Building Trains or Train Tracks

As many of you know I am currently investing much of my energy in creating innovation around publishing - specifically eBooks. This is a market that is changing dramatically each and every day. I call it the Wild West of book publishing. So in a space as in flux as publishing, how do you innovate intentionally?

Well, I got a key insight wen reading Kristin Butler's post on 7 Platforms that are Changing Publishing. This article is a must read even if you are not involved in publishing because of the creative innovations it highlights. So here is my thought for the day. When you are in a dynamic and changing field your innovation will either change the train or the train tracks. (Most of the innovations in the article are train innovations.)

If your innovation changes the train tracks, you are talking about the infrastructure that the whole new industry is riding on. In the eBook world the train tracks are the platforms (ie Amazon, Kobo, B&N, Google) that allow you to buy, access and read your books.

If your innovation changes the train, you are talking about products and services that ride on that infrastructure and utilize it to deliver things to customers at their point of need. In the eBook world a great example (listed in the article I mentioned above) is The Domino Project - an innovative publishing effort spearheaded by Seth Godin and delivered via Amazon's system.

As I considered this reality, it became clear that building train tracks is hard work. And beyond the huge time and money it takes, you have to win or you are relegated to the junk pile. When trains were a new innovation, there were different widths for train tracks in various parts of the world. But sooner or later most of those variations disappeared because people needed to get goods everywhere and various sizes and types of tracks were not a good idea (unless you wanted to keep people out).

Because of this, the players that can afford to innovate at the train track level will be very few and will involve incredible risk, investment and mass adoption. The area of innovation with much more room for creativity and the ability to build niche audiences is in the work of building trains. Once the train tracks are set, you can build all kinds of trains. Trains for circus animals . . . trains for coal . . . trains for people. The potential is only limited by the demands of those wanting to use that infrastructure.

This means that if you don't want to risk it all to set the standard for the train tracks you can still be a key part of the innovation in your industry. You can identify a group of people who want to use that infrastructure and build a train that will serve them well.

Even though the idea of building the infrastructure is a sexy one, the implementation is brutal with many harrowing stops and turns. But train building, while difficult and challenging, is much more likely to lead to success.

Can you identify the train tracks and trains in your area of innovation? What will be your focus?

The End of a Transition and the Beginning of a Journey

When we suddenly found ourselves in a liminal time of transition just a few months ago, I shared very openly about our process and about the lessons my wife Mindy and I were learning as we journeyed through a time of even greater dependence on God.

Thank you to each of you for being part of that journey. Your encouragement, connections and prayers along the way have made all the difference as we have strived to honor God through our transition. Over the past months I have written the following posts about our process:

• Transparency in Transition
• Open Sourcing Your Innovations
• Rethinking Publishing
• Serving Through an Interview
• What Happens When We Can Only Think at Starbucks

And now I write this post to share about how God has guided and directed us to a new phase of ministry. As you have seen from my posts of late, God has put the publishing industry on our hearts. Better said, God has burdened Mindy and I with a passion to help people communicate their ideas in new ways for a new century. This is not new, but in transition you always go back to the passions that God has given you and ask Him for a fresh perspective.

We did that over the past months. I interacted in great detail with many in the publishing field trying to identify what God is doing through the publishing of ideas to further His Kingdom. We asked the hard questions and looked for the key innovations that would be part of making God's Word and His work in the lives of believers available to more and more people.

At the end of that process God gave us the opportunity to join a new publishing start up called Novo Ink (www.novoink.com) in Colorado Springs. This new organization will be coming alongside content providers such as Christian publishers to help them move their current and back-list titles into a high definition, color eBook reader delivered by Zinio, a long-time digital content provider with over 7 million subscribers globally. These eBooks will be available on people's computers, iPhones, iPads and soon in the Android Market.

As of September 7, I have taken the role of Account Manager and I have the great pleasure of working with the publishing staff of the Christian publishers that decide to partner with Novo Ink to get their content into this new format and available for purchase. I am very excited about the potential because Zinio's platform has the ability to deliver static content in an excellent/high-quality experience but it also has the ability to deliver audio, video and Flash content within the books - helping Christian publishers make the jump to Enhanced eBooks and a more dynamic experience for readers.

Mindy and I will continue in the Generous Mind cause, including blogging on innovations in publishing as I move deeper into that arena along with innovations for ministry in general. We also will keep blogging about our latest book Through the River: Understanding Your Assumptions About Truth and encourage you to purchase a copy and take time to think through how you understand truth.

Again, it is with great humility and thankfulness that we write this note. We owe so much to each person that is part of the Generous Mind cause. We look forward to your comments and your thoughts as we begin this new journey.

P.S. To follow along as Novo Ink launches in the coming weeks/months please connect in these ways:
Web: www.novoink.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/novoink
Twitter: www.twitter.com/novoink

E-book is the sexiest word in publishing

NOTE: I'm pleased to have Dave Sheets as a guest blogger for Innovation in Mission. I look forward to the discussion his post will generate. You can find more info on Dave at the end of this post. -- Jon Hirst

Amazon’s announcement last month that they had sold more e-books than hardcover books set off a blizzard of stories about e-books, the death of the printed book, and how the industry is going down the same path as the music publishers.

I, for one, am skeptical of a lot of what is being written, but it is important to note that e-book sales are growing and that they are changing the face of the publishing (and reading) industry. As noted, the news is full of big numbers and even bigger predictions. According to Amazon’s Kindle Vice President, Ian Freed1, “We're pretty sure we're 70 to 80 percent of the [e-book] market.” That is significant, even if there is disagreement as to actually how much Amazon owns. In fact, in addition to Amazon’s announcement about hard covers, they expect their e-book sales to eclipse their softcover sales sometime in 2011.

Does this mean the death of the printed book? Markus Dohle2, the head of mega publisher Random House recently was quoted as saying that even though e-book sales are growing “by leaps and bounds”, they only account for 8% of US revenues this year, and may exceed 10% next year.

Dohle, however, doesn't believe that the majority of book readers are ready to make the jump from books to bytes – something that Amazon has been suggesting3 over the past two weeks.

The e-book is today, what the cheap paperback was to the publishing industry 75 years ago. According the Guardian newspaper4, this new “disruptive technology” could carry the same results as the paperback book did – drive new masses of readers to content. But just as the paperback revolution did three quarters a century ago, the new e-book is threatening to drive prices down, which will be a paradigm shift for today’s content stewards.

According to the article, Jon Makinson, the chief of Penguin Publishing, echoes this shift when discussing how easy it is for readers to carry dozens of books with them on their devices. He says that this will "redefine what we do as publishers." The sales trend for Penguin is still growing. Even so, digital book sales are still less than 1% for the media giant, but the direction of the market is clear. In the US, digital books already account for 6% of consumer sales.

Malkinson5 goes on to say that publishers must embrace innovation: "I am keen on the idea that every book that we put on to an iPad has an author interview, a video interview, at the beginning. I have no idea whether this is a good idea or not. There has to be a culture of experimentation, which doesn't come naturally to book publishers. We publish a lot of historians, for example. They love the idea of using documentary footage to illustrate whatever it is they're writing about."

Digital books seem to be expanding the market according to some, while others say that the numbers show that e-books are simply moving the reader from one platform to another. As the sales continue to climb, studies will help publishers understand which of these cases is actually true. But for now, Malkinson shows his understanding of consumer behavior. "You have to give the consumer what the consumer wants – you can't tell the consumer to go away…if the consumer wants to buy a book in an electronic format now, you should let the consumer have it."

Where does that leave the book manufacturers? As I pointed out in a previous blog post6, the guys looking over their shoulders these days are the traditional long run printers. As e-books gain in popularity and sales, publishers are going to look at digital printing more and more, and for companies like Snowfall Press, this is wonderful news indeed.

What do you believe will happen to printed books?

1. http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-18438_7-20012381-82.html
2. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2010-07-29-amazon29_VA_N.htm?csp=obinsite
3. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2010/08/random-house-chief-sees-a-bright-but-worrisome-future-for-e-books/1
4. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/31/editorial-publishing-industry-ebooks
5. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jul/29/penguin-john-makinson-ebooks
6. http://blog.outlawsalesgroup.com/?p=202
   
   Dave Sheets
   Business Development Consultant in Publishing and Printing
   Outlaw Sales Group LLC
   dave@outlawsalesgroup.com
   lessonsfromthesaddle.com

You Don't Get Authenticity By Association

I recently wrote a guest blog post for David Sheets. My post is about how you can't be authentic by association. That means that just because you spend time in a community, it doesn't mean you are an authentic part of that group. I specifically speak about this in relationship to engaging people with new ideas. Read on . . .

David runs Outlaw Sales Group and describes his work this way:

Outlaw Sales Group LLC (OSG) was formed to drive start-up ventures and established companies to excel in sales and business development. From consulting on sales plans, to helping set-up sales organizations, OSG brings experience and passion to each client relationship.

Rethinking Publishing

I have been focusing much of my innovative energies on new solutions for publishing. Recently I shared a white paper on Cause-Oriented Publishing. Just today I did a guest blog post for Somersault Group (a new publishing services company). Take a moment to read about what it looks like when Publishing turns into Leadership. And thanks to The Somersault Team for letting me be a part of their conversation!

Open Sourcing Your Innovations

As many of you know from my last post, we are in a ministry transition right now. Transitions are tough, but one thing they make you do is hone and develop the ideas you really believe in. That is what I want to share about today.

When you have a new innovation that you are nurturing one of the gut reactions is to hide it. You don’t want anyone to steal your idea or, even worse, make fun of it! So many times we develop innovations in secret and wait for the right moment to spring them on the world.

I would like to suggest that this thinking is actually counter productive. In an idea economy, your innovation has real value if it is viable. However, your idea is just that – YOURS. Only you have the experience, understanding, perspective and creativity to design your idea. Even if someone else were to take your blueprint and roll it out, it would be dramatically different from what you would do.

This means that innovative ideas need to be shared openly at the initial stages. Instead of worrying that someone will steal your idea, share it in such a way where you are the only possible owner. That uniqueness and creativity that you bring to your innovation will set it apart and set you apart.

Ok, but you might be asking, “If the idea is mine and unique to me, then why should I let it out there as I am developing it?” My answer is that while the idea is yours and it is very hard to really steal it in today’s idea economy, your idea is a work in progress. It needs refining and it needs other people’s experience and input - a little like open source software needs ongoing development. Your idea is not nearly as good as it could be if it was shared and refined!

Let me give you an example. I have some innovative ideas about the future of publishing in the 21st Century. I’m not sure what God is going to do with those ideas but I am passionate about them and willing to invest time and energy to see them become a reality. So what did I do? I created a white paper sharing my ideas and asking people to engage with me. Then I began to send it out to various people that I trust and that know the publishing industry. Each time they came back with input, I have thought it through, asked the hard questions and made a new version of my white paper. I’m several iterations into the document now.

Each time someone interacted with me on my innovation, my ideas have improved. I have developed a better understanding of publishing and of my unique perspective.

Now let me be clear, don’t hear me saying that you should share everything. If you have a unique business model or some key relationships or pieces of intellectual property that need to be protected, then you need to share those very carefully. However, that should not stop you from sharing your larger idea and being willing to learn from others.

Ok, so now I need to practice what I preach! I have this white paper on Cause-Oriented Publishing and if any of you would like to read it and give me input I would love to share it with you. You can email me at jonhirst-at-generousmind.com. But when you ask, it will come with an expectation:
1. That you will read it and consider the idea seriously.
2. That you will take the time to write me back and share your thoughts honestly.

I look forward to sharing with some of you about my latest innovation!