Scary Book Facts - We Must Reinvent

This is the second post in a continuing series from a technology seminar by Creative Strategies at Thomas Nelson on October 23, 2009.

Consider these facts presented by Creative Strategies:

• 80% of US households did not buy or read a book last year


• 70% of US households did not enter a bookstore last year


• 42% of college graduates never read a book after college


• 33% of high school graduates never read a book again


• 52% of books are not read to completion
  

The last point I get. I probably finish a book about 70% of the time, because I usually get it about halfway through. In fact, I am more likely to read a full book with Seth Godin’s formatting in Tribes than I am to read a whole traditional chapter format book.

For us book publishers, those facts if indeed true, are downright scary. The solution, as regular readers of my blog know, is for book publishers to become content producers to provide product in any format a consumer wants to consume our education, message and entertainment.

This is why our DigiReady efforts at Thomas Nelson are so important. Our company is embracing DigiReady. DigiReady is one of many things we will need to do differently in the coming years to stay relevant. I am certain we will make the transition, despite the unavoidable pain that will come with it.

We have great content. We must reinvent it; not just repurpose content.

Nelson Leadership Seminar - Post 1

This blog will start a series of posts highlighting key take-a-ways from Thomas Nelson's Leadership Technology Seminar Series. We had the first seminar last Friday. The presenters were Tim Bajarin and Ben Bajarin, the principals at Creative Strategies.

Let's start with these two intersting facts presented at the technology seminar:

1. Processing power is continuing to increase at an amazing pace, while the processors driving that power continue to get smaller
2. The Internet is allowing anyone to connect on anything to any digital content any where in the world

These two converging facts are making our cell phones into what is called smart phones, or basically functional computers that fit easily in our pockets and purses. The iPhone is the most popular smart phone today.


Consider these facts:

• In the United States, 80% of the population has PCs; 77% have mobile phone
• Globally, only 13% of the world's population has computers, but 42% have cell phones
• About 23% of all cell phone purchases today are smart phones

It is estimated by 2012, 50-60% of the world will have smart phones. This raises a series of threats and opportunities to our business. Imagine if half the world's 6.8 billion population can now have access to our content with a device the size of a cell phone. How does that change our publishing strategy from how we acquire rights to print runs on books we sell in a traditional print format?

This is likley a threat to our print volume in the future, but huge opportunity for digital delivery of our content. Read what Michael Shatzkin has to say of the future of e-books in his post Sunday. It will definitely make you think. It might even scare you.

Stay tuned. There is a whole lot of interetsing stuff to come from our first Leadership Technology Seminar.

So Many Emails Are Nice But Not Necessary

For the first time in months, I just got through all my e-mails. This has been a focused attack this week. I dread starting the effort, but I am glad it's over. There were a few gems in the e-mails, but for the most part it was a quick hit of the delete button.

Several business units report directly into me. They are diverse from our international publishing operations to domestic children's publishing to our digital efforts. I often deal with the issues that really need my attention, which might be 5% of the e-mails I get.

The vast majority of e-mails I can't even get to on a prompt basis of a few days. I guess if I did not want to be involved in my family's life I could, but it turns out that so many of the emails were just "nice-to-be-copied-on".

I have not been commenting on e-mails that ask the multitudes for an answer, even when it's a business unit that reports to me. My thought being that enough others will chime in intelligently. Unless I have something AMAZINGLY important to say, I stay silent. The only problem is that I still get copied on just about every one's response.

I don't have the solution. Our CEO, Mike Hyatt, has had some interesting blogs on the subject, including declaring e-mail bankruptcy.

Well five more e-mails just came in on a Saturday afternoon as I wrote this short blog. They will just have to wait a few weeks. I am going to play baseball with my boy.