New Science Project for Penguin Book Publisher

Penguin Publishing Group is GROWING again! I posted two posts recently (3/7 & 3/1 ) detailing penguin profits and their new iPad content...Now they are expanding with a science book division/imprint.

This from Matthew Flamm of Crain's New York Business:

Penguin Group USA is making another bet on niche publishing.

At a time when most houses are looking to cut back on titles, the publisher is launching a new imprint dedicated to science books for the general reader, the company announced Wednesday.

Penguin already has some half dozen small imprints, including the recently launched Pamela Dorman Books, in addition to core divisions like Viking and Putnam's.

Called Current, the new imprint will be headed by Adrian Zackheim, who already runs Sentinel, for conservative books, and Portfolio, for business books. The same editorial, marketing and publicity staff will work on all three imprints.

“We've found that niche publishing has been very successful for Portfolio since 2001, and Sentinel since 2003,” Mr. Zackheim said, in a statement. “This is a logical next category to expand into.”

Current's first title, The Youth Pill: Scientists at the Brink of an Anti-Aging Revolution, will be out in July. The imprint will eventually publish five to eight books a year “in every subcategory, from genetics to quantum physics to neuroscience,” Mr. Zackheim said.

Print Magazine Advertising to Grow in 2010 Despite Popularity of Online...

...For first time, however, spending on digital expected to outpace print.

It looks like all media types (especially print and digital) might be seeking (and finding) their own level RE advertising profits. I have mentioned in previous posts that when the newness of digital gadgets (Kindle, iPad, plus more to come) wears off a little and the dust settles...that print will still be standing, albeit not dominating.

One of my favorite go-to industry sources, FOLIO magazine's reporter Jason Fell, reported this today:

Consumer and trade businesses this year are projected to spend approximately $119.6 billion on online and digital advertising strategies while shelling out $111.5 billion to print projects, research and advisory firm Outsell said Monday. Some good news for print: Ad spending on magazines is forecasted to be up 1.9 percent to $9.4 billion.

According to Outsell’s “Marketing and Ad Spending Study 2010: Total U.S. and B2B Advertising” report, overall spending on marketing and advertising will be $368 billion this year, an increase of 1.2 percent over 2009. Taking an overarching look at b-to-b and b-to-c businesses, the report projects spending, share and growth for five media types—online, events, print, TV/radio and PR/other.

Other findings from the report included that b-to-b advertisers see cross-media marketing as the most effective option with 78 percent combining three or more marketing methods; advertiser’s own Web sites generate the highest ROI for b-to-b; and social media has a firm place in marketing efforts—51 percent said Facebook is “extremely or somewhat” effective, 45 percent for LinkedIn, 35 percent for Twitter and 25 percent said the same for MySpace.

For the 2010 report, Outsell said it surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. advertisers in December 2009.

Superior Scribbler Award!...Also, Australian Writers' Week in China

A fellow writer and blogger as well as a wife, mother and editor (whew, what a heavy schedule!) sent me a Superior Scribbler Award today and I'm very proud! Portia Sisco is a very busy and involved professional that seems to have endless energy! Her writers blog http://portiasisco.blogspot.com/ is crisp, relevant, informative and entertaining.

I thank her for her kindness to my humble blog and I am in turn passing a Superior Scribbler Award on to these more deserving Scribblers:

Pamela Ferris-Olson, who writes an insightful blog celebrating women http://intheheartland3women.wordpress.com Pamela Ferris-Olson is an award-winning freelance writer and photographer (http://tinyurl.com/yh4jtbo). She’s worked as a freelance writer for nearly two decades. As a regular contributor to the Dayton Daily News in Dayton, OH, Pam has had the chance to meet and talk to many interesting people. Living in the Heartland: Three Extraordinary Women’s Stories is her first book about the search for identity, self-worth, and happiness. It is a celebration of women. The book presents an intimate look at three, contemporary minority American women. Their struggles, however, will resonate with all women...And men looking for insight and wisdom!

Mike Shatzkin Writes the Shatzkin Files on his IdeaLog Blog http://www.idealog.com/ Mike Shatzkin is the Founder & CEO of The Idea Logical Company and of BaseballLibrary.com. He has four decades of experience as a published writer and working in all aspects of the publishing industry – writing, editing, agenting, selling, marketing, and managing production. He is well known for providing insight into the knottiest questions of the industry, old and new, in a career that began with a summer job on the sales floor of the brand new paperback department of Brentano’s Bookstore on 5th Avenue in 1962.
The Shatzkin Files is one of my favorite sources for research into the publishing industry.

And now on to China through Australian Writers' Week that kicked off last night in Beijing. Showing how literature is bringing the world ever closer.

Du Guodong of Alibaba.com has a neat piece on this literary event:

The 2010 Australian Writers' Week is scheduled to begin tonight with Australian Ambassador to China Dr Geoff Raby preparing to officially launch the event at the Australian Embassy in Beijing.

The annual week-long celebration, now in its third year, will present a series of literary events in Beijing and Chengdu, bringing six renowned Australian writers of fiction, nonfiction and poetry to China with a focus this year on "true stories."

Throughout the week, literature lovers will be given a rare opportunity to get up close and personal with the Australian writers. Several of the events are being co-hosted with The Bookworm Beijing as part of their international literary festival.

Robert Dessaix and Graham Freudenberg will conduct a conversation with readers on recent literary creations and politics, Alexis Wright will bring Carpentaria to audiences, poet Les Murray will share his work and discuss his life in progress and Alice Pung and Linda Jaivin will talk on writing about Asia from both the inside and out.

"I am very excited to have this opportunity to introduce Chinese readers to some of the best of Australian contemporary literature," Ambassador Raby said.

"Our aim with the Australian Writers' Week is to give current and potential future Chinese decision makers and opinion leaders opportunities to hear the unique and independent voice of Australian writers on a range of issues. We are also keen to raise the profile of Australian writers and their work in China, an important and fast growing literary market," Dr Raby added

This year's event will include talks and university seminars, as well as a two-day publishers forum to exchange ideas and information and maximize future trade opportunities between Australia and China, according to the Australian Embassy in Beijing.

Australian publishers Jane Palfreyman, Ivor Indyk and Andrew Kelly will share their ideas with Chinese and international publishing leaders.

The events are a forerunner of the upcoming Year of Australian Culture in China that will begin in June when a broad, innovative and dynamic program of Australian cultural events from across all fields of arts would be brought to China, according to the embassy.

Penguin Publishers Make Innovations Again

I did a post about Penguin Books a week ago titled "Penguin's U.S. Publishing Unit Is Profitable!...Bucks Industry Trend." Penguin Publishing is indeed a unique company...so much so, I'm doing another post today that reveals a little more history and future of Penguin:

This from Adam Richardson on a blog from Frog Design called Matter/Anti-Matter:



Penguin, the fabled English publisher, is plunging head first into the world of iPad content. Not iPad books, exactly, as these things are not recognizable as books in the normal sense--they are closer to games and full-fledged apps. Even in the case where they are adapting existing print books, there is enough new stuff going on where it diverges significantly from what we normally think of as "book". A Kindle e-book, these are not. Check out the video above for an intriguing peep into what they have planned.

Dan Nosowitz at Fast Company observes:

[P]enguin doesn't even think these things are books. I know that because Penguin intends to sell this digital content in the app store, as individual apps, not in the iBooks bookstore. There's nothing wrong with that--these apps look great, and the prospect of enriching the definition of "book" is exciting--but as companies take advantage of the iPad, the publishing industry is going to have to expand in ways we don't quite understand yet.

This is actually not the first time that Penguin has taken such a radical view of books. In fact, the company was founded 75 years ago on an innovative approach to book publishing and distribution. I talk about it in my own book, as it is a terrific early example of disruptive innovation.

Penguin Books came into existence because of a realization on a train platform. Penguin’s founder, Allen Lane, was returning from a weekend with the famous mystery writer Agatha Christie, and looked in the train station’s book stall for something to read on his journey back to London. Finding only popular magazines and poor-quality, luridly written novels, he wondered why there was not anything for the reader who wanted some good-quality fiction at a low price.

Penguin Books began with a range of biography, crime-writing, and novels, all by contemporary authors and selling for a fifteenth of what hardback books usually sold for. Within a year, Penguin sold three million paperbacks by satisfying a need that traditional book publishers saw as off-limits. They were focused on a more upscale category, and assumed readers were warmly ensconced in a drawing room with plenty of time to spare.

Penguin even experimented with a purpose-built dispensing machine for train stations, wonderfully named the Penguincubator (since penguins lay eggs), which, sadly, seems lost to the mists of time.

Adam Richardson is the director of product strategy at Frog Design, where he guides strategy engagements for Frog's international roster of clients, envisioning and creating new products, consumer electronics, and digital experiences. Adam combines a background in industrial design, interaction design, and sociology, and he spends most of his time on convergent designs that combine hardware, software, service, brand, and retail. He writes and speaks extensively on design, business, culture, and technology, and he runs his own Richardsona blog. Adam is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.

Writers Power and Right Choices

Writers do have a lot of power. They just don't exercise it at times, if at all, due to financial conditions (need for money) and survival in general. But, those who have sufficient means of support other than from writing can exercise this inherent power and take the higher ground in their writing careers more consistently.

Sasha White, a contributor to the Genreality Blog, posted a motivational, but slightly idealistic, segment today on not compromising your ideals and ideas just to get an agent (who may be unsuitable for you) and get published. What drew me to her piece was her marquee quote from one of my favorite performers: Janis Joplin, a very talanted but screwed up singer from the sixties who lived a hard, short life and put all her emotions into her remarkable songs.

“Don’t compromise yourself, you are all you’ve got.” ~ Janis Joplin

Sasha White:
We often talk about being true to yourself in your writing. Hone your own voice, follow your own path, write the story as you see it, not as others tell you it should be. I firmly believe in those things.

I also see plenty of blog posts or articles that put a lot of emphasis on things being all about the story. Hearing things like “As an author all you can really control is the work.” or “The best thing you can do to ensure a successful career is write a great story.” over and over again, but I don’t believe that.

Now get this straight. I am not saying that the story doesn’t matter. What I am saying is that we, as authors, control a lot more than we’re being trained to think we do. We can control more than the story.

I’ve been agent hunting for about a year now, and I’ve queried many many agents. Some passed on my ideas, some wanted to know more. Some told me what to do, and some talked with me about my choices and options and left it to me decide what to do. However, I’ve yet to connect with an agent enough to seriously pursue a business relationship. I’m being very picky, and I know it. I think that’s okay because I know what I want, and I’ve decided if I can’t get what I want then I’m not willing to settle for less. Instead of settling with an agent I don’t believe in my heart will be my final agent just so I can get some proposals out there, I’ve decided to submit them myself, and use a literary lawyer for the contract work if I need to.

A short time ago an author friend of mine emailed and announced a book sale. She was super excited because it was to a new publisher, and it seemed like a great move. Not only was it a sale, (which is always good), but it was one that would get her more exposure and help her move in the direction she wanted to take her career. Then, a couple weeks after her announcement, she walked away from the deal. It wasn’t an easy choice, but it was one she made because she was smart enough to think ahead and know that she’d regret it later if she didn’t make her stand.

Those are just a couple of examples of the power we have. Power that has nothing to do with the story, but everything to do with building a career. Sometimes we concentrate so hard on being writers that we forget that if we want to make a career out of this that we have to be businesspeople too, and that means that we have to make tough choices at times. Sometimes it’s about more than the story. Sometimes it’s about knowing that the choices you make and the path you follow is ultimately your own responsibility.

John's Note To Sasha: Don't hunt for the perfect agent...They don't exist. Get one that will meet most needs for your present project. Good agents DO have extensive contacts and, if your work is really good enough, they will get you much more money and better future rights, residuals and benefits than just a legal type. If one agent doesn't like your idea...keep looking for one who does...If you are totally unsuccessful at this, then, by all means, use alternative publishing sources.

Is Publishing's Distribution Game In for a Big Change?

The Tim O'Reilly fourth annual Tools of Change Conference just finished up 24 Feb 2010. This conference has become a heavy hitter event in publishing in four short years. Much spectacular news concerning new evolutions in publishing came out at the gathering but none more spectacular than O'Reilly, himself, entering the distribution business for ebooks! And in a BIG way.

I really got an insight into the distribution part of the publishing process reading Mike Shatzkin's 4th March post on the Shatzkin Files RE O'Reilly's foray into the distribution business:

One of the most significant pieces of news to come out of Tools of Change is that O’Reilly is going into the distribution business for ebooks. This is indeed, a “tool” of change. It is also a harbinger of times to come that threaten a lot of big companies: major publishers; the big distributors like Perseus, NBN, and IPG; the digital asset distributors including Ingram, LibreDigital, North Point codeMantra, and the fledgling operation at Bookmasters; as well as the digital wholesaling operations at Ingram, Content Reserve, and Baker & Taylor.

The O’Reilly offer is to do whatever conversion is necessary to deliver files to a wide range of ebook channels for free and then to make the ebooks available through that retailing network for a charge of 25% of the dollars received. One prospective client told me that O’Reilly is willing to do a one-year contract.

This both an object lesson and a serious shot across the bow of the legacy giants of the print book business.

We’ve made the point here before that big publishers have a competitive advantage built on print-world capabilities, among them being the ability to get fast printings and reprints; the ability to quickly move books in and out of a distribution center; the ability to ship books according to the receiving requirements of many intermediaries, large and small; and a strong sales network with accounts, mostly brick-and-mortar, that sell printed books. All of these things require pretty massive scale. You couldn’t consider doing them well yourself for a $1 million (in sales) company or a $10 million company and it would be challenging to be competitive doing them with a $50 million company.

The scale required to do effective print book distribution affects both the supply and the demand in the distribution business. It means there are a lot of companies too small to do it well for themselves (creating lots of demand) and very few companies with the scale to do it well (creating a limited supply of providers.) Even so, as the need for scale along with declining overall sales have driven the big publishers deeper and deeper into the distribution business (pushing up the supply of distributors), prices for distribution have fallen steadily for at least the past decade.

Of course, anything that requires expertise benefits from some scale to develop it. And that’s what O’Reilly has in digital distribution. Partly because of the nature of the company’s audience, but largely because they have been aggressive and innovative about exploring every conceivable avenue for ebook distribution and developing a tool set that makes it possible for them to try new channels and opportunities quickly, O’Reilly has more scale, and therefore more expertise, than anybody else in consumer ebook distribution (except, arguably, some publishers in the romance space.) It is quite believeable that they can put ebooks into more channels with more efficiency than anybody else. And that’s an expertise that is largely (but not completely) topic-agnostic.

So we have a real Man Bites Dog story here. In the print world, O’Reilly is distributed by Ingram, which has invested heavily in ebook distribution. But not only does Ingram not get to be the distributor of their client’s ebooks, O’Reilly is issuing what amounts to an open invitation for all other publishers, including their fellow distributees at Ingram, to use them for ebook distribution.

Read more http://alturl.com/bhut

Magazines Have an Advertising Perception Problem, Not a Consumer Problem

Some big players in the consumer magazine publishing industry are kicking off a campaign called Magazines, The Power of Print to remind people AND advertisers that print is still very much in demand despite new media choices.

This blogger thinks it's about time some insightful publishing executives did this very astute "management thing." The print industry is a shrinking medium but not a disappearing medium. And when the hoopla surrounding all the new digital gadgets becomes absorbed fully and all publishing mediums seek their natural levels, like water, print will still be a player and will probably even grow a little more due to new print technology such as e-ink and e-paper.

Anyway, Jason Fell of FOLIO magazine presented an excellent view from Michael Clinton (Hearst Magazine Publishing) on The Power of Print campaign:

Some of the biggest players in consumer magazine publishing kicked up a lot of buzz earlier this week when they announced the launch of “Magazines, The Power of Print.” The seven-month campaign is expected to roll out with the May issues (April 5 for weeklies) of nearly 100 print magazines and their Web sites. The purpose? To remind readers, and especially advertisers, that the print magazine medium is still very much alive, and kicking.

Since posting our news story about the campaign, I’ve heard a number of valid questions asked about it. First off, why now? To some, this sounds like an attempt (a few say a desperate one) to cling to a shrinking medium.

That’s not so, says Hearst Corp. executive vice president and publishing director Michael Clinton. In addition to Hearst, the campagin was formed jointly by Time Inc., Condé Nast, Meredith Corp. and Wenner Media. “It is a misperception that print is a shrinking medium,” Clinton told me this morning. “It is a growing medium—audiences are growing, subscriptions are growing, etc. The magazine business, collectively, has said that we have this incredibly dynamic medium that consumers love and spend money on, and we need to tell that story in a bigger way.

“The magazine world doesn’t have a consumer problem,” he added, “it has an advertising perception problem, among some advertisers.”

It’s hard to argue with that. According to the Publishers Information Bureau, advertising pages were down 25.6 percent in 2009, marking the 10th reported quarterly decline out of 11 since PIB began reporting on a quarterly basis in mid-2007. Shockingly, a mere 18 titles posted ad page gains in 2009.

Another problem some people I spoke with had about the “Power of Print” campaign was its seeming negative take on online/digital. In one ad, featuring Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, the page exclaims: “Magazines embrace you. The Internet is fleeting.” Clinton says the word “fleeting” is being misinterpreted. The campaign, he said, isn’t taking a shot at digital while propping up print.

“We’ll continue to spend millions of dollars on Web sites, and mobile and e-readers. It’s important that our magazine content be everywhere,” said Clinton. “The purpose of this campaign is to punctuate the vibrancy of our print products while we continue to expand on other platforms.”

For instance, he said, retailers “continue to invest millions in e-commerce and Web, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t opening new stores or that physical stores aren’t important to them anymore. It’s the same with magazines. Some people have said that the print product has lost its luster with consumers. The exact opposite is true.

“At the end of the day,” Clinton continued, “we want to listen to where the consumer is. Everyone says the consumer is online, and they are, but they are also fully engaged in print magazines."