Leaked: Hachette Document Explains Why Publishers Are Relevant
By Jeremy Greenfield, Editorial Director, Digital Book World, @JDGsaid
With self-publishing tools proliferating and traditional publishing business models in flux, authors, agents and book-industry observers have been increasingly debating the relevance of publishing companies.
In his obituary to the year-long Domino Project, Seth Godin wrote that publishing companies and other traditional players that do not adapt to new modes of doing business will go extinct. Others have suggested the same.
Meanwhile, some authors like J.A. Konrath and David Gaughran have eschewed traditional relationships with publishers to create and distribute their work on their own. In the aftermath to the Book Country self-publishing tool launch from Penguin, some outspoken critics took the announcement as an opportunity to question publishers’ relevance.
Hachette Book Group, one of the world’s largest publishing companies, has a response. In a document leaked today to Digital Book World by someone inside the company, Hachette outlines just why publishers are relevant. The company has shown the document internally to employees and externally to a limited number of agents and authors.
“You have to take a long look at what you’re up to and how you’re changing and adapting,” said a Hachette executive who preferred not to be named and who confirmed the authenticity of the document. “We’re all trying to come up with good messaging.”
The executive explained that the document is a continual work-in-progress and would evolve as the publishing business evolved.
Related: J.A. Konrath Responds With Advice for Publishers | Exclusive Q&A With Hachette Digital Chief Maja Thomas
The document in its entirety below:
“Self-publishing” is a misnomer.
Publishing requires a complex series of engagements, both behind the scenes and public facing. Digital distribution (which is what most people mean when they say self-publishing) is just one of the components of bringing a book to market and helping the public take notice of it.
As a full service publisher, Hachette Book Group offers a wide array of services to authors:
1. Curator: We find and nurture talent:
• We identify authors and books that are going to stand out in the marketplace. HBG discovers new voices, and separates the remarkable from the rest.
• We act as content collaborator, focused on nurturing writing talent, fostering rich relationships with our authors, providing them with expert editorial advice on their writing, and tackling a huge variety of issues on their behalf.
2. Venture Capitalist: We fund the author’s writing process:
• At HBG we invest in ideas. In the form of advances, we allow authors the time and resources to research and write. In addition we invest continuously in infrastructure, tools, and partnerships that make HBG a great publisher partner.
3. Sales and Distribution Specialist: We ensure widest possible audience:
• Weget our books to the right place, in the right numbers, and at the right time (this applies equally to print and digital editions). We work with retailers and distribution partners to ensure that every book has the opportunity to reach the widest possible readership.
• We ensure broad distribution and master supply chain complexity, in both digital and physical formats.
• We function as a new market pioneer, exploring and experimenting with new ideas in every area of our business and investing in those new ideas – even if, in some cases, a positive outcome is not guaranteed (as with apps and enhanced ebooks).
• We act as a price and promotion specialist (coordinating 250+ monthly, weekly and daily deals on ebooks at all accounts).
4. Brand Builder and Copyright Watchdog: We build author brands and protect their intellectual property:
• Publishers generate and spread excitement, always looking for new ways make our authors and their books stand out. We’re able to connect books with readers in a meaningful way.
• We offer marketing and publicity expertise, presenting a book to the marketplace in exactly the right way, and ensuring that intelligence, creativity, and business acumen inform our strategy.
• We protect authors’ intellectual property through strict anti-piracy measures and territorial controls.
Related: Is Seth Godin Right About Publishing? | J.A. Konrath Responds With Advice for Publishers | Exclusive Q&A With Hachette Digital Chief Maja Thomas
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Hear more insight into what publishers have to say and about the future of the book business at Digital Book World Conference + Expo 2012, this January 23-25 in New York. More>>>
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While self-published authors and agency publishers get 70% from Amazon, most other publishers operate on a wholesale model at Amazon and other ebook retailers. (Just like physical books, that’s in the 50% range.) Don’t assume that retailers are giving 70% back; only Apple guarantees that percentage to everyone.
Although I completely agree that we don’t know the percentages that the Big 6 get, you’re wrong that they have a wholesale model for ebooks at Amazon. The fact that they have an agency model with Amazon is heavily publicized by both the publishers and Amazon – you’ll see the “Publisher sets the price” sign next to many Big 6 books, especially ones over $9.99.
I can’t speak for smaller publishers, but given that both large publishers and indies have the agency model at Amazon for ebooks, I’d bet that most smaller publishers do as well. As for other retailers, if the Big 6 have an agency model with Amazon for ebooks, they have to have it with everyone else. If they didn’t, as soon as another retailer dropped the price, Amazon would match and it would defeat what publishers are trying to achieve.
Edit – I believe I misread the intent of the comment I was referring to – you’re talking about neither the Big 6, nor indies. I know a few small publishers who just use KDP and the agency model, but you may be right that Amazon and other retailers have maintained a wholesale model for smaller publishers.
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Thanks for sending me this very amusing memo. Somehow, I didn’t quite connect with the corporate voice. I found the arguments in the memo lacked substance and were not as compelling as some of the other memos we’ve seen. The platform of the writer, while once truly impressive, seems to be creaking and that comes through in the writing. As a rule, we don’t adopt memos that are not current anyway. I just didn’t feel as enthusiastic about this memo as I would need to to commit the formidable talent resources it would require in today’s competitive literary marketplace. It’s hard to single out any of the chapters, since they all did make me laugh so hard, but the promises of proper distribution, marketing, and author support were truly hilarious. Perhaps the writer might find more success with my colleagues in the satire genre, as I myself am in the non-fiction business which is clearly the wrong category for this submission.
Kind regards,
Today’s Writer
(AKA “Content Provider,” “‘Annoying but Necessary Evil’ in Eyes of Traditional Publishers”)
I did enjoy this comment.
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Mr. Talbot –
Kelly is correct on this one. Only the Big Six use the agency model for their ebook sales with Amazon. Every other publisher is, as I understand it, *required* to continue to sell their ebooks to Amazon wholesale, or at roughly 50% off the list price. The wholesale model permits Amazon to set the price for an ebook or physical book as it sees fit — and to change it whenever it wishes. The agency model means the retailer, whether it’s Amazon or B&N or Apple or Kobo, is merely the sales agent for the publisher and is being paid 30% of the publisher’s list price as a commission. Only the publisher can set the price, and that price must apply uniformly at every sales outlet — a requirement that obviously gives Amazon no competitive flexibility or advantage over other online ebook retailers. Amazon only tolerates it because the Big Six have the frontlist and backlist muscle to enforce the agency model.
This obvious act of self reassurance by Hachette is equivalent to the captain of the Titanic yelling, \Here, try this! This pail should do the trick!\
I like \We ensure widest possible audience.\ In today’s landscape, that statement is laughable.
This. Thank you~
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Legacy Author, that’s GREAT! Cracked me up.
I’m still trying to figured out after reading that rambling mess what it is publishers offer that an independent author cannot do on their own:
Curating — Let the readers pick what’s good and what’s not. They do that whether the book comes out from a Big 6 or an indie anyway.
Editing/Proofreading – just hire one of the many editors that were laid off from the Big 6 publishers or one of the agents who have now had to shutter their doors – done
Formatting – Tons of services that will do it for you for less than $50. Liberwriter.com anyone?
Book Cover – Just hire one of the cover artists that were laid off
Funding authors – Really? You mean the dwindling advances? I’d rather front a few hundred bucks and take the risk myself to hire my own editor, book cover and formatter.
Distribution – You mean in the crumbling bookstores that are closing every day? 10 years from now kids won’t even know what a bookstore is. Libraries? You can pitch them yourself and they’ll put your books in their system. It’s not that hard. I’ve done it several times before. And getting in local bookstores are super easy too. But do you really want to? eBooks will make up 50% of the market in 2 years or less so I can do that myself through Kindle, Nook, or Smashwords. Takes less than 15 minutes to upload on all of them.
PR & Marketing – \Hello? Hello? Is anyone home … home … home …?\ No one in in-house publicity pays attention to you after the first two weeks of release anyway. So let’s get real. 99% of so-called in-house marketing is social media marketing which authors with the right training can just do themselves (and they have to do it themselves anyway). Media, connections? Please. Publicists just blast out a press release and don’t even follow up. They don’t even take 30-seconds personalize their pitches. I know cause I work as journalist as well and I see the horrible Xerox press releases from the houses. When you do request an interview with an author, the publicists don’t even return your email or follow up. I’ll take my risk on HelpaReporterOut.com or ReporterConnection.com, thank you very much. It’s free. It’s publicity in a can and I stand just as much of a chance getting media as a publicist can (I know cause I’ve gotten several national publications from those outlets. No thanks to my in-house publicist)
Need someone to follow up? That’s what interns are for and $2/hour virtual assistants.
And then there’s literary agents — good ones are hard to find but bad ones are dime a dozen. Get a deal on your own after you’ve sold enough eBooks, publishers will come scrambling after you. Then you just hire a publishing attorney for a flat price, just a few hundred bucks. You can’t get an agent to return a call anyway and in today’s publishing environment, they can’t sell anything but YA, middle grade or celebrity books. (Reality stars anybody?)
Big 6 must really feel desperate to have to justify their place in the publishing world if they need to write such a memo.
Well put, Kristi
The whole idea of established, capitalized industrialists having to defend their legitimacy indicates that it’s coming down around their heads.
Agents, of course, are only necessary in the old model–in the new, who do they agent to? They become a drag on the writer’s income and a screen that prevents the publisher from being able to “curate” (definitely the funniest/spupidest claim in the whole missive)
And another wicked irony here–capitalists saying that the market is incapable of selecting its own products.
I agree with you 100%, Linton. There is a place for agents though, but they’re going to have to change their business model. They’re going to have to be coaches (and charge by the hour) or create their own ePublishing comanies or act like Hollywood managers do, being able to double-dip and produce as well as manage (then reimburse the author for the percentage after they receive their producing fee). They’re going to have to become book packagers, they’re going to have to become brands of their own (like Smashwords is trying to do with with) so readers know that if Agent X represents an author then they’ve gotta be good. The smart agents are already adapting and becoming hybrids. The crusty old AAR-leaguers are holding fast to the ship as the Titanic sinks. Good luck on getting life boats when it finally crumbles and there’s only 3 Big 6′rs left, those agents would have already sailed away….
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It’s a stretch to say that traditional publishers are still cultivating emerging writers. The downturn in revenues has taken a devastating toll on that end of the business.
Here’s a prediction: within three years, we’ll see the publishing industry split into two tiers. Bestselling authors will work with the Big Six traditional publishers. And new authors will have to prove themselves in the self-publishing arena before they’re allowed to play in the big leagues.
I agree, Holly. It’s nice that Hachette claims to ‘identify authors and books that are going to stand out in the marketplace’ and promises to ‘nurture writing talent and foster rich relationship with authors’. In a perfect world, that’s what all traditional publishers should do. But they haven’t done that for about a decade or more (i.e. the death of the midlist author is one example) and that’s why their ship is sinking.
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I read your post and went on Smashwords.com. But this company looks like another agency, only for e-books. I mean – all they do is format your content for e-readers. But anyone who wrirtes his/her book on a computer
can do it as well. It’s super easy to publish on each site Smashwords mentioned. All you have to do is set up your account and you’ll even get a virtual e-reader simulator on your screen to check your content on (making sure your formatting is correct, the screen does not cut off your pages, etc.). It takes a day or two max. to self-publish on all major e-book sellers and you’ll keep your 70% wired to your bank account (Amazon is especially good at that, each month – your remittance is there!). So, if Smashwords charges the extra 15% of the 70% they get from Amazon, Apple, B&N, etc…then they are your e-books agents).
What I found most interesting, though, was the fact that 2 reputable traditional literary agencies published some of their clients through Smashwords. Can anyone explain that? Is this the new hybrid agency you’re talking about? It is interesting, its’s almost like the traditional literary agecyt realized they cannot sell the author’s book to the big 6, so they self-published via a self-publishing middle man to a bunch of self-publishing giants like Apple, Amazon, etc. Who knows what these authors ended up with – talking about taking one piece of the pie after another (agent 15%, Smashwords 15%, e-publisher 30%…everyone wants a piece of the virtual book). My advice – if all you care about is your work to be out there as an e-book, DO IT YOURSELF.
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I’ve not read all 112 comments above mine so apologies if this has been said already.
Do publishers honestly think that we self publish out of choice? It’s the near impossibility of getting anyone in mainstream publishing to even acknowledge our existence that drives us to self publish. Getting our work even seen is almost impossible in an industry that is neurotic to the point that it won’t take the remotest risk yet praises and laments every innovative publication from their competitors. Instead they publish the stuff trotted out by friends of friends and worse, the kids of media dynasties who tell us that they have to keep proving themselves because Daddy was in the media. Do you think the rest of us don’t have to do that?
I recently had an interesting tweet conversation with a journalist who writes for the nationals. He’s not even a publishing industry insider, just a hanger on who has had a book or two published. However, he might have been a useful contact. I’d attracted his attention with some off the cuff comment about him reviewing me. He asked who my publisher was. I told him that I couldn’t give him a big name or any sort of recognition. Instead I reluctantly said that I was giving him the opportunity of discovering the next Douglas Adams. (It’s not a comparison that I came up with though I was chuffed to hear it.) His response was to say, \Sorry I’m not really your man. Good luck with it though.\ I kicked myself for not having a web site to send him to instead, and decided to have another drink.
Thanks Jake!
If even the people on the periphery of the industry won’t mix with the great unpublished then what chance do we have of getting noticed? If the publishing industry is worried about the rise of the self published author then you deserve everything you get. (Actually we’re all getting screwed by Amazon from both sides so they are the bad guys.) Of course publishers need to sort the wheat from chaff but in the process they’re building a wall around themselves. They’re creating a publishing ghetto where the talent is on the outside. Do they remember the seventies and the rise of the independent record label. Forget the MP3 revolution, that’s when it all went wrong for the record industry. Filled with their own self impotence they are cut off from the world and slush everything that doesn’t fit what they did last year.
We don’t want to be self published. Granted if we can get noticed by the public we could make a go of it if we have to, but we really want all that added value described in points two, three and four. We need publishers but publishers need us more!
@JackBarrowBooks
I don;t know about “we” but I self-published out of choice for decades, and still do. I know a lot of people who self-publish and make a good living at it, a couple like six figures a year. There was self-publishing a long time before there were Kindle and Lulu.
I wouldn’t want those books with a publisher, and all of the dozens of other publishers I mention feel the same. Why get ripped off for 85% of the money?
Speaking strictly of novels, it’s a different story. But I’m not at all unhappy to be working up towards a comfortable living on fiction alone, and know others who would say the same.
Sure, it would be great to get the red-carpet, advance sales, TV appearance treatment that star writers get (including, by the way, self-publshed star writers like Hockeing and Godin and Locke, et al) but in point of fact, very few writers get that. It’s like saying, “We don’t choose to be playing minor league ball, we’d rather be MVP of the series and boinking Briteny Spears.”
It doesn’t work like that. Most publisher house writers don’t make enough to pay their rent. And by “most”, I mean the vast majority, maybe like 85-90%. ALL the long-term self-publishers I know, do.
This is retrograde thinking — wishing to be back in a wonderland that never really existed. Far better to look at the future, which should make good indie writers happy, and traditional publishers panicky.