Our Monday installment of Better Books will be published on Tuesday this week.

I’m out of town and my computer does not want to play nicely with the wireless here.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Compact florescent light bulbs use less energy and last longer than standard incandescent bulbs. Great but they are a big problem when we do throw them out.

Florescent bulbs are hazardous waste and need to be dealt with appropriately. Very few facilities exist to do this and yet we’re now all on the band wagon with florescent bulbs.

Why don’t we just make incandescent bulbs that last longer? We know from the book Made to Break that this is possible. That during times of war we did make better bulbs. Why not now? Where’s our War on Waste.

Hello culture of waste. Let’s make good decisions, not half-hearted ones in the name of environmentalism.

Look up recycling florescent bulbs.

Dan Wagstaff, publicist extraordinaire over at the Raincoast blog, and I have been having an ongoing conversation about books and technology. In this series, Better Books, we’re looking at the book publishing industry’s challenges, successes and promises from a technology perspective.

Here’s what you missed:
Introduction
Part 1

New this week:

Question 2
There have been comparisons between the music industry and the book industry,- diminishing placement, payment for placement, digitalization of content — in your opinion is this an accurate assessment?

I say sure. But I also say compare apples to apples. The music industry has seen much more dramatic change in the last 100 years than book publishing. Cory Doctorow talks about the music wars and how each stage of technical advancement had some type of cannibalizing effect on the old format. (I’m paraphrasing and likely missing a lot of steps here. Old Doctorow article with some of these thoughts.)

He rightly points out that the music industry was mainly sheet-music publishers.
Hiring a live pianist gave way to the piano roll.

Quote: From Doctorow: The player piano was a digital recording and playback system. Piano-roll companies bought sheet music and ripped the notes printed on it into 0s and 1s on a long roll of computer tape, which they sold by the thousands — the hundreds of thousands — the millions. They did this without a penny’s compensation to the publishers. They were digital music pirates. Arrrr!

Composers and music publishers were in an uproar, and this repeats every 10 or 15 years (the uproar part, but also the technology shifts).

– Records, 8-track, tape, cd, mp3
– Live music, sheet music, piano roll, radio, iTunes

The motion picture industry is a better comparison to the music industry: vaudeville theatre to theatre house to home movie to BitTorrent.

With books — we have books. I know there are ebooks, there are digital downloads. But for whatever reason we are still cutting down trees, making paper and buying bound formats instead of digital books.

So can we compare the music industry to the book publishing industry. Sure, but there are complications and historical parallels and divergences. We should be careful about only comparing the apple bits to the apple bits. (Subtle plug for Mac and bits and bytes.)

I think Dan agrees with me. I should have let him go first.

Quote: The similarities between the music industry and the book industry tend to be overstated. Sure, there are some superficial similarities – they are both creative industries right? But I’m sure part of the reason this has become a popular notion is that HMV owns Waterstones bookstores in the UK. Admittedly HMV often behave as if there is no difference between music and books, but it’s not exactly working out for them and in general I kind of think it is a slightly sloppy comparison.

Dan’s British. He says things like sloppy and rubbish.

There are far smarter people who’ve compared music and books. I’m going to go read them and we’ll be back next week with more about download formats for books. I’ll make slightly sloppy references to other smart people and Dan will say smart things. You’ll love it. Please come back.

Happy BC Book and Magazine Week.

I’ve been doing some work this week for Whitecap Books and author Jamie Young on his dog food cookbook Grrrrowlicious Food for Hungry Dogs.

I was interested in the project because Jamie has a great website, www.GRRRR.com.au, the book looks amazing, and the recipes have me drooling.

What’s been surprising to me is people’s reactions to the pet food recall. I think every pet owner has taken notice. Some are taking action by switching up their pets’ food to different brands. And others are making full-scale changes, in particular by making their own pet food.

The challenge, of course, is figuring out what your dog or cat should or should not eat, and figuring out how to create balanced meals that are easy and affordable.

This is where I have been loving Jamie’s book. The recipes are absolutely delicious (I have wondered about making the recipes for myself–that should give you a clear indication of the “easy” and “affordable” factor):

Homemade Dog Food Recipes from Grrrrowlicious

– Rabbit stew
– Cooked sardines
– Chicken meatballs
– Fried rice
– Bacon and cheese cookies — PDF sample recipe

I recommend checking out Jamie Young’s website for sample recipes and videos from GRRRR TV, his online dog food cooking show. You can also peak inside the book.

Another article that caught my eye was in the New York Times, “Home Cooking for Pets Is Suddenly Not So Odd”

Quote: So it is no surprise, perhaps, that cookbooks for dogs and cats are enjoying an increase in sales.

According to Nielsen BookScan, for the week that ended March 25, after Menu Foods recalled more than 60 million cans of pet food packaged under numerous name brands and store brands, “The Good Food Cookbook for Dogs” sold 194 copies, compared with 42 the previous week. Other books with even more modest sales totals also showed sharp increases over the previous week: “Real Food for Dogs” sold 66 copies, up from 23, for example, and “Home-Prepared Dog and Cat Diet” sold 34, up from 8.

The NY Times article also offers some other dog food cookbook recommendations.

If you want to know more about Grrrrowlicious Food for Hungry Dogs, check out:
* the website
* recent press release about the book

A many-part series, “Better Books” looks at the book publishing industry’s challenges, successes and promises from a technology perspective.

Question 1

The Canadian book publishing market faces particular challenges:

What are some of the innovative ways for book publishers to meet these challenges?

Tough question. I’m making Dan answer that.

Quote: Wow. Where to start?

Technology does provide a lot of opportunities for publishers,- we always talk about Google Books and online retailers. Then there’s all that web 2.0 + wizardry that can help publishers connect to readers. BookNet gives them all sorts of sales numbers that weren’t available before… But you’re far more informed about this stuff than me.

Dan attempts to cop out of answering the question. No such luck.

Quote: In any case, I think the tech innovations are only going to work if the book industry does everything else better than it does already. I mean they don’t really address the underlying problems, you know?

Technology is only part of the solution,- it’s great and all, but it’s like thinking we can save the planet with a few wind turbines when it’s our everyday behaviour that needs to change! We all get over-excited about technology (that we don’t really understand because we’re all Arts majors) when actually we should be worrying about the way we do business,

Wait, I’m an Arts major!

I think Dan is suggesting that lots of people talk the talk but have never seen the walk, don’t understand the walk, and in some cases don’t even want to walk.

This is our collective demand for better books. Dan’s right that technology is a part solution. The technology is about changes to behaviour — publishers’ ability to track sales, to supply electronic data to retailers, to cut costs by creating digital assets instead of physical assets– but it’s not the be-all and end-all problem solver.

We still have a saturated book market. Technology can help us filter through the crap to find what we want, but maybe we just need less books, but also better books.

Technology doesn’t make Canadian geography any different. We still live in a country who’s commercial centres are spread apart. Shipping a book from Ontario to BC takes time. Vancouver to Halifax by truck–technology can’t really help you. It can help tell you where between those two points your package was last seen.

Diminishing in-store placement is still a problem. Stores’ websites don’t really mimic the front-of-store table in the same way. You can email me about new books. I can see them on the home page. I can see that people who liked x also liked y. But it’s not the same as walking into a store and seeing a huge stack of books. Glossy covers. Textures. Other people picking up books that catch our eye.

And then there’s diminishing book coverage in traditional media channels. Does it help that there are so many book blogs. Sure. But do people still look to mass media and bestseller lists. Yes, lots of people do.

But back to that wise crack about Arts majors. The best thing about Arts majors is our ability to think critically. Dan doesn’t want to sound like a “know-it-all-smartass-smarty-pants,” but, secretly, I assure you he is.

Quote: I’m a publicist not a CEO for heaven’s sake, I’m very low on the food chain, but for me a lot of the challenges come from our inability to get the basic stuff right… We’d rather pin unrealistic hopes on the internet and moan about all stuff we can’t change instead.

So what are those unrealistic hopes?

That with the right email campaign, or website or copy on Amazon, we can connect niche books to potential readers. The challenge Dan and I often talk about is that the resource allocations are not always spot-on and sometimes despite the best-laid plans, a book is just crap. Technology or a fine PR campaign can’t solve that problem.

We’re aiming for results not effort.

We want better books.

Dan and I will explore what better books means in upcoming posts.

Happy BC Book and Mag Week.

In the spirit of BC Book and Magazine Week, I have a books and technology series for you.

I’m not sure if this is the right name for it, but I’m calling it “Better Books”. Despite the industry’s many challenges, the greatest is to produce better books. Better in terms of quality, but also in terms of distribution, format, discoverability. Better … define it how you wish.

My friend Dan and I are often debating the merits and demerits of certain book campaigns, the industry’s interest in technology and publishers’ participation on the “interweb”. For the next couple of weeks you’ll see our thoughts on book publishers’ challenges, ebooks, digital content, promotional opportunities and similarities to other cultural industries.

This post will be updated with links to the rest of the series. We start on Monday.

BC Book and Magazine Week is coming up!

If you’re interested in BC Books and Magazines then this is the the blog for you: www.bcbookandmagazineweek.com

The blog rocks. Great interesting content about what’s going on during BC Book and Mag week. Lots of events. Lots of photos. Lots of coolness.

Go publishing!

Find out about:
* The Main Street Shuffle
* The North Shore Writers Festival
* BC Book Prizes Soire

Here is a PDF of events for BC Book and Mag week: bc-book-events.pdf

I definitely recommend coming to The BC Book Prizes Soire

Saturday, April 21
7:00 pm, 9:00 pm
The Lookout at Harbour Centre, 555 West Hastings Street, Vancouver
Free

Live music by Ron Johnston. Tasty treats from Salt Tasting Room. Prize giveaways. A silent auction. A spectacular view.

Mix and mingle with the publishing and writing community, and be the first to learn who wins the fourth annual Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence.

Here’s the website for details.

James and I are cat-sitting Aimee the Great. She’s very sweet but also very clever. In 5 days she has managed to quietly take over our home. Those soft purrs and head butts have turned into a full-scale claiming of all things. I’m thankful that cats are not like dogs, they don’t pee on things to claim them. Cats, however, do their own thing. The rub.

Every corner, book edge, plant pot, sofa pillow, wall, knee, and ankle have been rubbed and re-rubbed. She’s quite assertively suggesting that we are now hers.

There’s such a fine line between master and slave.