Sodom and Gomorrah

The book publishing industry vs the advertising industry, a conflict of interest or more alike than we think?

When I came across Krizia de Crescentis blog on the advertising industry, I realized there are a lot of similarities and differences between the publishing and advertising industries.

First both are being transformed by convergence, in this new digital age both book and advertisements used to be relegated to paper but now can be experience by a multitude of mediums. For example as a result of convergence books can be read as e-books, on the internet, via websites, and blogs as well as on tablets like the Ipad or Kindle. Even audio books have transformed from the outdated “book on tape” version to CD’s, mp3’s and podcasts. In a nutshell publishing is becoming faster, easier, and cheaper the audience for once gets a say in what they like and what they want to read, in a sense it is becoming more democratic. Making novels compete for readers and transforming self publishing into a respectable norm. As Andrea Sachs wrote in Time magazine, "Self-publishing has gone from being the last resort of the desperate and talentless to something more like out-of-town tryouts for theater or the farm system in baseball. It's the last ripple of the Web 2.0 vibe finally washing up on publishing's remote shores".

Likewise advertisements have gone from static print form in magazines, newspapers and billboards, to include multimedia, moving, interactive screens in tube stations, store windows and city squares like Piccadilly Circus and Times Square. Similarly commercials are now not only on TV and radio but before movies in the theater and attached to online searches and downloads often via spam. It’s as if paid advertisements are filling up the margins of more than magazines and newspapers but our whole world.

In contrast books still seem to be the only hold out when it comes to letting ads invade their pages. Thankfully we don’t see an ad for shampoo or the newest style of shoes in between every chapter. Books have still seemed to keep their aura of art or academics sacred, which is why the experience of opening a book is still loved by so many. It’s all about escaping the buzz of the world and when you open a book all the ads around you disappear when we open the pages of a book.

Still the publishing industry has to adapt to people wanting greater online access, consumer generated content, and the ability to publish their own books. As companies like Amazon and Google provide these services old school publishing houses have to change with the rising tide of popular demand or else face extinction.

Perhaps the hope for books is to look to advertising; already we see ads for books when we are shopping on Amazon, ebay or Google. As all of these websites are using books as promotional devices. For example ads saying “join our newspaper/club/ site and get this book free!” are seen all of the time especially on an author or publishers website or blog. It’s through these pervading ads that the book industry and the advertising industry are meeting.

www.nymag.com

www.time.com

www.icmrindia.org

www.publishingtrends.com

Media Conglomerates- To Fear or Not To Fear?

In today's world what we read in a book or newspaper is becoming more and more controlled as media conglomerates continue to gobble up local publishing companies.

Of the top 12 book publishers in the UK only a few are actually owned by UK companies. They are Pearson PLC the parent of Penguin and Pearson Education, Oxford Press, Bloomsbury, and the Faber Alliance of Independent Publishers. The top 2 publishing houses in the UK Hachette Livre and Random House are owned by French and German parent companies respectively. Even Macmillan, which was started in the UK, is now owned by the foreign media conglomerate Verlagsgruppe out of Germany. Rupert Murdoch's U.S. based powerhouse News Corp owns Harper Collins, and the American big wig CBS owns Simon and Schuster.

Of the top 12 book publishing companies in the UK only 4 are UK owned. So overall the amount of UK publishers owned by foreign companies far out weighs the one that are UK owned. Many fear this kind of foreign influence or dominance as it can easily overlook or stamp out local flavor. Despite the fact that most big publishers have a solely UK branch of the company does little to quash peoples dislike of media conglomerates. This is because we cannot help to feel that we are being spoon-fed the same information and products as everyone else. The reason this is so disturbing is because it is the idea that culture is being changed from a unique entity that is dependent on an area and the people who live in the area and their beliefs, traditions and history to a one size fits all model that media conglomerates are injecting into our societies.

On the other hand the more media conglomerates tighten their grip on society the more people fight back. Thanks to the availability of information through the Internet we are able to share the truth behind who owns what and thus become aware of “the man” influencing society. The Internet has also allowed a major increase in the amount of people who can share their ideas without going through a publishing house or media conglomerate. So in a sense the more conglomerates try to control what we see, read, buy and think, the more new technologies are invented to counteract such influence. These new innovations on the Internet have given us the ability to circumvent the control of media conglomerates.

Gail Rebuck- A force to be reckoned with

The longest running CEO of a publishing company, she has made Random House the second largest publishing company in the UK. Her entrepreneurial roots and legendary work ethic have made her a leader in the publishing world.

In 2009 she was made the Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the year, and a Dame in the Queen’s Birthday Honors List. Famous for her unwavering focus in the midst of car accidents and the birth of her children, Ms Rebuck has gained the respect of the publishing world even if some see her as a “turbo-charged careerist”. Her critics say she fits Random House all to well, in that she and the publishing giant are all about is making money, often putting creativity on the back burner. On the other hand Random House is known to go out of its way to support smaller independent booksellers as much as it does for the big chain stores.1 Either way it is hard to deny the influence of Random House and it’s captain Rebuck when such famous authors as John Grisham, Dan Brown, Salaman Rushdie, Tony Blair, Bill Bryson which fill the publishers literary stable, let alone the icons like Virgina Woolf, and Ernest Hemmingway, and Sigmund Freud (to name a few) that have graced the Random House in the past.

As one can see to handle such an influential publishing house, as Random House is no easy task, yet Ms Rebuck has shown the industry what the perfect head of such a company should be strong, smart, and very professional. But it didn’t all start out so golden, as all successes and stories there is a beginning. For Ms. Rebuck it was in London where she was born in 1952, she was educated at the University of Sussex, and worked as a tour guide and driver for her brother before she decided to follow her passion for books into publishing. She started in the publishing world as a production assistant for a children’s book company, then revamped a guidebook series by enlisting the local knowledge of London taxi drivers. Soon afterward she created a new publishing house called Century and after a series of other coup d'état that included ousting her former boss and mentor, Anthony Cheetham, she became CEO for Random House in 1991.

She followed a strict routine and only worked from 9-5 when her children were young, claiming that it wasn’t the quantity of time one spends in the office but rather the quality of work one does when they are there. She is an advocate of adult literacy saying, “learning to read isn’t a skill- it’s the doorway to life.”2 This kind of sentiment also prompted her to be a part of launching World Book Day and a Trustee of the National Literacy Trust and on the Council of the Royal College of Art.

Aware of the changing times and development of new technologies Ms Rebuck believes that the publishing industry is about to be transformed by "a new curve – the emergence of our digital future". Yet instead of being afraid of what that will mean for print books she has embraced the digital revolution claiming that printed books will not be overtaken by their digital counterparts as they are a part of our culture. Instead she has adopted the view "in 10 years time… we may get 25pc or 30pc of our revenue from digital sales.”3 Thus publishers must adapt and find a way to work with new media rather than scorn it.

Along with Random House Ms Rebuck has worked with and been affiliated with many media groups from News Corp, to British Sky Broadcasting Group, and is a trustee of the Institute of Public Policy Research and worked for the Government’s Creative Industry Taskforce to name a few.

It becomes obvious at once that Ms. Rebuck is a force to be reckoned with and that she has followed her passion for books up the corporate ladder to a place of prestige and longevity that few women have attained. In an interview by her old alma mater she advises students looking to get a foothold into the publishing world to “never be afraid to say what you think, always have an opinion, do more than is asked of you and be prepared to fail.” In a time where graduates are more than often found in a vacuum of “what next” Ms. Rebuck is proof that hard work and determination pays off. In a event where Ms. Rebuck was awarded a Doctorate from the University of Essex, the orator aptly said "if there is a “glass ceiling” keeping down ambitious and able women, Gail Rebuck has shown that it can be shattered."4

1. www.independent.co.uk

2. www.guardian.co.uk

3. www.telegraph.co.uk

4. www.essex.ac.uk

www.guardian.co.uk/books

www.sussex.ac.uk

www.independent.co.uk/news/media/

www.bmmagazine.co.uk

www.cabinetforum.org

people.forbes.com

Regulation in Publishing

Regulation in the Publishing industry is multi-faceted, piracy has become a growing concern for authors and publishers alike. Copyright has always been a key aspect of the publishing industry, Cornell University and the UK Copyright Service state that copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years after the authors death. According to the Publishers Association ensuring the author is protected and reimbursed as well as the publisher for taking on the risks and costs of production is vital to the preservation of the creative economy.

One of the most important aspects of the book publishing industry is copyright. The Publishers Association, The Society of Authors, The British Copyright Council, UK Copyright Service, and the International Publishers Association are only are a few of many external associations that have all been developed to support and advocate copyright laws and or fight censorship. Some work through forums and others through representation or awareness.

For example the UK Copyright Service provides online registration for various creative outlets from books to music, websites, logos and much more. The Publishers Licensing Society provides licensing knowledge through clarification and innovation, including royalty distribution to digital licensing.

Examples of internal regulation that Random House UK and Harper Collins implement is a permission policy, that requires written consent from the publisher to allow people to quote one of their books in another work.

Penguin has its own rights website that users can view to keep apprised of all of Penguins Rights news and information. It also has it’s own contracts department to “ensure that it achieves the best possible terms on which to publish [its] books.” Penguin also has it’s own Rights and International Publishing and Licensing Team, this is quite normal for big publishing houses to have regulatory departments within the company. The Rights department focuses on how to “maximize a book’s financial potential” and the IPL team focuses on getting Penguin books or it’s imprints books all over the world. (PENCAREERS09)

Here's a link to many more copyright related associations.

Book Publishing Structure in the UK

Creating a book starts with an author with an idea, and results in a book yet the process of creating a book is a complex multi-faceted process. The following is a map of that process...



The map shows that many of the big publishing companies have departments within them to cover everything from design to production, rights, and sales. Others have only some of these departments, it varies depending on publishing company.


Here is a list of publishing associations
PA-Publishers Association
BPIF-British Printing Industries Federation
BAPC- British Association for Print and Communication
IP3-Institute of Paper Printing and Publishing
BIC-Book Industry Communication
Writers Copyright Association

The Big Players in Publishing

Top 12 UK book publishers by 2009 sales and their parent companies.






www.hachettelivre.co.uk
www.randomhouse.co.uk
www.penguin.co.uk
www.pearsoned.co.uk
www.harpercollins.co.uk
www.faber.co.uk
www.macmillan.com
www.oup.com
www.bloomsbury.com
www.simonandschuster.co.uk
www.wiley.com

My Ideas on Book Publishing and the Future

All media is being changed and influenced by online availability and convergence so my creative business idea for book publishing would be how to utilize the Internet making books more accessible to the public. Along the ideas of online shopping and downloading like Amazon, iTunes and kindle. But broader to include all books, especially academic or special interest books that are restricted to databases and libraries.

My mission statement would be to make books cheaper and more accessible to everyone around the world, from third world countries to people’s computers. I want to see everyone have a book or electronic tablet like an “Ipad” in their hands. Only through education and the sharing of history and culture can we learn to be more understanding and tolerant of one another.

Two images that come to mind are books and hands grasped in friendship or to represent a vast amount of people coming together in knowledge. A word that symbolizes my business idea is insight.