Works Cited



The Future for Book Publishing CompaniesJennifer AutryOctober 24, 2018Prepared forProfessor Amanda ScottBrigham University – IdahoEnglish 252:05Fundamentals of Research and PresentationIntroduction: Digital Age and PublishingIn my dream I can envision myself holding up my published book and announcing to the world that I have achieved something great. I have written a book worthy of being accepted by a publisher and now it is in print on paper and bound into a book. Proof that I have achieved excellence. Sadly, I do not know if my dream will ever come true. Not because I do not write and edit and edit and edit and send out books to publishers. Not because I do not have good book ideas, but because the future of book publishing may not be in print books or with publishing companies. With the coming of the digital age, the future of publishing print books has been questioned. Will print publishing and publishing companies be practically obsolete as Jason Epstein, a former Radom House editor, has suggested? CITATION Gre13 \l 1033 (Greco). Or will publishing companies respond to the changes by embracing technology and use it facilitate an easier and quicker way to publish? Will they encourage people to buy physical books as well as making other options available?Publishing companies have already started to respond to changes technology brought to their business. They continue to come up with new price points, adjust to the new technology, navigate the economic effects of the digital age, and influence public policies to ensure copyrights and sales rights are protected CITATION Gre13 \l 1033 (Greco). The next hurdle publishing companies will have to face is the increasing number of authors self-publishing. These self-publishing authors have taken a cut into the stable, but not growing market CITATION Mcl17 \l 1033 (Mcllroy). Even though many of these changes have affected the bottom line for publishing companies, the publishing industry has “survived wars and recessions, assassinations and terrorist attacks, and a flood of cat books and inane self-help titles. It will survive for decades to come in spite of a myriad of challenges and problems that threaten its basic business models and the important bottom line CITATION Gre13 \l 1033 (Greco).” As long as there are authors, there will be publishers trying to help them improve and sell their books.Figure 1. “Book Obsolesces” CITATION Mar \l 1033 (Parisi) – permission paid for.My Position: Publishing Companies will Survive Digital Age ThreatsOne of the challenges facing publishing companies today is coming up with price points. Price points are the perfect price for a book to maximize profits and still interest the customers. Some may think that the cost of publishing a book should greatly decrease for electronic-books, but it doesn’t. The cost to edit and market are still a part of the process for producing electronic books (e-books) and they are the most expensive parts of the book publishing business. The cost to print, store, and ship books are the only costs that can be eliminated when making an e-book instead of a physical book. These costs are minimal, and they do not drop the price down very much, maybe a third of the price. Which means a $14.95 paperback book would end up costing $10 as an e-book. CITATION Mat12 \l 1033 (Matthews). As publishing companies grapple with price points they also need to adjust to and utilize the advancements in technology. Tim Hely Hutchinson, the CEO of Hachette UK, commented on this subject when he was asked what lie ahead for books in 2016. Hutchinson said the “real job is to use all forms of media” CITATION Hut16 \l 1033 (Hutchinson). This would include printing books, creating electronic-books, making audiobooks, and more. He further goes on to say that publishing companies will not lose their book campaign “if our book and digital output are entertaining, relevant, and available wherever and however people want to enjoy them” CITATION Hut16 \l 1033 (Hutchinson). A key for publishing companies to survive the digital age is to embrace the changes and continue to provide products that the consumers want. If consumers want more e-books, they need to pursue that. If the consumers want more audiobooks, then they need to pursue that course. In creating e-books and audiobooks there are economic effects. Some companies like Amazon’s Kindle and others are creating a subscription-based product. The consumer will pay a monthly fee to have unlimited access to a great deal of books CITATION Alb16 \l 1033 (Albanese). How does a publisher make money off subscription-based books? According to Jenny Flake Rabe, a self-published author who works through Amazon, subscription-based companies pay per page CITATION Rab18 \l 1033 (Rabe). The publisher and/or author will get a certain agreed upon amount per page that is viewed of their products. Which means that companies will no longer be receiving a cut from the book, but instead from the actual pages read from the book. This provides added incentive to cater their products to what the market wants.Another challenge that has arisen due to the digital age is the public policies associated with digital media. One difficult public policy issue also has to do with figuring out price points for publishing companies in the global market. Print books are easy to discern costs and profit because they are an export product. Digital books are much harder to define because it is unclear whether they are an export product. There is no physical copy. Along with those challenges in the global market there are also copyright and sales right infringements in the digital market. With easy access to books, it is easier copy them and resell them under a new author name. The publishing companies are actively working to influence public policies to ensure that these issues are addressed.Publishing companies are also battling with big influencers in the book industry like Amazon. Amazon is one of largest book retailers in the industry. Near the end of 2014, Hachette was able to finally finish negotiating a peace deal after fighting it the entire year. Hachette fought for their right to set the prices for their products. Even though the two companies were able to come to an agreement, one of Hachette’s authors, Douglas Preston, created a group to support a “letter to the Justice Department urging an investigation of Amazon on antitrust grounds” CITATION Str14 \l 1033 (Streitfield). Publishers and Authors will not simply allow big companies to push them out of business together. The relationship of a good publisher and their authors is a mutually beneficial one that should be protected.Opposing View: Will Self-publishing Authors Put Publishers Out of Business?During the big Amazon and Hachette dispute, one of “Amazon’s supporters publicly questioned the need for Hachette, the fourth largest publisher, to exist in an era when authors can publish themselves digitally…” CITATION Str14 \l 1033 (Streitfield). This is a valid argument; do we really need publishing companies? A person can easily self-publish their own books on the internet without even having to go through a publishing company. In fact, Jennifer Flake Rabe, the self-published author discussed earlier, enjoys the freedom of self-publishing. Rabe picks her cover, decides what title she wants, and chooses her own time-line for publishing. If Rabe were to go with a publishing company, they would want a lengthy editorial process that may change her title, cover, and various other aspects of her books. There would be no guarantee of when the book would be published, and it can sometimes take years. Rabe has successfully published 4 books in the last year. These books are in print and e-book format. One of them even has an audiobook and she is working on the others getting an audiobook as well CITATION Rab18 \l 1033 (Rabe). Jenny Flake Rabe successfully navigates the self-publishing industry and works with Amazon to not only recoup the costs of publishing but make some money as well. This last year she has made almost $900. Rabe’s friends make $10,000 a month selling their books on Amazon. Rabe enjoys being able to set the price for her books and if she wants more business she can even pay for advertising to market her books. When asked whether she would like to work with a publishing company someday, Rabe said maybe someday. For now, she likes the freedom of self-publishing CITATION Rab18 \l 1033 (Rabe). Response to Opposing View: Self-Publishing is Not for Everyone, Publishers Still NeededWith all the freedom that self-publishing creates, are publishers still needed? Lara Hues had an answer for that. Hues is a hybrid author, which means she has both self-published and published with a publishing company. Hues said that although there are some authors who want to be in control of all aspects of the business, she does not. Lara Hues wants to write and leave the editing, publishing, marketing, and business side of being an author to the publishing companies. When asked why she decided to self-publish she responded that she did not think the books that she self-published would make it out of the flush pile. She didn’t want to see all her hard work go to waste and wanted the distinction of being a published author and so she self-published CITATION Hue18 \l 1033 (Hues). Lara is not alone in her thinking and there are many aspects of creating a book that publishing companies help their authors with. During a podcast interview Lisa Mangum, an editor with Shadow Mountain publishing, discussed the ways a publishing company helps their authors. She said Shadow Mountain helps with editing, cover design, titles, tours, creating book marks and signs for events, advertising, and planning author events CITATION Man18 \l 1033 (Mangum). There are many authors that would appreciate the burden of these tasks off their shoulders. They will seek out publishing companies in the hopes of receiving help and validation. The validation comes from someone in the industry liking your idea and wanting to invest time and money on your project.The money a publishing company invests in the book is money that would have had to come out of the author’s pocket if they chose to self-publish. Jenny Flake Rabe mentioned that self-publishing is a lot of money spent by the author upfront, but they also get more profit after it is published. The normal revenue for an author is ten percent CITATION Mat12 \l 1033 (Matthews). Rabe makes twenty percent of the profits off her print books and the e-books make even more CITATION Rab18 \l 1033 (Rabe). However, not every author can invest large amounts of money into publishing their own books. These authors will need publishing companies to help them.Lara’s experiences in self-publishing will illustrate this point. Her experience was not as lucrative as Rabe’s. Lara has spent a lot of money publishing her book and has sold a very small amount, barely recouping the cost of printing. This does not include the money she pays for help editing. For Lara self-publishing is an expensive prospect not a profitable one (Hues). Since not everyone will be successful selling their own books, we will continue to need publishing companies to help readers with the business of books.Not only do publishing companies help with the business they also offer validation for the writer. Publishing companies have been around for years, they are basically the judges of the book world. When they reject a book, it is like in an Olympic sport when the athlete is disqualified from the event. When they accept and publish a book, it is like an Olympic athlete winning a gold medal. The authors work has been judged by the experts as worthy of print. Not only does it provide validation for the author, but there are also customers who are loyal to the publishing companies that they have come to know and love. The customers seek out the books their favorite publishing company produces. When an author is able to publish with one of these companies they already have an instant readership that is willing to try the book based on the publishing company.Conclusion: Publishing Companies Are StayingThe digital age has changed the world. Libraries that used to be full of be full of books, movies, CDs, DVDs, and audio books are starting to be bookless CITATION Jef13 \l 1033 (Glor). These types of changes have created challenges and obstacles for the publishing company. As each new challenge arises, they have been able to overcome it. Publishing companies will continue to be a viable industry as they continue to produce products the customers want. They do this by deciding what prices their physical and digital books will need to make money and keep the customers happy. This knowledge will continue to improve their revenue and sales. Publishing companies will also need to adjust to the continually changing technology to ensure that their business is current. That is done by embracing the technology advancements and realizing how to capitalize on those advancements. In discussing how the publishing industry plans on handling the wave of digital innovation Chantal Restivo-Alessi, the chief digital officer and executive v-p of international for Harper Collins, said “There is still significant room to innovate around product offerings (e-books, digital audio, enhanced e-books, and apps), but the digital focus...is increasingly on platforms, distribution models, e-commerce, and marketing innovations, including social media” CITATION Alb16 \l 1033 (Albanese). Publishing companies are constantly researching and advancing with the world around them.Publishers will also navigate the economic effects of the digital age and keep their costs low to maximize their profits. Finally, they will need to influence public policies to ensure that their products and authors are safe guarded from malicious intent.Facing these issues will be challenging enough, but publishing companies will continue to compete against the ever-growing self-publishing market. As they have in the past, publishers will weather the storms and continue to produce books as long as there are readers willing to buy them.Works Cited BIBLIOGRAPHY Albanese, Andrew Richard and Calvin Reid. "What Does 2016 Hold for Digital? E-book sales declined in 2015, but the next wave of digital innovation in publishing is well under way." Publishers Weekly 4 January 2016: 20-25.Greco, Albert N, Jim Milliot, & Robert Wharton. The Book Publishing Industry edition 3. Routledge, 2013.Hues, Lara. Interview. Jennifer Autry. 22 October 2018.Hutchinson, Tim Hely. ""What Lies Ahead for books in 2016? From bespoke Publishign to the continued rise of the vloggers, industry leaders give us their tips for the likely trends in 2016." The Bookseller. 8 Jan 2016. , Lisa. LDS Beta Readers Online Conference Q&A . 7 April 2018. . BIBLIOGRAPHY Matthews, Curt. "Publisher's Must Price E-books Higher to Cover Publishing Costs." E-books, edited by Debra A. Miller, Greenhaven Press, 2013. Current Controversies. Opposing Viewpoints in Context . Accessed 24 Oct. 2018. Originally published as "What Should an E-book Cost?", 24 Feb 2012.Mcllroy, Thad. Publishing Research Quarterly. Vol. 33. Mar 2017. Database: Communication & Mass Media Complete. 24 October 2018.Parisi, Mark. Book Obsolesces. . - permission paid for.Rabe, Jenny Flake. Interview. Jennifer Autry. 24 October 2018.Streitfield, David. "Amazon and Hachette Resolve Dispute." The New York Times 13 November 2014. ................
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