The eReader Independent

U.S. Title Merchandising Goes International

February 13, 2012

... And Open Market rights will never be the same

Kindle Stores are now open in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. From many other markets, a Kindle device owner can order Kindle titles from the U.S. store, and it is just a matter of time before many other Kindle Store markets are open.

Each of these Kindle Stores is robustly stocked with English language e-books. In the UK Store, those titles will be sourced either from a UK publisher with exclusive UK rights or from a U.S. publisher with world English rights. The other stores are all part of the Open Market and as such most of the time can be accessed nonexclusively by either the U.S. or the UK publisher.

For print books sold in brick-and-mortar bookstores, typically the UK publisher covered the EU and Asia, and the U.S. publisher covered Latin America and most of South America. But digital distribution changes all of that.

RosettaBooks has worldwide English rights for about half of its catalog and Open Market rights for many more titles. So RosettaBooks titles are currently populating these international Kindle Stores.

Kindle has recently begun merchandising U.S.-sourced English language titles in its UK and Germany stores.

The #1 title in the RosettaBooks catalog, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey, was recently the beneficiary of this expanded promotion. On January 28, 7 Habits was the Kindle Daily Deal (at $.99 for 24 hours) in the United States and rose to #1 all categories in the Kindle Store. On February 10, 7 Habits was the Kindle Daily Deal in the UK Store (99 pence for 24 hours) and rose to #2 all categories. On February 12, 7 Habits was the Kindle Daily Deal in the Germany Store (1.09 Euros for 24 hours) and rose to #1 all categories.

This merchandising “trifecta” illustrates the beginning of a major expansion of opportunity for English language titles. Until now, Open Market rights for print books were usually a modest part of the overall copyright value. All of that is about to change due to the international marketing of e-books.

 

The Kindle Daily Deal – The Best Promotion in ePublishing

January 3, 2012

Several months ago, Kindle launched the Daily Deal – one title offered for 24 hours at a price reduction of around 75%. RosettaBooks has placed six Daily Deals:

  • Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
  • Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley
  • Principle Centered Leadership by Stephen R. Covey
  • Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
  • On Gold Mountain by Lisa See
  • An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

All six of these titles became top ten titles in the Kindle Store (all categories) on the day of the Daily Deal. Most became #1. In the several weeks that followed the selection as the Daily Deal, the titles were first top 25 titles in the Kindle Store (all categories), then top 50 titles, then top 100 titles, etc. These store rankings were vast gains from the typical range of store rankings for these titles.

The spike in unit sales was mainly in the 24-hour period of the Daily Deal selection. In the first few weeks after the selection, the total number of units sold was a substantial percentage of the units sold on the day of selection. Since all of those later units were sold at full digital list price, the author and RosettaBooks earned much more money in the weeks after the Daily Deal selection than on the day of the selection itself.

On the day of a Daily Deal selection, we are seeing one-day sales gains of more than 100 times a typical day of sales for the same title. We are seeing sales gains of fifty times and more for the weeks immediately after the Daily Deal selection, versus the weeks immediately before. Ultimately, we are seeing site rankings for the titles better than before the Daily Deal selection – so the promotion is finding new readers for the title, not cannibalizing buyers who would have bought the title anyway at a higher price. Why is there such a high rate of sale after the Daily Deal selection? There is no special ongoing promotion. There has to be consumer awareness from the big one-day promotion about the title (the consumer just acted too late to get the special sales price), and there must be some strong word of mouth from people who do buy the title on the day of the Daily Deal.

The Rosetta titles selected for the Daily Deal:

  • Were published a long time ago.
  • Have had no active promotion from their print publisher in decades.
  • Are typically not among the top half of Rosetta’s title portfolio in current ebook sales.

What clearer demonstration can there be of the power of price cuts accompanied with major site promotion?

Paul Alexander – The Kindle Singles program transforms a professional author

December 19, 2011

Paul Alexander was a successful author long before the launch of the Kindle Singles program this year:

  • Paul Alexander has published four well-received literary biographies — of Sylvia Plath, J. D. Salinger, James Dean and Andy Warhol — and well-received political books about John McCain, John Kerry and Karl Rove. See Amazon Homepage
  • He has written over 100 major nonfiction articles for a wide range of first-rate publications, screenplays (including a documentary underway, produced and directed by Shane Salerno, based on Paul’s book on J. D. Salinger). Paul has also written several plays, including a one-woman show about Sylvia Plath that has toured internationally with Angelica Torn.

When I introduced Paul Alexander to the Kindle Singles program early in 2011, he had never written a true crime piece, but he had researched for possible film treatment a Los Angeles true crime story about a policewoman who murders the wife of her former lover. Based on his research, his initial Singles project became a 10,000-word piece titled Murdered, published in March. The #1 performance of that Single (and its surge to top ten titles in the Kindle Singles store, all categories) stunned everyone.

One result was that Paul became the first writer invited to contribute a second Single – the true crime piece Accused published in July. It performed just as well as Murdered, becoming another #1 Single, even as Murdered continued to sell strongly.

Two became three as Paul published Homicidal in November. And three will become four early in 2012.

As I write, all three of the Singles are among the top ten bestsellers in the True Crime category on the Kindle Store.

Paul has been transformed into a literary true crime writer in the tradition of Truman Capote, Dominick Dunne and Joe McGinniss. This will make possible:

  • More Singles, on both true crime and other subjects
  • A full-length true crime book
  • A more commercial market for any length book Paul chooses to write

Kindle Singles can be researched and written relatively quickly for an accomplished professional writer like Paul. They also can be published almost immediately upon completion. And the earning power, which will build over the next few years, is considerably higher than the equivalent effort a few years ago for a full-length book or a series of articles. Paul’s author “brand” as this unfolds is being built by one of the largest booksellers in the business.

A transformational result indeed.

Bringing the best of science fiction novellas to e-book

October 31, 2011

In the 1950s, the giants of science fiction — including Robert Heinlein, Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, and C.M. Kornbluth — published novellas and longer work in Galaxy Magazine. The writers granted one-time rights. Most of the published pieces were too short to stand alone as books and often too long to be collected frequently in short fiction anthologies. In many instances, the pieces were recognized in the science fiction community as among the best work of the author and in types of science fiction as among the best work ever published.

Barry Malzberg is renowned in the science fiction field. Barry had a long association with the Scott Meredith Literary Agency and I was fortunate enough to work with him after I bought the agency in 1993. I invited Barry to recommend a “best of Galaxy” selection. We went to work on licensing and were pleased to clear rights for most of our top choices. Barry suggested that we commission new forewords by leading science fiction writers of the day to place the work in context. Barry also recommended that we create the jackets using the original art of Ed Emschwiller, whose legendary covers for Galaxy Magazine are widely regarded as major achievements in science fiction illustration.

The result is The Galaxy Project, which we offer worldwide at a digital list price of $1.99.

To help promote the launch of the Galaxy Project, Barry and I decided to initiate a contest to select an unpublished science fiction novella in the spirit of Horace Gold, the celebrated founder and editor of Galaxy Magazine. Barry enlisted acclaimed science fiction authors David Drake and Robert Silverberg as fellow judges. More than 100 writers submitted pieces to the contest. The judges tied and the prize ($1,000 and a publication contract in the Galaxy Project) was jointly awarded to “Lucy” by Susan Forest and “Vienna Station” by Robert Walton. We commissioned Jill Bauman, today’s leading science fiction illustrator, to create the terrific jackets.

The Galaxy Project illustrates how:

  • Wonderful thematic writing of decades ago can be published digitally in ways that would be impossible in print

  • To merge the editorial talents of today with the writing talent of decades ago

  • Digital graphics can enhance the words to attract a new generation of readers

  • Site promotion, in this case at Kindle, and targeted public relations can attract the natural audience

RosettaBooks brought together a range of constituents to make the Galaxy Project happen:

  • Rights holders of the Galaxy pieces

  • The writers of the new forewords

  • The holder of the cover art rights

  • Judges for the contest (Robert Silverberg, David Drake and Barry Malzberg)

  • An illustrator for the contest winners

  • An editor (Barry Malzerg) to pull everything together and write all of the necessary copy

  • Merchandising and public relations

I think The Galaxy Project e-books and writing contest illustrate one aspect of what is possible in the quickly growing e-book space. RosettaBooks is very proud of the result.

Time-sensitive UK books in the US in a digital world - a case study

August 22, 2011

Heather Brooke, a prominent freelance journalist, committed to publish “The Revolution will be Digitised” (75,000 words) with William Heinemann in the U.K. (owned by Random House). She withheld North American rights.

The manuscript contained newsworthy information about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks so publication in the U.K. was embargoed until August 18 to follow a short serial excerpt August 7 in the Mail on Sunday. 

Since U.S. rights had not been sold, in mid-July Heather Brooke’s agent asked RosettaBooks to explore the most effective way to publish an e-book edition of the book in the United States.  Publishing the 75,000 word book in full at a list price of $9.99 was one option, but how would the e-book be effectively promoted?

The text had two parts: a 50,000-word, largely third-person account of leaks in a digital world, and laced throughout the book, a compelling first-person account about Heather Brooke’s experience with Julian Assange, WikiLeaks and the major newspapers involved in the sensitive leaks.

RosettaBooks recommended offering a 24,000-word first-person account as a Kindle Single at a list price of $1.99.  My view was that the promotion from the Single platform would lead to a vast multiple of unit sales versus a full-length higher-priced edition. Also, while Heather Brooke was an award-winning journalist who broke the Members of Parliament expense account scandal, her reputation was mainly U.K. based. This was the chance to establish her reputation in the U.S.

With the help of Heather Brooke’s agent (Karolina Sutton at Curtis Brown UK), RosettaBooks aligned all of the interested parties (Kindle, Heinemann, the Mail on Sunday) and arranged for the Kindle Single publication of “Assange Agonistes” on August 10, eight days before the release of “The Revolution will be Digitised.” 

The Kindle Single achieved a high level of press attention in the U.S. and helped to kick off broader attention for the full-length book in the U.K.

This approach to a book otherwise uncommitted in the U.S. market is a publishing first.  The combination of editorial form, speed and promotion illustrates the power of digital publishing at its best.

The Power of Site Promotion

July 10, 2011

RosettaBooks has recently experienced the power of two Kindle site promotions.

The Kindle Singles program is almost exclusively supported by site promotion. RosettaBooks has published four Kindle Singles, three of which became #1 sellers in the Kindle Singles store – "Murdered" by Paul Alexander, "Undead" by Frank Delaney and this weekend, "Accused" by Paul Alexander. There is no better evidence for the power of site promotion than the $.99 and $1.99 Kindle Singles.

These short-length (10,000+ word) pieces presented any other way on the Kindle Store would sell a tiny percentage of their sales as a Kindle Single.

An even more interesting example is the recently completed Kindle Sunshine Promotion.

Kindle selected 600 titles to participate in the promotion that ran between June 1 and 15. All participating titles were priced at $.99, $1.99 or $2.99. The promotion was aggressively endorsed throughout the site and by blast emails to customers.

For the eight RosettaBooks titles participating, the average price reduction was two-thirds, so to break even the titles needed to yield three times the dollar revenue of the two-week sales average before the promotion.

The Sunshine RosettaBooks results were a dollar increase ten times the prior two-week period. For top titles, it was a 20-times increase — an enormous success.

To cite just one title example, during the promotion, "The Millionaire Next Door" shot to #1 in the personal finance category.

RosettaBooks on its own took the promotion one step further. Rather than immediately returning the digital list price to the pre-promotion level, we set the price $1 higher than the special marketing price — still a discount of more than 50% from the pre-promotion price.

The concept was to test the "tail wind" of the Kindle-supported promotion — people who saw the promotion but thought about buying later or people who heard about the e-books from others who bought during the campaign.

For the two weeks June 16 - June 30, we needed dollar sales more than double the pre-promotion period to break even. The results were double the dollars of pre-promotion sales thereby further consolidating the gains of the promotion.

What does all of this suggest?

Site promotion matters.

Short-term price flexibility matters.

After the fact, promotions have an upside "tail wind" that can be maximized with pricing experimentation.

What does this mean for RosettaBooks?

We are committed to as many promotions in as many forms we can execute.

When Free is a Successful Business Strategy

May 26, 2011

For more than ten years, RosettaBooks has published a line of e-books that became the basis for popular films.

Often, it is not widely known that the well-received films were inspired by books. Since these books in general have low ongoing print sales, it is hard to generate significant e-book sales. Rosetta is changing that for five book-into-film e-books with a strategy built initially on free distribution.

Why Kindle “Singles” Will Change Non-Fiction Publishing

April 8, 2011

Paul Alexander has been a successful professional writer for more than twenty five years.

Paul has published eight successful non-fiction books over the past 15 years, including Salinger, Machiavelli’s Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove, Rough Magic: A Biography of Sylvia Plath, and more.

He has written award-winning plays, some of which he has directed, and directed acritically acclaimed documentary. Paul’s major magazine work has appeared over the years in many first class publications, mostly in Rolling Stone.

But nothing in his past experience prepared Paul for what happened when RosettaBooks published his 9,500-word true crime piece Murdered (the only true crime piece Paul has ever written) as a Kindle Single.

Love Signs on Valentine's Day

February 14, 2011

Valentine’s Day seems an appropriate time to tell the publishing story of Linda Goodman’s Love Signs and its release by RosettaBooks, both as a complete e-book and in 12 “sign by sign” editions.

Reflections on ten years

February 6, 2011

RosettaBooks will soon celebrate its tenth anniversary.  When we launched:

  • Palm was the dominant e-book format.
  • There were perhaps several hundred thousand readers trying e-books - most of those had tried only one e-book.
  • There was no compelling eReading device.
  • Many bestsellers were not released as an e-book.
  • Industry trade e-book content revenues were under $10,000,000.