Ficbot to New Zealand publishers: Focus on popularizing NZ writers in E—not on territorial limits and DRM
By Ficbot
Editor’s note: I strongly agree with Ficbot’s advice to introduce the world to New Zealand greats! Meanwhile you can read MT’s latest reply. – D.R.
Martin Taylor, a New Zealand publisher and director of that country’s Digital Publishing Forum, has told why he favors territorial restrictions. I would like to first of all thank Martin for his reply. I was drawn to respond to it in part because I lived in New Zealand myself for a year, and discovered some wonderful authors while I was there.
And therein lies the crux of my rebuttal to him. Martin, if Australians can easily buy e-books from anyone, then this works in reverse. New Zealanders buying Dan Brown e-books from U.S. stores, without territorial restrictions, isn’t going to cost someone like your local Fiona Kidman any sales anyway, for one thing. And she may even enjoy additional sales, with more outlets since there will be fewer rules to worry over.
Besides, Kidman is a literary author, Brown is pretty much a pulp author, and their fanbases will be completely different. But look at it from the other side: here I am, back in Canada now, and can I keep up with any of the authors I read while I was there? Where are the e-book editions—for North America, or for anyone, really—of Kidman, of Witi Ihimaera, of Elizabeth Knox, Alan Duff, Sarah Quigly and the late Michael King—just to name some obvious “stars”’ of your literary scene?
And if I scratch below the obvious, how many wonderful authors have you got who might enjoy a little marketing on the global scene?
Instead of worrying about e-book versus print book, or DRM, or territorial restrictions or any other loathed-by-customers, loved-by-publishers artificialities that limit sales, why not instead focus on marketing Kidman (for example) to readers who like such things, wherever they might live?
By all means tap the local market, hard. But don’t leave it there. Most of the American stuff you’ll be getting is pulp best-seller stuff, and trust me, those people aren’t likely to be reading Elizabeth Knox anyway. Let Dan Brown in, but let your authors go free to be discovered, by locals and otherwise, who might enjoy—and pay for—their work.
September 20th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Although Ficbot is right from an author’s perspective, there is more than just the author to think about. Geographic restrictions would make no sense if we had a world government or no greed among countries — the ideal world. But we don’t even have a united United States where our elected legislators think of America as a whole first before Iowa.
Changes are needed but the simply to abandon all restrictions will affect more than just authors. To be a consumer (i.e., a purchase of goods or services), one must have an income. Generally that income comes from a job. Without geographical restrictions a lot of people would lose jobs and thus would be unable to consume.
As it is the U.S. publishing industry is shrinking — not in books published but in jobs. Why? Because of consolidation and the outsourcing of work to the lowest cost country. For example, an increasing number of editorial jobs in the U.S. are disappearing because an American editor cannot work as cheaply, for example, as an Indian editor. The cost of living and wage scales are simply not comparable. Years ago there hundreds more typesetting companies and booksellers in the U.S. than there are today for similar reasons — YET, the American consumer is expected to buy books. Hard to do without an income or without disposable income.
Geographical restirctions need to be updated but not eliminated. They currently do serve a purpose; they decelerate the trend of eliminating publishing sector jobs.
I would add this: Not all of the problems of geographical restrictions lies in the copyright laws; a lot of it lies in author contracts. Not many authors are willing to give worldwide rights to a single publisher, especially not the Dan Brown bestseller types. It is much more profitable for the authors to auction geographical rights. The point being that even if copyright laws were changed to eliminate geographical restrictions, the consumer would see no change absent a change in author contracts.
September 20th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
At the same time, said restrictions make books more expensive, taking money away from all Americans – so they can’t buy as many as they would if there were no restrictions.
If there were none perhaps they’d waste less money on bidding huge amounts on books – might still be large, but not as much.
Dan Brown may have the clout to do whatever he watns – but what about no-name author X that they just signed?
e.g. ‘You give us worldwide non-exlusive ebook rights, or get lost’?
September 20th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Hi Ficbot
I think we agree on something! We’re pedalling as hard as we can to get great NZ authors into ebook and out to the world and establishing an industry here along the way. Our 1000 Great New Zealand eBooks project, designed to get NZ authors and publishers up and running asap in ebooks, will include several of the great writers you mention. We’ll absolutely be marketing them to the world.
Supporting authors’ and publishers’ rights to determine territorial restrictions does absolutely nothing to limit that opportunity. It’s not the same as burying our heads in the sand and pretending there isn’t a big world out there to sell to. Quite the contrary.
September 20th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Martin,
Sorry, but that is rubbish. If you do this, then only let kiwis buy because of restrictions and being a proponent of such then you have limited the opporunity severely.
You have also buried your head in the sand for many years, if just getting to it now….