In what could prove to be a landmark move, major publisher HarperCollins is trying something new:

Citing the desire to create new revenue streams for authors, mega-publisher HarperCollins has announced the first free Web-based, ad-supported, full-text business book. Go It Alone! The Secret to Building a Successful Business on Your Own by Bruce Judson is now available on the author’s Web site (http://www.brucejudson.com), where an affiliate link to Amazon, not the publisher, can also be found. Not only can the book be read at the site, but it can also be searched. HarperCollins Publishers is calling the project a test of a new business model. Some self-published authors also offer ad-supported books online, but HarperCollins’ move is the first by a major publisher.

Open the floodgates on this one, publishers. You’ve needed something like this for awhile.

This is non-fiction, but if it does well we could soon be seeing fiction and possibly a revenue split option for authors which enhances the traditional book advance, something which might have worked in 1960 but not in 2006. If they market books via established publisher channels (one of their greatest current weaknesses, I think), the advertising costs can be significantly lower than doing this through radio, TV, magazines and newspapers. This cost reduction means more money from incoming booksales can be split between author, publisher and Literary Agent. The draw of self-publishing is strong because authors can skip all these other layers and perhaps by this move from HarperCollins more major publishers will follow suit.

How about podcasts? This advertising strategy seemed to have worked for Scott Sigler who now has a second podiobook. There are tons of channels where authors can get interview exposure if they don’t want to read their own books. A virtual book tour? Why not, it’s already happening for self-published authors.

Publishers need to get with the program now or they will be obsoleted. I think the publisher is still relevant, but not trying to hold onto the print world — technology is changing the relevancy and desirability of print. What they can and should be doing is collectively building some great websites with author-to-reader sticky features. Imagine if publishers provided their authors free blogs along the lines of what Amazon has been experimenting with, but to the next level? I mean including full on podcasting, videoblogging and blogging with unlimited picture storage and even letting the authors host on their own domains. This self-fed and massaged traffic then feeds back to the publisher and enables them to leverage the ad income across all authors. The authors promote the mother ship, the mother ship gives back. Mutually beneficial business with tons of marketing possibilities.

Or everybody can just keep on fighting how esteemed (or not) self-publishing is until it improves to the point that publisher are no longer relevant.

Getting the books in the hands of interested readers in the format they desire and at a cost that they can afford (who can’t afford free?) is the publisher’s job and they’ve fallen off the mark. I see one financial downside in this experiment and there might be more: they need to keep a commercial ad-free version. From looking around Go it Alone it looks like you can still buy the book from Amazon or pick up at the bookstore (not sure if it’s available as an ad-free eBook). Otherwise they will have the equivalent of people running out GreaseMonkey and never seeing any ads. Give the readers who want to get the books ad-free and without DRM restrictions the ability to buy at a fair price and since electronic delivery of a book is less expensive than using the tree killing method, pass along some of that savings to readers.

The problem with the first round of eBooks was the pricing wasn’t substantially different than buying the print books and the many different formats was a mess for readers. Even my most recent and very first eBook purchase was in Microsoft format but a reader informed me that if I had used Palm format (which I thought Palm was knocking on death’s door) I’d have more flexibility.

If publishers cover all of these bases they may have a chance in the digital age, if not, then good riddance. Whatever they do, they better hurry as computing devices continue to become lighter and more poweful and readable, you’ll see more pronounced reader hunger for digital content increase. eBooks might have had a poor first showing, but the technology is getting better now, so count them down but certainly not out.

I’m not talking about reading eBooks on a crappy CRT monitor either, try reading one on a tricked out Tablet PC or good quality LCD.

Call to major publishers
Perhaps wishful thinking here, but if any major publishers’ editors are actually interested in trying a similar fiction experiment and happen to be reading this post, I have seven completed unpublished genre fiction novels that I’d entertain thoughts of publishing under a similar arrangement and might even be compelled to kick out a brand new one if the terms were right. To get in touch with me just leave a comment with your email. Comments containing email addresses are not published on the website so I’ll know who to get in touch with about this and get the private discussion going. You could also just call me at my office. Yes, that’s really our office phone number on my picture on the homepage of this blog.

I’m serious, here. Are you?

Did this post make you go hmm?

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