Better Books: Part 1

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.