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BB eBooks Newsletter – April 30, 2014

Dear Friend,

April is all about the summer holidays in Thailand where Songkran Festival marks the new year of Thai era. Indeed, the long holidays are usually associated with water-splashing festivities that bring tourists from all over the world to join the fun activities throughout the country. For Thai readers, April is also the time when they get together and go to the book fair which is considered to be one of the biggest literary events. Aside from the book fair, the temperature is rising as box sets are taking the best seller lists by storm.


Strength in Numbers

Boxset

2014 is definitely the year of box sets, eBook bundle, or anthologies. Most best-selling box sets on Amazon best seller list may contain up to 12 eBooks in one bundle. Despite its package labels, authors can bypass the size limitation fear when they bundle different eBooks together. Some of the larger bundles can have more than 1 million words. The SOS Ladies-published SEALs of Summer is one of the most successful box sets that has recently graced the Top 40 and reached its pinnacle at #23. Some of the reasons why box sets are so successful are the low price and author’s reputation. Once the eBook is propelled into the higher rank on the best seller lists, there is a higher chance for other books written by the contributing authors in the box sets to be exposed to readers with the help from Amazon’s algorithms.

Apart from taking advantage of the low price and author’s powerful reputation, you can add numerous hyperlinks to the eBook to link to make your back matter shine. However, Amazon does have some restriction to cut your royalties fee considering the file size of your eBook ($0.15/MB) if you are priced between $2.99–$9.99 inclusive. The larger the file size, the more royalties you have to sacrifice.

Apparently, collaboration requires leadership to make sure that all books are woven nicely into one full book. If you have not figured out how the profits will be divided, perhaps it is best to start calculating now.


The Profitability and New Possibilities in Multi-Author Box Sets

Following the burning hot phenomenon of the box sets, David Gaughran provides some explanation how a publisher can consistently make profits from them irrespective of genres. Tracing back the history, box sets were mostly done in a fashion of a single author in 2013. For those who have multiple books, promoting the box sets can be done effectively when the books in a series were priced higher than those in the bundle. Then the multi-author eBook bundle came along to provide the perfect solution for authors who share a common genre or theme. For instance, fantasy authors collaborated and sold more than 25,000 digital copies while the eBook entered the Top 200. Still, the challenges remain that the teamwork split the responsibilities fairly to make sure each author can do what they know best (e.g. financial task, promotion).

Having mentioned that the higher eBook ranking can result in higher exposure to readers, the surge in Amazon Author Rank is a testimony how each box set author has achieved and accomplished as a whole.


12th Bangkok International Book Fair 2014: The Future of Literary Fiction and Crowdfunding in Thailand

Bookfair1

Prior to the festival, the 42nd National Book Fair and 12th Bangkok International Book Fair 2014 kick started early last month attractied all the publishing industry experts and avid readers to witness how Thai publishing industry has progressed. The book fair is held annually by the Publishers and Bookseller Association of Thailand (PUBAT) and undoubtedly touted as one of the biggest literary events in the country.

The first day I decided to participate in the event was the seminar where literary fiction authors and organizers made the announcement about the literary standard and new bookselling idea to appeal to devoted readers of the genre. Despite the dense population of large publishers and bookstore chains, the Thai Independent Book Network was established to define the future of indie authors who write literary fiction. This particular network has already helped to standardize a literary standard that focuses on delivering the quality content that matters to readers. Apart from the newly established standard, the book network also aims to increase its book’s value by having each book numbered to determine the order of the print run, autographed by the author, translator, or editor, and priced not lower than the cover price except that it is pre-ordered.

To solve the lack of readership among Thai indie publishers, the network saw the necessity in working together as a network through a print on demand model to help lessen the publisher’s risk in determining the reader’s demand of a print run. Another viable business model is crowdfunding that will prevent the indie bookstore from clashing with the chain store in a price war. Once the literary standard is put in place that will help stabilize the price, discounts can be given to those who pre-order the book, and the further reduction can be given to early supporters so that they can crowdfund the book project.


12th Bangkok International Book Fair 2014: Grand Opening Ceremony, TV Adaptation of Romance Novels, and Authors’ Collaboration

Day 2 of my visit to the book fair started when the official grand opening ceremony began. The ceremony showed the exhibition in the background honoring the works of Sri Burapha, one of the most beloved Thai novelists, with the theme “The World is a Never-Ending Novel.” Literary quotes from different thought-provoking novels were adorned on the glass panels for the attendees to marvel the “close relationship between the real world and the literary sphere.”

After the official ceremony had ended, the talk session about novel adaptation into a TV series seemed to draw many fans to swoon over romance stories. Four romance authors shared how their collaboration allowed them to formulate the series that can resonate with their fans. From the authors’ point of view, the collaboration provides for aspiring authors to have a great opportunity working alongside their veteran colleagues. They can also learn from each other’s strength how to study the character and write in the same direction.

For TV adaptation, it takes a lot of more effort into bringing the stories and characters to life on screen. The TV production process is entirely complicated with so many details spelt out in order to convince the audience (e.g. hairstyles, facial makeup). Unlike the novel that might be read by devoted fans of certain age groups, the TV series will be watched by fans of all age groups and certain scenes must be properly adapted to get aired. Despite the hard work, the fruit of the labor created the heartthrob sensation and eventually boosted the popularity of authors and their books.


12th Bangkok International Book Fair 2014: 14th Nanmeebooks Reading Club, Children’s Book Launch, Copyright Violation Case Studies

Bookfair2

Having recognized the significant value in reading, Nanmeebooks, one of the largest publishers of children’s book, organizes an annual event to award the schools that promotes their students’ reading with best practices. Representatives from schools all over Thailand will be invited on the stage and share how their librarians have developed teaching materials and different methods to promote reading among students. For instance, in order to raise the awareness about the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), librarians can encourage the students to research for their assignment and participate in the activities or game so they keep learning through reading and be entitled to presents.

Swedish children’s book author, Eva Susso, also debuted the first Thai-translation of her book titled “Babo Points” which is published by Nanmeebooks. The author said that she drew the inspiration from her childhood memory while taking her young brother for a stroll in the forest. Vivid illustrations and exotic animals are among the book’s features apart from using more rhymes and less works. In her opinion, children seem to know literature much more than adults give them credit for. However, TV seems to hinder reader’s curiosity and progress as it can steal their quality time by communicating one way to them.

Among the multitude of best practices, the award-winning schools shared how activities and presents can give the students positive motivation to read. One school recruits young volunteer librarians to decorate and curate books to the library and make the library like home so readers will come back for more. Using an automated borrowing and lending system can also cut down the teacher’s time to run the library especially when they are expected to produce more documents to meet the curriculum’s development.

In the afternoon session, the talk session led by Department of Intellectual Property sheds a light legal complexity that authors might get tangled with. With the past mistakes shared by the owner of a publisher, without the permission from the content’s owner, legal disputes can come faster than you might have expected. To avoid any situation like this in the future, he told the editor to come up with originality or buy the proper license. In the wake of digital content overflown in the reading system, not only that people are willing to “read, load, post, vote, and share,” a smart thief can also share the protected content with the rest of the world. In fact, copyright violation can be prevented as the nature of content must be considered.


12th Book International Book Fair: Children’s Literature from Sweden and Self-Publishing in Thailand

In the morning session, the seminar regarding children’s book revealed how the genre is very successful in Sweden where one in ten books that has been translated in the country is a children’s book according the Swedish Ambassador to Thailand, H.E. Mr. Klas Molin. Anna Hoglund, author and illustrator who has worked with several best-selling authors, highlighted that children’s personality is complex just like an adult. Through the oral tradition of fairy tales, children can understand abstract topics (e.g. darkness, the feel of togetherness, moon, and light). In order to do her job well, not only she needs to tune in the mind of a three year old to make children understand the story, she also has to entertain the parents who read the story aloud to the children. Her illustration has also found a place among psychologists who use her visual art to teach women about separation through the depiction of a female bear and her husband.

Apart from promoting her first Thai-translated book, Eva Susso also introduced the attendees to her other works that teach different aspects of life. Rita is the book that she refers to her own daughter who was born of a South African father to present the theme of diversity in the book illustrated by Anna. Another work, Två Städer (or 2 Cities), brings the dystopian themes to teach YA readers that looking after other people is the key to survival from despair.

In the afternoon session, the future of self-publishing in Thailand looked rosy with the aid of Technology Promotion Association’s facilitating app. Although the method is a far cry from what self-publishing in the west is currently heading, it is interesting how the publisher addresses certain obstacles that they face with print. By going digital, while cheaper production cost can help reduce the publisher’s risk in investing in aspiring authors, mobility is another key feature that can widen the customer base. By using Aqufadas system, the book can be turned into a single app that can be downloaded directly from the app stores for readers to execute, play, and read without downloading additional programs.

Due to the increasing popularity of Thai authors publishing their content online, the association provides the essential tool for self-publishers to enhance their content. One of the reasons that the eBook phenomenon has not taken off in Thailand is how most so-called eBooks are static PDF files of which discourage readers from opening them. By adding multimedia content, readers can enjoy the interactive elements without getting involved with the technicalities behind the scenes. However, such content comes with a price resulting in an eBook with enormous file size and the production cost unannounced depending on case by case estimation. Toward the end of the blog, we sampled the file for your eyes only.


eBook Reading Gains Traction and Amazon’s New Acquisition

According to the Harris Poll, the data shows that 87% of Americans currently read eBooks while 84% have read at least one book (hardcovers or paperbacks, or eBooks). Even though Americans read 17 books a year, for those who read eBooks exclusively, it is more likely (30%) that they read more than 20 books in a year. Compared to readers who prefer reading print books, the percentage is slightly lower at 18%. When it comes to purchasing decision, eBook readers tend to buy new books twice (14 books) as many as those who read print books. But do not give up on the print version just because 46% of the respondents say that they only read the physical books.

In the tradition of acquisition, Amazon expands its business line by buying comiXology, the cloud-based digital comics and graphic novels platform, leaving questions to many. Will the giant retailer drop the platform’s self-publishing arm, Submit, since it may be redundant with Amazon’s KDP? Based on several sources, Amazon may still want to keep Submit up and running for the time being because the platform has seen some growth.


How to Request Changes for Your eBooks

For clients of BB eBooks, if you wish to make any changes to your eBook by yourself, we truly understand your burden dealing with Calibre and Sigil. They are not optimized to be used by professional publishers or authors whose formatting requires advanced capabilities. Since each vendor requires different eBook formats, even one slightest change can result in updating all the file formats for every vendor. That is why BB eBooks uses in-house tools to lessen your burden in making changes to your eBook. Although it might sound technically complicated for us to have one file converted into eBooks for all vendors, we have actually spent two years developing and implementing fine-turning our workflow to surpass our clients’ expectation.

To illustrate the backbone of our production work, we dig deeper into the vertebrae of XHTML codes and make changes carefully. One small mistake can break the entire eBook publication yet we are willing to deal with this patiently.

In order to make changes, we divide them into two major categories: minor and major changes. For minor changes, you can use Track Change feature in Microsoft Word to identify all the changes for us to quickly fix them. If the Track Changes are not used for any particular reason by your editor or beta reader, you can just use the Compare Documents feature to see the differences between two Word documents. For the major changes, it is recommended you allow us to do a complete reconversion based on the most updated manuscript. BB eBooks can offer a small discount to do this type of reconversion.

Yours sincerely,

The BB eBooks Team


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