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The New York Times has a great online brand and business… [but the print newspaper business] is imploding and dragging down the rest of the company.

Sounds like a familiar problem these days, right? All too familiar. But here’s the interesting twist. The New York Times is a social media rockstar! This morning, for example, the New York Times Twitter acount (@nytimes) has almost 2.7 million followers! You read that right. That’s the big leagues. Idon’t play in the big leagues. The farm leagues, perhaps! In relative terms, @nytimes has approximately 831 times more followers than I do… And I’m one of those 2.7 million followers because I value the real-time information soundbites, article leads, etc.

To put this into perspective, that’s more than twice as large as the New York Times’ print circulation, which is slightly under a million copies for the daily copy of the paper.

And, let’s face it. The disparity between these two circulation figures will only grow as time goes on. So what’s the point? I tend to agree with [most of] the following:

we think those two numbers are such a symbol of the NYT’s current, bittersweet situation:

• Print is dying;
• The NYT is going to have to restructure and reorient its business in a major way;
• But the NYT is actually hugely successful online and has all the assets it needs to build a huge, lasting online brand instead of letting itself be disrupted by nimbler outfits like the Huffington Post.

(Business Insider)

I’m not ready to foretell the death of print. Not totally. Not yet. Books, in particular, will keep print alive, but (as I’ve said before) print books will become an increasingly niche subset of publishing. However, newspapers alre already stepping away from print. The businees model simply isn’t sustainable. I read virtually all of my news on the web at this point. Living oversees made me an early adopter. Universal access. Instantaneous access. And nothing to throw away. Nothing to smudge all over my fingers. Easy to search. In my opinion, digital journalism has already discplaced print, and we’ll continue to see print newspapers shuttered in the days ahead. Twitter won’t replace nytimes.com but the website will replace the print paper. Etc.

The publishing industry’s changing landscape (engadget.com)

Not to be outdone by Amazon, Borders and Barnes & Noble have entered the publishing racket.

Earlier this month Barnes & Noble launched a self-publishing platform called PubIt! that will compete directly with Amazon CreateSpace and indirectly with Apple’s iBookstore.

In an attempt to do for indie writers what InstantAction has done for indie game developers,… the world’s largest bookseller is hoping to expand its importance in the digital realm by giving wannabe authors the ability to upload and sell their material through B&N’s website and eBookstore… the real kicker here is this won’t be limited to the Nook; pretty much any e-reader, tablet or PC will be able to tap in and make purchases, so the potential audience is quite large. (engadget)

Of course, Kindle too ensured that their electronic books are universally accessible by developing apps that work across devices and platforms, but B&N’s open publishing model is smart. Sure, Nook has been a bit of a sleeper next to the Kindle, and B&N doesn’t want to limit the potential market (or perception) by being number two in the reader market. Or number three when the iPad is thrown into the mix? Whatever the logic guiding this policy, it’s welcome and overdue. Limiting media to Kindle or iPad, though lucrative in the short run, is a major turnoff for the consumer. It’s like saying, “Here, buy our glossy print book, but you can only read it at home. Not at work. Not on vacation. Not on the bus. At home!” Okay, so it’s not exactly like that, but it is perceived as unnecessarily restrictive. And if B&N can manage to open up the electronic publishing industry, I’m confident that consumers (and authors) will respond.

Okay, enough prattling and jab-jab-jabberwocky… What’s the bottom line?

[PubIt!] is essentially designed to give independent writers a venue for hawking their masterpieces, with PubIt! converting files to ePUB for use on a wide range of e-readers… Published titles will be available for sale within 24 to 72 hours after upload on the B&N eBookstore, and the company’s pretty proud of its “no hidden fees” policy… PubIt! ebooks will also be lendable for a fortnight… (engadget)

Using the service, authors can publish and sell eBooks through the Borders eBook store, as well as other partner eBook retailers… Authors can sell works of any length and chose [sic] the price within a price range set by the retailer. Authors can add content by typing in the platform, by copying and pasting it into an online form, or content can be fed from an existing website or blog. The content will be saved as an ePub file.

There are two tiers of pricing for those looking to get published –$89.99 and $199.99. Under the basic package, BookBrewer will assign the book an ISBN and make it available to major eBook stores at a price set by the writer. Royalties will be based on sales and will vary with each retailer. The higher priced package comes with a full version of the ePub file, that authors can share with friends, family and press and submit to other eBook stores. (mediabistro.com)

The definition of “book publisher” is up for grabs, and those in the industry will have to be brave and imaginative, in double-quick time, to lay claim to this new definition. Others might find it easier to begin with a blank sheet.

At heart, publishers exist to create more value for writers than writers can (or wish to) create for themselves. It’s clear that the specifics of this role are changing. Some writers have decided that they can create as much value as they need alone, and feel freer by doing it themselves. Elsewhere there is a debate about where the line lies in a fair return for licensing copyrights, particularly when it comes to older books. Fundamentally, though, the need for publishers endures, even if not in their current form. Readers will be best served by publishers who can marry the best of what is sometimes labeled “legacy” publishing to the new means of developing and delivering what readers want and writers need. (The Guardian)

Stephen Page’s post about the future of publishing is level headed and insightful. He steps away from the increasingly popular bashing of “old publishing” and acknowledges that these legacy book publishers have a distinct advantage if they can adapt quickly. Others have lambasted the traditional publishers for failing to anticipate the tide change. I myself have nagged at this point. But Page reminds us that even as latecomers to the party, existing book publishers stand to reap significant rewards if they can quickly overcome four challenges:

1. Publishers must update their digital royalty rates.
2. Publishers must provide high-quality editorial support.
3. Publishers must build audiences for writers, on and off-line.
4. Publishers must embrace (and accelerate) technological innovation.

If traditional publishers can quickly, efficiently meet these challenges, “the persistent reporting of the death of old publishing will continue to be mere exaggeration.” Point well taken. But so far, most traditional publishers seem more intent on resisting change — clinging to a model they know and love — than leap-frogging forward. Of course, it’s early, and the race is too the swift and the wise.

Related articles

• What purpose do book publishers serve? (gigaom.com)

“Technology has made virtually anything possible,” says Neill Denny, editor-in-chief of the publishing industry magazine The Bookseller. “If you look at it conceptually – there’s a five-link chain between the person who writes and the person who reads. You’ve got Author-Agent- Publisher-Retailer-Reader. Theoretically, the three middle bits could all now vanish and the author could write online directly to the reader.”

However, he continues, “A more likely possibility is that just one of the three central links will vanish on-line. It could be that Amazon, the retailer, becomes the publisher. Or that the agent becomes the publisher, or the publisher becomes the retailer, and you go to a publisher’s site to buy the book. One of those links will certainly disappear on-line. We just don’t know which.” (The Independent)

John Walsh’s article “E-books: the end of the world as we know it” offers no new insights, but a handy summary. More intriguing though are the comments which are worth a wade through. A few flaring tempers, a few snarky jabs, and plenty of voiced growing pains as we tramp through the clumsy not-altogether-painless publishing revolution.

Related articles

• Demise of Borders highlights vanishing print infrastructure (teleread.com)

“There’s a revolution going on right now in the way that people consume journalism. We’re at a point where technology is going to enable us to view and consume media in an entirely different way… One thing that we’ve been great at doing is telling stories… This is just adding one more avenue of communicating and connecting with the brand of Wired… We really would like to offer more choices to our readers and to our advertisers and move beyond just the static notion of ink on a piece of paper.” ~ Scott Dadich (Creative Director, WIRED)

Tippingpoint Labs founder Andrew Davis dives into the publishing bruhaha in a provocative post, “Seth Godin and the Flower Clock“. Flower clock?!?! Yep, and a clever connection made. Here’s the skinny.

The Aalsmeer Flower Auction located in Holland is the world’s largest flower auction. Cool, right? Bet you didn’t thought about the back story for those iris you planted last spring, did you. Now you will. And you’ll think about flowers a little differently. And maybe the future of publishing too…

What’s amazing about Aalsmeer isn’t its sheer size, or the volume of flowers they ship. It’s not the high-tech, precision supply chain management process they employ. It’s the financial model they use to set the price of one flower… This is what’s known as a “Dutch Auction,” and it’s been taking place since 1860. (Tippingpoint Labs)

Overstock.com and RedEnvelope.com, decided to cut out the middle man (the investment banks). They looked to the Aalsmeer Flower Auction as a model for going public. This new approach set the stage for one of the most innovative and successful IPOs in market history: Google. In August of 2004, Google went public with lower fees and a more diverse investor base. It demonstrated the power of democratic finance at its finest. Google proved that an innovative approach to raising money (more than $20 billion) existed outside the widely accepted and traditional approaches to investment banking.(Tippingpoint Labs)

Traditional publishers are in a frenzy. Book publicists, agents, and the publishers themselves are challenged with disruptive technologies that are “destroying” their traditional business models. It looks a lot like Wall Street after the dot-com bust. There’s confusion and frustration in the marketplace… With each and every second that passes by, traditional publishers are watching their market erode. The first publisher willing to stand up and bid on a new publishing model will set the standard for the future. (Tippingpoint Labs)

Related articles

• Sarah Kay: Seth Godin’s Last Domino (virtualdavis.com)

“Create buzzz for your book” with AuthorHive

Generate Some Serious Book BZZZ : With help from the marketing experts at AuthorHive, your book can be the talk of the town. No matter what your marketing experience or budget, our marketing consultants can help you create an integrated campaign to tell your story. (viaAuthorHive)

Yet another sign of the times, shifting services toward writers, empowering the author to step increasingly into the shoes of the publisher. Have you had any experience with AuthorHive or a similar book marketing service? Is it the wave of the future?

Amazon predicts that it will sell more e-books than paperbacks by the end of next year, and that they will eclipse both paperback and hardcover sales combined shortly thereafter. “I predict we will surpass paperback sales sometime in the next nine to 12 months. Sometime after that, we’ll surpass the combination of paperback and hardcover,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos told USA Today… [So] paperbacks and hardcovers may soon become a minority in the world of books. (Mashable.com)

Is Bezos bluffing in order to help drive the market? Or is he spot on? One day soon we’ll know, and in the mean time we’ll keep worrying, celebrating, laughing, panicking, arguing…

Ever wish you could sit down with a couple of bestselling authors and ask them what they think about the whole digital/traditional publishing debate? Here’s your chance. Sort of…

Tim Ferriss (Image: Scott Beale)

Tim Ferriss (@TFERRISS) and Ramit Sethi (@ramit), both New York Time’s bestselling authors, dish up raw, unfiltered and honest impressions of today’s book publishing world. They discuss both the benefits and the drawbacks of traditional publishing and self-publishing, and — though this video only offers one-way info flow — you could always shoot them follow-up questions via Twitter.

Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweekclimbed to the coveted top slot on The New York Times, Business Week, and The Wall Street Journal bestseller lists, and Sethi’s I Will Teach You To Be Rich popularity continues to drive more than a quarter million readers to his blog iwillteachyoutoberich.com every month.

If you’re wading into this brave new world of digital publishing, it might make sense to listen to these guys!

Publishing Updates for Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss publishes The 4-Hour Body.

Tim Ferriss publishes The 4-Hour Chef.

Related articles

• The 4-Hour Chef’s Not So Simple Path to Buzz (virtualdavis.com)

Smashwords is an ebook publishing and distribution platform for ebook authors, publishers and readers… At Smashwords, our authors and publishers have complete control over the sampling, pricing and marketing of their written works. Smashwords is ideal for publishing novels, short fiction, poetry, personal memoirs, monographs, non-fiction, research reports, essays, or other written forms that haven’t even been invented yet.

It’s free to publish and distribute with Smashwords. (Smashwords.com)

I’ve been hearing more and more about Smashwords.com lately:

• “Don’t Write, Create”
• “Thus Spoke Seth Godin”
• “Dress up your ebook for the Kindle Ball”

And just about everywhere else that folks are chewing the publishing industry fat. I’ve wandered their website and read miscelaneous tidbits here and there, but I’d really like to hear some firsthand accounts. Have you published a digital version of your book with Smashwords? What was your experience? Thanks!

Related articles

• How to Self-Publish an Ebook with Smashwords: 31 Authors Share Their Tips and Tricks (smashwords.com)
• Smashwords introduces ebook publishing and distribution service for literary agents (teleread.com)
• In Praise of Simple Ebooks (smashwords.com)
• 85,000 Titles Strong, Smashwords Pitches the Agents (ereads.com)
• On Smashwords and Amazon (joleenenaylor.wordpress.com)