Welcome to the iliterati

By Darren E Laws

Does the level of literacy drop in a recession? Faced with increasing pressure to maintain profits, are publishers abandoning taking risks with new authors and plumping for the relatively safe and cosy celebrity lit novel or autobiography. A look along the books shelves would lead you to determine that is indeed what is happening, but the facts are that mainstream publishing has been venturing down this road for years; long before the recession reared its ugly head. To some degree, who blames them? They are after all businesses and need to run at a profit to remain in operation and if that means rows of ghost written fodder vomited out of the orifice of publishing for the general consumption of the iliterati, then who cares. Well, you should.

I am all for the democratisation of the Internet and the far reaching and positive impact it is having on publishing, but this current wave of literary gastro-enteritis pooping out of the backside of some of our leading publishers has little to do with broadening choice. Novels by 'D'-list 'celebrities' currently fill remainder book stores to the gunnels. Confirming that this is not what the public wants no matter how much the media tell us it is. Well, of course they would do that because, it invariably, they would argue, leads to increased sales. If that were true celebrity magazines and newspapers would not be having the appalling time they are with their own circulation figures. The days of hype are over and we face a new austerity the like of which we have not faced for many a generation. It may be argued that in these days of turmoil we need a ray of harmless light to shine upon the dreary outlook and yes of course we do.

So what is the answer – faced with a future of increasing inanity and the further 'dumbing down' of our population hardly begins to prepare us for life after recession or even how to cope during it. The irony of course is that publishing like no other form of art or entertainment is so pretentious and yet it is happy to perform fellatio on any passing trend. Could you imagine a mega rock group sending their new material to their label and waiting for some University grad to edit and rewrite the material before it is unleashed on the world, or an artist who has just finished a painting that took anywhere between two to five years to paint that was then reviewed by someone with no discernable interest in being an artist and repainted in sections until it was 'just right'. It just wouldn't happen. Pretentious doesn't even begin to describe an industry so beset and riddled with class anxiety and fear. But all of those crushingly conceited elements of the industry trip over themselves to publish the latest ghost written twaddle from the celebrity of the moment. There is no point in naming names because these people are disposable. The publishing industry picks them up sucks them dry (not that there is much sustenance in the first place) and spits them out or watches gleefully as they self-implode temporarily sending sales rocketing.

I dare say a ghost writer (and the irony of this is certainly not lost) has already been employed by Jade Goody's publisher to write the closing chapter on her short and ultimately very sad life. Do people want to read it? They do because the media tells them. Even if the event is covered step by painful step on (again the irony is not lost) 'Living TV'. I have no beef with the celebrity whoever they are; please do take the publisher for every single penny you can get, because one day this bubble – much like the banking industry – will burst.

On a personal note I wish Miss Goody peace and understand her reasons for doing what she is doing and there is a very positive message from Jade's personal tragedy in that many young women are having cervical smears. Please Miss Goody, take your publisher for every cent you can get and then some.

As per usual the hypocrisy of the class driven world of publishing which doesn't mingle easily with the great unwashed is prepared to exploit the masses for financial gain and treat them like idiots in the process. Welcome to the iliterati.

So where does this leave publishing in the 21^st century? Somewhere up its own arse but like a contortionist with its head buried in the sand. No change from the 20^th century then.

Wheel out the Dinosaurs

By Darren E Laws

I tuned into BBC’s The Money Programme with high expectations to see an investigation into the current state of play in the world of publishing but was disappointed to find a programme that did not even scratch the surface of the challenges facing the publishing industry today.  Instead it went down the lazy route and rolled out the dinosaurs for sound bites and the usual pop culture diatribe that we once used to associate with tabloid newspapers.

Watching the programme was like seeing someone guide the last lemmings on earth blindfolded to the edge of a cliff.  What is frightening about ‘Media Revolution – Title Fight’ is that it is clearly a programme that has been pitched and set to an audience that believes it is witnessing a revolution in the publishing industry.  How could the programme ignore the impact of digital technology, yet it did.  Instead it concentrated on the removal of the net book agreement, yes this was a turning point and an important factor in where we are now, but the net book agreement was abolished over a decade ago, a lot has happened since then.  Obviously a lot which the mainstream publishers choose to ignore as did the makers of this programme. 

The focus (which the BBC is still continuing through other radio and TV programmes) on celebrity biographies is interesting and one which the major publishers see as a saviour of its inability to face digital and technological change or actually read and sign interesting new talent, rather than throwing money at ‘celebrities’ to write, or paying huge advances in bidding wars, which cannot be a sustainable business model especially in this day and age.

I am hoping Will Self is aware of the impact of digital technology and not just how Amazon has screwed publishers to the rafters while the supermarkets pick over the remains of the corpse they have so delightfully served up.  Famine or feast?  We have an industry running around doing an awesome impression of an ostrich with its head well and truly buried in the sand or up its own backside.

So did the programme have its finger on the pulse of what is happening in the industry.  It had its finger on the pulse of the class discriminating, ego-centric, narcissistic monsters that populate the industry.  The people who have too much power and too little understanding of the real world.  The people who are the cause and reason the industry is in the condition it is in today.   The dinosaurs.

It was almost laughable when they lauded the Richard & Judy programme as a powerful influencer in the world of publishing.  The latest viewing figures for this programme is now 8,000 per episode.  Hardly the viewing figures or influence achieved by Oprah. 

Overall the programme was screened five years too late.  BBC you have a lot to learn about the industry as it stands today.  Sadly for the publishing industry afraid to embrace digital technology or address a business model eighty years out of date, I fear that it may never learn until it is too late to do anything but severe damage limitation…a bit like addressing the problems of our financial institutions.

Are Authors as much to to blame for publishing's current malaise as publishers?

By Darren E Laws

This may be difficult to read especially if you are an aspiring author, but are authors as much to blame for falling profits, closing bookstores and the current failure of the publishing world to embrace new digital media platforms?

Reading many forums, blogs and articles on various sites it becomes clear than many, many authors (aspiring or otherwise) wish to continue living in a cloud cuckoo land where the age old business model of paying advances and expecting a living wage on the basis of absolutely no sales exists.

The global economic crisis has led to a massive downturn in profits across the board which is striking the very foundations of companies that have been established for decades and in some cases hundreds of years.

The publishing industry has the reactive qualities of a dinosaur on diazepam and sadly it has instilled a culture of acceptance in generation after generation of authors that the only business model is one that was adopted by publishers in the 1900’s.  Namely large upfront advances based on nothing more than a hunch and a publishers marketing machine.  Well,  the world has moved on buddy and it is no longer the case that publishers can afford to continue going down this rocky road. 

The Internet now exposes how authors expect this model to continue no matter what the economic climate says.  I have read countless threads where authors appear to be viewing the world of publishing through rose coloured glasses. For example comments such as “Well if they are not going to pay an advance they are just crooks, or they’re POD with no established route to bookstores.”

Yes, what a great idea, let's just fill every bookstore across the country with hundreds of copies of books regardless of the demand and then see those books return in six months to be shipped off once more to a remainder shop or back to the printers for pulping. How environmentally sound and what a great business plan…not.

Let's examine how well the world of publishing is coping with the current situation.  Bookstores are closing, profits are shrinking, publishers refuse to look at new delivery platforms, and sales are in decline.  Yet still I see unpublished authors bleating on about how a publisher is not a real publisher if he is not putting his hand into his own pocket and paying the author hundreds or thousands or even hundreds of thousands of pounds before a solitary sale has been made. Cuckoo!

Business cannot run this way any longer. In fact I don’t know of many other businesses which allow such a model to operate.  Do you think Tesco or Wal-Mart would let you walk away with all their stock on the basis that one day you may be able to pay the bill?

Until we see a paradigm shift in thinking in both authors and publishers it may be that we have to face the fact that many established companies are going to collapse never to rise. Authors, I appreciate you think your work is the best thing since sliced bread, that’s what I think with every novel I complete, but the truth is you are only as good as your sales and that is all the reward you deserve.  It is the only sustainable business model, like it or not.  Yes, there will always be exceptions and bidding wars.  Good luck to the companies which want to get involved in that particular strand of madness. 

Will the real Samson please stand up

By Darren E Laws

Although Tripping has only been published as an eBook on one site for four weeks it has achieved an astonishing 318 downloads pushing it above many books from established publishers such as Hachette Book Group and Harper Collins among others.

What amazes me about this is the democratization of the Internet and how what really matters at the end of the day is a good story and not the size of the publishing house behind it.  The sheer amount of ‘Word of Mouth’ gained from these downloads alone is invaluable.

The publishing industry is still divided about the worth of eBooks and long may it remain so because while it dithers small company’s such as Caffeine Nights Publishing can take on larger publishers with a much more even footing.  If I was to publish Tripping at as many eBook stores as I could those figures could well be in the high thousands.  Guess what my next step is…

Is the eBook Coming of Age

 

Caffeine Nights Publishing is pleased to announce the publication of its first eBook. Tripping is now available in electronic format and available to download from www.cnpublishing.co.uk and a number of Internet bookstores.
 

Caffeine Nights Publishing have used the latest page turning software for their eBooks to give the reader as real an experience as they can have while reading from a screen.
 

The publication in this format follows the Kent based company's announcement last year that their books will be available later this year to download direct to mobile phones.
 

Darren E Laws, author of Tripping, is excited with the prospect of these digital editions. "I am pleased that we are being innovative with our books and looking at new delivery platforms. It does seem that 2009 might well be the year eBooks finally come of age and be accepted in the mainstream. More and more people know of devices such as the Kindle from Amazon and Sony's eReader, and the technology available now to make eBooks is definitely bringing another level of experience to readers everywhere. Multimedia aspects such as video and audio/mp3 files will broaden the whole book reading experience."
 

One of the key benefits eBooks brings is also an environmental bonus with trees being spared the axe and thousands of road miles of transportation being removed from the equation. eBooks also bring a price benefit and in these times of economic worry readers can still subscribe to their favourite authors at a fraction of the price as many eBook are up to 50% cheaper than their paper equivalent. Many publishers are also offering parts of the books for free as tasters.
 

Tripping is now available for only £3.99 with the first 30 pages free
 

 

Murder in the High Street…Is this the end of the Bookstore?

By Darren E Laws

Sad news reaches me today that one of the UK’s leading independent bookstores Murder One in Charing Cross Road, London has become the latest victim of the economic downturn.  Murder One, only months away from its 21st year in business, succumbed to the pressures of the crunch as owner, Maxim Jakubowski, failed to find a buyer for the store. Jakubowski whose planned retirement at the end of the year has been brought forward by the failure to find a buyer threw the towel in rather than dragging out a painful and lingering death for the world famous crime bookstore specialist.

Murder One has long been a friend to independent publishers and were kind enough to stock our crime fiction title ‘Turtle Island’.  The fact that a specialist in the heart of book land in London’s West end can disappear without a buyer coming forward is a sad day for publishers everywhere.  As an independent publisher it is difficult enough persuading bookstores to stock titles from a new author so it is doubly depressing when an outlet such as Murder One ceases trading.  I cannot imagine another specialist crime book store filling the void too quickly, especially with the current economic conditions prevailing. 

As this year evolves we will see other shocks that reverberate and impact on the world of publishing.  There will be more pressure than ever before on retailers and the Internet will play an important and increasing part providing a platform for niche publications as often the only source to find certain titles.

To Mr Jakubowski and all the staff, Murder One will be sorely missed and leave a void in Charing Cross Road and for readers and writers of crime fiction everywhere.

Happy New Year

By Darren E Laws

Though it is hard to see the positives in the current economic cycle these are exciting times.  There is a huge element of the unknown but in the world of publishing publishers are at last beginning to see the benefits of digital technology.  Whether this is because other doors are closing or there had been a conversion on the road to Damascus who knows?  But the upshot is that various platforms and media delivery systems are converging and now only the foolish publisher or author is going to ignore them.

The world is changing and the way we are doing business has to adapt and develop if we are not to wither on the vine.  Our books are going to be available to download to mobile phones late this year and we have finally found a a system that delivers eBooks with an element of style, quality and security that controls the digital rights management for our authors.  In the past eBooks have invariably either looked bad or offered no way of controlling sales.  Many sites still offer eBooks as no more than PDF versions of a word file.  In this day and age of page turning software it is no longer justifiable or aesthetically pleasing to do this and it gives eBooks a bad name.

The Kindle, eReader and Iliad will add further scope to publishers as we get to grips with the technology and the hardware becomes more commonplace, and lets not forget that print on demand (POD) is constantly evolving.  Hopefully 2009 will see the Espresso Book Machine rolling out into the commercial and retail sectors, opening up a whole new digital library to readers who will be able to see their books being printed and bound before their eyes.  One thing is for sure is that as a publisher and an author I am going to ensure that out titles are available in as many formats and markets as possible in 2009.

Here’s wishing you a Happy, Peaceful and Prosperous New Year with all the success you deserve.