Comments on: The Disintermediation Moment

By: Marion Gropen

Marion Gropen — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:12:27 +0000

Aggregators (middlemen) are necessary in systems where millions of readers are buying from tens of thousands of publishers. The number of relationships that need to be recorded and addresses maintained, becomes VERY expensive, and the individual sales get really small.

The only way to make it work is to have a very small number of very large middlemen who invest heavily in the systems to make those microtransactions, and all that record-keeping, viable.

That’s dangerous, as we’ve seen with the way Amazon and Google have strong-armed publishers (and through them, authors). Their tactics aren’t a symptom of evil, but they are a symptom of an extreme imbalance in power.

Of course, publishers are used to being between a rock and a hard place, and to large trading partners that use their economic power to extract expensive concessions (Barnes and Noble’s standard shortage deductions, anyone?), but caution is in order in the consolidation of intermediaries and search/recommendation engines (Google and Amazon, being prime examples) as ebooks become more popular.

By: joeflood

joeflood — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:02:28 +0000

Thanks for all the interesting comments. The economics of book publishing, particularly for book stores and publishers seem pretty brutal. It seems that there has to be a better system, one that puts more money in the hands of the people adding value and less in the hands of warehouses and distributors. Maybe e-books is the answer to this problem.

By: Marion Gropen

Marion Gropen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:27:59 +0000

Why does it take a year to get a manuscript out the door? It doesn’t — if you don’t care about sales volume. The time isn’t just for editing (which doesn’t take all that long if you’re only getting a light copyedit, which is all most authors are lucky enough to get these days). It’s not just for design of the text or the cover art. And it’s certainly not for printing. All of that could be done in a month or two.

It’s for the behind-the-scenes marketing. Blurbs take time. The long-lead review journals require 4 and like 6 months before pub date. (No these aren’t the reviews aimed at the general public, but instead the more important ones aimed at the library and bookstore inventory buyers.)

Oh, and why do you need those folks? Have you looked at the stats on how many books are published? More than 400,000 different titles each year in the US alone! That’s many times what the largest bookstore could begin to hold.

Readers won’t want to wade through that many books, let alone the 2 MILLION manuscripts in circulation at any one point.

And where do you think the money goes? Marketing? 2.5% of the retail price. Executives? Nope. (You don’t need to take a vow of chastity to go into this business, but you sure are taking a vow of poverty!)

Here’s a breakdown of sales and costs on my blog. It’s waay too long for a comment, I’m afraid.

By: Steven St. Sure

Steven St. Sure — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:06:42 +0000

Joe, Very good post and right on. I’m working with a group that is helping musicians and writers to get their work to their public or the public with little to no obstacles. We let the artist create, set their own price and get their work on line almost immediately. The artist gets 70% of all sales and is under no obligation. If a publisher wants an exclusive they are free to pull their work. The only cost to the artist is a one time fee of $25.00 for each book or cd.

By: Debbie Stier

Debbie Stier — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:49:22 +0000

Joe, I ask myself this question every day……..I do not disagree with you.