[IP] Net Publishing Made Profitable
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 13, 2004 9:47:13 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Net Publishing Made Profitable
Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Net Publishing Made Profitable
By Leander Kahney
Story location: <http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,64563,00.html>
02:00 AM Aug. 13, 2004 PT
After 13 years of experimenting, veteran Net publisher Adam Engst has
finally stumbled on a good business model -- fast-turnaround e-books.
Since 1990, Engst has been publishing TidBits, a weekly Mac-oriented
newsletter that is the second-longest-running publication on the
Internet (the oldest is Irish Emigrant, Engst said).
From the get-go, Engst has pioneered just about every revenue model on
the Internet -- ads, subscriptions, sponsorships and the now-ubiquitous
tip jar -- with mixed success.
"Over the years, we could have made more money working minimum-wage
jobs," lamented Engst, who runs TidBits with his wife, Tonya, from
their home in Ithaca, New York. "We do it for the love of it."
But now Engst thinks he's finally cracked it. Since last fall, Engst
has published a series of rapidly produced e-books using a system he
calls "extreme publishing."
The nine books in the Take Control series range in topic from
customizing Mac OS X to setting up a wireless network.
The books are written by a small stable of independent authors, who
receive 50 percent royalties, a rate unheard of in traditional
publishing. Edited collaboratively over the Net, the books are
published "within moments of going to press" as small, downloadable PDF
files.
Costing $5 or $10, the books come with free updates for readers -- the
electronic equivalent of second and third editions. The books are
nicely laid out and designed to print well on home inkjets. They
include lots of links to information on the Web.
Crucially, the books are timely. Print books, on the other hand,
especially computer-oriented reference texts, are often out of date by
the time they hit store shelves.
So far, Engst has sold about 20,000 copies in the Take Control series.
The series' best seller, Upgrading to Panther by Joe Kissell, has sold
about 6,300 copies, a respectable number for a niche publisher.
"It's done very well," Kissell said. "I've been very pleased.... It's
been far and away the most successful book I've written." Before
writing for Take Control, Kissell wrote three print books.
Though Engst's e-books are not likely to make him or his authors rich,
Engst thinks they hold lessons for budding Net publishers.
"Publishing is broken," he said. "Sales are low, there's no money, and
deadlines and delays are a headache. You have three months to sell a
book and then it's obsolete. Last year, I realized all the pieces were
there finally for publishing e-books."
Engst cited several factors. Most important, he said, is offering a
tangible product like a PDF file, which -- though digital -- is more
concrete than Web subscriptions. Many other electronic publishers,
especially magazines, lean toward subscriptions.
Payment systems for small amounts of money are getting better. Engst
uses eSellerate, an e-commerce system used by a lot of shareware
authors.
The medium also requires having access to a stable of producers and
consumers. Engst knows a lot of technical writers and can market to a
built-in audience: 50,000 TidBits readers.
"We have 50,000 people to tell about the books," he said. "Without
them, I probably wouldn't get the coverage for the books."
Some of the books have been voluntarily translated by TidBits readers
into Japanese and German. For years, readers have taken it upon
themselves to translate the weekly TidBits newsletter into several
languages.
None of the books has any kind of copy protection, though Adobe's PDF
format contains various digital-rights management mechanisms. "It's not
worth doing it all, because it just causes problems," Engst said.
<snip>
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