The book industry isn't well, and BzzAgent CEO Dave Balter thinks he has a solution.
On the Harvard Business Publishing blog, Dave lays out an alternative to the current antiquated system:
- Authors package books on their own.
- Authors distribute digital copies of books for free to attract readers and identify markets. They use self-distribution tools to sell as many books as they can.
- Publishers find authors based on strong word of mouth of digital distribution, then pay a licensing fee for distribution rights for serving an initial marketplace of buyers (note: potential business model for a plucky entrepreneur: track the ‘response’ of free book downloads as a data set for publishers to review opportunities).
- Publishers tweak the final manuscript as necessary, print books and distribute them.
- In this scenario, authors prove their ability to deliver a good book and an audience before a publisher invests. Publishers reduce up-front production costs and the risk of betting on authors that can’t produce, and increase the odds they will get results.
Dave eats his own dog food by self-publishing his new new book, "The Word of Mouth Manual, Volume II," in both digital and analog (paperback) formats. A few things you should know about the book:
- It's on Amazon here
- Read it for free here
- There is no "Word of Mouth Manual, Volume I"
- There is a monkey on the cover
- The cover is also entirely water resistant and sized to be used as a rainhat
- Warning: there are many mentions of BzzAgent*
- It's 117 pages of entertainment from a guy who's passionate about word of mouth
* While we have not always agreed with some of BzzAgent's practices, it's important to get more people talking about word of mouth.
We're giving away four copies of the paperback version to people who join the discussion on SWOM about Dave's book. Join us by 5 pm CDT Friday, June 20 to be eligible to win one of the copies, which will be given away randomly.
