Amazon Publishing might be the new normal of the 21st century book business. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen.

I’ve always wanted NY Publishing to survive and thrive. Sure, I had nostalgic reasons. NY was (is) a cultural institution, with pedigree and history.

Amazon didn’t seem to possess the love for the written word. They sold camping equipment, soldering irons, plastic dog poo and massage chairs. How could they care about books? About literature?

Simply calling themselves Amazon Publishing did little to sway my opinion.

Change is Scary

I’ve been blogging on these business changes since 2005 (my first blogs were on one of the very first what-we-would-recognize-as-a-social-media-site, Gather).

I wrote post after post until I started feeling like that crazy guy downtown. You know the one I’m talking about? Guy wearing an ad board with THE END IS NEAR spelled out in duct tape or glitter.

Alas, the digital revolution has taught a lot of painful lessons. One of the hardest? We’re either architects or artifacts. True for publishers as well as authors.

If we hope to thrive in the next evolution of change, it’s critical to understand the larger picture. Without context, there’s no way to be strategic.

The 411 on Amazon Publishing

For the past twelve years or so, Amazon Publishing has been playing to win, as opposed to NY, who was playing to ‘not lose.’

Huge difference.

Instead of being on the offense, sticking and moving and learning how to play the new game or even invent their OWN newer game (and make Amazon hustle for a change)…the powerhouse publishers ran down to Blockbuster and rented You’ve Got Mail for the six-hundredth time.

Change at the Speed of Wi-Fi

By all indications, NY Publishing didn’t grasp that they only had a very small window to act if they wanted to survive (forget thrive).

Instead of redoing their business plan, they wasted precious time trying to rekindle ‘The Good Old Days’ and protect their besties Borders and Barnes & Noble…at all costs. 

The Big Six (namely the multi-national media conglomerates in charge) couldn’t fathom a world where they weren’t the ballers. Anyone who claimed differently was deemed a lunatic, a hack, a poseur, delusional, etc.

Fast-forward to today (no VCR required because only my mother still uses one).

Borders is a ghost, and Barnes & Noble is now at the mercy of Elliot Management—the hedge fund that purchased them this past June.

Elliot Management, should they stick to their playbook, will shut down most of the large stores and part them out into smaller stores more reminiscent of the mom-and-pops Barnes & Noble pulverized on their way to power.

#Irony #Comeuppance

Good news is B&N shouldn’t go away completely. Bad news is those massive multi-million-dollar orders and preorders that financed the large NY houses just went bye bye.

So how did we all get here in such a short time? To answer this question, I’m going to cite the original personal coach/self-help guru…Sun Tzu.

Amazon Publishing & The Art of War

Jeff Bezos dreamed Amazon would one day replace The Big Six publishers and that he could completely reinvent the book business. He wanted the system to be more egalitarian.

Bezos believed consumers needed more say in what books they liked instead of relying on gatekeepers, AP reviewers, and (pre-negotiated) book displays to tell them what they should like.

Bezos had a plan to take out traditional publishing, and this plan is one I’ve done a fair job of predicting.

***gets cramp patting self on back***

I’d like to claim it’s because I’m super smart, but I had help. Anyone who’s read Sun Tzu’s The Art of War—and paid even MILD attention—could see the proverbial ‘writing on the wall.’

Every move Amazon has made over the past two decades or so might have appeared random, but to the trained eye? There has been NOTHING random about Amazon’s strategy.

But, Amazon couldn’t have secured the Iron Throne book market domination if traditional publishing had taken them seriously from the get-go and believed Amazon to be an actual threat.

Had the multi-national media conglomerates been paying attention, this might have ended very differently. Alas…

Pretend to be weak, that he (your enemy) may grow arrogant.
~Sun Tzu

Or, if you’re Amazon taking on publishing: Pretend to be a nut who believes that everyone will one day shop on the Internet…so that your competition will remain arrogant.

While NY argued over their favorite stock paper and mocked Facebook as a ‘passing fad,’ Amazon prepared for conquest.

They first dedicated massive resources to salvage the remains of Web 1.0 after the dot.com debacle. In 2002, Amazon launched AWS (Amazon Web Services), one of the first cloud-based systems able to track web site popularity and patterns and aggregate this information for marketers and developers.

In simple terms—who clicked what site when and why and how many times? Kind of an awesome thing to know if you want to sell stuff.

Then, in 2006, Amazon expanded AWS. My POV? Bezos (among other visionaries) wanted to ensure the infant Web 2.0 would have all it needed to grow into the leviathan it is now.

AWS added EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) and S3 (Simple Storage Surface) in order to expand their cloud storage and virtual computer capacities exponentially. Several years later (in 2012), Amazon purchased Kiva Systems (now Amazon Robotics) to streamline order fulfillment.

***More proof Amazon IS actually SkyNet. Alas, at least I know when the machines come for me, I get free shipping…because (DUH) I have Prime.

Anyway, improved search capabilities and data aggregation (better algorithms to predict and guide purchase habits), stronger safeguards against fraud, and increasingly faster shipping (using ROBOTS) all formed the foundation for Amazon’s future conquest.

On-line shopping had work efficiently and seamlessly or nothing else mattered.

The easier, safer, and more convenient Bezos could make it to buy from Amazon, the more the everyday consumer would trust them with their business. Bezos understood knowledge was power…literally. Whoever held the purchasing data from the web, held the keys to the kingdom (publishing kingdom included).

What I find uniquely interesting is this. Bezos built the early Amazon infrastructure offering products that weren’t culturally sentimental.

Consumers didn’t have the same emotional attachment when it came to electronics and sports equipment. Bezos appreciated that books would hit us in the feels.

Going there too soon would’ve been bad strategy. He waited to hit fast and hard.

Speed is the essence of war. Take advantage of the enemy’s unpreparedness; travel by unexpected routes and strike him where he has taken no precautions. ~Sun Tzu

Trust me, NO ONE in traditional publishing anticipated the Internet sucker punch. Traditional publishing didn’t even believe on-line shopping or ebooks would ever be viable, let alone a threat. They made no plans, took no real precautions.

Instead, they held onto their mantras:

Readers will always want paper.

Only techies and early adopters want audio and digital books. These formats will always be a fringe market and not worth the effort.

Readers don’t want to order on-line. They want a BROWSING experience with a latte.

Amazon Publishing might as well have been a campfire ghost story or urban legend in 2006. But, when Amazon released (unleashed) the Kindle?

$#!t got real.

If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. ~Sun Tzu

Amazon launched the Kindle and, with that, offered deep discounts on digital books (all books, actually). When some of the NY houses refused to lower prices on digital titles, the ‘BUY’ buttons on all their titles mysteriously disappeared.

It was a glitch.

Suuuure.

Glitch or not, it doesn’t take a business expert to realize that losing even a DAY of on-line sales probably hurt…a LOT.

Since NY had only recently started learning how to use email, one can imagine that algorithms, cloud computing and analytics weren’t exactly part of their wheelhouse.

Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest valley. ~Sun Tzu

Before Amazon launched the Kindle, though, they made sure to capitalize on a massive tectonic shift that had already split the book world years earlier.

Amazon Publishing understood the deal NY had made with the devils (Borders & Barnes & Noble). The big-box giants promised unprecedented wealth and success…which they delivered.

All NY had to do was to sacrifice their mid-list authors.

There was no ‘room’ for these authors. The big-box bookstore model relied on the selling power of household names (literary blue bloods).

With limited shelf-space, the plan worked better to shelve mostly author royalty, then pepper in new authors to give the appearance the big chains actually cared about the written word.

Ah, but a lot of authors had made The Big Six into the giant it had become (not just the blue bloods).

The author middle class had dedicated years, even decades to their ‘masters.’ Yet, NY unceremoniously cut them loose without so much as a ‘thank you for your service.’

…and Amazon was more than eager to publish these authors’ vast (and vetted) backlists and offer absurdly generous royalty rates. Not only that, but these authors could publish as many books as they pleased. Heck, they could write in any genre they wanted.

Be free!

What the big-box model tossed into the dirt, Amazon picked up, polished and sharpened to a razor edge.

If his forces are united, separate them. ~Sun Tzu

First, Amazon cleaved the body of authors into passionately divided camps—pro-indie versus diehard traditional. But then, Amazon Publishing also took advantage of the rivalry between Borders and Barnes & Noble.

These two big-box chains, in an act of unrepentant greed, had almost single-handedly destroyed the indie and mom-and-pop bookstore model. Once those ‘competitors’ fell away, they set their sights on each other.

#Brilliant

They built more and more giant stores, sometimes even across the STREET from each other. The more they built and battled, the more expensive it became to maintain an edge.

Soon, it devolved into a race to the bottom of who could give away the most stuff/books the cheapest. Which one could add in cards, records, movies, toys, and mani-pedis to gain an advantage.

This plan doesn’t work well with that kind of massive overhead.

Meanwhile, Amazon kept pounding on both of them and Borders fell first, namely because they mistakenly believed they could go it alone in cyberspace.

Back in 2001, Borders Group made a deal with Amazon and agreed that Amazon would co-manage Borders.com. Then, in 2007, Borders thought they’d go it alone with their own online bookstore and yeah…

It didn’t work out.

Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected. ~Sun Tzu

Amazon has spent the past seven or so years testing different models in cyberspace: Amazon Worlds, Amazon Scout, Kindle Unlimited, and Kindle Direct Publishing to name a few.

With the massive influx of indie and self-published authors, Amazon has been using writers and our books to improve ways to connect readers with books THEY love.

Amazon Publishing learned how to better detect and destroy anyone gaming algorithms. They’ve been willing to take risks to see what worked, what failed, and what could be salvaged and reinvented.

But, what Amazon REALLY was doing was perfecting its algorithms so they could take out the critical piece to dropping NY to its knees—Barnes & Noble.

Checkmate

Amazon Publishing has always been the ‘other woman in the red dress,’ but (as I claimed in a 2012 blog) this ‘other woman’ wanted a ring and to be considered legit.

Seven years ago, I posited that Amazon Publishing would soon open brick-and-mortar stores…and got flamed in my post’s comments. Everyone at the time believed Amazon to be perfectly content to remain in cyberspace.

I didn’t agree.

Bezos had ALWAYS wanted to take down publishing. He would not be content to remain an on-line book retailer. He’d want a place to showcase Amazon Kindles, and it could hardly be called a victory if he launched brick-and-mortar Amazon bookstores only to display mostly NY titles.

No, that wouldn’t do. Amazon stores would show off AMAZON authors.

When it came to Amazon Publishing, Bezos wouldn’t settle for anything less than total conquest.

How did I ‘know’ Amazon would open brick-and-mortar stores? Because NO ONE believed/expected they ever would.

Yet, it made sense. Amazon Publishing would have browsing space they could smart-stock using the data collected via their algorithms. They’d have enough information to know what books sold well and where.

This would drastically increase sales while simultaneously reducing waste.

***Remember, Amazon started out dominating the business of gathering and sorting information.

I suspected Amazon Publishing was waiting for Barnes & Noble to close a certain percentage of stores before they pounced.

According to Forbes, between 2008 and 2017, Barnes & Noble was closing an average of 21 stores a year to remain afloat.

Amazon opened its first physical store in 2015.

Dismissed as coincidence…

When Barnes & Noble fell? Checkmate.

Feign disorder, and crush him. ~Sun Tzu

This is where I don my large hoop earrings, polish my crystal ball and speak in a bad gypsy accent.

It was obvious to me (and anyone who could do math) that once Barnes & Noble fell, whatever remained of NY publishing would be in serious danger.

Without those massive preorders to fill shelf-space in oversized stores, NY publishing would be in a real financial pickle.

Recently, I blogged about the chaos in the publishing world. Currently, there are a million plus books self-published every year, and this number is climbing. On top of that? NY hasn’t had a breakout novel in SEVEN years.

To add insult to injury, that last breakout novel was 50 Shades of Grey.

To put it bluntly? Readers are fed up being used as unpaid gatekeepers.

When we buy a novel, our goal is to be entertained, NOT to determine if the writer could pass English 101.

***When reading a novel feels more like grading 8th grade papers? We’ll just watch Netflix, thanks.

There is a part of me, however, that believes Amazon has allowed this chaos to flourish for the simple reason that it serves their original goal—REPLACE NY Publishing.

Deviating a bit from Sun Tzu, the current mayhem in the book world is a scene straight out of Plato’s The Republic.

The Downside of Book Democracy

Democracy is a byproduct created when those disenfranchised in an oligarchy (writers overlooked, snubbed or rejected by NY) finally revolt (go indie or self-publish).

Freedom for the sake of freedom becomes the imperative. Every participant is permitted to live and act as he/she pleases (write whatever they want, even if it makes no sense and readers don’t want it)…because, FREEDOM.

These and other kindred characteristics are proper to democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.

Plato’s ‘The Republic’

According to Plato, though initially a pure democracy might seem appealing, the state comes to be ruled by people who are unfit to rule.

In reference to publishing, the market comes to be dominated by those unfit to be published.

Pure democracy—which, letting anyone with a keyboard and internet access to be an ‘author’ surely is a pure democracy if I’ve ever seen one—ultimately devolves into bedlam.

Once this happens, Plato asserts that the population (market) will become SO vexed, they will welcome anyone who promises they can establish some form of order.

The New Era of Amazon Publishing

A few years ago, I speculated Amazon was waiting for the publishing industry to almost completely devolve. Only at that point would Amazon Publishing strike the coups de grace.

Amazon Publishing has already lured in the disgruntled/betrayed mid-list authors. They’ve also attracted most of the bright-eyed newbies who’d never even consider publishing with NY (some can even write).

Ah, but Amazon Publishing’s final move? Seduce the author blue bloods to the winning team.

Check

July 22, 2019 Publisher’s Weekly announced that mega-author Dean Koontz signed a five-book deal with Amazon Publishing’s Thomas & Mercer imprint. 

It was one thing when Amazon seduced the mid-list New York Times and USA Today best-selling authors. Dean Koontz is a whole other creature.

According to the article Koontz Inks Multibook Deal with Amazon Publishing:

The deal follows a string of agreements Amazon Publishing has struck with bestselling authors recently; in 2018 alone, Thomas & Mercer inked multi-book, seven-figure deals with Barry Eisler, T.R. Ragan and Robert Dugoni. Other top authors to come on board include Sylvia Day and Patricia Cornwell…

…Koontz said that Amazon ‘presented a marketing and publicity plan smarter and more ambitious than anything I’d ever seen before.’ He added: ‘The times are changing, and it’s invigorating to be where change is understood and embraced.‘

~Rachel Deahl

Just…ouch.

Dean Koontz has worked with Brilliance Audio (a division of Amazon) as well as Amazon Original Stories for the past few years. Yet, this new deal is certainly a landmark event.

According to Fortune, Koontz is the biggest author to sign with Amazon to date.

Since the late 1990s, Dean Koontz has predominantly published via Penguin Random House’s Bantam (more than 45 releases).

Dean Koontz’s jump to Amazon is a hard, if not mortal, blow to one of the remaining large publishing houses. Not only that, but this changing in alliances can’t help but be a harbinger of things to come.

How long until other mega-authors follow? My guess?

Not long.

Brave New Amazon Publishing

It’s been a long road through dangerous and uncharted digital territory. I know I’ve posted plenty of frightening articles/predictions.

Hey, change is scary. We can’t plan for what we don’t understand.

Yet, I’ve insisted all along to remain calm and just keep writing, learning and improving. Focus on the quality of the PRODUCT. The pendulum always swings back the other way.

Whenever there is innovation, a wild and massive market shift, pandemonium invariably erupts. This happened with the introduction of the Gutenberg Press, the railroad, the automobile, airplanes, radio, television, 24-hour news, cable TV, personal computers, video stores, affordable Spanx…and on and on.

The old goes through denial, digs in and finally whatever industry it happens to be can no longer sustain their outdated ways and they die off. The new emerges until IT becomes the old and the cycle repeats.

Humans LOVE stories. It’s why we—authors—are pretty much always ‘safe’ so long as we focus on being the best at what we do. Sure, we go through changes, too. Lean times, terror, change…and then a new normal arises from the ashes.

Ultimately, I was confident new gatekeeping would emerge.

It HAD to.

There is simply no way to sift through a million-plus books per year for the gems.

Now that Amazon has a system for smart-stocking, has now begun building brick-and mortar stores, and has managed to recruit the ‘one ace in the hole’ NY had left (their household name authors)?

Game Over

I don’t believe what remains of New York publishing will go away for good (at least not soon). Amazon won’t wipe them out completely if, for no other reason than to avoid being called out as a monopoly.

It seems obvious that Amazon Publishing will implement a similar but VASLTY updated publishing model that will (ideally) have the capacity to get good books into the hands of readers.

How this will look, exactly? I don’t know.

Audible followed a suggestion I made in a 2012 blog (whether they got it from me or not, I don’t know but will totally claim credit ).

Audible does have lines of audio books endorsed by a known/trusted brands (e.g. Neil Gaiman). This sort of celebrity approval improves sales and gets new authors in front of avid readers.

I could see Amazon Publishing doing something similar when creating imprints. I’m more than sure they have a plan.

Ultimately, I believe authors will be able to query the old-fashioned way, and sign with an agent who can then broker a deal with Amazon (like Koontz’s agents did with Thomas & Mercer). OR writers can still self-publish, create their own imprints and pioneer on, trusting readers will FIND their books and love them.

This means readers can STILL locate that gem the agents miss, but at the same time, writers can look forward to a more stable business environment.

In the end, readers, writers, agents, editors, etc. now at least have a light at the end of the tunnel. One that looks a lot like an ethernet cable, but whatever works.

Food for Thought

I don’t know if these changes are good or bad for writers. The big-box model certainly didn’t do us any favors.

Back before Amazon Publishing even existed, authors had a staggering failure rate.

According to the stats gathered by Book Expo of America, in 2004 ninety-three percent of all books published sold less than a thousand copies. Almost half of that number failed to sell more than five hundred copies (and this data reflected mostly legacy published authors).

Only one out of ten authors published ever saw a second book in print. Most failed to sell out their print runs and were subsequently dropped. So, it isn’t like authors have ever had a rosy-perfect-time-to-be-published.

The good news is technology changes, but people don’t.

And people will always crave good stories.

What are your thoughts? I LOVE hearing from you!

Sorry I haven’t posted in two weeks. I was going to do a post about gatekeepers, then the news about Koontz hit, and I changed direction.

***This blog required a TON of research…and my brain is melted. Smells like cotton candy. Weird.

We’ll get back to craft next time, but I love hearing what you guys are thinking with all these changes. Kind of hard to say anyone who publishes with Amazon isn’t a real author anymore, LOL.

I know big business is always something we need to watch vigilantly, but I’m somewhat relieved that it seems like we’re getting some stability (stark increase in number of independent bookstores, smart-stocking stores, more publishing options, new gatekeeping, etc).

But what’s your take?

A Quick Announcement

For anyone who wants to meet me in person, I’d LOVE to meet YOU (unless you don’t like me and then don’t you need to clean out those closets? #JustSayin).

Now that my parole officer finally agreed to extend the range of my ankle monitor…I’ll be speaking ALL DAY at these two incredible events!

…yes, they DO know it’s me. RIGHT? Anyway…

Y’all can check out Facebook for more details.

Right after Houston, I’ll be zooming to the other side of Texas to keynote for the Permian Basin Writers’ Conference. Come join the fun! We’ll talk shop, play with duct tape and glitter, and maybe get kicked out of a Walmart.

It’ll be FABULOUS! (Note: Bail money not included in conference fee).

The post Amazon Publishing: The Road to Conquest & How Bezos Razed New York appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Have you ever witnessed a car accident? Have you ever seen the accident coming before it even happened? I have. I recall being on a road trip to Florida and we hit a terrible rainstorm. The flooding was so bad that all the cars were slowing down to maybe ten miles an hour so as not to hydroplane. I recall a bright red pickup went flying past doing at least 70. I remember screaming at this driver that he was crazy and he was going to get someone…

…and then I saw it.

The world suddenly sharpened and time seemed to slow down. Far up ahead, I saw a small compact car change lanes into the truck’s path, but I was powerless to stop what I knew would happen next.

Impact.

Two people died.

Yet, despite hundreds of thousands of collisions, we see this time and time and time again. People on cell phones while driving, texting while driving, drinking and driving and doing all the things WE ALL KNOW are gambling with life. Why do they do it? Because they think that they will be the exception even though others have tried and died.

History repeats itself because we fail to listen.

So why am I talking about this? I am frustrated. Publishing has had at least seven years to make a better game plan. It has seen the music industry AND the film industry get turned upside down, gutted, then parted out. Why, then have they failed to innovate?

You can’t do this! You are going to CRASH! 

Quick History Lesson

The music industry, in my POV, has a little bit of an excuse only because it was one of the first industries to be hit by the digital tsunami. They saw it coming, too, but instead of anticipating change? Their plan was to pretend nothing would change and prop up the idea that, “People will always want to go to music stores and buy CDs.”

And it was this thinking that allowed iTunes to kick their tails.

Was change all bad?

For some change sucked…a LOT. But, the music industry was grossly wasteful. It failed to understand that the consumer–the music lover–was really who they needed to be pleasing all along. The industry made a bad business call; they supported the record store over the music lover and it HURT, and you know what? It should have hurt them. We should not reward waste.

Digital didn’t implode music; it liberated artists from waste, neglect, and stagnation.

We won’t even start on the film industry. Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy last month, so I think that sums things up.

So now we get to publishing.

I love New York. I love traditional publishing and always dreamed that one day I’d see a Big Six Publisher on the spine of my book. Still do sometimes. But when we love someone we are honest and we understand that excellence begins with honesty.

The truth will set us free. We cannot change and make a plan if we fail to accept reality. Whining is not a plan and complaining is not a strategy.

The Problem in Publishing

What has me on such a tear? Blame Porter Anderson and his AWESOME Writing on the Ether where I found THIS little nugget:

The Author’s Guild post, Publishing’s Ecosystem on the Brink: The Backstory. Some key lines stood out to me.

For book publishers, the relevant market isn’t readers (direct sales are few), but booksellers, and Amazon has firm control of bookselling’s online future as it works to undermine bookselling’s remaining brick-and-mortar infrastructure.

Translation?

Whaaaaaahhhhh. Amazon is being a big meanie and isn’t playing fair.

Am I the only one who sees something wrong with their statement? Readers aren’t relevant? Um, maybe why Amazon is kicking so much @$$ is simply because it understands that the only thing that is relevant and ever has been relevant is the reader.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not a fan of monopolies at all. In fact, I am screaming and yelling and trying to get NY to make a plan because I want them to become competitive in the new paradigm. In fact, I have been yelling for FOUR YEARS and trying to get NY to listen, while agents continued to tell writers that social media wasn’t all that important and that readers would always want printed books.

A YEAR ago, I laid out a plan on this blog for NY to harness its strengths and recover. I even e-mailed the blog to Michael Hyatt of Thomas Nelson Publishers and to some agents in NY…and no response, unless one counts the form letter from Michael Hyatt’s personal assistant blowing me off.

Hey, can’t say I didn’t try.

I have wanted NY to pull its head out of the sand, and you know what? I still do. Competition is good. It keeps a market healthy. I want NY to avoid the fate of the music industry and the film industry, but I have been shouting for four years and now time is running out.

We are watching an entire industry capsize because we are…trying to save Barnes & Noble? The indie bookstore?

And the band played on…

People will always love CDs paper books and want to browse in music stores bookstores.

News Flash–Um, the music industry was in the music business and their job was to get music to people who liked to listen to music. They were in the music business, not the record business or the CD business.

Publishing, you guys are in the story and information business, not the book business. Your job is to get information (NF) and stories (Fiction) to readers who dig information and stories….regardless of format. Kinko’s is in the printing business. YOU are in the information/story business.

Hanging onto the print paradigm is like ordering another drink as the Titanic sinks.

It gets better…

Established authors, for the most part, do fine selling through online bookstores. It’s new authors who lose out if browsing in bookstores becomes a thing of the past. 

Browsing Roulette is the marketing plan for new writers.

Oh…dear.

I have been teaching how to build an on-line author platform capable of driving sales for YEARS. WANA has helped create some tremendously successful indie authors. Heck, how do you think Bob Mayer started out on social media? Remember him? The guy who’s selling thousands of books a day? Why not look to see who taught him social media and maybe see if she could help your writers, too? Bob thought it was a good idea.

In fact, WDW Publishing even offered an discount so agents and editors could order WANA in bulk at a discounted price to help ramp up their authors on social media. Guess how many orders we’ve filled?

To my knowledge? Zero. To quote Jerry Maguire, “Help ME, help YOU.”

WANA methods have continued to produce success after success. WANA methods are responsible for selling hundreds of thousands of books for ALL kinds of authors. WANA isn’t just a concept, it’s a movement. We are The Love Revolution, baby. Yet, instead of NY embracing social media or even WANA, browsing is NY’s marketing plan to help new talent get discovered.

*head desk*

The Trouble with the Browsing Plan

Last I checked, a book’s position in a bookstore was real estate negotiated by an agent, so here’s the hard truth. New writers? Forget about your books being in airports, first of all. Oh, and we can also forget about being at the front of the store. That’s for VIPs only. And the tables? Yeah, don’t count on being there either.

Most likely, new writers, you will be spine out on a shelf. Sure hope your last name begins with a letter the puts you at eye level or you are screwed in trouble. And we wonder why the failure rate for first-time novelists is so staggering.

But the Browsing Plan looked so promising.

Time for Tough Love

I know some might feel I am being mean, but nothing can be further from the truth. I LOVE bookstores. I grew up in them. But when we prop up inefficiency, we stymie creativity.

Artists have had to innovate and get creative. NY hasn’t propped up failing authors out of misguided sentimentality. Why do bookstores get a pass? But, since I do not believe in criticizing without offering solutions, here are some ideas.

Solutions for Big Publishing

The Big Six are hurting because of Amazon. Fine. But instead of whining and adopting strategies like “agency pricing” why not learn? After all that has happened in the past ten years, I have to ask the hard question. Why doesn’t the Big Six have their own e-publishing divisions? WHY, WHY, WHY?

Let’s Get Creative, Folks!

An e-publishing division could get books to market far faster. This way, when a regime crumbles, a candidate is elected or a natural disaster strikes, you can sell LOTS of books while people still care. You can take advantage of trends (like, um vampires) while they are still hot instead of gambling that you can predict the next craze or waste time chasing your losses.

In a world addicted to instant gratification, one and two-year lead-times are DEATH.

The New Kids on the Block

New York, if you guys had an e-division, you could take on new untested writers that agents deliver with very little risk. If a new writer sells so many e-books, she earns a print deal and can earn a spot in a…bookstore. Publishers don’t waste paper printing books that don’t sell and bookstores don’t waste shelf space on…books that don’t sell.

Now you have a system that rewards talent and hard work and you can afford higher royalty rates. Agents and writers are happy. Yay! More authors get a shot at proving their book is what readers want, and readers can feel secure buying your books because they trust traditional publishing for quality. Now you guys are doing your real business which isn’t printing, but, rather, finding talented teachers, inspirers and storytellers and connecting them to eager audiences.

In my opinion, there is no reason that the Big Six publishers can’t use e-publishing for vetting out new authors. How many books can a B&N shelve anyway? Let B&N keep carrying the bigger name authors and a handful of other hot authors/books in printed form. They need room for all their Nook displays anyway.

But what do the bookstores do?

There is no reason that a B&N clerk can’t be there to help guide a new Nook owner through a touch-screen to check out the latest e-published titles, too. Come on! Use some imagination! Just need to step up and embrace the service industry. Ten years ago y’all were whining that people didn’t read and now that they do? No whining.

You’ve already invested in the Nook, so why not partner with NY and invest in better POD technology? Customers can browse digital touch-screens and, if customers want a paper copy? They can have one. Swipe a credit card and hit “print.” Offer them a free cup of coffee and then they can pick up their POD book when they’re ready to check out.

Indie Bookstores! Want to Thrive in the New Paradigm? There’s an App for That…

Independent bookstores can find new life in the digital age. Why? Because we still dig nostalgia. In a world where everything changes, it is comforting that some things remain. But passive selling is no longer enough. You guys need could use a little imagination, too.

Indie bookstores could still carry titles of big authors that we all know will sell loads of hard copies. None of us worried that the last Harry Potter books would go to waste. But indie stores could embrace technology for greater advantage.

Technology is getting cheap enough that you guys could also have a touch screen where customers could order digital titles straight from your store. NY Publishing could give you an app to help customers order directly from their digital imprint (and you get sales credit).

Another benefit is that the program could be designed to capture customer information so that you (the store) and publishers can glean a clearer idea of who is buying and why. Oh, and you can probably also talk customers into parting with an e-mail address so you can keep them posted on the latest and greatest releases in both print and digital.

There are half a dozen computer geeks that could even design you your own app. How many readers would looooove a Book and Candle Indie Bookstore app on their iPhone? From that app, they get customized recommendations on what books to buy and can order straight from their phone, only you get sales credit from NY.

If you can’t compete with B&N on price, compete with service.

Sure, customers might pay a little more for an e-book using their indie app, but they get to feel all warm and fuzzy knowing that their purchases are supporting their local indie bookstore AND they are getting recommendations from a bookstore they TRUST. Your opinions and knowledge of books become a service people are willing to pay extra to use.

Be innovative! I know you can do it!

Booksellers still provide a valuable service in a world of 99 cent bargains.

Most booksellers are avid readers and can help drive sales. Just offer customers an incentive to order from YOUR kiosk or YOUR app, so you make money. Maybe we get free cups of coffee or free e-books if we order from inside your store from your POS system.

Working Together

Oh and NY? You can help booksellers out by offering incentives for pushing sales of new authors and digital titles. Since waste will be minimized, you can afford to offer financial reward for helping move titles in the digital lines.

Now the authors win. Because waste is minimized, we can earn higher royalties. Booksellers win because they can keep selling the same books they have always sold while minimizing waste and overhead and they can tap into the digital sales, too.

Publishers? You get to streamline and authors who write good books will sell lots of books and those who don’t? They still won’t sell books, only the losses will be a heck of a lot less. And, because the risk is diminished, you can afford to take risks on new authors and more authors.

Also, since you will no longer be bound by physical shelf space, you can now represent authors who have great stories that might not fit cleanly in a single genre. You can also now make money off types of writing that were, before in the print paradigm, a suicide investment. Poetry, novellas, short-stories and screenplays can now earn money.

Everyone wins. Heck if you want more ideas, check out this post from last year or better yet? E-mail me. Kristen at kristen lamb dot org.

At the end of the day, I love writers. I love publishers and bookstores. I love NY! But propping up inefficient systems, denying inevitable change and complaining only keep us from working on creative solutions.

We have watched the music industry crash, the photo industry and even the film industry. They failed to properly anticipate the markets of the future and they paid for their poor foresight. They had to reinvent from the ashes.

Traditional publishing is an institution and it does bring a unique value to the industry, but that alone is no longer enough. Amazon is looming and the future is now, so this is the multi-billion dollar question. Is big publishing going to race down that same road and crash, thinking it is the special exception? Or will they choose to learn from the past and work on creating a brighter future?

Oh, and NY? I am offering help. Seriously, e-mail me and we can work on creating some solutions. I believe you have a wonderful place in the future paradigm, but we need to stop strategizing from fear and begin using your imagination :D.

So readers! What are your opinions, thoughts, suggestions? The paradigm is changing so quickly most of us can’t keep up. Is this thrilling for you or terrifying? How have you dealt with the changes? Where do you struggle? How do you think NY can become more responsive in an age of instant gratification?

I LOVE hearing from you!

And to prove it and show my love, for the month of February, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. If you leave a comment, and link back to my blog, and mention my book We Are Not Alone in your blog…you get your name in the hat THREE times. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly.

I will pick a winner every week for a critique of your first five pages. At the end of February I will pick a winner for the grand prize. A free critique from me on the first 15 pages of your novel. Good luck!

I also hope you pick up copies of my best-selling books We Are Not Alone–The Writer’s Guide to Social Media and Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer . Both books are ON SALE for $4.99!!!! And both are recommended by the hottest agents and biggest authors in the biz. My methods teach you how to make building your author platform FUN. Build a platform and still have time left to write great books.

Mash-Up of Awesomeness

Trolls, Sockpuppets and Cyberbullies by the amazing Anne R. Allen

Amazon Will Destroy You by Joe Konrath

Love the Life Givers by Ingrid Schaffenburg

Write Heart-Pounding Visceral Responses by Margie Lawson over at Jenny Hansen’s More Cowbell Blog

Why Romances are a Valid & Important Piece of Literature by my FAVE Jody Hedlund

Learn to Love the Pitch by Sarah Pinneo over at one of my favorite places Writer Unboxed

10 Questions to Ask Before Committing to Any E-Publishing Service over at Jane Friedman’s blog.

Really sweet blog over at Richard Monroe’s Blog A Little Girl’s Love

Oh and I just LOVE Gene Lempp’s blog. He has a neat post Designing from Bones–Demons, Daemons and Dramatic Struggle

A new fave? Came from #MyWANA of course! Jen J. Danna has a killer forensics blog. The post that caught my interest is about how to use bones to determine a victim’s age.

The post Bracing for Impact–The Future of Big Publishing in the New Paradigm appeared first on Kristen Lamb.