Principled Innovation LLC

More on biz model innovation in book publishing

June 14th, 2008

Just two days after I shared some thoughts on the need for a new business model in association book publishing, a very interesting post on Harvard Business Publishing’s Conversation Starter blog sounded a similar theme for the the book publishing industry as a whole. The author of the post, Dave Balter, proposes an intriguing new business model concept for commercial publishing that I think could work in the association context as well:

• Authors self-package their book entirely on their own.
• Authors distribute digital copies of their books for free to attract readers and to identify a market. They use self-distribution tools to sell as many books as they can.
• Based on the response, the publisher determines which books to pick up, and pays a licensing and distribution right and uses their relationships to distribute a product that has developed an initial marketplace of buyers (note: great new potential business model for some plucky entrepreneur: track the ‘response’ of free book downloads as a data set for publishers to review opportunities).
• Publishers take the completed product, make tweaks as author and publisher feel necessary, print more and distribute them through the strength of their partners.

Here, everyone wins. Authors have to prove their ability to deliver a good book and build an audience before a publisher fully invested. Publishers greatly reduce the up front production costs and the risk of betting on authors that can’t produce, and increase the odds that what they spend on will provide results.

Balter’s proposal incorporates elements that I would include in my notion of joint venture development deals between authors and their association publishers. In my vision, authors would self-publish their books to ensure a consistent flow of income from direct sales. The association would then be an exclusive marketing partner for a pre-determined period (perhaps 12-18 months), during which time it would engage the author in a wide variety of promotional opportunities in exchange for the lion share of the revenues from marked-up books and other activities, such as educational seminars.

Similar to Balter’s ideas, my proposal shares risk between the partners. In this scenario, authors must create powerful content that people want to buy in order to earn money, while association publishers must build a deeper understanding of its market in order promote and sell the book profitably. Regardless of which approach you prefer, however, the fundamental point is clear: going forward, the world of book publishing–including association book publishing–will succeed only if the players are willing to experiment with a radically different way of doing business.

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