Ross Balharrie - Indyreads and readers advisory
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presented at the NSW readers' advisory seminar 22 March 2017
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Ross Balharrie - Indyreads and readers advisory
- 1. indyreads™ New streams of content…. Ross Balharrie March 2017
- 2. What is indyreads™? • 2016 in partnership with Leichhardt Public Library & Parramatta City Library the SLNSW undertook a trial of a local eContent management platform & a new license agreement model. • indyreads™ pilot aimed to evaluate: – A local eContent Management Platform with the capabilities to host digital content and apply DRM as required – A new licensing model to facilitate the acquisition of local digital content directly from community publishers and authors – The role of the public library as a community aggregator and facilitator of locally important digital content
- 3. Small Publishers Local Studies LOTE Self Published indyreads Local Content
- 4. The changing face of publishing 0 100000 200000 300000 1 49,000 titles 290,000 titles Indie & Small Press Publishing United States 2009 2012 0 1,000,000 2,000,000 3,000,000 1 29,000 2,700,000 Self Published Titles United States 2004 2010
- 5. Impressive numbers, but what are the implications? • What are the implications of the evolving publishing sector for: – Public libraries? – Our communities? – Readers advisory services? • Should we be collecting self published and small press titles? • Question: what are your thoughts on self published titles and the output of small independent publishers?
- 6. Self Publishing Creative Commons Licensed image https://www.flickr.com/photos/piddysplace/231611203
- 7. Trends and observations! • Library Journal (2017) “Indie and self-published books are doing phenomenally well in the consumer market, accounting for 80% of Amazon’s bestsellers” • Small Australian publishers are increasingly specializing in literary fiction and poetry. • Self Publishing genre fiction (romance, mystery, science-fiction & fantasy) is the domain of increasingly successful authors which attract an avid fan base of voracious readers • 19% of Australian Authors surveyed in a Macquarie University study have self published a book in the past 12 months
- 8. Diverse voices in literature • Lee & Low (2015): “the number of diverse books published each year (traditional press) over the past twenty years has been stuck in neutral, never exceeding, on average, 10 percent”. • Jamie LaRue (2016) “many of the new works which are being produced (small press & self published) are diverse”
- 9. Indyreads™ available in late 2017 • Statewide consortia collection of Australian and international works from independent publishers and a collection of self published titles. • Self publishing workshop templates for those services interested in connecting with established and aspiring community authors. • SelfE is a US model which is a collaboration between
- 10. Detailed overview of indyreads™ & keynote presentation by Jamie LaRue on diversity. NSW.net Digital Frontiers Seminar : https://www.nswnet.net/blog/digital-frontiers-seminar-2016-ross-balharrie Information online: https://informationonline.alia.org.au/content/indyreads-local-approach-econtent-licensing- aggregation-and-access Jamie LaRue: From Gatekeeper to Gardener: Creative Destruction and the Library. https://www.nswnet.net/blog/digital-frontiers- seminar-2016-keynote-jamie-larue
- 11. Thank you! Questions? Ross Balharrie A/Lead NSW.net Services Ross.Balharrie@sl.nsw.gov.au Questions: Ross Balharrie NSW.net Services Delivery Coordinator ross.balharrie@sl.nsw.gov.au 9273 1498
Editor's Notes
- So, quick question, can you raise your hand if you are familiar with or have heard about the indyreads™ econtent management trial? Ok so for those of you not familiar with Indyreads I can provide a very quick overview: In 2015 the SLNSW commenced a 12 month pilot of a local eContent management platform and a new licensing model for the acquisition of digital content in partnership with Leichhardt Public Library and Parramatta City library. The pilot referred to as indyreads™ aimed to test a model which could provide the wider NSW public library network with the necessary technical infrastructure and legal framework to enable libraries to operate as community aggregators of locally published digital content. The hope being that the eContent management platform would provide communities with a greater diversity of locally important content purchased under terms and conditions which support the core mission of libraries and provide a sustainable business model for all parties. I’m please to announce that based on the evaluation of the pilot the indyreads platform will be rolled out to all public libraries in the latter half of 2017.
- The digital content focus for the indyreads™ pilot falls into 4 categories: The first being Local studies material. Public libraries can upload digitised material from your local studies collection such as, manuscripts, research reports, history books, ephemera, oral histories in the following formats: ePub, PDF, MP3 and MP4 file formats The platform will also host a collection of titles in Languages Other Than English We have also been interested in Self Published works, sourced from community authors, Australian authors and international authors And finally material sourced from small independent Australian publishers Today I will be focusing on the Self published works and independent publishers.
- The indyreads pilot is primarily a response to the rapidly evolving publishing ecosystem. Over the past decade there has been a seismic shift in the publishing landscape caused by the technological revolution and the digital disruption which followed. The democratization of the means of publishing and distribution has facilitated the growth of small independent publishers and self published authors, many of whom publish content of local importance to the communities in which they live. The eBook format has been particularly liberating for independent publishers and self published authors, as the associated costs of production and distribution are very modest when compared to print. If we have a look at the graphs on the right of the screen we can see between 2009 to 2012 the out put of small independent publishers in the US jumped from 49k titles to 290K titles. Whilst self publishing jumped from 29k titles in 2004 to 2.7 million titles by 2010 The graph on the left which is based on Amazon sales, highlights that whilst self published sales are surging, the opposite is true for the digital sales of the big five publishers.
- Ok, so impressive numbers, but what does the boom in the output of self publishing titles and independent published titles mean for public libraries and to the communities we serve? Before proceeding a question for you? Who has read a self published work in the last 12 months? Any comments on the experience? When you think of self published works what comes to mind? There are no wrong or right answers? I think in the past our profession when confronted by a self published author or title we have often reacted like this……
- Ok, so lets take a closer look at some trends. Were you aware that 80% of the titles on the Amazon best seller list are self published or published by independent publishers! That’s a staggering 80%!!! A notable success has been in genre fiction, with many authors attracting a devoted following of voracious readers. At the recent NSW.net Seminar Jamie LaRue told the audience about a chance encounter at a conference with a niche Science Fiction writer. Jamie had actually read the authors works and was a fan of his writing. Jamie asked the author about the sales figures for the most recently published work. The author, had sold over 300k titles! The author also indicated that he only publishes in digital format and exclusively through Amazon. A book with those sales figures would typically find it’s way into a library collection, but Amazon will not supply content to libraries. So that’s a problem. So lets take a look at Australia. Recent research undertaken by Macquarie University indicates that of the 1000 authors surveyed 19% have released a self published work within the last 12 months. When asked why they have chosen to do so many cited the desire to have greater creative and financial control of their works. A recent ARC research report looking at Australian popular fiction noted that there has been a substantial shift in the production of genre fiction from mainstream publishers to independent publishers and the self publishing sector. The same is true for literary fiction with 8 small independent Australian publishers now producing more than double the output of literary fiction and poetry than the 7 major publishing houses.
- Another interesting insight surrounding the output of the small independent publishers and self publishing is that it is this sector which produces titles with a greater representation of the diversity found in our communities. By diversity I mean people from migrant backgrounds, LGBT communities, people with disabilities and so on. A US study which surveyed the representation of diversity in mainstream publishing discovered that over a 25 year period the output of what could be considered diverse titles had not increased from the baseline of 10% in 1992. Therefore if we as a profession aim to represent the diversity of experiences within our communities and also offer the most popular forms of genre fiction and Australian literature and poetry we need to ensure that we broaden our acquisition practices to include the output of small local publishers and also source the best examples of self publishing. Fortunately for public libraries many local independent publishers, historical societies and community authors have embraced digital publishing because of the low production and distribution overheads. So in theory it should be possible to acquire this content. The reality however is that commercial library ebook aggregators tend to focus primarily on licensing mainstream titles and their platforms are not designed to allow libraries to upload local content which the library has independently licensed. The problem is compounded by the fact that the current crop of library management systems do not have the capacity to host and manage digital files which require DRM. Our hope is that the indyreads ™platform combined with the license agreement provides the NSWPLN with capacity to act as local aggregators of digital content and to introduce streams of content which are popular amongst the general public but not necessarily available via traditional library suppliers.
- When the platform is rolled out in late 2017, NSW public libraries will have access to a statewide consortia collection of Australian and international works from independent publishers and a collection of self published titles. We will also be developing a template for workshops which at your discretion, you can run at your libraries. The workshops aim to help aspiring authors to produce quality titles and they will also help your library to connect with your local creative community and in doing so help authors connect with one another. An important issue which needs to be addressed with regards to self published works, is how do we identify quality works. For the pilot we ran the smashwords best sellers list against the goodreads review database. This was a manual process which we hope can be automated. I can report that the feedback with regards to the 200 smashwords titles purchased have been very positive The second issue is pertinent to you, how do we promote new content streams to our communities? We know from the Amazon sales figures, that there is a large audience for self published and independently published works? I think we can also learn a lot from the SelfE, an initiative in the US, which specifically addresses the issue of introducing self published content into US public library collections. SelfE has been up and running for around 18 months and they have developed a review mechanism and an annual awards program to highlight the best examples of self published titles.
- So in conclusion I am certainly interested in your ideas and thoughts on the indyreads platform and the new content streams going forward. So please consider this the start of an ongoing conversation. For a detailed overview of the indyreads pilot and all the factors behind why we decided to trial and evaluate a local econtent management platform please refer to the recorded NSW.net Digital Frontiers Seminar video recording and the conference paper for the recent Information Online Seminar. I’d also recommend that you take a look at Jamie LaRue’s keynote presentation which focuses specifically on diversity.