Thumbs up once again, Mike!

Thanks, Julieta. Thank Esposito for having the initial idea. But I'm sure
you can see my fingerprints on some of God's work here.

Mike

Let me guess. God's braid might have been Esposito's. The redundancy denounced by the angels, certainly yours. Confess, Mike, that you forced God's hand to obtain Third Commandment so clearly stated. To respect communities as we revere copyright can't be but yours.
And yes, we all have our noodles oodling with googles.

Well, now you've got me in dangerous territory and Joe will certainly
correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you're actually zero for three. God's
braid was mine; and the redundancy line was certainly Joe's. And the 3rd
Commandment, frankly, I can't remember. It might have been his, actually. I
will say we had more than 10 and had to cut them back and that we didn't
actually disagree with a single suggestion that came from the other
(although there was a bit of tweaking.)

Mike

[...] Ten More Commandments, Publishing Edition The following post is a collaboration with my friend Joe Esposito, the CEO of GiantChair. The post was Joe’s idea, but I contributed enough to its completion to justify a claim of shared authorship. Joe has kindly agreed to allow this received wisdom to be delivered to the world through The Shatzkin Files. [...]

Hmm. Interesting spectrum of helpmate through competitor to collaborator (in commendments 1 to 4). Seems to me that one of the challenges of current situation is accurately identifying where different organisations are on the spectrum … and keeping track of their movements as they change from one to another.

When we consult to publishers or others who are trying to approach a
vertical, one of our preliminary exercises is “know your web world.” That's
precisely what you're talking about and, you're right, you have to keep
track of how it changes, not just how it is at any point in time.

Mike

Tell me more about #8, o scribe! I wish to understand metadata in clear and humble language, that even a poor publisher and author like I can understand.

Metadata is information about the book. The “core” metadata is the basic
description: title, author, price, ISBN. But “enriched” metadata includes
reviews, mentions, promotional material. Only by the publisher associating
that material with the book would it be “discovered” with the book. The
mechanics of that are above my pay grade, but if Esposito is paying
attention, I'll bet he could help more. Maybe he'll chime in.

Mike
——————–
Mike Shatzkin
http://idealog.com/blog
mike@idealog.com, 212-758-5670
Founder & CEO
The Idea Logical Company, Inc., http://idealog.com
Co-founder: Filedby, Inc. http://filedby.com
Conference Chair: Digital Book World http://digitalbookworld.com

Mike has the metadata point exactly right. There is the book, and then there is information about the book, which is metadata. I personally prefer to use the term “meta-metadata” to indicate information about the book that was NOT created by the publisher. The importance of metadata in the online world is that it is the primary way people find books and make purchasing decisions. Of course, there is the “meta-meta-metadata problem,” which addresses the question of whether or not extensive metadata helps to sell books or simply distracts the prospective customer. The fact is that it takes trial and error to figure this out, and Amazon, of course, has more experience than anyone in this area. But that is changing, and fast.

Hi Mike, I always enjoy your posts…

On the 10 commandments, two thoughts:

1-You need only the tenth…The rest may make some of a certain niche knowledge feel better but won't put jingle in their pocket.

2- In the conversation with God, you could switch “writer” for “publisher” and make the same sense.

Well, sort of…

I think you need more than the 10th commandment, which doesn't really touch
the idea of community.

And because I think verticality and community are the biggest takeaways, I
don't think the writer can do it on her own. Harlequin (for example) brings
value and customers to all its writers, no matter how powerful the writer
brands are on their own.

Mike

In days of old the idea of community should already have been part of a publisher's toolbox, especially with their clients and associated industries…

You see, since “big publishing” gave up on a good portion of their core mission some years ago (marketing new books & authors) writers have had to learn and do this for themselves…In today's environment with the new technology and ease of publishing…publishing, as such, has become completely decentralized. It is now a more easily acquired skill (like writing but no real creativity is required…except in the business sense) that writers are acquiring themselves today and eliminating a middle man that only catered to established writers for the quick & sure buck…

Remember… And this is another inspiration from the “Publishing God” :

A writer, in today's market, can learn to publish and market a lot more easy than a publisher can learn to be a good writer…

I won't go so far as to say the analogy is precise to the old saw that the
person who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client, but the skills
required for publishing and writing are quite different. There is no
necessary connection there. Even those who think they can do both aren't
necessarily doing themselves the most good by trying.

Obviously, as more and more writers self-publish, there will be more and
more success stories. And I certainly think there are many situations –
more each day — when it makes complete sense. But there are lots of
publishers with ready audiences to introduce to writers. And there are lots
of writers busting their butts to build audiences and getting nowhere.

Mike

I agree with you RE the skills are different, but one skill set is creative where the other is more business acumen (and can more easily be learned…especially with the tools today).

The lawyer analogy, I believe, is not applicable here since even skilled lawyers should not defend themselves…too subjective, etc..

And don't get me wrong, there will always be a place for big, centralized publishing (I like to refer to it as institutionalized publishing) in some ways…Just not for new (and even some established) authors who have realized more money in there own pockets w/o the middleman…

Yes, you are also right about some writers not experiencing much success in self-publishing…Seems we are all (writers & publishers) in a transition stage right now…

I have always been enthralled with the publishing industry and would love to see it monetize it's changing services successfully…just not at the expense of those that contribute the meat, as in the past. If big publishing really wants community and more partnership to keep a better profit margin, they are going to have to change the percentage of profit sharing with their partners…

I respectfully disagree with your premise that there is no connection between the skills of a writer & publisher (which you seemed to contradict in your next paragraph)…I believe the skills are mashing up more and more due to necessity and new technology

The following will be a bonus for many:

The old publishing business was run as a very totalitarian and socialistic model…The true definition of of “socialism” (and most people don't know the true definition if you listen to the politians)
is a gov't or other “entity” (big publishing is the entity in this case) that controls the manufacturing & distribution of goods and services…It has nothing to do with so-called “social” or community programs to help their fellow citizens or neighbors…

Well, I can see we have lots of things to disagree about, but some of them
aren't the province of this blog.

Mike

Mike,
I gave two instances in my last reply where I agreed with you…But, the one thing I think we both can agree on is our love for the publishing industry and a desire to see it flourish (responsibly) again…

But, some deep and immediate concepts about “control” have to be accepted and implemented before that can happen to any degree…

Agreed that we agree on many things and disagree on some others. And I would
say that both of us see big challenges present and even more serious ones
ahead for general trade publishing houses.

Mike

Well said…

John

Hi Mike – I enjoyed this post, particularly the commandment format. Think I will post them on my bulletin board. Words that particularly resonate for me as a writer are: brand, customer, collaborator, community and marketing. Writers need to examine words like these and figure out how to apply them in the work that we do.

You picked out the right words! Thanks for spreading them.

Mike

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