How Book Publishing Is Changing: Perspectives of a Small Publisher STEVEN PIERSANTI PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER BERRETT-KOEHLER PUBLISHERS, INC.

Sources of My Perspectives H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI 32 years experience in book publishing 1977 – 1991: Jossey-Bass Publishers (promotional copywriter, marketing director, editor, editorial director, executive vice president, president) 1992 – 2009: Berrett-Koehler Publishers (founder, president and publisher)

Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. Mission: Creating a World That Works for All H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI BK Currents: societal change BK Business: organizational change BK Life: individual change Trade, Professional, and Textbook

H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI Publish 30 to 40 new books & new editions per year Approx. ¾ perfect bound, ¼ case bound Nearly all one-color, a few two-color and four-color First printings: POD to 50,000 copies Reprints: POD to 20,000 copies

Presentation Topics H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI The 10 Awful Truths about Book Publishing The Digital Publishing Revolution The Growth of Print on Demand Opportunities for Book Manufacturers

The 10 Awful Truths about Book Publishing H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI #1: The number of new books being publishing in the U.S. has exploded. 560,626 in 2008 (more than doubled in 5 years)

The 10 Awful Truths about Book Publishing H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI #2: Book industry sales are declining, despite the explosion of new books. 13.5% decline from 2003 to 2008 adjusted for inflation

The 10 Awful Truths about Book Publishing H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI #3: Average book sales are shockingly small, and falling fast. Average U.S. book now sells less than 250 copies/year and 3,000 copies/lifetime.

The 10 Awful Truths about Book Publishing H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI #4: A book has less than a 1% chance of being stocked in an average bookstore. There are 100 to 1,000 or more titles competing for each shelf space.

The 10 Awful Truths about Book Publishing H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI #5: It is getting harder and harder every year to sell books.

The 10 Awful Truths about Book Publishing H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI #6: Most books today are selling only to the authors’ and publishers’ communities.

The 10 Awful Truths about Book Publishing H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI #7: Most book marketing today is done by authors, not by publishers.

The 10 Awful Truths about Book Publishing H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI #8: No other industry has so many new product introductions.

The 10 Awful Truths about Book Publishing H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI #9: The digital revolution is expanding the number of products and sales channels but not increasing book sales.

The 10 Awful Truths about Book Publishing H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI #10: The book publishing world is in a never-ending state of turmoil.

The Digital Publishing Revolution H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI

The Digital Publishing Revolution H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI Berrett-Koehler e-books 213 Kindle format 223 Universal PDF format 17 EPUB format Chunks of BK books Fast Fundamentals Books24x7 Safari Books Online Digital = 5% of BK revenues and growing rapidly

The Digital Publishing Revolution BK’s view of the marketplace: H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI Digital is growing rapidly. Print is not going away. Technologies exist side-by-side (radio, movies, TV, internet). Digital is taking market share from print rather than increasing overall book sales.

The Rise of Print on Demand H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI Some publishers have switched entirely to POD. BK uses POD to keep slow-selling books in print. BK uses POD to print digital-primary books and other special publications. BK is considering switching to POD after first printings for many books.

The Rise of Print on Demand H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI BK has 28 POD titles with Lightening Source. BK has 16 digital short-run titles with Malloy, Hamilton, Webcom, Ltd, and Odyssey Press These numbers are growing rapidly.

A BK case study: H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI From book concept to printed book in 7 weeks and 2 days.

Espresso Book Machine H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI Game changer?

A small publisher’s needs = opportunities for book manufacturers H OW B OOK P UBLISHING I S C HANGING S TEVEN P IERSANTI Conversion of book files to EPUB and XML Reduce printing costs at low quantities Make it economical to switch back and forth between offset and short run Speed: make it possible to print and reprint in 2 to 5 days when needed (with higher prices) Support publisher’s environmental priorities