Sam Harris on the ‘death knell for traditional publishing’
Sam Harris (Photo courtesy samharris.org)
Over on his blog, Sam Harris — a thinker whose work touches on the messy intersection of science, religion and global conflict — offers interesting some provocative analysis on “The Future of the Book.” Harris draws on his own experiences as a book author, a blogger and a user of social media to examine how free online publishing has altered readers’ expectations of how much they should pay for the written word.
The piece — first published last September — is worth reading in full, but here’s a taste:
I am currently writing a traditional, printed book for my mainstream publisher, the Free Press. At the other extreme, I do a lot of writing for free, almost entirely on my blog. In between working for free and working for my publisher, I’ve begun to experiment with self publishing short ebooks. Last week, I published LYING, my first installment in this genre. The results have been simultaneously thrilling and depressing.
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The essay appears to have had its desired effect on many readers. But others were not satisfied. Some did not understand the format—a very short book that can be read in 40 minutes—and expected to get a much longer book for $1.99. Many wondered why it is available only as an ebook. Some fans of ebooks were powerfully aggrieved to find it available only on the Kindle platform—they own Nooks, or detest Amazon for one reason or another. However, the fact is that Amazon made it extraordinarily easy for me to do this; the Kindle Single is the perfect format for so short a book; and Kindle content can be read on every computer and almost any handheld device. I decided that it was not worth my time or other people’s money to publish LYING elsewhere, or as a physical book.
On the surface, the launch of LYING has been a great success. It reached the #1 spot for Kindle Singles immediately and #9 for all Kindle content. It is amazing to finish writing, hit “upload,” and watch one’s work soar and settle, however briefly, above the vampire novels and diet books.
I would be lying, however, if I said that I wasn’t stung by some of the early criticism. Some readers felt that a 9000-word essay was not worth $1.99, especially when they can read my 5000-word blog posts for free. It is true that I put a lot of work into many of my blog posts, but LYING took considerably longer to write than any of them. It is a deceptively simple book—and I made it simple for a reason. Some of my readers seem not to have appreciated this and prefer to follow me into my usual thickets of argument and detail. That’s fine. But it is, nevertheless, painful to lose a competition with oneself, especially over a difference of $1.99.
One thing is certain: writers and public intellectuals must find a way to get paid for what they do—and the opportunities to do this are changing quickly. My current solution is to write longer books for a traditional press and publish short ebooks myself on Amazon. If anyone has any better ideas, please publish them somewhere—perhaps on a blog—and then send me a link. And I hope you get paid.
Stop the Payola to Lure and Keep Businesses in Sarasota
“No one likes them. Every one hates them. Yet states and municipalities continue to offer monetary incentives to seduce companies to choose their communities over others. And, of course, we, the taxpayers, pick up the tab.” — That’s an excerpt from a great article in today’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune BIZ Weekly section by Jerry Chautin, a volunteer business counselor with Manasota SCORE. Click here to read the full story.
The Culture of Cheating
A good cat will never cheat! :)
You’re lyin’ cheatin’ ways …. or as I like to call it, Cain’s Complaint (for all you Philip Roth lovers out there).
Observer-ations about the erstwhile Pelican Press
Readers still write to me in emails about “what’s happened to the Pelican Press we used to love so much!?” And just recently, a reader of this blog posted his consternation about the ways he perceives the paper has changed.
Click here to read what this longtime reader of the Pelican Press has to say.
Equality Florida Gala Raises LGBT Visibility
This hot group was snapped at the Equality Florida gala ... they're all associated with the film, The Perfect Wedding.
Click here to read the story. Or check it out in today’s TICKET.
Equality Among the Sexes?
No, I’m not channeling that long-ago tennis match between Billy Jean King and Bobby Riggs … just announcing today’s Sense and the City topic: Women’s Equity Day, which is next Thursday. You can read it in today’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune TICKET or just click here: Do Women Really Need an Equity Day?.
Feel free to come back here to MC Reality Online and debate the topic!
Musings on a Park Bench
You’ve got to read this fantastic piece by Marguerite Jill Dye that ran in today’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Tribute to Pelican Press, Readers and a few words from Matt Walsh
For 40 years, the weekly Pelican Press newspaper has been a must-read for year-round key residents, tourists, and snowbirds alike. At its core, it was a Siesta Key paper, but with its robust reporting on city and county goings-on, it certainly enjoyed a sizable following off the island as well.
Week in, week out, with a small crew and probably an even smaller budget, the editors and office staff cranked out spot-on investigative pieces and local government reporting from a cadre of shoe-leather reporters like the inimitable Bob Ardren, Jack Gurney, and Stan Zimmerman to name a few. Strong editorial pages, witty cartoons, book reviews, and freelance contributions from arts, social, wine, and film columnists, all lent a sophisticated note to this weekly paper that managed, at the same time, to create a bond with its readers by celebrating the natural beauty of the key and featuring stories on local people, businesses, and churches – right down to including occasional photographs and reports of the elusive family of bobcats that had taken up residence on the island.
The paper always had its share of politically and socially conservative readers and advertisers, but for many, perhaps most, the Pelican Press was a welcome reflection of open-minded perspective. Its letters to the editor section, which often filled an entire page, was always lively with well-informed and cogent debate from readers on both sides of the political aisle.
To the surprise of many, over the past month, the Pelican Press was sold off by its owner – the Milwaukee-based publishing company that had owned it since 1998 after acquiring the paper from founder John Davidson. Nearly all of the full-time and freelance contributors – including erstwhile editor Anne Johnson who nurtured the paper and its content contributors to scores of Florida Press Awards over her 30-some-odd-year career there – have lost their jobs and columns as a result of the change in ownership. The new publisher, the Sarasota-based Observer Group, has promised a shift in editorial direction to reflect the philosophy of its existing stable of newspapers, which embrace the “principles of individual freedom and capitalism and Austrian economics, and the founding principles of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.”
One of the most compelling aspects of the Pelican Press has always been its relationship with its readers, and this editorial shift, along with the loss of well-liked editors, staff, and reporters, has caused a fair degree of teeth-gnashing among longstanding and loyal readers. Because I wrote the “Reality Chick” column for that paper several years ago, I’ve lately been hearing from many of those readers who, very fond of the “old” Pelican Press, find these new circumstances to be an unwelcome changing of the guard.
Matt Walsh, CEO of the Observer Group which has purchased the Pelican Press, also editor and co-publisher of the Observer papers I believe, commented this morning on Stan Zimmerman’s recent guest blog post, and responded point by point to many readers’ complaints about the transition of ownership (read his full comments by clicking here). Mr. Walsh says that his newspaper group has “the desire, will and determination to continue building on the Pelican Press’ original roots and respected past.”
The heartening takeaway from all this sturm und drang is that it is thrilling to hear that so many people in our community — readers, writers, editors, newspaper owners — still care so passionately about content and editorial perspectives and opinions — and are still so personally invested in reading and publishing newspapers.
The challenge then for those of us in the business of researching, writing, reporting, opining about and publishing the news of the day — especially in light of the News of the World debacle – is to diligently strive to earn our readers’ loyalty anew, each and every day, by delivering news unfettered by bias or advertisers’ influence, opinion that is diverse, a platform for earnest debate, and the rigorous application of truth, accuracy and fairness to the printed word.
And the challenge for those of us in the personal business of reading is to strive equally diligently to be as fair in our reading as we want our newspapers to be in their reporting. And, while one may not like what one reads on every op/ed page of every newspaper, I think Voltaire said it best: “I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.” — Voltaire, letter to M. le Riche, February 6, 1770
Pelican Press Sign-Off from Stan Zimmerman (guest commentary)
M.C.,
I want to thank you and your readers for your outpouring of concern about the fate of the Pelican Press and its stable of writers. An entire chorus of voices was silenced with one swoop of the axe. Only time will tell if this storied community newspaper will retain the affection of its readership of 40 years. Or maintain its journalistic excellence – its awards from the Florida Press Association literally cover the walls. If there was a huge award for excellence in every conceivable category (even agricultural writing!) the Pelican would qualify several times over.
Rachel Hackney is the only survivor, she’s staying on as the Managing Editor, and I know she carries a heavy weight of local expectations on her shoulders. But her scope of action now is limited, and she should not carry the brunt of reader disappointment. So many times she’s said to me, “That’s a great story. We’ll make room for it.” Or “We need that in the paper. We’ll extend the deadline to get it in.” Those decisions are no longer hers. She’s a pro with all that implies.
As editors at the Pelican, Anne Johnson, and then Rachel Hackney, maintained a tradition of “bound volumes” – keeping every Pelican from Volume One, Number One, intact in huge books. Row upon row upon row of them, the first drafts of Siesta Key’s history, from 1971 to now. My very first newspaper story is in there, datelined Dec.16, 1982, a financial story: “County debts could quadruple by 1984 if bond issues okayed.” (They were, and they did and then some over the next quarter-century). And it’s all there between the covers.
It is passé in this electronic age to keep “bound volumes,” and I’m sure Matt Walsh will eschew this tradition. But it was this same tradition that kept the paper going through ups and downs, through pay cuts and staff reductions, because we were standing in a long line of distinguished and talented people who believed our readers had a right to know. And to know in detail.
I wish Matt and his Observer Group good luck and good fortune is a struggling industry. Dead-tree journalism could soon be an anachronism, and I’ve said so in front of both Walsh and the SHT”s executive editor Mike Connelly at a chamber round-table. All we can offer is trust, and I hope the new Pelican will maintain the paper’s 40-year pact with its readers for fairness, accuracy and honesty.
This “pelican” was lucky enough to find a new “nest” at SarasotaPatch.com, a “hyper-local” news site similarly dedicated. Its editor and I won an award from the Florida Press Association earlier this month for our investigative journalism at the Pelican. To my other friends and colleagues at the Pelican, I send my support and appreciation for their accomplishments as fellow “ink-stained wretches.” It is no sin to reach for the stars.
I send a special bouquet to Anne Johnson, who isn’t exactly the founding editor of the Pelican but certainly is the woman who crafted, molded and created the paper we knew and loved. She too was lopped off, after 38 years, without even a good-bye to the two generations of readers she slaved for.
That’s my only real regret – and it would have been such a touch of class, such a handoff – Matt’s refusal to allow the old Pelican hands to say goodbye and welcome the new hands. It was, for staff, the ultimate hostile takeover. “Mine now, you’re gone.” The old Pelican gave you the opportunity to say goodbye when the previous corporate owners canned you for writing truth-to-power. You know well, M.C., how that catharsis eased the pain for you and readers alike.
I guess this is really my “goodbye.” I wish it could reach all my readers, but M.C.’s circle will have to do.
We tried very hard – every one of us pelicans – to do the best we knew how to do. Because we knew the standards were high, the expectations higher. And we did our best on deadline every week to capture the importance, the essence, the heart of what we thought Siesta Key wanted to know.
Goodbye, Pelican Press. Hello, Pelican Press.
Stan Zimmerman
Drill off our #1 beach? Heck no! Help draw a line in the sand!
Hands Across the Sand … Siesta Key, FL on Sat. June 25th 11:45-ish between the Pavilion and the Tennis Courts
Local “Hands Across the Sand” gathering in solidarity with events around the country to raise awareness about the dangers of offshore drilling and call on leaders to end our oil dependence and move America into a clean energy future.
At noon, participants will join hands for 15 minutes to form a line along the beach. A pot luck picnic will follow the Hands Across the Sand gathering. This year the Sarasota County Parks Department is not supporting the gathering as they have in the past. There will be no signs, posters, fliers or speakers allowed. Instead there will be a simple, silent remembrance of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Several hundred citizens and visitors from the Sarasota area will be joined by volunteers from the local Sierra Club and Transition Sarasota.
Hands Across The Sand was founded by Floridian Dave Rauschkolb in October 2009. Hands Across The Sand is endorsed by national environmental organizations including Transition Sarasota, Sierra Club, Audubon, Surfrider Foundation, Oceana, Defenders of Wildlife, Alaska Wilderness League, Ocean Conservancy, Friends of the Earth, Environment America, 350, MoveOn.org, Center for Biological Diversity and CleanEnergy.org
