Publishing Monday: alternative publishing models

To be fair, my recent posts on book advances (read them here and here) offered only one way authors can make money from their books. (Yes, there’s also self publishing and print on demand, but that’s an entirely different ball of wax.) Someone recently commented that his small-sized publisher did not offer him an advance; instead, he was given a bigger royalty rate in liu of. Well, turns out that big publishers are trying on this alternative publishing model for size.

HarperCollins recently started a new imprint, Harper Studio. Their mission statement:

HarperStudio is committed to partnering with authors to publish books in a way that is effective, creative, and sustainable. We believe books are a vital part of our culture. We believe traditional publishing models are broken and are experimenting with new ones. We believe in embracing technology. We believe the future is now.”

Sounds good, right? But what does this really mean? Here’s an explanation, courtesy of Publisher’s Weekly: Harper Studio offers low advances in exchange for profit sharing (ie, higher royalties). They also hope to achieve greater profits through lower book returns from retailers, preferably by selling through with a nonreturnable policy. (Bear in mind that by “low advances”, Harper Studio means no more than $100,000 per book, which is still a fairly healthy chunk o’ change.)

At Harper Studio, they’ve been able to achieve the first part of that equation, by convincing authors to accept their alternate financial structure. However, many of the authors they signed are already established or have celebrity cred, such as Emeril Lagasse and Toni Morrison. Clearly, there’s an advantage for Emeril and Co. to accept a bigger slice of the pie in exchange for a smaller amuse bouche (to belabor the metaphor). With their already built in platform, folks will buy their books, so there’s little risk involved. As for the second part of their strategy, Harper Studio is struggling with establishing a nonreturnable book policy. In compromise, they plan to offer retailers a choice of going returnable or nonreturnable, with steeper wholesale discounts offered to those who choose nonreturnable.

Harper Studio’s business model is still an anomaly. It will be interesting to see if other big houses follow suit in 2009. What do you think? Is this the shape of things to come? Or an experiment doomed to go south?

As we wait to find out, here’s a road map of the current publishing industry, courtesy of Soybits.* This graphic representation features publishing trends of 2008 to show how publishers, authors, booksellers, readers, bloggers, and new platforms like the Kindle and iPhone shook things up.

Fascinating stuff. Plus I’m a sucker for anything which references a London Underground map.

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* Though the map is in English and Spanish, it’s easy to follow. Thanks to HarperStudio’s 26th Floor blog for the link. BTW, it’s a great blog for anyone interested in publishing and books.

• Filed under publishing, publishing 101 | 3 Responses

The Shaman’s Journey: Nine Worlds

This film is from an installation my husband Thomas Ross Miller created for “Siberian Shamans”, an exhibition at the Linden State Museum of Ethnology in Stuttgart, Germany. The exhibition opened in December, and will be on display until June 2009.

The sounds and images in this film include cracking ice, shamans singing, the Northern Lights, ethnographic photographs, and Siberian art and artifacts. Tom’s intention was to create a multimedia replication of the shaman’s experience. I think it succeeds profoundly.

Enjoy!

• Filed under friends and colleagues, the art world, the world around me, travels | 4 Responses

February events at Kris Waldherr Art and Words
(the gallery, not the site)

Our Midwinter Film series at my studio -gallery space is winding down for January. These past three weeks, it’s been a lot of fun to watch movies with our friends and neighbors in a child-friendly environment. Frankly, as a mom of a small child, I rarely get to view movies except on a television. There’s much to be recommended for sitting in a darkened room in such a communal activity. It’s very Sullivan’s Travels!

Missed the series so far? Not to worry. Midwinter Films will be back later in the season. We’re not sure yet what the films will be — but we do know what we’re doing in February.

For February, we’ve decided to do a countdown to Valentine’s Day, with events for romantics of all ages, even children. Plus a new art exhibit will be launched, featuring my art and artifacts from THE LOVER’S PATH. For directions and more information, visit our gallery events page.

• Filed under events, studio and gallery, the art world | No Comments

Creativity Friday: noting inspiration

In my last Creativity Friday, I wrote about the balancing act of being a writer as well as an artist. Today, I’d like to take note — literally! — of where some of my art and writing ideas came from.

I recently came across this array of old post-it notes when I was moving files into my studio:

Believe it or not, these post-its contain phrases and ideas that spurred several projects into existence. As you can tell, I scrawled them while probably caught in the middle of some activity that didn’t allow me to get to my journal in time. (Hey, when the Muses speak, I transcribe immediately.) From the looks of my handwriting, I suspect I was either (a) mid-dream, (b) walking somewhere in a hurry, or worst of all, (c) stuck at a red light while driving.

(I find driving really inspiring. Weird, huh? It seems to clear out my brain, making room for creativity to strike. But I know it’s not the safest environment for jotting down notes.)

And how about you? How do you “catch” inspiration when it hits? I know journaling is popular, but sometimes ideas arrive at not-such-neat moments when you happen to have a notebook at hand. I’d love to rely on my memory, but it’s unreliable when it comes to retaining flashes of inspiration — sort of like trying to channel a dream after my first cup of joe in the morning.

Anyway, click here to read an annotated version of these post-its, along with a list of the publications they’re referencing.

• Filed under be-mused, creativity, lover's path, mythic living, publications, the art world | 7 Responses

odds and ends — and an award

After this week’s inauguration excitement, it’s been difficult to settle back to work! In the hopes of clearing my deck (so to speak), here are a few last thoughts:

1. We watched the inauguration in a coffee house surrounded by neighbors. The coffeehouse was located at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Lincoln Road in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. Really. You can’t make this stuff up.

2. I still can’t believe Bush is no longer president. It’s interesting to contrast his first inauguration versus Obama’s, especially in regards to the parade afterward. Bush was forced to ride in a limousine at full speed, to avoid jeering protesters. Obama walked the parade route accompanied by Michelle, surrounded by the largest cheering crowds Washington has ever hosted.

3. My three year old daughter Thea (aka “Ariel”) was swept up in the excitement too. She even renamed her stuffed lamb “Marack Obama”. She told us he was elected president of the United Lambification* States of America.

ETA: According to my husband, it’s “Lambination” not “Lambification”. Small difference, but significant enough to mention.

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And now back to our regularly scheduled blogging! I have just over a week to go to finish my month of daily posts. I have to say that your comments and responses have been very gratifying. Tomorrow, I have a new Creativity Friday post in the works, which was inspired by some old post-it notes unearthed in my files. I hope you’ll stop by for that!

On a related note, Helen Ginger of the publishing blog Straight From Hel has awarded me the Butterfly Award. Thanks, Helen! She has the full “rules” for the award listed here.

Winning the Butterfly Award means that I get to pass it on to ten (or so) deserving blogs. In turn, I’m sending the Butterfly to flutter over to:

Lisa Hunt Art

Joanna Powell Colbert

Scandalous Women

Wavelength Tarot

Marie Antoinette’s Gossip Guide

Duchess of Devonshire’s Gossip Guide

Lunaea Weatherstone

These are all really wonderful blogs — I hope you’ll take a moment to visit them!

• Filed under be-mused, blogs we read, friends and colleagues, the world around me | 6 Responses