Discrimination in the Publishing Industry? You Bet!

Discrimination has always existed. In the past, to heavy degrees; currently, to a little less than heavy degrees and in the future, hopefully, to much lighter degrees.

What am I saying here? That discrimination will never go away? I guess I am. Because as soon as one 'type' of discrimination goes away (actually becomes minimal - I don't think they will ever go away completely), another 'type' will take its place. The dark side of human nature will see to that.

Discrimination is something we all have to fight against constantly to improve our world as well as ourselves. Sort of like a built-in sharpening stone we have to hone ourselves against everyday to stay sharper (more intelligent and humane).  

Now, there are all types of discrimination, but we will be addressing racial discrimination tonight - in the publishing industry.

Just look on Amazon - you will find over two million books, both legacy and self-published. Of these, only about 15,000 are from African American authors. And don't OVERSIMPLIFY and say 'African Americans' just don't read and write as much!

We are going to get into that with tonight's source article written by Mercy Pilkington on Good E reader.com:


Does the Publishing Industry Discriminate?

A quick search of the Amazon Kindle store reveals over two million titles, both legacy and self-published. But a search for books tagged “African American” reveals only slightly more than 15,000 titles combined. Add to the lack of dedicated reading material, stores that focus on demographic-specific titles are facing hardship as well.

An article by Judith Rosen for Publisher’s Weekly this week indicates that African American bookstores are suffering, even during this month that is so typically a high point for sales due to the attention given the Black History Month. According to the article, the number of black bookstores who were members of the American Booksellers Association has resulted in more than 200 store closings in the last twelve years alone, down to 100 member stores from over 300 in 2002.

Rosen pointed to certain economic factors, such as the destruction of major metro neighborhoods that at one time played host to bookstores who stocked black literature. That has been compounded by the loss of platforms like key magazines that at one time promoted black authors’ titles.

But while it is the physical bookstores that are suffering, what is the correlation between that and the unequally low number of titles available on Kindle? Are publishers and self-published authors simply not writing and releasing books that speak to a specific market of readers? And if not, why not?

One source in the article quite openly stated that black consumers simply don’t read as much, but that is too easy a statement to oversimplify, one that could quite easily be the result of a chicken-and-egg situation. Do publishers not produce as many African American titles because they, too, believe this? Or is the lack of titles that speak to the consumer the reason for this generalization?

Recent news from a number of successful authors has made it quite obvious that self-publishing is the great equalizer in the book industry, one that is presumably open to authors from all walks of life. During this month of historical awareness, hopefully more concerted efforts will be made to open the doors of self-publishing to a far underserved group of readers.

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Can PubSoft Be Helpful in Pulling Traditional Publishing Into the Digital Age?

So much has changed in the publishing industry almost at mach speed --- And yet, so much has remained the same, especially in traditional publishing (TP).

TP wants its old business model (print) to remain as much the same as possible, especially now since the majority of revenue (though declining) still comes from that model. That being said, TP also realizes, more and more, that the tipping point is fast approaching when most revenues will result from digital products; as such, they are fervently searching for economical and efficient ways to adapt and transition to digital.

Enter PubSoft - 'Pubsoft is publishing software for the next generation of great publishers. The strength of the system is in the intuitive and easy-to-use administrative portals that allow publishers and authors control over their marketing and platform building activities. Publishers can manage author accounts, upload ebooks, sell direct to customers and distribute royalties. The system can be used to automate daily administrative tasks, provide a direct to consumer sales opportunity that builds a strong, engaged reader following, and provide a two-way marketing and sales environment for authors.'

This purported publishing solution software appears to have a lot to offer to both major houses with several imprints, down to a handful-of-titles independent publisher.

More details at Good-E-Reader by Mercy Pilkington:

PubSoft’s New Platform Stands to Revolutionize the Publishing Industry

While so much about publishing has changed in just the last few years, one of the unfortunate truths about publishing is that so much has not changed. The traditional publishing model, as most authors, readers, and booksellers know it, has not changed much in the last few hundred years, in fact. With the advent of digital publishing, self-publishing, and ebook-0nly and digital-first publishing, traditional models are looking for ways to keep up with the changes coming at them.

PubSoft, a new platform aimed at helping publishers brand themselves and reach out to a category of consumer called “influencer readers,” released some news today about what it has to offer to a wide variety of publishers, from major houses with several imprints, down to a handful-of-titles independent publisher.

“Pubsoft’s unique digital publishing engine is a game-changer in the publishing sector. With Pubsoft, publishers can quickly and easily create and manage a custom ebook store to enable direct-to-consumer ebook sales, including branded mobile publishing for iPad devices. The Pubsoft platform gives publishers the power to engage and manage authors with SEO-optimized author and book landing pages, social media marketing integration, distribution capabilities across multiple channels and online content sampling and multiple point of purchase options.

“The platform streamlines backend workflow tasks, automating online marketing functions and administrative work and allowing publishers to capture and analyze author, reader and revenue data. Pubsoft delivers a dashboard that gives publishers the power to capture metadata and drill down into book, author and reader levels for insights that can supercharge marketing campaigns, inform key business decisions and drive broader product strategy.”

Good e-Reader spoke with Kbuuk and PubSoft’s Dougal Cameron about what this platform has to offer everyone involved in the life of a book.

article continues

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New Publishing Model Gives Authors Even More Control

New Interface
business solution

Publishing is mutating again.

“You don’t have to choose between the tyranny of traditional and the anarchy of self-publishing..." --- Tim Sanders, bestselling author,  former Yahoo! executive and founder of Net Minds.

A brand new pub model has hit the beach! --- A sure sign that energy and mojo are present and accounted for and electrifying self-publishing into new directions ---empowering authors (as well as other publishing professionals) and shortening the timeline to success and bestseller status.

A superlative review by yours truly. Maybe a little too enthusiastic, but, this new publishing model does hold some promise --- especially in allowing authors, editors, book designers, marketers, etc., to negotiate forming teams, creating relationships, sharing royalties and working much like 'start ups'. 

Mercy Pilkington gathered some details from the TOC conference this week and spilled the beans in The Good E Reader for us:

Net Minds Looks at Revitalizing Self-Publishing

There’s no doubt that the face of the publishing industry is changing, and quite possibly that it has changed more in the last five years than over the entire course of its history. As digital publishing and self-publishing became more the norm rather than an arena relegated to tech geeks or authors who couldn’t find publishing deals, the industry in every facet has had to race to keep up.


But just when the industry finally seemed to settle into a comfortable relationship between traditional print publishing and self- and digital publishing, a whole new model has come along, turning it on its head once more. Net Minds, founded by bestselling author and former Yahoo! executive Tim Sanders, has created a whole new model in which authors have even more control over the process by negotiating for some of the best talent in the book publishing industry to help bring their creations to market.

“We empower authors to meet publishing professionals, create relationships, share royalties, and build great teams that run like start ups,” explained Sanders in an interview with GoodEReader at Tools of Change this week. “Everybody has an incentive beyond the fee and is highly engaged and entrepreneurial with their work.”

Sanders took the concept of solving a problem with a minimum viable model in order to achieve the greatest reach with the least amount of inefficiency, a problem that is prevalent in the publishing industry, especially from the first very stage of acquiring content. This model will have its first real test when Net Minds releases its first title next month, Finding the Next Steve Jobs, by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell.
“The window for success has shortened dramatically,” Sanders said. “”It impacted the ability for me to be a bestseller.”

The process for Net Minds to build a joint venture mission and to work on a model more along the lines of how films are optioned and produced, which allows those involved in the project to earn a portion of their standard fee up front along with a portion of royalties for the life of the project.

“You don’t have to choose between the tyranny of traditional and the anarchy of self-publishing. In the future, they won’t even call it traditional versus self, they’ll call it corporate versus alternative. Our vision is that the author doesn’t have to choose between quality and freedom.”

Read and learn more

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