The future of publishing and writing

9 October 2013 by Admin in Book publishing

We loved this Publishing Perspectives article – the view from Germany on the future of publishing and indeed writing in general. Happily, the ebook market there isn’t standing still. Although ebook reader adoption has been slower to take off in continental Europe (mainly because Amazon – reckoned to be 70+% of the market – have concentrated on the bigger global picture), publishers and developers are looking for new ways to penetrate the market. The time is ripe for innovation.

Henrik Berggren runs Readmill, a Berlin-based social reading start-up. It’s leading the way in a ‘networked reading’ revolution by enabling users to identify and share particular points of interest in the text (OK, Kindle have offered this functionality for years), but Readmill takes the idea a step further. Users can annotate their ebooks on their smartphones and open up discussions with other readers (Readmill developers thought that tablets would become the number one digital reading device, but it was soon apparent that more readers were reading on smartphones). It’s social networking for ebooks but, unlike sites like the Amazon-owned Goodreads, it’s social networking within ebooks.

The proliferation of various reading devices demonstrates their incredible reach and commercial viability (in the UK, despite the dominance of Amazon, multiple manufacturers offer e-readers stocked by well known, big-brand stores like Tesco, Waterstone’s, WH-Smith and Blackwell’s). Now in huge demand, not only e-readers but also smartphones and tablets make ebooks instantly accessible; readers the world over can download their favourite books whenever and wherever they want, for less than a mass market paperback.

So, the beauty of the ebook lies in its adaptability, ease of use, and its potential for enhanced reader experiences. But the real sweetener is that anybody can publish one; now, an aspiring author can get his work out in to the marketplace and, if successful, can secure an agent or even a traditional publishing deal. But it’s no longer necessary for him to submit his work to snowed-under agents and face the fairly inevitable rejection letter (if his submission gets acknowledged at all). The digital revolution without doubt facilitates the bypassing of traditional gatekeepers (agents, publishers and ultimately booksellers) to disseminate new writing.

But we’d add a caveat here. We’re a little concerned by the attitudes of those who favour freedom and abundance over quality and editorial control – those who, like Dr Bublitz of Ullstein Verlag, are opposed to a “culture of perfection”. What publishers are good at is taking manuscripts and editing them and proofing them properly. That is a skill in itself and an expensive service. We at Infinite Ideas have met with many self-published authors whose books are riddled with errors. A culture of perfection in our view is a good thing if it means poorly written and edited self-published books don’t become the norm.

We liked very much what Bobbie Johnson, from Matter, had to say. Matter was created to release quality pieces of investigative journalism which had been overlooked by mainstream presses. Each month they release a piece of long-form nonfiction, which is sent to subscribers and available to buy on the Matter.

Johnson states that while a lot of digital ventures count on quantity and multimedia to gain a following, Matter focuses on quality. Using metrics to analyze how readers interact with the text, they survey subscribers to find out what is most relevant to them, and even allow select donors to be “co-pilots” of writing projects, which allows them to give input and participate in a given assignment as it is being researched and written. For instance, by surveying readers they were able to find out that there was a big demand for audio books, so now Matter releases an audio book version of every piece it publishes, which is included in the $1 price of subscription.

The world of digital content is flourishing. Dominance by large corporations like Amazon and Google is forcing publishers and developers to innovate and experiment with new ways to experience reading. The competitive marketplace means a consumer can choose between hundreds of devices and millions of ebooks, and buy them at whichever store she chooses. She can even publish her own book if she feels so inclined. But it doesn’t matter which device she uses, or which store she buys it from, if the ebooks she’s reading are terrible. On a most basic level, it’s all about content, and Matter is a great example of how innovative small-scale publishers can provide a niche audience with the best possible content in the formats they want.

Which frankly sounds like the way to go to us. In a market clogged with products of the metaphorical meat grinder, quality content will win out.