enhanced e-textbooks?

In academic publishing, textbooks are a major income stream. For this reason, adapting to the changing needs of students opens up a large debate in the industry.

Heavy textbooks can be a burden on students, and often the print costs can become quite expensive for larger volumes. However, while e-textbooks appear to be very progressive in terms of publishing digital strategy, the media elements (such as video and music) can age faster than the plain text, which means that the e-textbooks would perhaps need to be replaced and re-edited more often, leading to higher costs.

For these reasons, the importance of qualitative and quantitative market research was discussed. Accessing the views of the public is invaluable, and we split into groups of 4-5 people in order to test the validity and marketability of enhanced e-textbooks. We used the platform surveymonkey (which is fast becoming an extremely useful tool on the course) and we posted the survey on social media.

UPDATE: our survey had a lot of replies (over 40) and surmised that enhanced e-textbooks should meet somewhere in the middle. Students and teachers were not overly keen on a lot of flashy media elements, but would consider purchasing the eBook if it was to be cheaper and more practical. Price was a primary driving factor, and it appeared that £25 for a very good edition was the absolute limit. This is possibly due to the idea of value, as holding a physical book that one has paid a chunk of money for appears to be much more worthwhile than downloading an app and losing £40 from your bank account.

academic publishing process (condensed)

As discussed in the previous post, an author can be commissioned through a proactive, reactive or collaborative process. After the commissioning editor and the author have made contact, the steps to produce a publishable and professional-standard monograph can be detailed.

• The author/academic submits a book proposal based on their research. This outlines a synopsis of the book, where its place in the market will be, a list of the contributors, how relevant the book will be to the market, and offers a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the content.
  

• The author -if not already on file - submits a copy of their CV, which details the published works and academic background of the contributor.
  

• The commissioning editor reviews the work and decides whether it is publishable based on market research and financial investigation into the costs of production using a P&L sheet. MUP aims to have a 65% profit margin, and will only publish after this amount. Here is an example of a P&L sheet:

• The title is sent to an acquisitions meeting, which includes members of staff from editorial, sales and marketing, and rights. These respective contributors determine if the book is publishable from their aspects.
  
  
• If it is commissioned, the academic publishing house will send out a house style attachment that outlines the writing style that is preferred.  This list is quite extensive, and contains grammatical, spelling and structural preferences outlined by the publishing house. An example of this sheet for MUP has been provided on Blackboard. The author must adhere to these rules if they are to be published.
  

• During this process, contracts between the publishing house and the author will be drawn up, these contracts talk about the digital, media and adaptation rights of a book, the revenue breakdown and the legal obligations both parties have toward one another. Some examples of these can be found on BlackBoard. Tony showed the group a few examples of their contracts at MUP, and we went through the contract line-by-line. It was very interesting how different the fiction/small publisher contract at Blue Moose was in terms of tone and address, in comparison to the academic contract.
  
  
• The work is then peer-reviewed by comparable academics in the field, these in-depth reviews work on a quid-pro-quo basis, and the reviewer is usually only paid £50 for the effort, or given five books from the publisher's backlist (in some cases).
  
  
• If the book passes the peer review process, the work is edited and finalised by the editorial team, the marketing and sales team work on the design. The cover is decided at this stage.
  
  
• The book at this stage is saleable, and the metadata and isbn must be put in place.
  
  
• Sales and marketing teams introduce the book at conferences and book launches, and the book is distributed through existing channels to retail outlets.
  
  

Bluemoose Books

I was really excited to hear Kevin Duffy from Bluemoose Books speak this month, especially because Bluemoose is based in West Yorkshire (yay!) and I've happened on their books by chance in the Leeds branch of Waterstones, and on a few occasions while I've been researching publishers based in the area.

They're an independent publisher and a member of the Independent Publishers Guild. I have heard a lot about the IPG but mostly about the Faber and Faber involvement from other guest speakers on the course, so I'm really interested to learn more. The last eight books that have won the Man Booker Prize have been from independent publishers.

Kevin is a novelist and Bluemoose specialises in literary fiction, publishing five to eight books a year. Their most recent title The Secret to Not Drowing has reviewed extremely well on Amazon (5*) and Goodreads (4.4*), which attests to the great emphasis on story writing which became clear during Kevin's session. The Secret to Not Drowing also won the Arts Council Fiction book last month (September 2015). I have a real interest in contemporary literary fiction so I scribbled away illegibly on my phone for the duration of the class, which I now regret. See:

an example of coherent,
legible MA notes

Content

Another feature of the Bluemoose list is the appearence of working class and Nothern characters and settings in their list, which is nice. We're all not up here wearing flat caps and eating pies. It's bloody important to be represented in the novels we read, for the sake of sales alone. The population in the North do read, and buy, an awful lot of books.

Backlist

One of the most prominent lessons I took from Kevin's lecture was the importance of a backlist. Publishers typically make 80% of their revenue from list, so strong titles that have lasting appeal and readership is a priority. While it is important to listen closely to your audience and commission accordingly, a weak backlist would be one that is made up of fashionable and trend-bending novels, written to satisfy the market at that particular time without much focus on whether it will continue to sell in the future. 

Digital 

Metadata was raised as an important point again, and it is easy to understand why. The discoverability of your new novel as a relatively small publisher is extremely important during online searches. The 7 metawords can affect the sales of your book, and catagorising it accordingly in order to get the most reader exposure is key. Nielsen is also an important tool in the marketing and catagorising process, and after the book is conceived, all of the information must be inputted and an ISBN generated in order for the market to discover your book. The information you have to fill in is generally:

• The Authors Name 
• Rights Info
• Page Number 
• Price
• Publication Date
• A 350 Character Bio
• Cover Image

Timescale 

Bluemoose's timescale from commission to sale is also very interesting

I was surprised by the amount of time that is spent editing the novel, but the team fine comb each setting, character and word to make sure that the story is consistent and error-free. This is the USP of the company from what I could gather from Kevin's session, and no sacrifices are made in the timescale for editing. There are usually quite good author relations at Bluemoose, and the author is involved in every step of the book development, from changes in the text to cover design. This communication takes some man hours.

The review timescale surprised me because at this point I wasn't aware that books are given out to reviewers, bloggers and journalists two to three months early, or how important the review process was with regard to marketing and book sales. 

Marketing 

Creative marketing was a highlight of Kevin's talk, and quirky social media hits like the one book bookshop (pictured) which generated coverage in the Guardian. Events at festivals, universities and libraries are also key part of the way Bluemoose publicises novels, and the proximity to Ilkley Literature Festival is a bonus. The importance of funding for libraries that Kevin stressed is also a sentiment that I share, and I hope for a future full of books free for everyone.

Bluemoose's one book bookshop - a viral hit

commissioning editing 101

Today’s session with Toby Mason from Manchester University Press was a really eye-opening insight into the logistics and everyday workings of both an academic publisher and Tony’s role as a commissioning editor. I feel like a sapling at this point, drinking in all of the information. 

Selfie

Academic Publishing

The fact that MUP has traded for 101 years was a really fascinating starting fact, and although I hadn’t specifically thought about a career in academic publishing on application to this course, the longevity of presses like Manchester, Edinburgh and Oxford is an attractive feat.

The types of books published by an academic press like Manchester (monographs, textbooks) are exclusively non-fiction and often very specialist. It was comforting to learn that an inside knowledge of every piece of published material wasn’t necessary in the editing or commissioning process. This is because peer-reviewers, experts in the respective field, will read, fact check and critique the book from an expert’s standpoint, for a small fee and also a bit of kudos. This works as a back-and-forth between academics.

We were also informed that monographs in hardback are only usually printed in around 200 copies in order to appeal to journals, libraries and specialist buyers, but currently nearly always slowly transition into paperback in order to sell more widely and sell to bookshops. 

Commissioning

Tony Mason then told us about the structure of the commissioning process. Some of the tasks involved in this role are as follows:

• Signing books and authors, deciding what titles to pursue, and convincing colleagues to that end
• Working to a target of around fifty books per year (for an academic publisher like MUP)
• Making sure the title picked up is sellable, marketable and profitable
• Working closely with the author, voicing their concerns and questions to the team and acting accordingly to maintain a solid relationship
• Extensively and effectively networking with authors, reviewers, press and the consumer
• Working with all of the departments to ensure a well-rounded, consumer product. 

Tony then spoke about different approaches to the role, which break down into three main categories, named Proactive, Reactive and Collaborative:

• Proactive commissioning is defined by a commissioner who uses forward-thinking techniques like extensive market research and approaching authors pre-emptively in order to secure a title before another company. This style is quite labour-intensive.
• Reactive commissioning is a more passive approach than the role described above, and would refer to a commissioner who waited for a proposal to be readily packaged and dropped on their desk by an author before acting on behalf of the market.
• Collaborative commissioning is a mixture of the above two styles, and is generally referred to as the ‘sweet spot’ to prevent editorial burn-out, and to maintain a healthy relationship in which the authors and the publishers give an appropriate amount of effort. This commissioning style also involves a good amount of networking, to allow author-editor relations to flow, and good recommendations and reputations to flourish.

With regard to networking, Tony Mason also detailed a number of important external and internal contacts that a commissioning editor must maintain in order to do their job effectively, here are just a few of the examples:

• External: The Author, Literary Agents, Series Editors, Peer-reviewers, The Press, Other Publishing Companies.
• Internal: Marketing, Sales, Rights, Editorial, Finance, Production.

While there was a lot to take in during the first session, I felt pretty enlightened and more prepared for a career in publishing when I walked out of the room. Commissioning books would be an interesting role and it is something I would consider as a career path – especially if I were to learn more about commissioning fiction - but at the moment my interests lie in production, and possibly also in sales and marketing (but we’ll have to see). 

look at me flourish