Think About Content

Many think we in the book world are an endangered species. That in
the brave new world there will be no books. It reminds me of radio in
the 50s when television hit the country. It was going to be the end
of radio. Oh my gosh, with pictures on TV who would want to just
listen to a radio. And radio did suffer. Their audience declined, the
industry moaned and groaned. And today with satellite radio and the
Internet and podcasts and rss feeds, radio (audio programs) is
thriving. That’s what happening to publishing.

Books aren’t going away. Bookstores won’t disappear completely, but
there will be a transformation. We don’t really know what the future
will look like, but we do have inklings.

We need to think of ourselves in larger ways – like oil companies
need to think of themselves as energy companies, we need to think of
ourselves as content delivery companies. Yes it’s still publishing,
but books, printed books, are only one way to deliver the goods. Many
of us in BAIPA are already doing this, and that’s great. Keep going.
Whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, what we want are readers and
people who buy our content. Do we really care if they buy a printed
book, an ebook, or an audio book? I don’t.

For many of us, the printed book will remain the ideal – it’s a great
delivery medium and I love the feel of a book in my hand. I love
reading books. There is something intimate, physical, and personal
about the whole process. I love having walls of books as my main
decorating style.

Talking about content doesn’t sound as romantic as when we talk about
printed books, but it’s real and it can make you money. Figure out
how your audience, your readers, wants to get your content and then
provide it – in some cases it may not even be printed books. Just
like some audio media is not radio in the traditional sense.

Some of us may have one book or one idea – so take the opportunity to
deliver this idea, this content in as many ways as makes sense to
you. Check out Lee Foster’s web site http://www.fostertravel.com/ to
see how one member is managing his content.

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