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“Killing Our Culture”…and not a moment too soon

Category: Bookselling, Digital Publishing, E-commerce, Publishing

Hue and cry everywhere today as Michiko Kakutani positively reviews Andrew Keen’s book "The Cult of the Amateur". Taking on the concept of the wisdom of the crowd, Keen eviscerates it with the likes of Britney Spears, the irrational exuberance of the 1990s, and the war in Iraq.

But framing your argument as the chatter of the amateurs vs. the considered opinions of "experts" is just silly. It’s not a question of the rabble on MySpace or YouTube out-talking the "qualified" commentator. If that commentator is truly qualified, he’ll get listened to. Or rediscovered. Meanwhile, that means the average person isn’t allowed to talk? Even if he’s as dumb as a stump – he’s somehow got no right to speak his mind? It’s bad for society for everyone to have a platform to speak?

That doesn’t sit right with me.

Web 2.0 technologies are transformative – and still figuring themselves out, and of course there’ll be the elitists in the castle, throwing the occasional pot of boiling oil over the ramparts while bemoaning that things aren’t what they used to be. Kakutani parses:

Mr. Keen argues that the democratized Web’s penchant for mash-ups, remixes and cut-and-paste jobs threaten not just copyright laws but also the very ideas of authorship and intellectual property. He observes that as advertising dollars migrate from newspapers, magazines and television news to the Web, organizations with the expertise and resources to finance investigative and foreign reporting face more and more business challenges. And he suggests that as CD sales fall (in the face of digital piracy and single-song downloads) and the music business becomes increasingly embattled, new artists will discover that Internet fame does not translate into the sort of sales or worldwide recognition enjoyed by earlier generations of musicians.

And all these things are true. Totally true. Newspapers are going to have to find different business models if they are going to survive – and they might not survive. Old radio shows didn’t survive once television hit. Copyright law is going to change – as is the creative process itself – but why is that a bad thing? New music artists will have to figure out how to market themselves differently – but again, why is that bad?

I think of changing neighborhoods – "everything was fine until the Puerto Ricans/blacks/Irish/Dominicans/Italians moved in". I think of Ivy League universities as admissions standards changed – "everything was fine until Jews/women/financial-aid students could live in the dormitories with the rest of us". Eventually those attitudes die out. And they will in these virtual neighborhoods as well.

"The cult of the amateur is a misnomer" – it isn’t a cult. It’s the way things have always been – particularly in this country. Things change. Upstarts come on the scene. And in my expert opinion…Andrew Keen is a weenie. So there.

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Posted by Laura Dawson, 10:14 am, Comments (0), permalink

Wendi Deng Takes Over At MySpace China

Category: Digital Publishing, E-commerce

Wendi Deng, Rupert Murdoch’s wife, has been named chief of strategy for MySpace China, according to a report in Forbes.

An official role at MySpace China would provide the 39-year-old Deng with her first chance to prove her mettle in the succession battle with Murdoch’s children for control of the sprawling family-run media empire.

By appointing Deng as an executive with management responsibility, Murdoch is also attempting to take a more hands on approach with MySpace China, a venture that is increasingly complicating Murdoch’s bid for Dow Jones, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal.

Apparently the Journal is concerned about Murdoch’s expiditious strategy in China, kowtowing to censorship rules in exchange for quick ramp-up and launch. And this is not a stereotypical "wifely" project that Rupe is throwing at her – Deng herself is pretty much acknowledged to have the chops to strategize for MySpace China, given her former role as VP for News Corps’ Asian satellite station and her MBA from Yale. Which could, in fact, be worrying Murdoch-watchers even more – she’s the right one for the job, and he’s serious, and that’s kinda scary.

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Posted by Laura Dawson, 10:00 am, Comments (0), permalink

Independent Booksellers Upset at NPR Over Amazon Link

Category: Bookselling, E-commerce

PW reports today that NPR has released its summer reading list on its website - and linked to Amazon for purchasing titles. This has independent booksellers in an uproar, as many of them sponsor NPR programs:

"It’s a huge issue," said Susan Novotny, owner of Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, N.Y., "because many of us underwrite our local NPR stations. And it isn’t cheap, anywhere from $5,000 to $12,000 a year." Michael Herrmann, owner of Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, N.H., agreed. He said that because NPR is the best radio platform for his store, he’s spent $20,000 over the last five years. For NPR to funnel book sales to Amazon, he said, "makes us come across looking like chumps while Amazon rakes it in."

It appears, however, that NPR isn’t going to change the link, regarding it as a convenience for its visitors rather than an actual endorsement of Amazon.

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Posted by Laura Dawson, 9:53 am, Comments (0), permalink

Price floors – SCOTUS decision

Category: Bookselling, E-commerce

Manufacturers and retailers can now set minimum pricing, according to a Supreme Court decision released about an hour ago.

For 96 years, it’s been illegal to set minimum pricing on products. Today’s decision reverses that. So, for example, publishers could insist that books be sold at a minimum of, say, $25 for a hardcover – eliminating discounts.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The change isn’t likely to boost prices at large discount retailers, which have considerable power over manufacturers to set their own prices. Instead, the case could make it harder for smaller boutiques that offer specialty or custom-fitted goods to lower prices without consent of a manufacturer. It also could limit the ability of retailers to sell some goods at lower prices on the Internet.

Another blow for the independent bookseller who wants to offer special programs or pricing packages to compete with the big guys.

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Posted by Laura Dawson, 11:06 am, Comments (0), permalink

LibreDigital Adopts .epub Format

Category: Digital Publishing

LibreDigital has announced that they’re compliant with the new IDPF standard, .epub. This is a mutually-agreed-upon industry standard for e-publications that was approved a few months ago at IDPF’s annual conference in New York. Both Sony and Adobe support this standard in their reading software.

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Posted by Laura Dawson, 9:49 am, Comments (0), permalink

German Government Agency to Fund Wikipedia Writers

Category: Digital Libraries, Digital Publishing

Ars Technica reports that in Germany, the concern over accurate information regarding renewable resources is so intense that the government agency overseeing those resources is funding writers to ensure that Wikipedia entries are up to snuff:

The FNR [Agency for Renewable Resources] generates plenty of this material already as part of its official mission, but Wikipedia has become an important new distribution channel for getting that information out to the general public. Web searchers looking for information on any particular topic are likely to stumble across a Wikipedia link, and the FNR would rather fill that space with accurate information than lock it all up in its own web site and publications.

The report goes on to say,

the issue of government funding to produce "accurate" information on a non-government site might raise a few eyebrows. Material on renewable resources is unlikely to be overly controversial, but one imagines the outcry that would result if other departments begin funding projects to produce "accurate information" on German political history, foreign policy, or terrorism.

However, these articles will be subject to the same treatment that all Wikipedia articles get – they are open for editing by other users. The government insists that it is not funding Wikipedia directly – it is only subsidizing the FNR writers who are contributing articles.

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Posted by Laura Dawson, 9:41 am, Comments (0), permalink

POD at TOC

Category: Bookselling, Digital Publishing, Industry Events, Publishing
O’Reilly’s Tools of Change conference was a smashing success (and mercifully the next one will be in New York – thank you!). Peter Brantley, whose blog we quote often here, has posted some notes and exchanges here.

Some highlights: 

A POD machine can print 1 book in 5 minutes. A sales rate of 12 books per hour isn’t going to keep a store in business strictly with POD – the store has to sell other inventory as well.

POD manufacturers can develop new efficiencies, products, etc. much better than a shop with a POD machine can. In other words, the idea of having your own POD machine might not be cost-efficient in the long run, when you can order the same book from Lightning Source, who next month might have features that make their print copy better than yours.

However, a POD machine like the Espresso will eventually cost about as much as a copy machine, and in fact can be hosted in office supply stores – people can order books and go pick them up at Kinko’s or Staples. A proliferation of POD machines contributes to a proliferation of books – or at least, that’s the thinking of some.

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Posted by Laura Dawson, 9:27 am, Comments (0), permalink

My iDay

Category: Digital Libraries, Digital Publishing, E-commerce

Retail in New York is vastly different from the rest of the country – our supermarkets, for example, are generally smaller and packed with international items…Whole Foods is a relatively new phenomenon, and takeout/delivery is as much a staple of life as wheat itself.

I generally find the shopping experience in the city depressing and time-consuming, so (except for food – I have a fabulous food co-op near my apartment) I order most of my goods online and have them delivered.

My 14-year-old daughter wanted an iPod for her birthday – her Mini had died and she wanted a Nano – so of course my first instinct was to go to the website and order it. But then I thought…these Apple stores are praised to the skies as destinations. Why not, as a good digital citizen, go see what that’s all about?

Of course, it dawned on my as I approached the store on 59th Street and 5th Avenue and saw the looming crowd outside, my daughter chose to be born 14 years to the day before Apple is releasing their iPhone.

Yes, folks, there are people CAMPED OUT outside that store, awaiting that gadget. I saw camp chairs, backpacks, water bottles, towels – and I don’t know that the towels were so useful during the horrid storm we had last night…is it worth getting struck by lightning to have one of the first iPhones?

I bopped downstairs (yes, I bopped) and one of the guys there hooked me up with a cute blue Nano (I know my kid isn’t reading this), and the extended warranty because these things are as delicate as divas and break if you frown at them, and a truly fabulous blue Belkin case. What I loved is that he had a credit card swiper hanging around his neck, so he could ring me up on the spot.

A cool (rare) retail experience in New York. Then I came home and read this blog called Print Is Dead – his post was on the iPhone, and how consumers love devices that integrate functions rather than separating them:

In fact, if it succeeds the way that’s being predicted, the “phone” part of the equation will be the least interesting part (since most people already have a cell phone; that’s not why they’re buying an iPhone). Instead, why people are lusting after the iPhone (apart from the usual Apple scruffs who have to own everything Jobsian) is because they’re dying for a gadget that will do multiple things. Yes, they want a cell phone and iPod combo, but they also want something that can send and receive e-mail, watch videos, surf the Web, etc. They want all of these things in one device, and the iPhone will soon arrive to make this a reality.

The author goes on to say that this has been the problem with e-book readers – they only do one thing. Which was my argument in the last Download column in The Big Picture – that a standalone device that only reads books will have a minimal following, and that laptops are already the device of choice for a great deal of reading, precisely because they are already handling other tasks. (I got some interesting feedback disagreeing with this, and I hope that this appears on the website shortly.)

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Posted by Laura Dawson, 9:11 am, Comments (0), permalink

Shelf Awareness Turns Two

Category: Bookselling, Company News, Publishing

Shelf Awareness, the daily newsletter about bookselling and publishing, turns two today – and I can’t believe it’s only two years! I feel like I’ve been relying on it for much longer than that.

John Mutter, the founder, says in today’s issue that they’re 90 subscribers short of 10,000 – folks, if you don’t already have your own subscription, hurry and sign up…it would be a great "birthday" present for them.

10,000 subscribers in two years – positively amazing. Congratulations on awesome success, and might we rub your head for luck?

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Posted by Laura Dawson, 9:06 am, Comments (0), permalink

Digitization for the Disabled

Category: Copyright Law, DRM, Digital Publishing

Robert Martinengo, of the University System of Georgia, has an interesting job. He works on converting textbooks into formats accessible to the disabled. In this day and age, that means a little more than just audiobooks – although audio certainly plays a huge role. It means "assistive technology" – which helps students with cognitive disabilities (as well as the blind and deaf) read differently.

Bob recently gave an address at the O’Reilly TOC conference about the ways assistive technology and developing book technology can work together for consumers as well as the disabled. He brought up an interesting copyright point – that the need for accessible materials for disabled people is so pressing, getting permissions to create these "derivative works" is often an obstacle. He’s proposing a change in copyright law to allow educational institutions to create accessible media for their disabled constituencies, without having to defy copyright law to get these folks the materials they are entitled to.

More info is here.

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Posted by Laura Dawson, 10:28 am, Comments (0), permalink
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