Holiday Greetings,
It is said that 80% of books are sold over the holidays, and that's good news unless you worry about these books being bought by people for other people. What percentage of these gift books get read? How accurately do gift book buyers gauge their recipients' tastes and preferences? Are some books purchased for holiday gifts the fruitcakes of the literary world? I just saw that a new translation of War and Peace has been released. At 1,296 pages, could Tolstoy have written a fruitcake? Books are probably less likely candidates for re-gifting than fruitcakes -- but just in case -- if you do buy someone War and Peace or some other hefty tome, I'd inscribe it to them personally and eliminate any unseemly urges on their part...
This month we celebrate the release of a much slimmer volume by the creators of one of the biggest self-publishing success stories since The Christmas Box. Released in October, just in time for the holidays, is First Snow in the Woods, the third in a trio of charming children's books written, photographed and self-published by the husband & wife team of Carl R. Sams II and Jean Stoick. Stranger in the Woods started it all in 1999, and has now been translated around the world, sold 1.5 million copies, and spawned a variety of side products, from videos to plush toys. In 2005 we awarded the second title of the trilogy, Lost in the Woods, the IPPY Award for Best Illustrated Children's Book, because it was the first book that convinced us that artistic photography is a viable way to illustrate an award-worthy children's story book.
"If you've got a book that's really good, you've got to keep it alive," says Sams II, in our article about the way they turned Stranger into a multi-product franchise. We list some tips that all self-publishers can learn from about building a series, creating add-on products, conducting promotions -- and avoiding publishing fruitcakes.
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Is the new Amazon Kindle on your holiday gift list? It's one of the items we cover in this month's Industry Update, and in my opinion, one of the biggest stories in publishing this year. Although the new portable reader is getting mixed reviews, the potential of a device that fits in your fanny pack and provides free wireless access to the "world's biggest bookstore" from anyplace, anytime, lifts Jeff Bezos even higher as the most powerful man in bookselling.
There are still a few glitches in the Kindle -- it's considered a bit awkward to use, too expensive, and some folks live in areas that don't have wireless service -- but it can hold 200 books, provides access to a dictionary and Wikipedia, and allows searching within a book. To me, the larger implication is that it makes buying books from Amazon.com so convenient...and it's not very hard to imagine a larger version, maybe a kiosk located in malls and airports, that also spits out print-on-demand hard copies. If it starts dispensing cappuccinos, it may be time to unload your Border's stock.
As Bezos said in a recent Newsweek cover story, "This isn't a device, it's a service. The vision is that you should be able to get any book—not just any book in print, but any book that's ever been in print—on this device in less than a minute." Newsweek reporter Steven Levy says in the story, "But if all goes well for Amazon, several years from now we'll see revamped Kindles, equipped with color screens and other features, selling for much less. And physical bookstores, like the shuttered Tower Records of today, will be lonelier places, as digital reading thrusts us into an exciting—and jarring—post-Gutenberg era."
This may be what's bugging Michael Powell, of Powell's Books in Portland, OR. In case you missed it, here's a link to an excellent L.A. Times article about Powells and its challenges for the future.
All I can say, on my 55th birthday, remembering back to the day when I became an avid reader and the cutting edge of publishing was a spinning wire rack of "pocket" books with their racy illustrated covers...we've come a long, long way, baby.
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For a great list of holiday gift book ideas, check out our latest batch of Highlighted Titles, the best books Santa's brought down our chimney in the past couple of months. And in case you need more children's gift ideas, check out the results of our first annual Moonbeam Children's Book Awards with a full listing of gold, silver and bronze medalists, and some photos from the presentation event. Columnist Nina L. Diamond profiled Moonbeam Award-winner, Nachshon Press, gold medalist in the Young Adult Non-Fiction category with Homeland: The Illustrated History of the State of Israel. In her Much Ado About Publishing column, Nina gives us her take on the Writer's Guild strike, with What if Authors Went on Strike? and also delivers her Annual Holiday Parody, sure to get you into the "Christmahanukwanzukah" spirit.
And don't forget:
Axiom Business Book Awards - final deadline extended to Dec. 15th. We've had some website problems and online entry glitches, so we're still encouraging you to enter your business-related titles in this new awards program designed to recognize exemplary business books and their creators, and to bring the year's most outstanding business books together with business people eager to read them.
Independent Publisher Book Awards - Next early-bird fee deadline January 15th. Rewarding those who exhibit the independent spirit, innovation, and creativity to bring about
change in the world of publishing in 65 categories plus Regional Awards and the
Ten Outstanding Books of the Year.
Wishing you the Joy of the Season and Peace On Earth,
Jim Barnes
jimb@bookpublishing.com |
