The American laboratory
As in Formula One and the Mercedes, on new media and the Silicon Valley il fastest team and he already finds himself quite a bit ahead of the others. The Europeans they chase at a good distance, at the risk of duplication. All he has to do is stick to the Batmobile's bumper to slow it down. One sforzo vain and also masochistic like that of the European commissioners who try to protect the stammering technology industry of the old continent by putting up barriers for transatlantic companies.
Anyone who wants to understand where the technology and media industry is going must watch to what happens in North America, because what is happening there will also happen in Europe and other parts of the globalized world.
Let's take it ebook streaming. It is true that we are deserve it at the beginning of everything, but it is about something huge which is already in the United States revolutionizing the industry of musicand television and movies. The industry of book is the most conservative of the entire media sector and therefore tends to arrive last to embrace innovation. It's enough elitist and it's fair of his own culture and of its centuries-old history that it feels the duty to preserve. Governments applaud. However, innovation still manages to percolate into the world of writers and books.
Scribd, Oyster, Kindle Unlimited, Playster
Lo streaming of ebook in the United States is going out byincubator for iniziare an up-and-comer walk. The first and fundamental clue of this evolution are the five major publishers Americans (Penguin-Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Macmillan and Hachette) who have deciso to bestow a part Of their catalog to the two most well-known streaming services: Oyster (New York), whose name derives from a verse by Shakepeare ne The Merry Wives of Windsor (the world's mine oyster/the world is themy oyster), And Scribd (San Francisco). Let's also interpret it as one decision anti-Amazon, aimed at providing fuel to its competitors, but it happened and some of the big names of narrative Americana are now available to Oyster and Scribd subscribers. Stephen King has 66 titles on Scribd and Oyster, Dan Brown 10 titles, John Grisham 59 titles, David baldacci 3 titles. Surely you won't find Jonathan Franzen, the spokesperson for technosceptic writers. If a reader can read two ebooks al month has already made a substantial gain about buying them individually. Readers who read two or more books a month are an attractive number in the United States. According to a survey conducted in 2014 they are 63 million, 21% of the population Blazer, people to have bed during 2014, more than 21 books. Others 45 million of Americans have read 11 to 20 books in 2014 and so they are within reach of Scribd and Oyster with their $8,99/month subscription proposition.
And then there is Amazon, and how could it be missing? For the independent authors and self-published the Amazon program, Kindle unlimited (KU), it's becoming ainteresting option to the model à la carte , Where the competition has become nothing short of brutal. The innumerable new titles published by these authors are swallowed by the market like a stone in the sea and disappear there with little chance of being discovered and even less purchased. In this scenario it is evident that with the model à la carte The independent and self-published, which are introducing very interesting content and format innovations, they suffer a lot. For them it is streaming can truly be a revolutionary business model.
As we have said, the big publishers are keeping their distance from Kindle Unlimited and trying to push competing services. Among the most interesting there is Playsters which specializes in the segment of multimedia content so much so that it calls itself “The Netflix of Games, Movies, Music & Books!”. Playster has already received a large number of titles from Harper Collins e Simon & Schuster.
Another point in favor of streaming is the decision di Penguin-Random House, the largest trade publisher in the world and also the most cautious and cautious towards new media, by entrust 9mila audiobooks a Scribd to be offered to subscribers to the service.
Book authors and streaming
As can be seen from this statistic relating to the behavior of American music streaming consumers, the phenomenon mainly concerns young people between 15 and 24 years of age. A very interesting target for the book industry.
That thing means for the authors this anthology of agreements and decisions aimed at making it grow streaming any ebooks? How to is perceived who creates the content by? Yes you can iniziare to get an idea guarding the experience of music. Economically the revenues of streaming are not advantageous such as those of the sale of individual titles in download. Musicians and labels make no secret that they have joined streaming services especially for fight la piracy, phenomenon devastating for them which, however, manifests marginally in the industry of book (in music it is close to 90%, for ebooks it is around 20%). A defensive choice, that of music, which today appears to go very tight to artists and their publishers. But it would be foolish not to acknowledge that she has product also positive effects which are what storytellers and essayists will benefit from.
With the streaming of books to authors, a new opens up channels to make their work known to a large audience e conquer so new readers differently unreachable or reachable only with a substantial promotional investment e staff. The possibility to be discovered, Read and finally recommended increase considerably thanks to the streaming. If I'm a subscriber to the service and can browse through the titles included in my subscription, while I'm in line at the doctor with my head buried in my phone wandering the windows of Kindle Unlimited, I'm struck by some cover or from a few titles and read a few pages here and there to be favorably impressed by the prose of some author whose existence I didn't know and whom I would never have approached by frequenting traditional bookstores. And the Serendipity at its most full deployment. Therefore, for those who are not already a bestselling or medium/high ranking writer, whose only concern is churning out new titles, that of make yourself known is to rely onobiettivo priority. The problem of selling is still far away.
Naturally, in the United States, someone has taken the trouble to go and collect the opinion of the authors on the streaming of ebooks and the results of a survey, led by Digital Book World and from Writer's Digest Authorare worthy of some reflection. The survey involved a panel of 2.545 authors of which 1.879 traditional authors e 666 authors independent e self-published. Let's begin immediately to discuss the results of this survey by answering some questions that are on the mind of all those who work and make a living from the book industry.
Should news be streamed?
No, if you are a known author. Yes, if you are a writer still looking for an audience. The survey brings to light a blatant split between traditional authors and independents in judging the streaming in ebooks of new titles. The traditional authors, those of medium-high ranking classified in the ranks of publishing houses that account for 80% of the current market, are very cautious and they look at this possibility with a sure suspect. Only 20.6% è favorable, 33,6% say they are uncertain and the 45,8% it is contrary to put the news in streaming services.
- independent authors, not yet co-opted into this club, are more favorable to streaming and declare their willingness to experiment and use it to improve their positioning in the perception of readers. Even among these authors there remains a good chunk that doesn't see well the streaming of the news: it's the 47% of the interviewees. However, compared to traditional authors, there is greater polarization here: there are fewer uncertain ones, only 13,1%, and the share of favorable doubles to 40%.
However these data turn, the share of authors who see with favor lo streaming it is still one minority, but 51% are not far off. Now we have to open an important parenthesis.
How much did authors earn in 2014?
Living by writing it's a privilege for few, who, however, can get rich a lot if their creative vein doesn't abandon them. The economic profile of the authors on the panel says a lot about the condition of writers in the leading country, with a quarter of the value of the book industry. In the United States the 4% of writers realizes more di 250mila U.S. dollars atyear of royalties and a good 10% is above i 100mila U.S. dollars. A 15% therefore lives comfortably from the profession of writing.
The most impressive data concerns the authors that they make less di dollars 500 atyear which are the 30% of traditional authors, the 40% of independent and 18% of hybrid authors, i.e. authors who publish with a publisher and self-publish for certain contents. If we take an annual gain as a threshold up to 5.000 dollars, it is noted that well the 55% of traditional authors falls within this range; you go up to 70% between the independent to then notice that they are still the hybrid authors to make the better performance: and the 42% the fee of authors under $5.000. $5.000 is half of $10 which is considered the poverty line in the US.
Il good result of hybrid authors leads us to do some reflection on role ofauthor in the new digital scenario. The authors who are most aware of market dynamics, who are most active in promoting their brand and who are most willing to take risks, are the ones who are most efficient on an economic level. It is the new figure ofauthor/entrepreneur/communicator which tends to move meglio in the new scenario. The author who makes, or manages to obtain from the publisher, a investment on your job it is amply paid off. In the joint-venture between publisher and author theAugust of the balance of bargaining power tends to move towards'author. THE'editor, that decides to invest in the author, through a advance on royalties, generally gets best results di sale competitor operating on royalty revenues. The median value of the copy sold by publishers who invest in advances fluctuates between 1.000-5.000 specimens while that of the royalty publishers does not exceed the 500 copies. THE median revenues of authors who receive a advance fluctuates between the 5mila and 10mila U.S. dollars. Royalty-compensated authors derive a median value between 750 and dollars 1.000.
We leave this parenthesis on the standard of living of writers with two certainties: the authors so-called hybrids have better economic results and advances help very le sales.
Does streaming compensate adequately?
Nodoes not compensate adequately. Notwithstanding that the publishers, which report the authors traditional, We have a privileged treatment on services di streaming such as Kindle Unlimited, the perception to get revenues adequate è low: only the 32% think yes check it out this condition.
Leggermente different è the attitude of independent, 51,5% think about getting a fair compensation. Going to watch what happens on Kindle unlimited this result surprises, because they are the authors who join the program KDP extension by Amazon (reserved for self-published and small publishers) to receive a treatment da pawns.
These authors are obliged atexclusive right, they come compensated so not transparent, at the sole discretion of Amazon. In the March 2015 la royalty average paid to these authors was dollars 1,34 per reading unit (more than 10% of the ebook browsed by the reader), which roughly corresponds to a royalty of the 30/35 percent, when on the Kindle Store with the service à la carte they get 70%. The publishers majors by comparison travel first class: not have theexclusive right and are compensated for each reading unit on the basis of the sale price, which will be around 50% as is the case for Scribd and Oyster.
Does streaming eat into the revenues of other sales channels?
No, doesn't eat them, but it's not clear whether it helps improve sales on other channels. Beyond the dry revenue per reading unit (10% of content on Amazon and 20% on other platforms), the central issues that today concern ebook streaming are these: a) the streaming can cannibalize le sales on other channels, he leaves them unchanged or tends to improve them?; b) can streaming activate a virtuous circle in the circulation of the title so from improve it la visibility, recommendability and produce sales outside the streaming channel?
According to the panel of authors interviewed lo streaming does not hurt le sales: only the 15,3% of the authors traditional and 13,7% of independent noticed a drop in sales due to streaming. The 59% of independent and 37,4% of traditional authors said they did not recognize un worsening, indeed the 25% of independent and 15.3% of the traditional noticed a increase of sales. A significant number of respondents cannot judge.
Going to disaggregate the data, we note that they are still the hybrid authors to have converted the service into sales su other channels finding a significant benefit in terms of overall revenues. It is also the authors who have multiple published titles on streaming services, proof that a certain critical mass may be very important. Hybrid authors have a median of 6-7 titles available for streaming versus 5 for independents.
Conclusions: you have to be there!
The writers of the report are many cautious in conclusions and they are right to be so since the authors' ideas are still confused and they lack the experiences to refer to with certainty. However, it is possible to derive major trends which are the following.
- authors di narrative di medium/high ranking with many titles under their belt they are meeting disadvantages twigs take part at the service of streaming because it could deprive di revenues which they otherwise would have obtained with the services à la carte . The cannibalization effect is active. THE catalog titles they can safely be handed over to the streaming service without fear of boomerang effect. Stephen King, for example, has 66 titles on Scribd/Oyster.
- traditional authors with catalog limited and with the last title published in distress, they can find benefit from streaming in terms of greater exposure of their work to the readers.
For the authors independent not it is possible to draw some conclusions same to you certain and therefore all they have to do is experiment, monitor and learn.
We just have to conclude with the words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt which expressed itself in these terms: “Take a method and put it to the test. If that doesn't work, try a new method… But above all try”. It is this very American maxim that we deliver to the authors who increasingly ask us about streaming. There are no other certainties. Being there is the only one.
Attachments: Screencracy. Book or ebook? An online essay by Mario Mancini (goWare)
