SharedBook: On Demand

Thoughts Sparked by O'Reilly's TOC Conference

The second O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing conference ends today. And it is remarkable to see how much more vibrant this conference was compared to the first last summer. Yes, the first was in CA – close to the tech world that is supplying many of the "tools" but not to the greatest number in the publishing community, for whom these tools are meant. But I also believe that the publishing world has started to embrace the digital era more energetically, recognizing that it will transform the industry in untold ways, and attention needs to be paid.

The fear I have is that, in looking for ready solutions to the unknown, the industry is glomming on to buzzwords like "social networking" in the belief that cracking the social networking aspects for publishing will provide the easy solution. There is no question that social networking is one of the most important phenomena to emerge from the Web world in the last few years. The latest statistics from Technorati suggest that 1.4 blogs are started every second and it’s hard to have a successful site without a strong user-generated component. At SharedBook, we see this phenomenon in the number of stories and photos that are shared among our registrants and the active use of our collaborative functions.

But finding a way to integrate social networking into publishing models is not the panacea that some might be looking for. Its relevance will vary according to the need of the users.

Reading will always be primarily a solitary pursuit. How much one wants to network around content will be stronger for some than others.

At SharedBook, we believe that customization and personalization is as important a path as social networking, if not more so. If the Web has shown anything, it is that consumers want their content when they want it, in the way that they want to consume it.

Maybe it’s on a device, maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s chunked from various places and books and re-bound into a new volume. Maybe it has a digital flyleaf and other personalization; maybe this doesn’t matter. One thing we do know is that the traditional way of accessing and consuming reading material will be one choice among many and that the market will become more fragmented. But if it takes the path of filmed entertainment, it will ultimately be larger in aggregate than where it started.

Leverage The Long Tail with On-demand Publishing

It is already a classic case and one that is probably being taught in e-commerce classes at B-schools around the country. In 1988, a British mountain climber named Joe Simpson wrote a book called Touching the Void, about a climber experiencing a near death episode in the Peruvian Andes. It was a very good book, but only had limited success. Ten years later, Jon Krakauer, a well known journalist for Outside magazine, wrote Into Thin Air, another book about the fatalities and perils of mountain-climbing at Mt. Everest, which became a huge success. All of a sudden Touching the Void started to sell again. Why? Because the power of the Web was wagging its Long Tail. E-commerce sites such as Amazon.com started using recommendation technologies to say, “If you like Into Thin Air then you might like to read Touching the Void." A book that was nearly out of print was now selling again and very well I might add.

But let’s take this one step further, perhaps it’s time for publishers to use on-demand technologies to leverage their deep content and even reissue good material that falls just under the line for a book to stay in print. The aggregate of sales on books that sell only a few copies a month, times several hundred or thousand titles will add up to significant revenue. Coupling recommendation engines with an on-demand publishing capability can be very powerful. Publishing companies can not only satisfy their customers' eclectic tastes but also add profits to their bottom line in a safe and economical way.

What Goes Around

Five years ago, when SharedBook technologists started working on the specs for what is now the SharedBook Reverse Publishing Platform, we believed that our platform would particularly resonate within the trade publishing world. Pre POD, pre-Web 2.0, pre-personalization, we learned the hard way that we were just too pre. So, we turned our attentions to the travel and sports worlds, where we found wonderful customers like Regent Seven Seas and Yosemite National Park and Little League International and AYSO. Then came social networking and clients like Legacy.com and CarePages (launching soon) and a slew of others to come this summer. Having just returned from the O’Reilly TOC Conference in San Jose, I’m excited about the creativity and thinking within the trade publishing world. For most, a book is no longer text within bound covers, but content that can be distributed in a host of new ways. Watch for a SharedBook installation within this world soon.

Reacting to The Street…

So there you have it. I was just talking about where the publishing industry was headed last week and the unfair pressures being brought to bear by Wall Street.

Albeit in the making for some time, yesterday’s news headlines represent an interesting reaction to this very theme.

1)      News Corp has tendered an unsolicited offer to Dow Jones for $5B

2)      Cablevision has agreed to be taken private by the Dolan family for $10.5B in cash

In the case of News Corp, these are coveted assets Murdoch wants to grow his publishing fiefdom. With an oversized bid, they’re hoping the Bancroft family can’t say no to delivering significant shareholder returns in light of the foreseeable continuing declines in the near term. However, if the Bancroft family does say no, it will certainly bring a whole new round of scrutiny to the dual class stock structure. Not a good thing !

In the Dolans' case, I think the message is clear: “Leave us alone. We built this company and know how to grow it.” All in all, case two is a good storyline. The stockholders are happy and Cablevision will continue to grow as a private entity under the Dolans' management.

I wish the other publishing dynasties would take some notes from the Dolans' playbook and consider an LBO of sorts so they can sustain themselves without the meddlers from Wall Street sticking their noses in.

If you want to be a steward of a public trust at all costs, you better be prepared to walk the walk.