(Con’t from Page 2)
Rather than moving ahead blindly, publishers can use a quickly growing resource to gather information about business models, about what has and hasn’t worked in the industry: the Internet. Web 2.0 tools have laid the groundwork for an extensive system of communication for the publishing industry. Conference talks are published in 140-character snippets on Twitter. Agents, editors, authors, and industry veterans blog about what companies—theirs’ and others’—are doing in the industry. Even industry e-newsletters work to keep everyone in touch, sending everything from shocking news to daily aggregations of book deals. Combined with what limited scholarship is available in journals and books, these organic reports offer a big picture of the industry’s best and worst practices in digital publishing that becomes clearer with every hour. The reinvention of community in the publishing world may be the key for small publishers who are banking on their size and willingness to take risks; with decentralization rapidly spreading and information rapidly surfacing—even through channels not always regarded as reliable—small publishers stand to gain the most from an increasingly networked publishing community.
In order to make some sense of the internet chatter and scarce data available, “Surviving a Digital Disruption: Smart e-Book Publishing, Small Houses” surveys the industry today, focusing on digital publishing and its place in the business models of small trade publishers. Where industry statistics are buried by cost and opaque tradition, voices from across the industry’s growing online network opine on the practical issues publishers will face when building a digital publishing plan. After first determining the emotional readiness of the industry to forge ahead into investing in new technologies, an investigation of a publisher’s responsibility to content creation and a review of new avenues of power for digital publishers highlights the theories, possibilities, and limitations currently available. To better emphasize the differences and similarities in the tone of industry conversation, four profiles of members of the publishing industry, in very different roles, seek to locate the balance between pragmatism and artistry and between realism and hope. The result: a justification for investing time and money in digital production, distribution, and marketing that relies on opinions and experiences of real publishers rather than pundits and business experts alone. Though the facts may change quickly and unpredictably, this may be a good foundation that will encourage responsible publishers to explore their communities and every option available as the digital revolution comes of age.
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