The times, they are a changing. E-books, social networking, Print-On-Demand, internet sales, (d)evolving reading habits, screen reading, the publishing crunch . . . just what the hell is going to happen to our once relatively simple world of reading? Bob Stein offers an interesting rough examination of the possible future of books, reading, and writing in the digital age over at if:Book titled ‘A Clean Well-Lighted Place For Books‘ that looks at the changing world of books and reading and how bookstores will need to change to adapt.
In a previous article, upon which this one builds, Stein talked about how social networking is transforming the roles of authors, editors, and publishers into something new:
. . . the author’s traditional commitment to engage with a subject matter on behalf of future readers will shift to a commitment to engage with readers in the context of a subject. Successful publishers, i[sic] posited, will distinguish themselves by their ability to build and nurture vibrant communities of interest, often with authors at the center, but not necessarily always.
In other words, the sort of thing that would once come exclusively under the heading ‘marketing’ is coming more and more to the fore, and is really starting to become indistinguishable from the ‘work’ the writer must do — blogging, social networking, and interacting with fans on a personal (or, at least, virtual) basis are becoming crucial facets of the writer’s overall career — and the same can be said for editors and publishers.
This article asks a further question: “If the book is a place, what is the place for books?” Stein argues that currently, in the ‘end of the age of print,’ even the new wave of publishing options are used conservatively and in an effort to prop up the old norms of publishing. The full potential of new media has not yet been utilized, nor have the potential social aspect of reading in an age of Facebook, Twitter, and the iPhone.
Stein discusses the merits of bookstore browsing versus online buying, much as I have in ‘Books Best Appreciated in Their Natural Habitat,’ though he also foresees an age when technology will be able to replicate the experience of browsing (which prompts me to ask, isn’t it just simpler to have a store?). But a larger, more immediate issue, is the lack of control that publishers currently have over their own brands in the fledgling e-book arena in the face of restrictive Digital Rights Management schemes from Amazon and, soon, Apple.
Amazon, by doing its best to disconnect works from their publishers has nearly completed the deterioration of the value/meaning of publisher brands, a process that started with the rise of the big aggregator bookshops. In order to survive in the networked era, publishers will need to reverse this trend and forge much closer connections to their customers. this[sic] could call for a variety of solutions, including newly conceived publisher-owned, online-meatspace bookstores, or a re-imagining of the Foyles arrangement (now since abandoned) of shelving books according to publisher.
Food for thought; and, in genre fiction at least, and especially in media tie-in series, I think I’ve detected an increase in publisher and imprint branding over the years, with distinctive and uniform formats, larger logos, and more closely themed material being published. And we can already see the beginnings of some publishers taking a shot at creating an online community (which, of course, is also a place where their books can be sold), such as the fantastic Tor.com. The idea of a publisher owned and operated bookshop seems rather novel to me but, as Stein points out, it’s not all that unusual in the history of publishing.
Stein goes on to list the things he sees as crucial to a bookstore’s continued relevancy, none of which is very surprising or revolutionary (not that it should be — the stuff that gets people to come into the bigbox stores with their cafe wifi and scheduled events is well-known at this point). But, as Patrick Brown at the Vroman’s Bookstore Blog points out in his response to Stein’s post, ‘Branding, the Future of Publishing,’ such changes — like banks of monitors in meeting spaces and expensive POD machines — would be beyond the means of many of today’s indie bookstores.
Brown goes on to talk about branding and just what it is that publisher’s do for writers and for books — a response to some of the more rantish notions current among technophiles and frustrated writers alike. From the incalculable improvements made through the editorial process, the considerable distribution muscle that translates into sales, and the not-to-be-discounted credibility lent to any book professionally bound and published, Brown makes points that bear repeating — especially for anyone that seriously thinks a future where all authors are self-publishing entities peddling e-books and PODs through their blogs is some sort of e-topia.
It all comes back to Stein’s most interesting point — about publishers reasserting a stronger brand. Brown goes on to mention some of his favorites, brands he trusts and, not coincidentally, that produce books that look good together on a shelf. For genre fiction in particular I see this as being an extremely viable approach — and I can name several small press publishers and specialist imprints that do just that. I think much of our entertainment and cultural fashions are ‘branded’ in exactly that way and, in an age of ever-increasing particularization, having a strongly identifiable aesthetic that greatly satisfies the wants of a cohesive group (such as readers of Sword & Sorcery, or Romance, or Military History) has to be the smartest way to approach the marketing on an entire list of authors, rather than just one or two superstars — the ones traditionally said to carry the midlist on their backs.
Perhaps the need now is for the publishers to become the new superstars by offering just the sort of cohesive and compelling brand that will get people interested in buying all of their books and not just those of a select few established authors. It’s no secret that branding drives much of our entertainment — just look at Hollywood’s love affair with comic books, which offer a ready-made visual brand — and we can all point to successful authors that have created brands of their own. So, maybe the future will see some of the larger imprints moving further down the path pioneered by the media tie-in and genre speciality lines.
