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Acadia Stevens, an environmental activist, is weighing her publishing options for her first book, EcoBalance: Sustainability in the 21st Century. She has received a publishing offer from a medium-size publisher, Second City Press, but is considering publishing the book herself as an e-book distributed via Internet downloads. Write an essay in which you argue for one option over the other, keeping in mind the following two criteria:
Second City Press, located in Chicago, publishes mainly poetry and short fiction stories but has published nonfiction books as well. Its “How-To” series on gardening and home improvement has sold upward of 45,000 copies in the last year and ranks among the most popular of its kind. Second City’s readership is based mainly in the Midwestern United States. Acadia’s friend Laurel, who is the sister-in-law of Second City’s editor in chief, introduced EcoBalance to Second City. Second City publishes the works of ten to fifteen new authors each year and sponsors extensive book tours for its most popular writers. For exclusive rights to the book, Second City has offered Acadia a $10,000 flat fee plus royalties amounting to 5 percent of retail sales. Second City plans to sell the book for $19.95 in bookstores and does not offer books for sale online. Acadia is an active and well-known participant in many environmental websites, including a site called OnePlanet.net, to which she contributes a weekly column on conservation efforts worldwide. OnePlanet receives roughly 25,000 page views per week and is linked to over 20 other websites devoted to social issues. Acadia lectures widely on conservation issues in the United States and abroad and is a frequent guest on public access television and radio programs. An e-commerce research company indicates successful e-books selling in the $30 to $40 price range in popular subjects such as investing and financial management, but insignificant sales for fiction e-books even at a price point as low as $2.50. There are no financially successful environmental e-books currently offered on the Internet. Acadia would offer her e-book at a price point of $5.99. |
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par 1 – intro - e-book better - her audience already online par 2 – self-pub - disadvantage: no track record, data not so good, BUT: 1) she could be first, and already well placed in market; 2) good platform to promote from — web, speaking, etc. - global cause, global audience - her audience not scared by Net par 3 – 2nd city - limited reach - advance IS nice, but future money?? - support from company?? no guarantee: many other writers; possibly only offered b/c of personal / family connection - “how-to” $ sounds good, BUT translate for Acadia?? gardening (popular) vs. environment (niche) - recap: e-book better |
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Acadia is best off independently publishing an e-book on the Internet. She has worked hard to build an online audience that is specifically interested in the subject of her book and could sell the book directly to this niche audience using the very mechanism through which they’ve come to know her and her cause. Her potential buyers are not limited to those who read her column but also include readers of websites linked to OnePlanet as well as users of the other online communities she frequents. The fact that there is no proven track record for an environmental e-book is a double-edged sword: Some authors would be scared away, while an established authority like Acadia might rightfully consider it a golden opportunity to pioneer a new distribution model. While the e-commerce data look daunting, Acadia is well-positioned to blaze a new trail since her web presence and speaking and media engagements already provide a solid international platform from which to promote her product. Her global cause deserves a global audience, which is why the Internet provides the best forum to maximize the impact of her work. Online viral marketing techniques have generated explosive results for other small-scale endeavors and could work wonders for a motivated and passionate person like Acadia. The resultant financial success of the book can help her continue her environmental pursuits, as desired. Finally, while some might argue that the public isn’t ready for books in digital form, those interested in societal reform are generally forward-thinking people who visualize change as a matter of course and are therefore not likely to be put off by a digital format. Second City, with its regional readership and lack of online sales capabilities, would limit the reach of Acadia’s message and the money she can earn from the book in the long run. The $10,000 advance is nice, but there may not be much in royalties after that. Although the $19.95 price point is higher than the e-book’s price, Acadia will only see 5% of that money, or less than a dollar per copy. Second City would need to sell a very large number of books for Acadia to achieve her financial goals, and there’s no guarantee that the company will be as motivated to promote the book as she would be herself. To be sure, the 45,000 “How-To” copies sold sounds like a lot, but that’s for a whole series of books on a subject presumably more popular than environmental sustainability. Second City promotes its popular titles, but who’s to say what it will do with a niche book possibly taken on only as a favor to a relative? Add to the equation 10 or more other new writers to deal with, and the prospect of Second City really getting behind “EcoBalance” seems even more risky. Acadia thus has a better chance of success if she remains loyal to her constituency and pursues online the identifiable, captive niche market that she has already worked to develop. |
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