Faith-based publishers reported a modest bump in hardcover sales for October, though net paperback sales fell by 32% compared to the previous October, according to the latest figures available from the Association of American Publishers (AAP).
Net paperback sales from religious presses fell from $10.7 million in October 2012 to $7.3 million in October a year later. That drop resulted in the total net paperback sales for the first 10 months of 2013 declining 4% over the same period in 2012—$106.9 million and $111.3 million, respectively.
Meanwhile, net hardcover sales from religious presses grew by 8.3% in October, with sales of $36.4 million surpassing October 2012’s $33.6 million. This growth helped to somewhat offset an overall downward slump in hardcover sales for the first 10 months of 2013, with year-to-date hardcover sales at the end of October down 6.6% versus the same period in 2012—$235.1 million, from $251.7 million a year before.
Religious presses’ net sales of all titles, including ebooks, shrank from $60 million in October 2012 to $59.7 million in October 2013, a 0.4% decrease. Total net sales from the first 10 months of 2013 fell by 3.7% compared to the same period in 2012—$462.5 million versus $480.4 million, respectively.
Religious presses’ e-books continue to show slight gains—$5 million in October 2013 versus $4.9 million in October 2012, a 1.8% increase, helping to boost e-book sales for first 10 months of 2013 to $52.4 million, a 2.5% increase over the $51.1 million sold in the same period of 2012.
With nearly 1,200 publishers reporting, AAP's Monthly StatShot report includes data from Crossway, Gospel Light, Moody Publishers, David C Cook, Thomas Nelson and Tyndale House Publishers, among others represented by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Writing for Impact
Here is a nice testimony posted by a local author, Dr. Larry McCall, pastor of Christ's Covenant Church in Winona Lake and a BMH author.
Larry McCall
Jerry Bridges had a huge impact on me years ago when he encouraged me to use my word gifts by writing books. He said, "Larry, you'll have the privilege of being able to serve people who you haven't even met." I've heard a couple of stories in the last day or two that have been confirming Jerry's counsel. I thank the Lord for giving me friends like Mr. Bridges to encourage me along the way. And, I thank God for using these feeble efforts of mine in helping others reflect Christ in their lives and marriages.
Larry McCall
Jerry Bridges had a huge impact on me years ago when he encouraged me to use my word gifts by writing books. He said, "Larry, you'll have the privilege of being able to serve people who you haven't even met." I've heard a couple of stories in the last day or two that have been confirming Jerry's counsel. I thank the Lord for giving me friends like Mr. Bridges to encourage me along the way. And, I thank God for using these feeble efforts of mine in helping others reflect Christ in their lives and marriages.
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Print Starts to Settle Into Its Niches
Here's a fascinating piece from the New York Times. This is a short excerpt -- to read the entire article click here.
Kevin Kelly is not a dumb guy — far from it actually. As the founding executive editor of Wired and one of the people who helped build The Well, among the earliest online communities, he has done a good job of seeing what is coming next for decades.
But last year, he had what sounded to me like a dumb idea. Mr. Kelly edits and owns Cool Tools, a website that writes about neat stuff and makes small money off referral revenue from Amazon when people proceed to buy some of those things. He decided to edit the thousands of reviews that had accrued over the last 10 years into a self-published print catalog — also called “Cool Tools” — which he would then sell for $39.99.
So, to review, his idea was to manufacture a floppy 472-page catalog that would weigh 4.5 pounds, full of buying advice that had already appeared free on the web, essentially turning weightless pixels into bulky bundles of atoms. To make it happen, he crowdsourced designs from all over the world, found a printer in China and then arranged for shipping and distribution. It all seemed a little quixotic and, well, beside the point.
Kevin Kelly self-published a collection of reviews accrued from a website over the years, and it sold extremely well.
Except the first printing of 10,000 copies, just in time for Christmas, sold out immediately, a second printing of 12,000 will go on sale at Amazon next week and a third printing of 20,000 copies is underway. So, not so dumb after all. . . At a time when e-book sales seem to be flattening, there is something to be learned from Mr. Kelly’s self-published curio. Print continues to be a remarkable technology, if not as lucrative as it used to be, with its own durable glories.
Kevin Kelly is not a dumb guy — far from it actually. As the founding executive editor of Wired and one of the people who helped build The Well, among the earliest online communities, he has done a good job of seeing what is coming next for decades.
But last year, he had what sounded to me like a dumb idea. Mr. Kelly edits and owns Cool Tools, a website that writes about neat stuff and makes small money off referral revenue from Amazon when people proceed to buy some of those things. He decided to edit the thousands of reviews that had accrued over the last 10 years into a self-published print catalog — also called “Cool Tools” — which he would then sell for $39.99.
So, to review, his idea was to manufacture a floppy 472-page catalog that would weigh 4.5 pounds, full of buying advice that had already appeared free on the web, essentially turning weightless pixels into bulky bundles of atoms. To make it happen, he crowdsourced designs from all over the world, found a printer in China and then arranged for shipping and distribution. It all seemed a little quixotic and, well, beside the point.
Kevin Kelly self-published a collection of reviews accrued from a website over the years, and it sold extremely well.
Except the first printing of 10,000 copies, just in time for Christmas, sold out immediately, a second printing of 12,000 will go on sale at Amazon next week and a third printing of 20,000 copies is underway. So, not so dumb after all. . . At a time when e-book sales seem to be flattening, there is something to be learned from Mr. Kelly’s self-published curio. Print continues to be a remarkable technology, if not as lucrative as it used to be, with its own durable glories.
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Recent Panic Has Calmed in Publishing
Recent panic has calmed in publishing
By DAVID L. ULIN Los Angeles Times
Toward the end of September, I found myself in a meeting room at Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York with planners from a variety of book fairs (Miami, Trinidad, Texas, Australia) discussing audience and cooperation and outreach. It was the morning after the Brooklyn Book Festival, which had drawn tens of thousands, and the atmosphere was upbeat, marked by excitement, even relief.
Economics remained an issue (how to attract and pay for writers, how to advertise and promote) but there was no lamenting, no sense that things might be shutting down. Rather, with a number of new festivals represented, the conversation was expansive, peppered with optimism about the future of reading and books.
This is the story, for me, of 2013: that there is no story, or more accurately, that the panic that’s defined publishing for the last several years has calmed. Yes, uncertainties linger — about the relationship between print and electronics, about how writers get paid in an increasingly digital economy — but there is also the sense that we are settling into a tenuous new balance.
In December, Matt Pearce wrote in the Los Angeles Times about online outlets (Pitchfork, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Inquiry) that have begun to turn to print; in November, the British market research firm Voxburner conducted a survey in which more than 60 percent of respondents ages 16 to 24 preferred reading print on paper to pixels on screen.
Considered alongside information that e-book sales appear to have flattened, as Nicholas Carr has reported, at “a bit less than 25 percent of total book sales,” this suggests a more complicated story, in which it is diversity rather than dominance that resonates, and publishing starts to look more like an ecosystem than merely an industry.
What’s most compelling about such an ecosystem is that it is not generally top-heavy but bottom-up. It begins with independent bookstores, which have seen a renaissance of sorts. According to the American Booksellers Association, sales rose by 8 percent in 2012, and similar numbers are expected in 2013.
This may seem surprising in a landscape where Amazon’s recent announcement that it intends to use delivery drones qualifies as a buzzy story, but then Amazon has never been about book culture. Sure, it offers a way to get books fast when you know what you’re after or to buy a bestseller at a cut-rate price.
Most readers, though, want more than cheap books; we want conversation, community. Hence, Amazon’s purchase of Good Reads, for $150 million or so, at the end of March. And yet, this is where independent bookstores excel organically, in their relationship to neighborhood clientele.
“This bookstore was kind of a steppingstone to … integrate myself into the local community,” a customer named Jessica Brown told NPR in November, describing Seattle’s Mockingbird Books. There’s something touching about the interaction she describes.
Call it local, call it artisanal, call it slow reading: I call it a mechanism by which we are enlarged. That, in turn, goes back to why we read in the first place: not to be entertained or distracted but to be connected, to experience a world, a life, a set of emotions we might not otherwise get to know.
At the heart of this is, again, diversity — of voices, venues, points of view. That’s the promise of a digital universe, although a recent report from Digital Book World offers sobering perspective, noting that 19 percent of self-published authors “reported no annual income from their writing” and that as a group they “earned a median writing income of $1 to $4,999” — lower than their traditionally published counterparts, who “had a median writing income of $5,000 to $9,999.”
The good news is that, in a bottom-up infrastructure, independent publishers are increasingly able to break through. I think of D.A. Powell and Mary Szybist, both published by Minneapolis’ Graywolf Press, who won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award in poetry, respectively. I think of Pulitzer finalist Lore Segal publishing her new novel, “Half the Kingdom,” with Brooklyn’s Melville House, or Hilton Als, whose magnificent “White Girls” came out from McSweeney’s in the fall.
That’s not a new development; indies have taken advantage of territory ceded by the majors for nearly two decades, and this has really exploded in the last five years.
But in the context of 2013, with its relative (dare we say it?) stability, it feels like a bit of reassurance, the whisper of a new normal, in which there may be room for everything, after all.
By DAVID L. ULIN Los Angeles Times
Toward the end of September, I found myself in a meeting room at Brooklyn Borough Hall in New York with planners from a variety of book fairs (Miami, Trinidad, Texas, Australia) discussing audience and cooperation and outreach. It was the morning after the Brooklyn Book Festival, which had drawn tens of thousands, and the atmosphere was upbeat, marked by excitement, even relief.
Economics remained an issue (how to attract and pay for writers, how to advertise and promote) but there was no lamenting, no sense that things might be shutting down. Rather, with a number of new festivals represented, the conversation was expansive, peppered with optimism about the future of reading and books.
This is the story, for me, of 2013: that there is no story, or more accurately, that the panic that’s defined publishing for the last several years has calmed. Yes, uncertainties linger — about the relationship between print and electronics, about how writers get paid in an increasingly digital economy — but there is also the sense that we are settling into a tenuous new balance.
In December, Matt Pearce wrote in the Los Angeles Times about online outlets (Pitchfork, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Inquiry) that have begun to turn to print; in November, the British market research firm Voxburner conducted a survey in which more than 60 percent of respondents ages 16 to 24 preferred reading print on paper to pixels on screen.
Considered alongside information that e-book sales appear to have flattened, as Nicholas Carr has reported, at “a bit less than 25 percent of total book sales,” this suggests a more complicated story, in which it is diversity rather than dominance that resonates, and publishing starts to look more like an ecosystem than merely an industry.
What’s most compelling about such an ecosystem is that it is not generally top-heavy but bottom-up. It begins with independent bookstores, which have seen a renaissance of sorts. According to the American Booksellers Association, sales rose by 8 percent in 2012, and similar numbers are expected in 2013.
This may seem surprising in a landscape where Amazon’s recent announcement that it intends to use delivery drones qualifies as a buzzy story, but then Amazon has never been about book culture. Sure, it offers a way to get books fast when you know what you’re after or to buy a bestseller at a cut-rate price.
Most readers, though, want more than cheap books; we want conversation, community. Hence, Amazon’s purchase of Good Reads, for $150 million or so, at the end of March. And yet, this is where independent bookstores excel organically, in their relationship to neighborhood clientele.
“This bookstore was kind of a steppingstone to … integrate myself into the local community,” a customer named Jessica Brown told NPR in November, describing Seattle’s Mockingbird Books. There’s something touching about the interaction she describes.
Call it local, call it artisanal, call it slow reading: I call it a mechanism by which we are enlarged. That, in turn, goes back to why we read in the first place: not to be entertained or distracted but to be connected, to experience a world, a life, a set of emotions we might not otherwise get to know.
At the heart of this is, again, diversity — of voices, venues, points of view. That’s the promise of a digital universe, although a recent report from Digital Book World offers sobering perspective, noting that 19 percent of self-published authors “reported no annual income from their writing” and that as a group they “earned a median writing income of $1 to $4,999” — lower than their traditionally published counterparts, who “had a median writing income of $5,000 to $9,999.”
The good news is that, in a bottom-up infrastructure, independent publishers are increasingly able to break through. I think of D.A. Powell and Mary Szybist, both published by Minneapolis’ Graywolf Press, who won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award in poetry, respectively. I think of Pulitzer finalist Lore Segal publishing her new novel, “Half the Kingdom,” with Brooklyn’s Melville House, or Hilton Als, whose magnificent “White Girls” came out from McSweeney’s in the fall.
That’s not a new development; indies have taken advantage of territory ceded by the majors for nearly two decades, and this has really exploded in the last five years.
But in the context of 2013, with its relative (dare we say it?) stability, it feels like a bit of reassurance, the whisper of a new normal, in which there may be room for everything, after all.
Why Tablets Won't Replace PCs Anytime Soon
From Mashable.com:
The tablet has had a remarkable run the past few years. But it is important to note that in the majority of use cases tablet are not replacing PCs but rather are extending the life of PCs.
We know from our data as well as a number of other firms' research that over 90% of tablets sold today have been sold to existing PC owners. And in nearly every supporting data point I have, those tablets are being used to accompany the PC not to replace it. (By PC, I generally mean notebooks).
So it begs the question whether the PC-killing tablet is a valid narrative or not. I'd contend that this is not a valid narrative and, more importantly, it could affect tablet sales to a degree in 2014.
A key point about tablet sales is that the vast majority sold are 8" or smaller. Which means that the vast number of tablets bought by consumers are not even contenders to replace the PC. In fact, when you look at tablet usage data you notice that they are used heavier during the evening hours while PCs are used heavier during the day time/work hours.
Think of it this way: PC by day, tablet by night. Oh sure, lots of people use their tablets during the day for both entertainment and business reasons (e.g. sales people and other road warriors), but I think this sums up the use case for most tablet owners.
Now, if we acknowledge the point that the vast majority of tablets on the market are used in conjunction with PCs, then we acknowledge that the PC is still used and valued by a large number of consumers. If this is true, those PCs will still need to replaced. So the question then becomes: When will this happen and could it have an effect on the tablet market?
The evidence is clear that 2013 was the lost year for the PC. One of the steepest declines on record, as it has been a stable growth market since the early 2000s. We believe that 2014 could mark a turnaround for the PC sector and catch many by surprise.
Part of the logic for this is the number of PCs in the market being used that are 4 years or older. Depending on whose estimates you use, the number is around 300-350 million. A good percentage of these customers got away with not refreshing their PCs due to their tablet purchases. Those who have not refreshed their PC for school, work, home, etc., simply can't wait much longer. A PC refresh is coming and it could impact tablet sales.
The tablet/PC hybrid
A caveat to this thinking is that consumers will find the idea of a tablet and PC combined together as an attractive option. Perhaps when a consumer looks to replace their PC they will find something like Microsoft's Surface an attractive offering. Many in the PC ecosystem are hoping this is the case but I am still skeptical.
I think what corporate employees, small business workers, and even consumers want is the best PC for their needs and the best tablet for their needs. This means they will continue to buy two separate devices that are each best for all the things they want.
While I applaud the efforts of Microsoft, Intel, and others in the PC ecosystem to work to build 2-in-1 PCs and tablets, I'm not optimistic that they will appeal to the masses. I believe some segments of both business and consumer customers will gravitate to these form factors but I don't believe they will make up the majority of sales of either PCs or tablets.
I believe the market for PCs and tablets will swing like a pendulum. The years that PCs aren't being refreshed as much tablets sales will boom higher and vice-versa. For everyone who cares about hardware, from IT to the OEMs who make the devices, managing refresh rates and building products that take advantage of refresh years will be critical.
But of course truly innovative products and lower price points could produce a hot seller in either camp regardless of refresh cycles. Given the product maturity on the PC side, I think another breakout tablet is far more likely.
Ben Bajarin is Director of the Consumer Technology Practice at Creative Strategies, a strategy consulting firm in Silicon Valley.
The tablet has had a remarkable run the past few years. But it is important to note that in the majority of use cases tablet are not replacing PCs but rather are extending the life of PCs.
We know from our data as well as a number of other firms' research that over 90% of tablets sold today have been sold to existing PC owners. And in nearly every supporting data point I have, those tablets are being used to accompany the PC not to replace it. (By PC, I generally mean notebooks).
So it begs the question whether the PC-killing tablet is a valid narrative or not. I'd contend that this is not a valid narrative and, more importantly, it could affect tablet sales to a degree in 2014.
A key point about tablet sales is that the vast majority sold are 8" or smaller. Which means that the vast number of tablets bought by consumers are not even contenders to replace the PC. In fact, when you look at tablet usage data you notice that they are used heavier during the evening hours while PCs are used heavier during the day time/work hours.
Think of it this way: PC by day, tablet by night. Oh sure, lots of people use their tablets during the day for both entertainment and business reasons (e.g. sales people and other road warriors), but I think this sums up the use case for most tablet owners.
Now, if we acknowledge the point that the vast majority of tablets on the market are used in conjunction with PCs, then we acknowledge that the PC is still used and valued by a large number of consumers. If this is true, those PCs will still need to replaced. So the question then becomes: When will this happen and could it have an effect on the tablet market?
The evidence is clear that 2013 was the lost year for the PC. One of the steepest declines on record, as it has been a stable growth market since the early 2000s. We believe that 2014 could mark a turnaround for the PC sector and catch many by surprise.
Part of the logic for this is the number of PCs in the market being used that are 4 years or older. Depending on whose estimates you use, the number is around 300-350 million. A good percentage of these customers got away with not refreshing their PCs due to their tablet purchases. Those who have not refreshed their PC for school, work, home, etc., simply can't wait much longer. A PC refresh is coming and it could impact tablet sales.
The tablet/PC hybrid
A caveat to this thinking is that consumers will find the idea of a tablet and PC combined together as an attractive option. Perhaps when a consumer looks to replace their PC they will find something like Microsoft's Surface an attractive offering. Many in the PC ecosystem are hoping this is the case but I am still skeptical.
I think what corporate employees, small business workers, and even consumers want is the best PC for their needs and the best tablet for their needs. This means they will continue to buy two separate devices that are each best for all the things they want.
While I applaud the efforts of Microsoft, Intel, and others in the PC ecosystem to work to build 2-in-1 PCs and tablets, I'm not optimistic that they will appeal to the masses. I believe some segments of both business and consumer customers will gravitate to these form factors but I don't believe they will make up the majority of sales of either PCs or tablets.
I believe the market for PCs and tablets will swing like a pendulum. The years that PCs aren't being refreshed as much tablets sales will boom higher and vice-versa. For everyone who cares about hardware, from IT to the OEMs who make the devices, managing refresh rates and building products that take advantage of refresh years will be critical.
But of course truly innovative products and lower price points could produce a hot seller in either camp regardless of refresh cycles. Given the product maturity on the PC side, I think another breakout tablet is far more likely.
Ben Bajarin is Director of the Consumer Technology Practice at Creative Strategies, a strategy consulting firm in Silicon Valley.
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Steve Laube Acquires Marcher Lord
Steve Laube, president of The Steve Laube Agency, has agreed to purchase Marcher Lord Press, the premier publisher of science fiction and fantasy for the Christian market. The sale was finalized Jan. 1.
A champion of the genre going back to his days as an acquisition editor at Bethany House Publishers, Laube said: “The plan is to continue with what Jeff started and release between four and eight new titles in 2014. I have long believed that this genre has been underserved in our industry despite its inherent ability to tell ‘Fantastic’ stories of philosophical and theological depth.”
Jeff Gerke is founder of Marcher Lord Press, which has a backlist of about 40 titles with many of them nominated or winning Christy and Carol Awards.
“I could not have found a better person to buy the company I started in 2008,” said Gerke, who will now focus on his own writing and his freelance editorial and publishing service business.
Laube will run the new Marcher Lord Press as a separate company from his literary agency. Founded in 2004, the agency (www.stevelaube.com) has four agents and more than 150 active authors with contracts for nearly 1,000 new books.
A champion of the genre going back to his days as an acquisition editor at Bethany House Publishers, Laube said: “The plan is to continue with what Jeff started and release between four and eight new titles in 2014. I have long believed that this genre has been underserved in our industry despite its inherent ability to tell ‘Fantastic’ stories of philosophical and theological depth.”
Jeff Gerke is founder of Marcher Lord Press, which has a backlist of about 40 titles with many of them nominated or winning Christy and Carol Awards.
“I could not have found a better person to buy the company I started in 2008,” said Gerke, who will now focus on his own writing and his freelance editorial and publishing service business.
Laube will run the new Marcher Lord Press as a separate company from his literary agency. Founded in 2004, the agency (www.stevelaube.com) has four agents and more than 150 active authors with contracts for nearly 1,000 new books.
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Crowdsourcing and Book Publishing
From BookBusiness:
The Learning Curve
By Ellen Harvey
Today readers have more power than ever. Not only are publishers turning to their audiences to fund major projects, but they also look to consumers for feedback and help in creating the next bestseller. It's called crowdsourcing, and it has been growing in popularity as social publishing sites continue to thrive. For example, on Scribd, readers discover and discuss books from a massive digital library of bestsellers and self-published works, while on Medium, shorter articles are published by users, collaboratively edited, and ranked by popularity. Both platforms allow users to make comments on the work. Crowdsourcing gives readers a voice, but it also creates a buzz for the author's work and an audience ready to receive it.
The latest crowdsourced project generating buzz is Walter Isaacson 's latest book on the origins of the personal-computing era. Over the weekend, Isaacson posted excerpts of his book on LiveJournal, Scribd, and Medium to gather reader feedback. Quoted in BloomsbergBusinessweekOpens in a new window, the Steve Jobs biographer says, "I got to the point of the book where people started using the internet to collaborate. It didn't take a genius to say, 'why don't I use the Internet to collaborate?'" So far the experiment has been a success with over 18,000 readers and 125 comments on Medium alone. Some of those comments are from individuals actually mentioned in the work, fact checking Isaacson's accountOpens in a new window.
A similarly ambitious project is Macmillan 's Swoon Reads, which has created a platform for users to post their manuscripts. In turn, readers and Macmillan editors can critique the works and vote for their favorites. And in 2013, Harlequin partnered with WattpadOpens in a new window to help host it's New Adult Contest, and selected six winners this December from over 600 manuscripts submitted via Wattpad.
Beyond the book, crowdsourcing and user-generated content is influencing mainstream media in important ways. Newsrooms look to Twitter for breaking news, magazines create discussions around hashtags that morph into print content, and cell phone videos bring us dangerous stories when a camera crew cannot.
Crowdsourcing is thriving, but when it comes to the book, most often one individual creates the content alone and then shares it for public critique. Few authors seek chapter submissions from their readers or even plot suggestions. But I suspect that with consumers' growing expectation of participation, this will begin to change.
Projects like J.K. Rowling's PottermoreOpens in a new window, an interactive online community that allows users to embark on their own wizarding adventures, and Sourcebooks' Put Me In The Story product, which personalizes bestselling children's books, are early steps in this evolution.
Considering it is New Year's Eve, I think it's fair that I make one prediction for the future. Although I think there will always be a place for the traditional novel, one that is written alone and read alone, user-generated content will begin influencing the format and content of books. Consumers are getting used to having their say, and I don't think that expectation will stop at the book.
The Learning Curve
By Ellen Harvey
Today readers have more power than ever. Not only are publishers turning to their audiences to fund major projects, but they also look to consumers for feedback and help in creating the next bestseller. It's called crowdsourcing, and it has been growing in popularity as social publishing sites continue to thrive. For example, on Scribd, readers discover and discuss books from a massive digital library of bestsellers and self-published works, while on Medium, shorter articles are published by users, collaboratively edited, and ranked by popularity. Both platforms allow users to make comments on the work. Crowdsourcing gives readers a voice, but it also creates a buzz for the author's work and an audience ready to receive it.
The latest crowdsourced project generating buzz is Walter Isaacson 's latest book on the origins of the personal-computing era. Over the weekend, Isaacson posted excerpts of his book on LiveJournal, Scribd, and Medium to gather reader feedback. Quoted in BloomsbergBusinessweekOpens in a new window, the Steve Jobs biographer says, "I got to the point of the book where people started using the internet to collaborate. It didn't take a genius to say, 'why don't I use the Internet to collaborate?'" So far the experiment has been a success with over 18,000 readers and 125 comments on Medium alone. Some of those comments are from individuals actually mentioned in the work, fact checking Isaacson's accountOpens in a new window.
A similarly ambitious project is Macmillan 's Swoon Reads, which has created a platform for users to post their manuscripts. In turn, readers and Macmillan editors can critique the works and vote for their favorites. And in 2013, Harlequin partnered with WattpadOpens in a new window to help host it's New Adult Contest, and selected six winners this December from over 600 manuscripts submitted via Wattpad.
Beyond the book, crowdsourcing and user-generated content is influencing mainstream media in important ways. Newsrooms look to Twitter for breaking news, magazines create discussions around hashtags that morph into print content, and cell phone videos bring us dangerous stories when a camera crew cannot.
Crowdsourcing is thriving, but when it comes to the book, most often one individual creates the content alone and then shares it for public critique. Few authors seek chapter submissions from their readers or even plot suggestions. But I suspect that with consumers' growing expectation of participation, this will begin to change.
Projects like J.K. Rowling's PottermoreOpens in a new window, an interactive online community that allows users to embark on their own wizarding adventures, and Sourcebooks' Put Me In The Story product, which personalizes bestselling children's books, are early steps in this evolution.
Considering it is New Year's Eve, I think it's fair that I make one prediction for the future. Although I think there will always be a place for the traditional novel, one that is written alone and read alone, user-generated content will begin influencing the format and content of books. Consumers are getting used to having their say, and I don't think that expectation will stop at the book.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
