influence in violence and crime in society. Not only does it expose the 'haves' and 'have nots' gap, but also normalises so much which is not normal.
Mmmm! Comments welcome.
However, only a matter of a week or so ago, an arse did a similar thing behind David Cameron when he was visiting troubled housing estates in Bristol.
Same type of action and meaning meant (as in gun gesture), but delivered by two different people and creating completely different responses!
The teenager went on to brag about how he took drugs and was able to get real guns etc. He made a point of telling the paper interviewing him that he did not tell his family and it was supposed to be a secret!! Hello! He was later arrested and spent two days in custody over possessing a small amount of cannabis. It fills me with anger and dread knowing this is the brain power of certain people and that they have no drive or ambition for any positive change on their lives or the society they live in and yet the judge expressed concern for the way he had been treated and kept in custody!
The current coverage of what causes this type of behaviour and attitude comes around again and what will be done. Column inches and discussion (like this) but no real change. Meanwhile we have more and more people like the bloke above thinking it is OK to behave like they do.
Whilst at university I put the media on trial as being the leading influence in violence and crime in society. Not only does it expose the 'haves' and 'have nots' gap, but also normalises so much which is not normal.
Mmmm! Comments welcome.
Wednesday, 21 February 2007
Hairy but true
Apologies for the delay since my last post - It took time to get over the shock of Valentine's.
This has in turn impeded on my productivity. Not sure if anyone else finds this, but I find sometimes I can seem to be doing lots of things yet achieve nothing and at others, I seem to be chilling out and lying back and things just drop into place.
Whilst I wish I was about to say that things were currently the latter, they are unfortunately the former and simple things are taking me far longer than I have. I do not want to be a grumpy old man (especially at only36), but ...
Whilst moaning, I am feeling slightly guilty that another Shrove Tuesday has past and I have once again not given something up for lent. My dad always used to give up alcohol and I remember being really impressed by this. I also remember, whenever I have previously giving something up, that it was a really cleansing experience. Valuing what we have by not having it is a strangely compelling activity and one which is good for all to practise. I was talking about this with a colleague only yesterday - she agreed and marked the occasion with many pancakes and a vow to give up all chocolate and cakes for 40 days. Had I gone out and had a few beers and pancakes to prepare myself for the fast, then I too could have done what dad did for many years. As I did not, next year I will have to try again. Perhaps being a dad is part of the drive to show your child that we cannot have what we want when we want it and that there is a value in going without.
Changing tack - I heard this week of a group of people from Taiwan who tried to lift an elephant with human hair! Yes they wove loads of human hair together and made some type of winch to lift an 3 tonne elephant. This consisted of over 1.6 million human hairs and cost over £4000 to do!
This has in turn impeded on my productivity. Not sure if anyone else finds this, but I find sometimes I can seem to be doing lots of things yet achieve nothing and at others, I seem to be chilling out and lying back and things just drop into place.
Whilst I wish I was about to say that things were currently the latter, they are unfortunately the former and simple things are taking me far longer than I have. I do not want to be a grumpy old man (especially at only36), but ...
Whilst moaning, I am feeling slightly guilty that another Shrove Tuesday has past and I have once again not given something up for lent. My dad always used to give up alcohol and I remember being really impressed by this. I also remember, whenever I have previously giving something up, that it was a really cleansing experience. Valuing what we have by not having it is a strangely compelling activity and one which is good for all to practise. I was talking about this with a colleague only yesterday - she agreed and marked the occasion with many pancakes and a vow to give up all chocolate and cakes for 40 days. Had I gone out and had a few beers and pancakes to prepare myself for the fast, then I too could have done what dad did for many years. As I did not, next year I will have to try again. Perhaps being a dad is part of the drive to show your child that we cannot have what we want when we want it and that there is a value in going without.
Changing tack - I heard this week of a group of people from Taiwan who tried to lift an elephant with human hair! Yes they wove loads of human hair together and made some type of winch to lift an 3 tonne elephant. This consisted of over 1.6 million human hairs and cost over £4000 to do!
Valentines Love
Well thank the lord that is over. I am always one to celebrate and have a good reason to have fun, but I do find the whole commercialisasion of special days slightly over the top. There is such a social pressure to show your level of romance that it contradicts what romance is about - being impulsive and taken away on a feeling of love.
From first thing in the morning, all media chanels hit us with the fact it is Valentines Day - sharing best and worst stories - highlighting special things being done! It is prescibed and fake and I want it banned!
I do love many people and one person in particular, but I want them all to know that instinctively, rather than because I spend a fortune on food and flowers or even worse flights and fancy!
On a rather happier note, I am pleased that I now have 'confidentiality agreements' signed by all the main players in the newspaper world for covering our next book Good Morning Afghanistan. The Sunday Times, The Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday and The Sun all see the value of it and we have everything crossed that they decide it is worth serialising.
The President of Afghanistan (who endorsed the book / wrote a foreword) was in London yesterday. I was tempted to try and find him to see if he would promote it in his rounds. Obviously Tony got there first, but he (like us) recognises that the region had been 'sorely neglected, under-funded and under prioritised in the five years since the fundametalist regime was toppled' and Mr Blair assured President Karzai that Britain would make sure 'the job is done'. Clearly this book shows why there is a need for understanding and action.
Emel magazine is apparently the Muslim media of choice in No10, and we (having already had Clare Shorts review of Prickly Pears of Palestine in it) have Good Morning Afghanistan in there to to nudge Tony so that next time he will actually make reference to it.
From first thing in the morning, all media chanels hit us with the fact it is Valentines Day - sharing best and worst stories - highlighting special things being done! It is prescibed and fake and I want it banned!
I do love many people and one person in particular, but I want them all to know that instinctively, rather than because I spend a fortune on food and flowers or even worse flights and fancy!
On a rather happier note, I am pleased that I now have 'confidentiality agreements' signed by all the main players in the newspaper world for covering our next book Good Morning Afghanistan. The Sunday Times, The Daily Mail, The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday and The Sun all see the value of it and we have everything crossed that they decide it is worth serialising.
The President of Afghanistan (who endorsed the book / wrote a foreword) was in London yesterday. I was tempted to try and find him to see if he would promote it in his rounds. Obviously Tony got there first, but he (like us) recognises that the region had been 'sorely neglected, under-funded and under prioritised in the five years since the fundametalist regime was toppled' and Mr Blair assured President Karzai that Britain would make sure 'the job is done'. Clearly this book shows why there is a need for understanding and action.
Emel magazine is apparently the Muslim media of choice in No10, and we (having already had Clare Shorts review of Prickly Pears of Palestine in it) have Good Morning Afghanistan in there to to nudge Tony so that next time he will actually make reference to it.
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