With all the stats about audio downloads in MP3 format increasing over the past years, why would someone choose to put out an audiobook on VINYL, of all formats? Maja Thomas, one of the heads of the publishing group that released the record (Hachette), commented on its irony, saying that the author’s audience “is going to find this funny.” Funny or not, is it practical? Is it even worth the costs of producing? Was it just a publicity stunt? The same album was also released on cd, so it wasn’t one of those “this is the only format so you have to buy it if you want it” things. I get that records have been making a comeback. I’ve even been digging through my mom’s old records to see what I could find. But would I ever listen to a book on a record? Not a chance.

Deeper digging left me empty handed. I couldn’t find anything else about audiobooks published in vinyl format. My closest search result was a record of Stevie Wonder’s “Talking Book” album on Amazon, which definitely is not relevant.

What are your opinions? Do you think vinyl is at all a viable format for audiobook publishing? To me it kind of defeats the purpose. Records take up space and require a pretty hefty player, while MP3s can be carried on a minuscule device and take up no physical space whatsoever. Thomas stated in the article, “The record is coming back from the dead.” This may be true in the music industry, but not in publishing. And if it does come back, I feel like people will be after that said “zombie” like the crew in “Shaun of the Dead.” And we all know how that turned out for the zombies.

Ready to kick some serious vinyl butt.

Please feel free to comment on anything however you see fit. I’m looking forward to your feedback!

Betty Jean published her audiobook, Conversations With Cosmo: At Home with an African Grey Parrot, with Red Planet Audiobooks. It’s a great read, and it features actual dialog by Cosmo the Parrot! Here’s what she had to say about her experience with Red Planet:

“I was thrilled with the audiobook that Red Planet created from my hardback Conversations with Cosmo: At Home with an African Grey Parrot. With extreme care and great cleverness, the Red Planet producers inserted Cosmo’s utterances into the narration. The result was phenomenal: an audiobook about a parrot and by a parrot!”

You can buy Conversations With Cosmo right here. Thanks for the kind words, Betty Jean!

“…Upon deciding to take the leap from eBook to Audiobook, it was not an easy leap to make, with so many producers out there who wouldn’t blink twice at taking your money and delivering a sub-standard audio-file that would leave you wondering why you didn’t just record yourself with your cellphone! Then I stumbled upon Red Planet, not only did I receive an instant response to my initial inquiry, but a quick follow up and step by step help through the production project. It was only a matter of weeks when I received the audio clips from prospective voice actors. After choosing my voice actor, it was only a few weeks before the first cut became available, and WOW, what a job! Crystal clear voice overs, beautiful transitions, and an all-round fantastic job, well worth the production costs, and definitely a company that the Dare Empire will use again in the future…”

- Justin James
CEO/Publisher/Designer
Dare Empire eMedia Productions

Thanks, Justin!

Every year, the Audio Publishers Association conducts a survey about audiobook trends. It releases the results in order to give interested parties a snapshot of the industry. You can download it here.

Now, you might think that this data is pretty useful if you’re interested in publishing an audiobook. After all, it gives you an idea of what’s selling, who’s buying, and where things are headed. And to a certain extent, you’d be right.

Except…

You should take this data with a grain of salt. Maybe a big ol’ 50 pound rock of salt. Because this data comes from audiobook publishers. Big ones. Publishers who are, first and foremost, invested in the status quo. And as we preach over and over here at Red Planet, if you’re an independent author or, especially, a small press, you shouldn’t be thinking like them!

There are number of reasons for this. If you buy into our premise that the publishing industry is undergoing massive change and that a lot of traditional companies are getting left behind, it’s pretty obvious that you should look at their business practices and market focus with a hefty dose of skepticism.

But even if you believe that the big publishers are using their market research data wisely, that they’re focusing on the right demographics, there’s another reason to, as an Apple ad campaign once said, “think different.”

You’re a small publisher. Your strengths are NOT the same as, say, Brilliance Audio’s strengths. But then again, neither are your weaknesses. And, quite possibly, neither are your customers! And you know what else makes you different from Brilliance? The sheer number of audiobooks you need to sell in order to be profitable.

Why is this important? Think about it this way. Let’s pretend for a moment that you’re starting a business as a local widget retailer. And let’s pretend that there’s a Wal-Mart in your town. If Wal-Mart sells the same widgets that you do, would it make a lot of sense for you to set up shop in the strip center next door? Probably not. Wouldn’t it make more sense to set up shop in the next town over, where there’s less competition? Maybe. Or maybe better yet, why not set up shop next to Wal-Mart? Only, instead of selling widgets, why don’t you sell wadgets instead? Wal-Mart isn’t selling those!

In other words, as a small publisher, you have the luxury of focusing on markets and demographics that the Wal-Mart publishers of the world deem too small or unprofitable to even bother with. For instance, big publishing generally believes that fiction titles make good audiobooks, but non-fiction titles don’t (76% of audiobook titles released last year were fiction titles). Big publishing believes that adult titles make good audiobooks, but juvenile titles don’t (87% of audiobook titles released last year were adult titles).

If you’re a small press who carries a lot of non-fiction titles, what do these numbers mean to you? Do they mean there’s no money in publishing self-help audiobooks? Absolutely not! They mean that, although the market for these audiobooks might be smaller, so are the number of titles you’re competing against! And, as a small publisher, the number of audiobooks that you’ll need to sell in order to turn a profit is much, much smaller.

So, by all means, read the data that the big audiobook publishers release. But think long and hard about that data, about where it comes from, and when it makes the most sense for you to “swim upstream!”

photo by robertstinnett

We also spread the word about the new, lower barriers to entry for self published audio books. I presented a session at the conference called “Audiobooks for the Rest of Us,” and served on a panel with some great self- and small-publishing professionals. Throughout the week, 3 key points came up over and over, and I’d like to share these insights with you.

Alternative Formats Have Arrived

The Javits Convention Center, where the conference was held, is gargantuan. Massive. Enormous. The exhibition hall floor held a jaw-droppingly huge number of exhibitors. And walking the floor, it was very interesting to note how the energy in the hall changed depending on which section of exhibitors you were in.

The digital and ebook area was lively, charged with an almost palpable electricity and excitement about the future. There were all sorts of great new ideas on display. Deals were being made, partnerships were being formed. It was fun. It was exciting. iPads were everywhere! Cool new technology made me slap my forehead and say, “Ah ha! Brilliant!” several times. It was obvious that this is where the action is.

When you made your way into the bigger, more traditional players, though, the energy really changed. Things were more subdued. There wasn’t a lot of excitement. The most common interaction I saw at mid-level and bigger publishing house booths was between publishers and wholesalers looking for bargains on “remainders,” books that were printed, shipped, didn’t sell, were returned, and now needed to be offloaded cheaply. Time and time again, I scratched my head and wondered what sort of business model this was to run an entire industry on.

The independent and micropublishing area was a very interesting place. It was a mixed bag of folks who have been in publishing for a long time (who spent most of their time lamenting the changes in the industry and complaining about ebooks), newcomers trying to learn the ropes of traditional publishing, and brilliant outsiders with some amazing ideas, enthusiasm, and openness to new business models. You can probably tell which horse I’d bet on!

Self Publishing is Here to Stay

Several times throughout the week, several people mentioned the fact that the data is in. 2008 marked the first year in which more self published titles were released than “major” titles! The barriers to entry for small publishers and independents have never been lower. Self publishing is inexpensive. Infrastructure to get your self published audio book, your self published print title, or your ebook into the hands of consumers, is in place. Overall, the professionalism and polish of the companies facilitating this has dramatically increased, and they’re not going away any time soon.

Of course, this comes with challenges. How do you differentiate yourself? How do you find your market, appeal to your demographic, and launch a SUCCESSFUL manuscript, when more and more “small” titles are being released? I think the answer is two-fold. First, you produce a great book. Hire an editor. Make sure your manuscript is perfect. Get feedback. Design a great cover. Study the layout and design elements of books with million-dollar marketing departments behind them, and think about how you can achieve that look with your title. Think of this as a business, because when you decide to self publish, that’s what it becomes, and you’re the CEO. Second, you crunch some numbers. One of the most amazing things about self publishing is that you really can make a fair amount of money and reach a real audience without being J.K. Rowling. While big publishers are relying on tiny slivers of a huge number of massive pies, the low costs and high per-unit returns of self publishing mean you can turn a profit on a much, much lower volume of sales, taking big pieces of smaller pies!

Self Publishing Has Gone Mainstream

One of the most interesting things that I heard over and over at the “Do It Yourself” self publishing sub-conference at BEA was the fact that something I’ve predicted for years is starting to come true. Self publishing a title, which as few as 5 years ago was considered somehow illegitimate and unprofessional by a lot of traditional publishers, is now looked at by those same publishers as the “minor leagues” for the big houses.

In other words, if you’re bound and determined to publish a title with Random House but they’re not interested, you now have an alternative path. Self publish, do the legwork, get some traction, sell some books yourself! After you have a track record of respectable self-generated sales, you can approach the big houses again, and they’re much more likely to consider picking you up. A few years ago, this would not have happened. Big houses were not at all interested in the fact that your title, after selling 1,500 copies, had outsold the vast majority of books they publish. They simply would have seen it as a “vanity press” title. The fact that they wouldn’t have given you, a proven seller, the time of day, says something about how beholden to a model, rather than actually making money, they were. At least they’re wising up now!

I hope that you find these insights interesting. If you have more questions about BEA and what we saw there, ask them in the comments section, and we’ll be happy to answer them!

You can read an account of the book’s eventual success here.

Eventually, Mr. Harding sent the manuscript to the tiny Bellevue Literary Press, a small publisher associated with the NYU Medical School. They bought it, the book picked up steam among independent bookstores, and the rest is, as they say, history.

So what? Well, aside from providing a few laughs as the New York Times struggles to explain why they didn’t review the book (uhhh… we reviewed the runners-up!), I think this provides a couple of lessons for those who would eschew the establishment and go with independent publishing or a small house.

First, it proves that it can be done. Is your neighbor’s expose on the alien lizard-men posing as local city council members going to win the Pulitzer Prize? Probably not, but it does show that you don’t have to have Random House behind you in order to find an audience. Small presses and independent authors with passion, drive, and, yes, a little bit of luck, can have great success. And when that success is on your terms, when you are in the driver’s seat, the result can be a much more satisfying experience than if a faceless corporation is in charge.

In addition, it proves that wherever and however your first successful publishing experience comes from, success breeds success. Remember those major publishers who rejected Paul Harding the first time around? Well, within an hour of the Pulitzer announcement, Random House announced a 2 book deal with him, and he landed a Guggenheim fellowship a few days later.

And lastly, I think it’s yet another example of the changing nature of publishing. I know we harp on that here a lot, but really. The thunder lizard era of big publishing is coming to a close. Would you rather be a T-Rex? Or a mammal?

Got it? Good!

Now let’s talk about what all this means to YOU, the independent author, the micro-press, the small imprint. The article goes into some theorizing a bit about pulp science fiction, but I think it bears some more examination. And since the article used those big ol’ numbered bullet points, I will too!

1. THE WORLD IS CHANGING
If you are at all in tune with the state of publishing, you know this to be true. We hammer this point home over and over in our business model, our advice, and our approach to everything we do, but it’s just because its That. Damn. Important. The state of publishing was pretty much static for about 100 years. A century! Publishers consolidated. Middlemen flourished. The people who actually CREATED increasingly got the short end of the stick. But that ship has sailed. The digital revolution that has struck down music conglomerates (did you catch that EMI is on the verge of bankruptcy?) and, to a lesser extent, is blowing apart the film business, has spread to publishing. Distribution used to be the big sticking point when it came to books. It took lots of resources and deep pockets to get paper and cloth around the world. Not anymore. Amazon. Google. Apple. Audible. Lightning Source.

2. THERE IS OPPORTUNITY IN CHANGE
As the publishing industry bangs on the big red PANIC button over and over, the time has come to seize your destiny. That might seem a little overblown, but really. Change is unsettling. It’s scary. When we see a new way of doing things, our first instinct is to mistrust it. The GBS is a big, honking tower of change being erected in the middle of everything. And it’s not the only one. Look at Apple over there, building the iPad. Look at everybody else, scrambling to build their own tablets. Is that a Kindle? A JooJoo? It’s easy to get overwhelmed. Don’t. Just remember this…

When you look at all of these things, you should think 3 words: New Distribution Opportunities. In 1975, there was precisely ONE way to get your words into the hands of thousands of readers: Big Publishing. Now, there are hundreds of competing ways to do so. Leverage them!

3. BIG PUBLISHING WILL LIE TO YOU
As half of the industry hits the panic button, the other half will yell at everybody who’ll listen, and they’ll have one message: THIS WON’T WORK! Understand, this is a bunker mentality. The status quo is crumbling around them, and once you’ve built a reality, it’s natural to deny that change is happening. Many in the industry are completely focused on doing things “the way we always have.” They’re going to deny that change is afoot until it’s too late. Here, WATCH THIS. Kind of like that, except that no matter how many times that happens, big publishing is ONLY interested in how many times the team in white passes the ball, and will DENY that anything else is going on. So expect to read a lot of articles by and have a lot of conversations with “insiders” who will list a million reasons that the old system is the only “legitimate” way to go. They’ll pooh-pooh independent publishing, small publishing, new distribution. They’ll talk about how The Settlement is the end of publishing. They’ll long for the bygone days of massive consolidation, and they’ll tell you that, one way or another, that’s the best way to do things. Ignore them. They’re wrong.

4. REVOLUTION IS HARD
Nobody said this was going to be easy. If there’s something I tell our clients over and over, it’s this: You must be an evangelist for your work. With the changing landscape of publishing, that fact is more important than ever. When power shifts to the hands of the people, it’s easy for your voice to get drowned out in the crowd. The GBS is going to make untold thousands of titles easily and immediately available. How do you find an audience in that sort of market?

There is precisely one way. You have to seek out those who are receptive to your message. There has to be a fire in your heart that wants to get that message out! Be authentic, be focused, be bold. There’s NOTHING wrong with “selling” your ideas. It’s not dirty, it’s necessary! If you want your message to find your reader, if you want your beautiful words to lodge in the hearts and minds of the maximum number of people, if you want to touch them, to affect them, it’s up to YOU to find THEM, not the other way around! Exploit new media, throw yourself into the fray. Be a revolutionary.

Ready to roll up your sleeves?

If you’re an author who is self-publishing a print or audiobook, you should peruse it. At first blush, it might not seem to have a lot of relevance to your situation. After all, a software developer’s job is a lot different from an author’s. However, when you begin to compare the emerging publishing business and distribution models to the Apple App Store model, there are a whole lot of parallels.

• In the App Store, the playing field is leveled. Electronic Arts and the guy down the street have an equal shot at success. In the same way, print-on-demand, affordable audiobook production and distribution, and online sales are giving small publishers and self published authors access to huge segments of the population.
• If the “little guy” enjoys success in the App Store, he’s going to keep the lion’s share of the profits and control over his own destiny. Likewise, if your self-published book gains traction, you’re much more in the driver’s seat than you would be with a huge publishing conglomerate.
• With easy, egalitarian access to the consumer, the challenge for the App Store developer (and the micro-publisher or independent author) becomes a “background noise” problem. How do you stand out? How do you make yourself heard? This subject can be debated at length, and I hope some readers will comment with their thoughts, but the obvious first step is to create a great product! Write a book that you’re passionate about. Become an evangelist for it. Be a zealot! Does this guarantee success? No, of course not. But another one of the advantages to the new business model is…
• The “cost of entry” barriers, both in the App Store in the publishing world, have been demolished. You don’t have to be rich to get into the game. And likewise, you don’t have to sell a million copies to be very, very successful.

In any case, if you’re a self-published author or a small press, you owe it to yourself to keep thinking about how changing technologies and new business models affect your opportunities, your marketing, and your success.

Write on!

We’re also big proponents of technology. We believe the shift to digital distribution, web-based sales models, and on-line word of mouth are a given. It’s up to us to figure out how to thrive using these new tools.

So the other day, I was pleasantly surprised to find a promotion by a very large on-line bookstore who will remain nameless. They were offering several audiobook short stories in .mp3 format for free. I was out of town at the time and I had a long drive ahead of me. I had a few minutes before I was scheduled to leave.

“Great!” I thought. “I’ll just download these, toss them onto my iPhone, and be on my way!”

Oh, if only it were that simple.

First, I had to sign up for a free account to even download the files. Then, I had to go through an entire checkout process. For free FILES. Then, the icing on the cake. I couldn’t just download regular, plain-Jane, vanilla mp3s. Oh, no. I had to download a proprietary downloader doohickey that would THEN allow me to download the .mp3s. That were “protected” with DRM.

DRM. “Digital Rights Management.” The scourge of the audio consumer. DRM is encryption of one type or other that content-providers put on their files to help combat piracy. Only, there’s a problem. Well, more than one problem, actually.

First of all, it doesn’t work. At all. Nobody who really, really wants to share a file on a Bittorrent site has ever been deterred by DRM. Any DRM-protected product on the face of the planet is available on-line at a Torrent site within a couple of clicks.

Secondly, it annoys, frustrates, and confounds the consumer. I’m pretty technologically savvy (my official title is “Futurist,” after all!) and it took me a good 10 minutes to even figure out how this major corporation’s software worked. As the clock ticked, I struggled mightily with downloading my “free” (and increasingly annoying) audiobooks. By the time I figured it out, I was out of time. Frustrated, I closed my laptop and went on my way. Without my free audiobooks.

There’s a lesson here, publishers, music companies, and entertainment providers. If you make your legitimate product more confusing, difficult, and hard to consume than the pirated equivalent, guess where your consumers are going to acquire that product? It doesn’t take a genius to figure this one out.

At Red Planet, we’re not opposed to the idea of DRM. We think content-providers should be paid fairly for content. We believe in copyright. But until there’s a seamless, universal, easy way to use DRM, we’ll be selling all of our content in plain .mp3 format, thank you very much.

You don’t gain more customers by insulting and confusing them.