The Kindle Color and the agency model for book publishing

[Tom]

Amazon are expected to market a new Kindle Color this autumn and you can see thousands of news items about the new Kindle (http://www.google.co.uk/search?aq=f&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=kindle+color+#q=kindle+color&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbo=u&tbm=nws&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wn&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=4a35358d77cdd8b0&biw=1920&bih=1042). It will run on a forked version of Android 2.1 and it is expected to sell for $250. This will be the most significant development in the tablet market since the iPad and is likely to be a significant advance in Amazon's revolution of the book publishing business. Amazon favours an agency model (http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/09/amazon-kindle-and-the-power-of-a-book-bargain/244999/) for selling eBooks, which gives them 30% of the revenue as compared with the 50% taken by retailers of dead-tree books. But I can see the idea of agency going further in the book publishing business. Advertising agencies used to charge a fee of about 15% of cost of the advert - much as authors used to get a 15% royalty. But media buyers are disenchanted with this arrangement and often prefer to pay by the hour for what they get. I think this might well happen in the book publishing industry. There could be a future in which authors carry the risk, and enjoy the rewards, while publishers get paid for what they actually do: motherly advice, fatherly advice, copy editing, typesetting, graphic design, promotion etc.
For students of web design and content management there are several interesting aspects to the above scenario (1) skills in CSS, HTML, CMS, graphics etc can easily adapt to the production of eBooks and WYSIWYG app creation (2) the eBook market could develop as a profitable alternative to giving away free content on websites.
Note: 'Among existing tablet owners, the most common use is for reading ebooks and online newspapers, apps, and playing games. Most tablets do not have 3G connectivity, but 43% of owners use them while commuting, and 36% while outdoors.'

[Will]

Question before I start: Something that I can't seem to get information on in the several pieces I've read, from the Telegraph to PC Magazine is whether or not it will be an LCD active screen or not? There seems to be an assumption it will be LCD, but I can't find that information anywhere. A main reason for this is that extended reading on LCD devices has proven to have increased eye strain... I know that several companies had been working with colour eink, and wondered if that would be the case with the new Amazon device.

I think more and more from chatting with certain folk, that the publishing industry is really in for a shake up. I mean serious shake up. More and more authors are already expected to do as much of their own marketing function by their publishers (i.e. posting on forums/contacting blogs for review/book signings/appearances).

Already, there are a number of freelancers performing copy-editing/proofreading/page layout/DTP functions for those self-published authors who take the publishing process seriously, and I think these 'freelance publishers' will start to replace the publishing industry more and more for more established authors. They can even replace the publisher with the motherly advice etc. too.

Publishers seem to be quite greedy too - appreciated they may have overheads, but why should authors carry these via poor royalty payments?

[Tom]

So far as I know this is the only Kindle report from someone who has touched the thing and lived to tell the tale: http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/02/amazon-kindle-tablet/ He says it has a 7" capacitive touch screen and no e-ink. My guesses are (1) they want to differentiate the 7" and 10" models (2) so the 7" will be the market-leader on price and the 10" will go for the feature-rich top of the market, perhaps with e-ink. They say colour e-ink is not far away and they could be waiting for this.
It is a years since I have worked with an in-house designer, copy-editor, proof-reader or similar. They are all out-sourced and therefore an author could go to them direct. Then, as you say, authors are expected to do their own promotion. So apart from taking a big whack of the profits, what does the publisher contribute? So if the publishers fall by the wayside, what happens to literary agents?

[Will]

As I see it the literary agent is like a third-party firewall for quality. As the slush pile becomes kind of obsolete, and more authors are expected to have self-published already to some extent and achieved some small notoriety/fame before they're touched by the houses. In a way, the likes of Amazon reviews/book bloggers could replace the literary agent BUT there're huge trust issues about those services, so possibly the agent will remain, looking out for the next new big/medium/small-sized success story. I think their role will be greatly reduced however.

[Tom]

If I were a literary agent I would be looking to deal with authors, and cut out publishers, by helping with the out-sourcing and retailing arrangements. There could be many more agents than there are publishing firms and this would allow for much more specialist advice to authors eg an agent for Sci-Fi could advise authors on this category. The publishers I have dealt with have all gone out to referees for specialist advice. Some are good and some are bad. None have a stake in the success of the project.

[Will]

I can point only to this (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/15/novelist-ditches-publisher-book-launch) piece in The Guardian today. Polly Courtney has dropped Harper Collins for basically marketing her as chick-lit when she's not. One of the comments made me laugh especially: "This is why I refuse to deal with publishers and agents - they're a pain in the arse. And with self publishing we don't need them any longer."

That might be a fine attitude for an established author with a following, but the fact of the matter is with so many self-pubs shooting out nonsense out there, at present the publisher really does offer a quality control for the public - and in this case even with the inappropriate marketing it could be a case that she'd be better of sticking with them. I'll be curious to see how Polly goes on her own; I do wish her luck, and sympathise with her frustrations, but wonder if a more specialist publisher wouldn't be better for her.

[Tom]

Without being excessively vain, in the areas I write about myself I think I could give better advice to authors than the publishing firms and literary agents who are active in these fields.
Your point about quality is interesting. A specialist in the subject could perhaps specialise in writing introductions to books by new authors. I can think of several instances of books where the introduction, by someone else, is (1) a really useful contribution to the subject (2) a key to understanding the book. Authors of technical etc books often get bogged down in detail and miss the wider significance of what they have done.

[Will]

It's always been common for fellow authors who've been successfully published to write the foreword to a book, or provide blurb for the cover to sell a book. That seems to be the case more and more nowadays, and it's sometimes possible over time to spot clusters of groups of authors based on friendship/publishing companies providing cover-copy for one another. I wonder if with self-publishing this will make that bit of blurb almost worthless as more and more turn to that as means to sell books.

In your area of expertise I can definitely see that of being more worth/benefit. I'd put alot more weight in an academically qualified person such as your self than I would in authors in general, even published in a certain field, writing copy for one another. It's like when S T Joshi writes the foreword to any book on Lovecraft, or horror fiction in general. Most horror folks of salt know the title in question is likely to be pretty comprehensive/appropriate.

As regards the publishing advice, I think I could offer very good information up to a point in the particular area of genre fiction I've good knowledge of. That point being my not knowing the exact position of an author within the market- something that the publisher will have a much better idea of, and be able to navigate the waters accordingly. (I don't mean just Amazon rankings for sales, which are very dubious also etc.)

[Tom]

I was actually thinking more about you than about myself with regard to guiding authors through the maze. But it may be that publishers know more about the fiction/literature, in which they specialise, than they do about a technical/professional subject like mine.
Please excuse a story about this. I once had a job in Cairo and was working with two very experienced authors, both a good deal older than me. We were invited round to a flat where a colleague was living and she had a friend who had just come to visit from England. The friend was very beautiful and had a degree in English literature. She had bought a galibia in the market and, wearing it without a bra, leaned forward to give one of the men a drink. I noticed that it was not her face he was admiring. She said she was working for a publisher and one of the older men turned to me and whispered 'that is just the kind of person the publishing industry does NOT need'. I suspect there has been too much social ability and too few professional skills in the publishing industry.

[Will]

She could've been very good at her job though, no? :)

I've heard many stories from those in the industry of publishers receiving stacks of CVs from literature PhDs for positions that they would view as quite unsuitable for them otherwise (typesetting/DTP without experience). The literature candidates being of the belief they can take any role and move toward an editorial position, whereas the publishing firms really want someone who enjoys/qualified for a fixed role and would prefer to grow in that role, possibly into a more senior role. One firm literally gave up interviewing such candidates, as come interview they'd simply have the same discussion of "I'll do this role for a year or two and hopefully move horizontally into something more editorially aligned..."

[Tom]

I think my friend was both attracted and offended by 'what he saw of her'. But with regard to graduates with a PhD or honours degree in English literature: my advice is to do a postgraduate MA in Web Design and Content Management - if they want a position in the new electronic publishing industry!