— Josh Kilen :: Stories and Ideas

"It's a good thing we made friends with our neighbor! Look at the size of this thing!"

I’ve noticed that we Americans seem to take for granted that everyone is trying to kill us.

Perhaps this is nothing new, but it shows in our conversations, or lack thereof, with our neighbors. How much do people, especially those living in the city, know their neighbors? Not especially well I think.

Maybe it’s because we don’t need to, being loosed from the constrains of proximity thanks to the internet. But I think it’s more than that. It comes down to the fact that we simply don’t trust people.

We look at strangers as potential thieves and murders and not as potential new friends. As if their sole purpose in life is get chummy with us in order to take our $35 DVD player or study our habits so that they can better off us when we’re sleeping.

Now I know that there are other reasons for not making friends with neighbors; renters don’t want to make friends they might have to lose if they move, perhaps you have a full social calendar (Who needs more friends, Facebook has given me plenty!), or you might be utterly disagreeable to everyone you meet, in which case none of this really applies to you.

But for those who are generally well liked, what’s your excuse for not getting to know all your neighbors? Why hide yourself away in a perpetual fog of fear and uncertainty? Are your neighbors really going to kill you? (If your answer is “Yes!” to the last question, my advice is to move. I’m fairly certain there exists a community close by that has diminished degree of murderous intent)

If your excuse for not knowing your neighbors starts with “But…” or “Well…”, I would say throw the excuses in the trash. And while you’re outside, get to know your neighbors. You never know, you might get a good DVD player out of it.

I can’t stop preaching about the new revolutions happening in the book publishing world. Traditional publishers are falling by the wayside, slowly but surely, and independent authors are taking their place.

Don’t get me wrong, the major publishing houses are still the dominant players and if you want your book in the brick and mortar stores your best bet is still to shop your script around and hope for the best. But the future is certainly in the hands of those who don’t follow conventional wisdom right now.

Can you believe that digital downloads are more popular than either hardbacks or paperbacks?

This summer, ebook sales outpaced hard covers on Amazon. The ratio is now 3 to 1 in favor of digital downloads. And as of February the digital books have overtaken paperbacks. Digital downloads now sell more copies than either paperbacks or hard covers, and selling more than both categories combined is right around the corner. The book world is changing, and it’s a beautiful thing.

Why this dramatic change is happening

The drivers for this epic change are price and availability. Since the books are offered digitally, available for download to Kindle or similar device, the price can be much lower. Correction, the price for independent authors can be much lower. Traditional publishers must cover non-digital costs within the digital pricing structure, and therefore they must raise the price considerably. This offers the brand new Kindle owner an interesting choice.

A new way of pricing books

Kindle owners download the new James Patterson, of course, and maybe the new Grisham paying $9.99 each. The question is does that reader want to keep paying $7-10 per digital book? Maybe, if he or she is fanatical about bestselling authors. The more likely scenario is that the Kindle owner will look at the best seller lists and see 20 or 30 books priced at just $.99. What?!? A whole book for only $.99? So they will download a sample of the cheap book, read it, and at that moment their brains have to decide if James Patterson’s writing is 10x’s better than the book they just previewed. Lately, and increasingly, people have decided that the expensive books are not as worth it. If you have the chance to buy an ok to pretty good book for $.99 you are much less likely to pay $9.99 for a good book. You might buy one down the road, but not as often as you buy the less expensive novels and books.

Infinite space and the spread of digital readers

Availability plays a role as well, in two parts. One is the shear amount of product available to purchase. Since writers and authors now can go direct to the consumer, many of them are publishing them. Granted, this leads to some very questionable writing hitting the digital shelves. But I am confident that companies like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and the like will set up the systems so that the cream rises to the top. In fact, their recommendation systems, based on customer purchasing behavior, has already catapulted several independent authors into the Kindle stratosphere. The second part of availability is the Kindle itself and it’s rapid growth. Quality hand held book readers are vital to this change, and widespread adoption of eReaders will be the driving force behind the demise of book store as we know them. They will join the ranks of the video rental store, the record store, and the pager store. Relegated to the specialty and sometimes novelty collector, popular book consumption will see the wide spread adoption and increased consumption. Just not in physical form.

How do Authors make money?

Financially, the benefits are amazing. Where as an author may receive 14-17% on their digital downloads when going through traditional publishers, Amazon offers royalties of 35-70%. Even when you take into consideration any advances given (which I hear are shrinking every year for new authors), the amount of money you can make during the life of the book far outweighs any advance. And make no mistake, it is the life of the book. That’s the beauty of the digital landscape. There are no overstocks of product, no dusty bookshelves, only bit and bytes when you want them.

Almost more importantly this gives authors the means to control their products. Each author now determines the future of his or her creation, either how successful or unsuccessful it becomes. This has not always been the case. When traditional publishers buy your book, they purchase it’s soul, and they can rip it’s heart out if they choose to. Now an author can work on a novel till it’s done to their satisfaction, create a cover they think is best, there only a one step approval process.

The future is so bright for authors

Any serious author looking to make a living with their writing now has the opportunity. The culture is shifting and the economics make sense, the only thing that doesn’t make sense is not writing and publishing for all to see.  For a great blog about the shift taking place in the publishing world this is your best resource.   It links to an article about JOhn Locke, an author currently (March 2011) in the#1 and #4 slots on the Amazon Bestsellers lists.  he sold 350,000 books this year and he only began publishing last spring.

Robert’s photography business was was on the brink of failure.  He was barely making enough to cover bills, and the clients he did find wouldn’t understand his art.  They simply wanted him to take “pictures”.  Doing what he loved for a living wasn’t working out like he hoped it would.

Thinking that some education about sales or marketing would help, Robert bought his first sales book from Amazon.

Although he never liked or trusted “salespeople”, he thought this might be the way to get new and better customers.  Inside, he was horrified at the thought of turning into a “do whatever it takes to close the deal” kind of person, but what other choice did he have?  So he clicked the submit button and waited.

When the book came, Robert took some time on a Tuesday morning to look through it with a highlighter.  He skimmed most of it, read a couple of chapters, then threw the book across the table in frustration.

Besides being somewhat non-practical, the book hinged on Robert’s willingness to manipulate his client relationships.  It spoke of target markets and getting your “targets” into a funnel where they will automatically buy from you because you created a system that compels them to buy.  Robert wanted none of that.  He wanted simply to get to know his customers and for them to get to know him.  He figured his work would speak for itself and good work would prevail.  But that wasn’t happening.

After a few similar reading experiences at the library, Robert attended a short seminar presumably about marketing.  It was a last ditch attempt at keeping his business going.

The room was filled with artists and creative types, some of whom Robert knew.  The Presenter got up in front of the group and began the talk by letting everyone in the room know that they were right, that marketing and sales had been hi-jacked and stood for manipulation.  He said they were right for not wanted to be salespeople or marketers and correct in not wanting to “market” their art.  That the way most people talked about it or went about it was dirty, and beneath them.  Robert was instantly interested.

The Presenter asked what each person thought business was, what they thought marketing was, and what they thought sales meant?  When Robert and his new friends really got down to it, they thought all these things were about making someone buy things that they don’t really need.  The Presenter corrected them gently.  It wasn’t about buying and selling products, it was about forming and sustaining quality relationships.

There was a mass eye roll in the crowd.  “Relationships, really?!?”, they each said to themselves.

The Presenter smiled and continued on. “Most of you think that business is simply a transaction, one person has product that someone wants and that someone is willing to give money (or something of equal value) for that product.  But the transaction is NOT the whole relationship!  How did that person find out about the product?  How did the transaction go?  Did it lead to other transactions?  Is the transaction the only thing we should think about?”, The Presenter started to get passionate and animated.

“Almost every marketing book you will ever read talks and talks about the transaction as if it were the sole reason for being in business, but is it?  Isn’t that why you feel dirty and guilty about marketing?”  As soon as he said “guilty”, Robert knew that The Presenter was right.  He did feel guilty about selling to friends and family, and feeling like he had to sell to everyone he met, and making a target market, and all the implied phoniness that went with it all.  Marketing was all about transactions, and Robert was done with it.

The Presenter softened, “You don’t have to feel that way you know.  But what’s the alternative?  Suffering for your art? So either you become a phony and “sell out” or you live life barely scraping by while fewer and fewer people get to experience your art… I think that there is another way.  Because I used to be like you, hated selling and marketing and the manipulation that they required.  I struggled to find a different way, and after 12 years this is it.”  The Presenter kneed down, and he spoke with a force of purpose and authority.

“You will no longer think of your business as a burden, if you do then you need to start something new.  Your mission is to create art that brings light and life into peoples lives, then you will help bring it to those people that “get” it by building quality relationships.  Your art is your creation, your business is building relationships into partnerships and connecting more deeply with your fellow human beings.”

The Presenter stood up and looked at everyone in the crowd at once, “Now, who is ready to stop selling and start connecting with people?”

Everyone in the crowd smiled deeply and nodded their heads.

To be continued…

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