A local restaurant owner uses this tagline to promote his small chain of (of course) steak houses. This kitschy slogan made me think about traditional publishers and their value proposition: selecting manuscripts and turning them into books that people want to buy, and doing this consistently. In a way, they stake their reputations (brands) on and endorsing each manuscript that they select and decide to publish. The average reader might not know who publishes a given book, but likely believes that if “MacMillan” is on the spine, the book will meet a minimum level of writing quality, doesn’t contain typos, has all the pages (in order), and so on. Every reader might not like every book MacMillan publishes, but would, for the most part, agree that everything MacMillan produces is quality work.
But to be successful (i.e., turn a profit consistently), MacMillan (or any other traditional publisher) needs also to pick books that people want to buy; let’s call this buyability. With their endorsement, publishers ensure both the quality of the book and its buyability. Obviously, it doesn’t work for every book, but publishers stake their reputations on doing this—on enough books and repeatedly over time. It’s because of this endorsement, and thus reputation, that the large retailers (Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart) stock their shelves with products primarily from traditional publishers. It doesn’t mean that a self-published book can’t make its way onto the shelves at Barnes & Noble, but it’s fairly unusual. Most self-published books are sold online.
According to a presentation given by Kelly Gallagher of Bowker PubTrack at the Making Information Pay 2009 conference, “41% of all book purchases are in a retail setting, versus 27% online.” Likewise, Bowker finds “37% of books purchased are due to the title being on the shelf/spinning rack/display.” Traditional publishers pretty much “own” the brick and mortar channel for books and do just fine online as well. The online self-publishing industry appears to be flourishing, but for authors who want to make money, books need to be in traditional retail outlets (at least for now).
So, even though it is possible for an author to publish a book himself (by LuLu, CreateSpace, etc.), create buzz (FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace), and generate sales (online retailers like Amazon), writers still flock to traditional publishers to get their books published because the publishers’ “endorsement value” still translates into the surest way for an author to maximize the monetization of their work. The “endorsement value” of a traditional publisher—coupled with the continued power of traditional retail—still holds. It’s not the only way for an author to make money any more, but for now it’s still the most reliable. I’ll stake my reputation on it.
Next: The Online Impact of Quality and Buyability
