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ksmithUnless you're a writer, that is.
I've been following the tale of the apparent power shift in the music industry from the behemoth record companies to the indie labels. The indies do not have a majority of the market, but they account for almost 20-25% of sales depending on which numbers you look at.
This NYT article is all about the apparent power shift in that industry from the Big 4 to indie labels. I found it fascinating--I read the descriptions of the current state of the music industry, and in my head, I switch out the word "music" for "publishing" and "album" for "novel". Then I get to paragraphs like this, and I find myself nodding:
"They're all terribly under the gun to justify every investment and tie it to an immediate return," said Steve Gottlieb, chief of TVT Records, which is home to acts like Lil Jon and Ying Yang Twins, two of a handful of independent acts to secure placement on major radio playlists. "That type of discipline doesn't allow for the extra time or the extra album it took to break a U2 or a Bruce Springsteen. The majors are really just focusing on platinum artists and no longer have an appetite for artist development except in the rarest instances."
I'm a fan of two of the artists discussed in the article. I don't remember if I learned about Belle & Sebastian after clicking on one of those "If you like this, you might like these bands" link on an online music site, or in a newsgroup. IIRC, I first heard Interpol on the radio, then learned more while poking through the iTunes alternative section. I had heard of Arcade Fire and Spoon through iTunes, and might spring for one of Arcade Fire's releases any time now.
I can't remember the last time I bought a CD at a brick and mortar music store. I still listen to the radio on occasion, but I can't stand most DJs and I'm sick of all the commercials. I thought I'd lose my connection to new music if I stopped listening to the radio regularly, but that hasn't proved to be the case. I first heard Franz Ferdinand on the radio, but I heard of Sigur Ros in online discussions, and the New Pornographers from a Best Alternative Albums of 2005 list on iTunes. In other words, I hear about new music from many places, and if one place faded away, I'm betting something else would come along to take its place.
It took a few months with iTunes and an iPod to pretty much wean myself away from CDs. I had to buy one the other day--I really wanted a copy of a song, couldn't find it on iTunes, couldn't use the music service that did have it, and won't do file-sharing. So the connection isn't completely severed, but the thread in unraveling fast.
The point of this ramble is that I see a number of the same issues affecting midlist recording artists and midlist writers. Books don't lend themselves to the online marketplace as well as songs and albums, I don't think, so I have no idea if what is happening in music is a harbinger of publishing things to come or not. I have a nasty feeling that it's going to get a lot worse for midlist novelists before it gets better, but that could just be my Slavic fatalism talking.
I've been following the tale of the apparent power shift in the music industry from the behemoth record companies to the indie labels. The indies do not have a majority of the market, but they account for almost 20-25% of sales depending on which numbers you look at.
This NYT article is all about the apparent power shift in that industry from the Big 4 to indie labels. I found it fascinating--I read the descriptions of the current state of the music industry, and in my head, I switch out the word "music" for "publishing" and "album" for "novel". Then I get to paragraphs like this, and I find myself nodding:
"They're all terribly under the gun to justify every investment and tie it to an immediate return," said Steve Gottlieb, chief of TVT Records, which is home to acts like Lil Jon and Ying Yang Twins, two of a handful of independent acts to secure placement on major radio playlists. "That type of discipline doesn't allow for the extra time or the extra album it took to break a U2 or a Bruce Springsteen. The majors are really just focusing on platinum artists and no longer have an appetite for artist development except in the rarest instances."
I'm a fan of two of the artists discussed in the article. I don't remember if I learned about Belle & Sebastian after clicking on one of those "If you like this, you might like these bands" link on an online music site, or in a newsgroup. IIRC, I first heard Interpol on the radio, then learned more while poking through the iTunes alternative section. I had heard of Arcade Fire and Spoon through iTunes, and might spring for one of Arcade Fire's releases any time now.
I can't remember the last time I bought a CD at a brick and mortar music store. I still listen to the radio on occasion, but I can't stand most DJs and I'm sick of all the commercials. I thought I'd lose my connection to new music if I stopped listening to the radio regularly, but that hasn't proved to be the case. I first heard Franz Ferdinand on the radio, but I heard of Sigur Ros in online discussions, and the New Pornographers from a Best Alternative Albums of 2005 list on iTunes. In other words, I hear about new music from many places, and if one place faded away, I'm betting something else would come along to take its place.
It took a few months with iTunes and an iPod to pretty much wean myself away from CDs. I had to buy one the other day--I really wanted a copy of a song, couldn't find it on iTunes, couldn't use the music service that did have it, and won't do file-sharing. So the connection isn't completely severed, but the thread in unraveling fast.
The point of this ramble is that I see a number of the same issues affecting midlist recording artists and midlist writers. Books don't lend themselves to the online marketplace as well as songs and albums, I don't think, so I have no idea if what is happening in music is a harbinger of publishing things to come or not. I have a nasty feeling that it's going to get a lot worse for midlist novelists before it gets better, but that could just be my Slavic fatalism talking.
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Whatever happened to on-demand printing?
Date: 2005-12-27 04:41 pm (UTC)Re: Whatever happened to on-demand printing?
Date: 2005-12-27 05:21 pm (UTC)I'm looking at this from the pov of an author who would like to make at least part of a living from this. Unless there is some audience out there for a title and they have ways to find out that the title is available, that title is just going to sit in a catalog with hundreds of thousands of others.
Another issue with on-demand is that the larger publishers may start to look at it as one way of keeping books permanently in-print, thus complicating even further the negotiations for e-rights and such.
I'm not sure if the problem is the format of the book itself, although mode of delivery may play into the solution. It's the old story of publicity, and building an audience, and readjusting the market to allow for the continued existence and nurturing of the midlist. We're still trying to find ways the build our individual markets--some writers are doing a lot with blogging and podcasts, frex.
What I'm trying to say is that I think the means for delivery are out there. The trick is in getting the news to readers.
Re: Whatever happened to on-demand printing?
Date: 2005-12-27 05:27 pm (UTC)Re: Whatever happened to on-demand printing?
Date: 2005-12-27 05:55 pm (UTC)Re: Whatever happened to on-demand printing?
Date: 2005-12-27 11:06 pm (UTC)I don't think I have a big online following, and if I need to do much more than post chapters on my website, I don't know if I ever will. I'm not a good off-the-cuff essayist, and strong opinions help bring in readers. Assembling a good blog with a lot of interesting links takes a lot of work, and I tend to lose interest after a while. I also tend to think that the majority of my readers don't go online all that much.
Of course, I could be wrong.
And now, I really need to go kick out my pages...
Re: Whatever happened to on-demand printing?
Date: 2005-12-28 04:42 am (UTC)Re: Whatever happened to on-demand printing?
Date: 2005-12-28 05:09 am (UTC)It's a great business.
Re: Whatever happened to on-demand printing?
Date: 2005-12-27 09:55 pm (UTC)I don't actually want *pages*. I want to pay X dollars, and get the thing I want in a format with maximum utility over my lifetime. Current tech dictates that a traditional book has maximum utility. A Palm type device with a brighter screen has even more limited battery life, and longer battery life limits the lighting where I can use the thing. Books on a Palm are stored flash memory cards, which will store a helluva lot of books in a very small package, and are quite durable... but losing that tiny chip so your library can't be accessed is easy. Replacing the data? Not so easy.
So I end up putting "classics" on my Palm, because thanks to Project Gutenberg I can get "classics" for no cost. Since the authors are dead and the works are public domain, they wouldn't get royalties anyway, so paying the $5 for the paperback isn't a good use of money. I end up buying recent (still copyrighted) releases on paper, since it typically costs just as much to buy the electronic version as the paper. The royalties aren't any better on the electronic version, and I have less selection when it comes to electronic editions.
On-demand isn't an issue to me. The publishing industry doesn't want to give me either an electronic *or* a hardcover edition of the out of print book I want on demand. And if it's out of print and I want another copy, chances are it's a paperback that got read to death, so hardcover is the correct replacement medium. If it's out of print and I just want a copy, I don't want a trade paperback unless you force me to take one. They combine all the horrors of a hardcover with all the horrors of a paperback, with none of the advantages of either format. I own trades, and I always wish they were hardcovers or regular paperbacks instead.