LitTAP Blog

The money Seven Stories Press is making from Kindle is increasing every month! Also: this year, Seven Stories has changed from a static website to a blog format, which allows them to “talk to our readership.” Seven Stories: important for publishers to be content providers online — start conversations about books. Publisher must start discussion.

BlazeVOX moved into e-books from a literary magazine because of author demand. Track numbers online of how well authors do in moving from magazine to book. Web statistics allow for a greater understanding of who readers are, what they are looking at.

Question: “free-mium” model — how does it work for publishers? BlazeVOX only started charging for books in 2005, after five years of publishing. Operating in a “gift economy.” Emphasis on getting books into hands of readers. Seven Stories — believes in conversation, though needs to make money to operate. The field is wide open — any experiments in getting books out into the world are still new, necessary. Does serializing of books online, online sections of books which has been effective.

People have equated possible audience you can get on Internet to audience you can really get on Internet! It’s all about connections.

Book is part of the experience — author and publisher committed to doing that, through online experiments AND book publishing, according to Seven Stories Press. But according to BlazeVOX, literary experience is no longer contained — bound! — in a book. With Kindle and other digital readers, reading will change.

Great quote, from Geoffrey Gatza on 1984 and Kindle, which pulled the novel from devices: “Violence was involved.”

Blogs can create community, help lovers of book tell friends — help foster experience. Help bring readers to events, according to Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer. Author is no longer someone who writes — has to go out and “gather an audience,” according to BlazeVOX. And tech can create virtual discussions online, according to Seven Stories Press — can have conversation w/ writer(s) “within” the text itself.

Can create directed conversations about a book (vs. social networking). Next great quote, from Lars Reilly on social networking: “I barely want to talk to the people I live with.” And, from a friend, “If you don’t have Facebook and Twitter as a publisher, that’s malpractice . . . you are not serving your authors.”

Seven Stories Press: publishers can connect readers to other books they may respond to, love online. Important to promote press as curatorial — “like a great old record store.” Must do that as well as promote individual writers/pieces as well.

Makes sense to know about “Internet Titles” — books talked about online, not available in stores. Also, sometimes easy to focus on a title that wouldn’t necessarily sell well. Really about getting readers to “try” the book — really about reaching out to a wider audience. Not so worried about quantifiable translation right now — though happy for e-book revenue.

Seven Stories Press: catalogue — went from print to virtual, to save money. Got responses from new readers, but lost a certain audience. And literary readers seems split between print book buyers and a new online generation — must reach out to both camps.

BlazeVOX: books cost $3 ($2,000 total). With many titles, can make revenue on small sales numbers.

Seven Stories: sent PDF of review copies — most didn’t want them, a few did.

Question: online as promotional vs. revenue-producing. Seven Stories: worst thing we can do is think about the Internet as strictly promotional — it HAS to be revenue-producing. Is still predominantly promotional, but starting to see revenue. Have to let the market to figure out a universal way to let an e-book sell — we’re not there yet at all.