Jason Epstein at the Tools for Change

Submitted by Kurt Lindblom on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 20:56

Jason Epstein is always interesting. This talk he gave at the Tools for Change meeting is good stuff.

Lately I've been focusing on the possibility of start-up publishers using open source as a means to save cost. But I'm interested in the whole problem of how someone would start a publishing company with little to no capital. This includes non-traditional business models.

The old business models are melting away--ever growing conglomerates seeking to maximizing profits instead of publishing "worthwhile" content is not sustainable. Publishing is a cultural business, and a single-minded pursuit of higer profit margins gradually moves these companies away from the cultures that sustain them.

I read Epstein's The Book Business, and it made a lasting impression on me, mostly because it reflected my own experiences in corporate publishing. It was after reading that book that I came to write a motto of sorts that all small publishing companies could take to heart:

Instead of publishing only books that will make a profit, we need to learn how to make worthwhile books profitable.

At some point I'd like to write a good essay about his book, but for now I'll offer the following excerpt of this talk.

"The radically decentralized digital marketplace has already rendered traditional publishing infrastructure -- warehouses, inventory, shipping, returns and so on redundant. Like American automobile manufacturers traditional publishers will persist in their traditional mode as long as they can, but they cannot indefinitely defend their institutions against disruptive technologies any more than the monks in their scriptoria could withstand the urgency of movable type. As factory based production and distribution gradually give way to web based production and marketing the cost of entry for publishers will decline to practically zero. Such traditional publishing functions as publicity, design, marketing, legal, record keeping and so on will be sub contracted as will web marketing and design. Talented editors require only minimal managerial services and in the digital future will require even fewer provided they resist inducements to expand or merge. Today's unwieldy conglomerates, trapped in a bad economy within their Gutenberg mode and motivated only by profit rather than the intrinsic value of the work itself -- the joy of publishing distinguished books, the primary motive of successful publishers -- will deconstruct, leaving their surviving imprints to fend for themselves under diverse ownership or vanish. Resourceful agents may become business managers for groups of like minded editors and authors whose imprints will become recognizable brands, distinguishing their content from the great sea of helter skelter digital content while authors, as stakeholders along with their editors, may opt for profit sharing arrangements rather than traditional royalties. Best selling branded authors who require only minimal publishing services beyond manufacturing and distribution may become their own publishers, retaining their agents as business managers, subcontracting essential functions, and forgoing today's unsustainable guarantees in exchange for the entire net proceeds of their titles. Customers will pay less but pricing must still cover traditional author royalties, residual publishers' overheads and profit."

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