Disqus - Latest Comments for MikeShatzkin

Re: Checking facts with players who are still in the game

Mike Shatzkin — Thu, 09 May 2024 17:36:35 -0000

All credit for that to Michael Castleman. Read his book. He's also a really good writer.

Re: Bindery Books: A Way to Restructure the Book Publishing Model

Mike Shatzkin — Sat, 05 Aug 2023 15:34:56 -0000

Nice to have that validation from somebody active both with publishers and independently. Thanks for checking in.

Re: The problem with bookstores is the problem for bookstores

Mike Shatzkin — Sat, 17 Jun 2023 22:09:06 -0000

Ironic about Borders and not using the ISBNs. Back in the 80s, B. Dalton (which became part of B&N) had to sticker everything with their own SKU number while Walden adapted to using the ISBN at the cash register. None of what you say is wrong. And it could well explain why Borders went down while Barnes & Noble still struggles on. If they hadn't been so dumb, maybe B&N would have gone first. Or maybe the two would have had a forced merger. The reality of bookstores inherent market and appeal still were the major factors, in my opinion.

Re: Running a big publishing house is not as much fun as it used to be

Mike Shatzkin — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 14:21:33 -0000

Amazon is definitely the 800 pound gorilla of book retailing. As buying online becomes the default for most people, buying from Amazon becomes the default for buying online. Their bullying is limited by their mission of being customer-centric. And, of course, even if they push a publisher so hard that the publisher doesn't sell directly to them anymore, Amazon has the choice of going to the other 800 pound gorilla, Ingram. In fact, Ingram might be Amazon's most significant competitor, even though they are possibly Amazon's most important supplier. Ingram is turning Wal-Mart and Target into Amazon competitors; they ALSO have any book you might want to buy because of Ingram. Amazon has some exclusives in the self-publishing world because they are way more than half the sales and some selfs don't even set up with Ingram in addition to get the rest (although they all should.) The critics and bestseller lists you mention in your second graf are really just for the very top of the market, perhaps affecting ten thousand of a million books issued each year. The problem for the big publishers is that the share of the total captured by those top of the market books is almost certainly going down and will almost certainly continue to.

Re: What the ruling against the PRH-S&S merger means for the publishing business

Mike Shatzkin — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 11:35:09 -0000

I haven't done the research and don't really know the stats on self-published non-fiction versus self-published fiction. But I'd be very surprised if there weren't a lot of both. No matter what the book is, there is both ore book and more non-book competition for the eyeballs than there ever was before. By a lot. Print-on-demand is a big driver of the competition. Very few books published today will ever be "unavailable". which was a pretty routine fate for books in years past after a couple of years.

Re: “Automated ebook marketing by Open Road; can anybody else do it?”

Mike Shatzkin — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 12:22:43 -0000

I get it, but you're still affected. Word-of-mouth discussing a book works just as well no matter in what format the speaker or the listener want to read it in. The Open Road digital marketing makes print books sell too.

Re: Ruth Cavin, great editor and world’s nicest person, gone at 92

Mike Shatzkin — Sat, 30 Apr 2022 14:05:55 -0000

Ruth arrived late to the specialty of mysteries but she was very good at it. As she was at everything she set out to do.

Re: Every publishing strategy should start with Amazon and Ingram

Mike Shatzkin — Sun, 02 Jan 2022 11:32:40 -0000

The number of people reading you, reading me, or attempting to try this who might sell 10,000 books -- or even ONE thousand books -- is a small minority of the total. You make "selling online" sound like any way is as good as any other way. It isn't. Ingram has the customers. ALL the customers. All you have to do is "convert them". ANY other method is simply not going to harvest nearly as many sales as Ingram would. It's really simple. Do both. And you'll find you are selling a LOT more through Ingram. Other advice. Don't print ten thousand for inventory. Or even one thousand. Because what you don't sell can wipe out profits pretty fast.

Re: Every publishing strategy should start with Amazon and Ingram

Mike Shatzkin — Sun, 02 Jan 2022 11:05:51 -0000

Well, Earl, you can actually do BOTH. And if you do both, you'll find you will sell a lot more through Ingram, because everybody in the world does business with them. And the books you printed cheaper in China are only more profitable IF YOU SELL THEM. Ingram's POD requires no risky upfront investment in inventory. This is an apples and oranges comparison and you can't just look at the margins to make a sensible evaluation.

Re: Every publishing strategy should start with Amazon and Ingram

Mike Shatzkin — Sun, 02 Jan 2022 11:04:21 -0000

Don't really know enough to advise you on that. Sorry.

Re: Every publishing strategy should start with Amazon and Ingram

Mike Shatzkin — Thu, 04 Nov 2021 09:23:42 -0000

That's distressing. Of course, Ingram has become much more critical during the pandemic as the normal book supply chain has been crippled. I think what you're saying here is that they are overwhelmed. One can only hope that as the pandemic recedes, the pressure will reduce and more normal service levels will resume.

Re: Every publishing strategy should start with Amazon and Ingram

Mike Shatzkin — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 15:03:35 -0000

Both Amazon and Ingram have global reach. I can't speak for every single corner of the globe, but anyplace either company doesn't penetrate is an exception.

Re: Every publishing strategy should start with Amazon and Ingram

Mike Shatzkin — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 21:19:04 -0000

And thank you for saying so!

Re: Every publishing strategy should start with Amazon and Ingram

Mike Shatzkin — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 13:59:41 -0000

I think you're right about Smashwords. Let's call them an "established upstart"! Legible is just getting started. You're still early if you tune in on them. They're still getting themselves ready for Prime Time.

Re: Every publishing strategy should start with Amazon and Ingram

Mike Shatzkin — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 12:06:10 -0000

I wish I knew the field of consultants and freelancers in this area well enough to make a recommendation for you, but I don't. I agree that the amount to learn and know is daunting. Thanks for the validation of the idea in this piece based on your own experience.

Re: “Enterprise self-publishing” is coming: the third great disruption of book publishing since the 1990s

Mike Shatzkin — Tue, 13 Jul 2021 14:55:51 -0000

The way I see it, you have a whole new pool of people who need your expertise. You would probably have to tweak your offering to suit many of them, but your knowledge and skills are now valuable to a whole bunch of new customers who might be much better resourced than indie authors.

Re: “Enterprise self-publishing” is coming: the third great disruption of book publishing since the 1990s

Mike Shatzkin — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 20:34:55 -0000

Sorry my thoughts don't deliver you much value. I think the solution is obvious. Don't read me anymore and don't comment here anymore. Then we'll both win.

Re: “Enterprise self-publishing” is coming: the third great disruption of book publishing since the 1990s

Mike Shatzkin — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 13:39:37 -0000

Thanks for the compliment, but I'm thinking about changing the label. I think "self-publishing" is going to lose its meaning when the enterprises who do it are providing the lion's share of the books, which is what I expect 5 or 10 years from now. I've been working on the next piece on this and have been changing it to "enterprise-driven book publishing". Which will distinguish it both from "commercial book publishing" and from publishing on the Web but not delivering as a book...Maybe I'm thinking too hard.

Re: “Enterprise self-publishing” is coming: the third great disruption of book publishing since the 1990s

Mike Shatzkin — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 17:59:24 -0000

I've been thinking about it. It's complicated. More cogitation is called for. But I'll do it.

Re: “Enterprise self-publishing” is coming: the third great disruption of book publishing since the 1990s

Mike Shatzkin — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 10:12:17 -0000

That's interesting. How are people using that index?

Re: “Enterprise self-publishing” is coming: the third great disruption of book publishing since the 1990s

Mike Shatzkin — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 10:11:37 -0000

The short wise-ass answer is "by selling, when it becomes clear..." But, of course, it will be more complicated than that. I'm noodling the follow-up piece which is, indeed, the "then what..." of it all.

Re: “Enterprise self-publishing” is coming: the third great disruption of book publishing since the 1990s

Mike Shatzkin — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 19:45:10 -0000

Right. You're part of the infrastructure that fosters the growth.

Re: “Enterprise self-publishing” is coming: the third great disruption of book publishing since the 1990s

Mike Shatzkin — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 16:06:54 -0000

Thanks for that confirmation. But I think the flood of new entrants to this game over the next two or three years will put the "it is here now" statement into a different context...

Re: Why Dad’s book had a disclaimer from the publisher

Mike Shatzkin — Fri, 14 May 2021 18:17:16 -0000

I certainly didn't know him well, but I met your father more than once. Our fathers really liked each other. My dad got in trouble when he hired the second Black employee at Doubleday. I can't recall whether your dad was the first or the second. But after the second, apparently somebody said "that's enough, Len." Those were different times...Our fathers were pioneers.

Re: “The Family Business” is Ingram: the global infrastructure for the book industry

Mike Shatzkin — Thu, 29 Apr 2021 19:55:22 -0000

Thanks for the first person testimonial to those facts. I don't think the "if not for Ingram, there would have been no Amazon" proposition is sufficiently appreciated.