Over half a year ago, Macmillan CEO John Sargent said the publishing industry is “...at the stage of the music industry just before file-sharing,”
I couldn't agree more. The question is: what are they doing about it?
In the Publisher's Weekly article that summarized the panel from which I took the quote, one gets the impression they're unaware of which direction to head. A clear example of this uncertainty is how (according to the article), Mr. Sargent didn't see the value in "subscription" or "ongoing serviceable customer relationships."
Really? Because books are considered one-off sales? If his theory for the future were true, then Audible.com should not be a financial success. They're a subscription based digital-format book company. Are they loosing money? If so, why did Amazon buy 87% of it's share in mid 2009?
Here's another interesting statement from that article: Sargent apparently thinks books are different because they require a significant investment of time and attention from the consumer. (Unlike a magazine or music).
Another shocking statement, indeed.
Here's my rebuttal: Computer Games require anywhere from 10 to 100's of investment hours by the consumer. One could easily say they require far more time (per game) than a novel. World of Warcraft, for example. Before, games were one-off sales. Nowadays, large computer game success stories are now... subscription based.
The Publishing Industry must realize they cannot think like they have in the past 100 years. The consumer will leave them behind if they do. Gary Hoenig, general manager and editorial director of ESPN Publishing, had it right; they will end up like GM if they aren't careful.
6 years ago
I think books are no more one-offs than single songs on albums. Sure they are often bought separately but one goes back for the next one by that author (I’m desperately waiting for Amy Tan’s, Gish Jens’, Sue Monk Kidd’s, Barbara Kingsolver’s, and Jamie Fords’ next books.) now. ALSO readers go back for the same type of book (filters like Amazon’s steer you to “if you liked this, you’ll like this”…books and I imagine they are usually pretty accurate. So buying a series of same-author or same genre(type) books is like serialization if you look at it with a wider lens than Mr. Sargent.
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