http://publishingperspectives.com/20...ut-publishing/
A couple of interesting quotes:
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I don’t like to talk about threats; I like to talk about opportunities, which is a big difference. I think everyone spending time talking about threats is wasting a lot of time and a lot of goodwill. The publishing industry is undergoing epochal changes because of the digital technology, but the digital technology is also affording the publishing world many opportunities that are unprecedented. You will see that, in the not too distant future, the profitability of these publishing companies will increase because of the digital technologies: no printing, no binding, no paper investment, no shrinkage, no returns, no inventory obsolescence… You can see already now that in the best publishing houses the profits are going up even in the face of a very difficult marketplace. And in the future it is going to be much more like that. So I look at the digital technologies and the internet as liberating factors that will allow publishers to make a lot of money.
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Random House was very much aware of digital technologies and was the first publisher in 1992 or 1993 to decide that they would not sign any new publishing contract unless it contained digital rights. It was early in the game, and we started digitizing a lot of our books. But at the time they were difficult to exploit because there was not an adequate reader on the market. So it was only with the arrival of the Kindle in 2007 that publishers started to exploit their digitized books, but they moved very slowly and it was only after 2008, when the condition of book business became very very bad, that they actually “discovered” the value of digital publishing.
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Quote:
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To be an editor nowadays you have to be also a producer: 50% editor and 50% producer. When you look at a book, you look at it in print, in hardcover, in paperback, in a digital format and, eventually, in an enhanced digital form. I think that publishers will have to concentrate in digital technology as it is challenging and continually evolving. In my opinion it also represents the future of publishing.
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Quote:
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The price of the eBook should be $9.99 and down, I am convinced of that. Some publishers who have adopted the agency model are pricing them at $12.99 and $14.99 or more, and this is way too high. They might sell a lot of books at that price, but they would sell a hell of a lot more if they would price them at $9.99. One of the things that publishers have to be used to is the power of the internet. A lot of the books that are published digitally on the internet are bought on impulse. Many or even most of those books will never be read by the buyers. Often what matters to book buyers is possession: “I have the book, and eventually I will read it.” In the meantime there is a new book, and another new book, and another, and you buy them!
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And finally:
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What is your personal view about the new non-traditional publishing companies going into the industry? For example, Amazon, who is becoming a publisher. How do you think these moves will affect the traditional publishing industry?
It will wake them up. It will make them hopefully more aggressive. Free markets cannot be regulated. Competition is stimulating and there will always be winners and losers. I sincerely believe that it will make the publishing industry stronger.
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Somebody hire this guy back!
Not sure how much of that is 20-20 hindsight but even as a hindsight he sounds delightfully curmodgeonly and--for an industry insider--contrarian.
I rather favor contrarians.
Edit: The folks on The Passive Voice are having their own discussion on the interview.
http://www.thepassivevoice.com/06/20...hing/#comments
As usual, their comments are worth checking out.