A few nice doing business as images I found:
Louis Rosenfeld and John Oakes - Business Model for Publishing - TOC
Image by Rachel Ford James
Is There Such a Thing as a Good Business Model for Publishing These Days? | Tuesday, 2/15/11
Louis Rosenfeld (Rosenfeld Media, LLC), John Oakes (OR Books)
There can be, if you start from scratch—or if you pare down existing models and create a lean machine. Louis Rosenfeld and John Oakes, two veterans of the new publishing universe, discuss the principles that drive their respective publishing houses, Rosenfeld Media and OR Books. Oakes labored in the barren fields of traditional publishing as editor and publisher for two decades. In developing OR Books’ publishing model together with a partner, he trimmed away the pointless, 20th century aspects of publishing. By contrast, Rosenfeld is a publishing outsider, best known as a user experience pioneer and co-author of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (O’Reilly, 2006); accordingly, Rosenfeld Media’s business model has been created from scratch.
Insider and outsider, Oakes and Rosenfeld will compare and contrast their companies’ respective business models, exploring differences and similarities in their approaches to developing infrastructure, acquisitions, editorial processes, design and production, fulfillment, and promotion and marketing. They will discuss the rationale for their companies’ existence, and the challenges they face. Are they the Simon & Schusters of tomorrow?
Interview with John Oakes at TOC
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Rosenfeld Media
The marketplace is really complex, so it's difficult to tell author's how much they'll make. Rosenfeld Media prices range from micropayments to 9.
Goodbye, business models.
Hello, faith-based model of doing business.
"Just trust me?"
Publishers bring together expertise (authors) and a market. We need to "defocus" on format (book, ebook, video, workshop) and focus on authors and content. Connect experts with innovators. Rosenfeld connects magazines and conferences with distributors and publishers, bringing together the UX market.
A network can never be commodified.
There is such a thing as doing good business.
Publishers should be purveying expertise, not just publishing books.
O/R Books
O/R Books sells direct to customers, and they don't accept returns (from booksellers). Authors and agents understand what they're doing. The hardest group to convince of this business model is large, traditional publishers ("midtown conglomerates").
This model has been more successful with known authors.
Q&A
Rosenfeld has a Joint Marketing Agreement with authors. It's a loose, symbolic agreement to "make sure we're both doing things to raise the profile of the book at all times."
Aquisition and promotion are natural parts of being involved in the community.
Some publishers treat ebooks royalties quite differently, but O/R books makes no distinction between ebooks and print books contractually.
Corkboard 12/07/09
Image by Cаt
Haven't done one of these for a while but the ol' corkboard filled up today so here we go! Now I'm gunna have to find a bigger one. :3



