Some cheese for that whine…. Books and Self-Publishing

Publishing companies have a lot to ‘whine’ about these days. There are a lot of problems they are facing and they don’t seem to be able to figure out how to climb out of the holes they’ve dug for themselves. This is part I of a 3 part series that I’m going to publish on here … each will be on one of the major publishing sectors. They will incorporate some of the major issues facing that sector of publishing today and some solutions that have come up through discussions with classmates, professors, industry professionals and through research and reading.

The Whine….

Today’s book publishing world is filled with amazon and the kindle, authors who no longer see the value in trading their earnings for the offering of a big publishing house and so instead choose to self-publish, Oprah, pricing issues and Google. Each of these issues is changing the industry as we know it, and deserves to be discussed and evaluated (although perhaps not in that order).

The Book Industry is NOT the music industry.

I’m getting tired of people saying that the book industry has the advantage of seeing what happened when the music industry went digital, or that the book industry is going the way of the music industry because of the digital revolution. The two are not really so alike. Yes, both are/were threatened by their impeding digitalization. But that’s just about where the similarities end.

Google. Not a Media Giant?

The recent settlement with Google will take a long time still before we feel all the effects but what it proves is that copyrights mean something. And it serves to remind us that Google began life as a search engine, not a content provider.

With the invention of the internet, came the idea that content should be free. Consumers like to consumer free content. But, as many in the publishing industry have come to realize almost too late, it is not free to produce. And what can be produced for free, lacks the editorial filters to ensure quality.

“Book Yourself a Job”

“Book Yourself a Job” is the new key phrase on bookjobs.com. Today, I attended a lecture by Tina Joran, the VP of the American Association of Publishers (AAP), which runs the site. She shared with us some insights on job hunting in the industry, as well as discussed some of the issues the industry is facing today.

There are several things you should know about the publishing industry if you think you want to work in it. The publishing industry is not an industry you choose to work in to become rich. In comparison, the business side of publishing (marketing, accounting, etc.) is slightly more profitable then editorial jobs. What this means, however, is that the people who are in publishing are in it because they love what they do.

If you are looking for a publishing job or even an internship, there are several sites that list positions.