A Suggestion for the Book Section to the TEAM
started by bilingual 4 mnths agoReplies
Hi Spencer,
Splendid idea! But good for hits! Tell me Spencer ji, how are we going to seive through all the books, bad and good to find the ones that are woth their salt however? It should not become like blogs - all and everyone there but only 10% good ones. The process of picking out the best, is always hard. If you can take care of that, its a great idea.
Best,
Julia
Hi Julia... :-) Here is my answer to your astute question.....
Good, great and awful are all relative terms what is good for one may be lousy for others. Therefore, I don't think it could be limited or we get into a situation where some mythical Sulekha TEAM member with credentials that we might not all agree with would make arbitrary decisions. Kind of like the contests, unless we know the credentials of the jurors, and unless the material is given to them sans names the credibility and stature of any contest is not only questionable but intrinsically flawed. Therefore in answer to the second part of your question my answer is this:
1) In order to get a page one first has to be published on paper somewhere. Sure that would limit ebooks ( but almost all of those are published somewhere else) at least self published by say a Lulu or Booksuge or any number of recognized publishers.
2) There must be a link to at least see where at least one particular work is published... Therefore, it becomes more exclusive and of course more desirable to get published to those who are not.
Have you any idea why we read Sulekha ? And to think that books by Sulekhans published by Penguin or some such other Publisher would be hot cakes is stretching the imagination too far. Even an Amitava Ghosh, does not sustain my interest for more than the first fifty pages. So what to talk of the Sulekhans publishing their books? Nargis Natarajan, B.S. Kesav, or another anthology being brought by Team Sulekha may find some buyers, but would it sustain that lead is yet to be seen? Of course, Sulekha might keep some hundreds of copies, for gifting it away, as a memento, to those who visit their Pantheon Road Office is a moot point. Writings are closely related to literary merit and in my estimation, blogging, Posts in Sulekha are far from such aspirations.
I have very limitesd shelf space in my apartment, I generally do not clutter it by buying books of dubious fame.
Regards.
Rajaputhran.
My point was thet this was NOT to be connected to the Sulekha publishing asprirations. If you can bear with me until I get to Julia's answer I will further explain.
Regardless of the quility of the work here on Sulekha, it is a site for writers as well as communicators. Some are here to test the waters, some to hone their skills and others here just to have fun. Yet the goal of the majority or the brass ring is to be respected as a writer. No one pleases everyone all the time; even you my learned friend. Yet the ambition is to garner an audience here and from the TEAM Sulekha's vantage point to 1) attract quality writers that improves the site 2) To attarct membership that increases viewership to their ads. The better product ( ie writers) the more traffic on their site and hence more advertisers and greater price as their ads imrove in gross impressions and frequency thus.. more reach.
Thanks for your opinion.
This does sounds lie a good idea. Am not too clear about he details, but this seems to be the logical next step. God writers are being identified and encouraged as it is. This could provide a platform for the next leap forward - ublishing.
cheers,
Keshav
Why you are not going ahead ji. Ask Sulekha team ...if they are adament then simply oil Chandu's palms ( read brains) desi style and then see!
All the team will say - "Sir ji, vat an idea ji!" 
Go on! go on! Spencer ji, it varks in India!
On a very serious note: a few observations -
1. Books cannot generate interest being sold on the net. The reason being, for every book lover worth his/her salt. the touch, feel and smell of a book is a joy that cannot even be replaced by the addiction of the first morning tea/coffee. One needs to touch and feel the book, even if the book is one from best known authors like Amitav Ghosh. The kind of hype you may see on Sulekha is a whimper as against the sale of the book via a proper distribution channel.
2. People need to go through pages of the book, back and forth, before they take a decision to buy as so often happens, at a bookshop, one goes with the thought of buying, but decides not to after going through the book partially.
3. It has been proved that if one enters a book shop or a Cafe where books are sold and there is a table where books are put out like Japanese fans across the table, the books will generate interest and sales is almost certain.
Therefore, as far as books are concerned, you need to put your thoughts out and have a dialogue on this subject before you can make a suggestion to Sulekha.
This however is about sales of the books which is every author's main desire, and not about number of hits, as maybe Sulekha's joy as advertisers will throng where the hits are, but that does not guarantee sales in the least. So how are you going to ensure sales? That remains the key question.
Sorry for some hardtalk Spencer ji. Hope you can put up a post on this matter and invite some of the best brains on Sulekha to comment.
Warmly,
Julia Dutta
Hi Julia....... Nah have you forgotten? I love a lively discussion. Hard talk Bah..... Let me support myself and I will send you off to the Net to see if you can counter rather that just make a few sweeping statements as you have and come back with the counterpoint..... Sound fair?
Let me start with a few general statements... and remember I love India too...;-)
Despite India's considerable expertise in IT it is darn near last in developed nations in e-commerce. ( this is because of several factors not the least being on line banking and credit) . China is way ahead of India in this as are all the Western countries. There is barely an eBay in India for example while it flourishes in the West, it flounders in India. I am using the term West to include Japan, China, Australia, NZ, Russia, South Africa, Nigeria, a very few Islamic countries, Latin America, Canada, the EU and the US etc.... Basically as far as e-commerce these all run roughly the same as the US. The EU for instance runs ahead of the US as does Japan. Canada Aus, NZ, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico run roughly on par with the US. The shift over the last 10 years has occurred for several reasons in retail but it extends to paying bills online, say utilities, people in many countries are even shopping for groceries online as ridiculous as that sounds. I bought my house online, my last 3 cars and last 2 motorcycles for example.
There is no free site ( that I know of) that has all these statistics so we will have to piece them together. The easiest example is the US because there is the most information in English. So I am going to provide some statistics and cite the sources and you or whomever can verify these through the links I will provide.. Sound fair? First there is two book markets New and used. we will focus on New but first I want to share with you another shocking (perhaps for you and others) statistic and that is that Internet sales account for a whopping two thirds of the North America used book sales.( general interest) ( US, Canada, Mexico) SOURCE: NY Times: Sept. 29, 2005 : http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/29/books/29book.html Now, I used 2005 for a reason, to show you how this has been trending and that it has been going on for a while. Ok so let's put the used books aside.
The next statistic is a fine article that comes from a book (we currently have to pay for) and it lists the major North American booksellers.
Company North American Sales (Books, Media plus cofee, etc:-)
Barnes&Noble / B. Dalton1 $4.68 billion
Borders / Waldenbooks $3.41 billion (excludes international)
Amazon Media (excludes electronics, services - books, includes books, music, DVDs) $4.63 billion (2006 was the first year Amazon outsold Borders in North America)
BN.com $477 million (also used to promote stores)
Total $13.20 billion
1) 2006 was the last year Barnes&Noble is breaking out B. Dalton sales in their results. I've always combined them for the total.
SOURCE : http://www.fonerbooks.com/booksale.htm Morris Rosenthal's book from Foner, 2008 (but statistics are 2007). Lets take a billion or so off of Amazon's total for the DVD and Music and make it 3.5.... and I will give you the coffee houses/ restaurants they all have at Barnes and Noble borders etal. ( I think that is generous but let us continue.) Now we are going to use Barnes and Noble as a model and I will supply my next SOURCE from The New York Times again. The reason the Times is a good source is their famous NY Times Bestseller lists, they are one of the few newspapers that have a BOOK SECTION in their newspaper. Therefore they stay abreast of the book business.
SOURCE: NY Times: July 2 ( yesterday ) 2008 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9905E4DE1238F93AA25752C0A96E958260
Quite interesting this article ( again using Barnes and Noble as a model shows sales exceeding 100MM expected for the year HOWEVER Internet sales are expected to reach 8MM per QUARTER . Therefore, if we take four quarters X 8MM we have a sum of 32MM. or 32% of all sales ( and again that includes those coffee shops too) Also this is company wide and as Barnes and Noble operates ( as the other majors do in North America rather than only the US it i a better true indicator. So given that I suggest we apply the 32% to each of the traditional retail booksellers ( non Internet) Now if you do the math you will see that Internet sales account for a rather significant market share. ( over 50%) !!!! Let me show you what has happened in the last 10 years.. SOURCE Publishers Weekly, 4-14- 2008 ( publishers weekly is the most important publishing magazine in the West) http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6550867.html Here we see that over a ten year period that while Amazon the largest seller of Internet books have increased a whopping 104% traditional retail outlets ( stores) have modestly increased at a modest rate of 3% over the last 10 years.
Let's look at our cousins ( both of our cousins LOL) the UK and the largest bookseller in the EU in WH Smith SOURCE: Bnet Business Network ( a large Internet site based in the EU that analyzes business and e-commerce) http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19990116/ai_n9654045 . Yet we are remiss in a specific area and that is the individual respective publishers that have all been launching their own e-commerce part of their site, and this accounts for a rapidly growing share as well. I had my hands on this data but lost it however here is a 1999 article by a PHD that I found as a replacement... http://informationr.net/ir/4-4/paper63.html
I think it is fair to assume that the numbers have not gone down ( since 1999) so let's use this. Online sales ( a shopping cart on their own website) and email solicitations account for 51% on this ancient model. However it is important to note that in 1999 most of the publishers were not using their own sites and I am sure this must include Amazon and eBay...... but still Internet sales. Off the top of my head I would say that these individual respective publishers maybe sell 5% -10% of their gross sales on their own websites.... However, this at least puts me well over 60% in the countries I mentioned. Let me close with the following observations.
I in no way mean to belittle India's contribution to the computer industry, it is significant,,,,, just not in the e-commerce sector. The utilities and retailers I mentioned earlier are much less labor intensive when using the Web to pay for bills or services. India has a few ( I think Bunty works for one) but they have not caught on the way they have in the rest of the developed world... at least not proportionately in venerable India. I know there are
Hi Spencer,
That certainly is a way to siphon out the unwanted discreetly. I like the idea. Go ahead! Its hot! But what is going to be the deal? How does one sell the books? Or is it only promotional campaigns. Second, if it is the latter, then, one has to be quite done with the book to begin the promo or else it will become like crying wolf.
I hope you understand that this is positive criticism mean to challenge even a good idea so that the end product is pucca, solid, as we say in Hindi!
Julia
But seems to be a good idea in general
Moreover, you are persistent.
going by previous example ( your Pakhi Abhijan) a log time of 6-8 months is inevitable.
stores.lulu.com/store.php
or this is also a link:
bilingual.sulekha.com/default.htm
because it"links you to somewhere else on the Internet.... so what I am suggesting is on this page we have a link to our publishers or agents or even Amazon or Indian Plaza where one or all of our books are published... . Hugs and I hope this makes better sense, if not chime in and I will try to answer it better....
I think the pages COULD be used either for sale of or promotion of.. they sell through the LINK and promote from the page... got it? ..;-))) The only tough part now is getting Sulekha to agree... LOL.