The Darwinian Publishing Model and Google

The Darwinian Publishing Model stands on three legs; 1) an author's or content owner's ability to publish web searchable content, 2) ubiquitous devices from which to conduct search and receive content, and 3) robust search capability.

Google clearly intends to play in all three legs of this publishing model. Two recent reports are very interesting.  First, the Digits blog of WSJ.com reports that Google has just reached 1 Billion unique users per month. Not searches, but unique users.  What's the population of the earth anyway?

Second, Google has reached an agreement with the British Library to digitize 250,000 books, or 40 million pages that will be available for search, downloading, or reading for free.  This is content in addition to millions of book titles slated for access from the Google Book Settlement.

Finally, Google is pushing hard on the device side of the equation with their Android Mobile OS, available for smartphones and tablets. Already, there are multiple Android tablets available, this one here from Samsung.

Google is uniquely positioned to vertically integrate this publishing model. It is acquiring huge amounts of content by first tying up the rights to out of print and unclaimed titles, and second by agreements with the old school publishers.  Their market share for search continues to grow and ensure that searches for this content will run through Google's servers (and advertisers).  Finally, the Android Mobile OS growing popularity means that more and more searches will originate from and deliver to devices powered by Google.

The great game that Google is playing is not about publishing, but about who is reading and searching for what and selling that to their advertisers.  More on this in a future post.

John Locke Becomes the First Independently Published Author to Join the "Kindle Million Club"

Self publishing combined with electronic distribution will make further inroads into the publishing and printing sectors. 

from the issuing company press release

Amazon.com today announced that John Locke has become the eighth author to sell over 1 million Kindle books, becoming the newest member of the "Kindle Million Club," and the first independently published author to receive this distinction. As of yesterday, John Locke has sold 1,010,370 Kindle books using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Kindle Direct Publishing is a fast and easy way for publishers and authors to start selling to Kindle customers worldwide via Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle with Special Offers, Kindle 3G with Special Offers, Kindle DX, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, PC, Mac and Android-based devices. The Kindle Million Club recognizes authors whose books have sold over 1 million paid copies in the Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore). Locke joins Stieg Larsson, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Charlaine Harris, Lee Child, Suzanne Collins and Michael Connelly in the Kindle Million Club.

 

Will the 'First Printing' Become a 20th-Century Relic?

From Rachel Deahl at Publishers Weekly

"While publishers may be coming up with different ways to tweak the math they use to reach their first printings, many are becoming more uncomfortable sharing the information. First printings are disappearing from galley covers and catalogues, and publishers are becoming increasingly resistant to share the figures with reporters. "

Read the whole article here

The Darwinian Publishing Model

Kansas City Star

Noah Homola at the Kansas City Star has written a nice article about the growth of self publishing that is being fueled by growing acceptance of e-readers.  I found it online yesterday with Factiva.  How a blogger in Richmond, Virginia found this article in Kansas gave rise to these reflections on book publishing.

There are two prominent theories of evolution.  Creationists believe in something called intelligent design, whereby the creatures of the earth seen today have been shaped by the hand of God.  Darwinists believe that the process of natural selection or "survival of the fittest" is the dominant force of biological diversity.  Both sides have their adherents and detractors and the fight between the two generates a surfeit of tenured college professors.

Book publishing is facing a similar conflict today.  (Spoiler alert: the Darwinists are winning.)  For many years, book publishing has been dominated by the publishers, who determine access to book printing and distribution.  Authors labor to write manuscripts, and then struggle even harder to find an agent, a publisher, or a sympathetic editor.  The publisher was the hand of God that shaped the market by granting access to the holy grail of publication and a shelf at your local Barnes and Noble.  This is the intelligent design model of book publishing.  Publishers and editors determine what content will be available and promoted to the reading public.

A much smaller and less respected route was to take your scribblings to a vanity press where a few copies of your book would be produced commensurate with your checkbook and delivered personally to you.  What you did with them afterwards was your own business.  This was the essence of self publishing, and was no threat to the corporate publishing houses.

The ubiquity of computing platforms and the increasing acceptance of e-readers has changed the dynamic of book publishing.  Now, anybody with a computer (which is everybody) can write and publish a book or an article through a growing number of self publishing sites.  Anybody can satisfy a personal desire for knowledge by conducting a search from their computer, reader, or smartphone.  Powerful search engines reveal to an individual the most relevant and intriguing content, and in so doing identify the most popular books and articles to the larger market.  All this without the mediating influence of the mainstream publisher to decide what authors and topics will be admitted to their paper distribution model.

Will the Darwinian selective forces of search engines outperform the intelligent design of mainstream publishers?  Keep searching on book publishing and e-readers and you will find your answer.

T. R. Shannon