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The Picard Syndrome
[The author of the following gives blanket permission to forward it, so
I assume it is all right to forward it to my LJ friends in this manner.
It is rather long, but worth it. I will put cuts in, but, in fairness
to Mr. North, leave the commercial messages.]
> Gary North's REALITY CHECK
>
> Issue 293 November 18, 2003
>
>
> PICARD SYNDROME
>
> You probably suffer from an affliction. Millions of
> Americans share this affliction. I am doing my best to
> deliver you from it, but I am having only minimal success.
>
> There may be a book inside you. There may be two.
> Because of the Internet revolution, it is now possible for
> you to publish your book online for almost no money. But
> if you do, you will come up against a major resistance
> factor. I call it Picard Syndrome.
> Fans of the second generation of "Star Trek" are aware
> that only two adults on the Enterprise ever read books:
> Commander Data and Captain Picard. Data reads digital
> books online that flashed past his eyes at lightening
> speed. He shifts his eyes back and forth rapidly across
> the pages. Why he doesn't simply download the data
> directly into his positronic brain remains a mystery,
> rather like another major mystery, i.e., why the crew never
> wears seat belts when going into battle. ("Click it or
> ticket!")
>
> Captain Picard can occasionally be seen, sitting in
> his lounge chair in his stateroom, reading a book. The
> book is made of paper. It has a binding.
>
> Captain Picard is an amateur archeologist. He
> collects ancient tools and implements of various kinds. He
> loves nothing more on his vacation than to spend a few days
> on some planet that was noted for its ruins.
>
> As far as Star Trek was concerned, "books = ruins."
> Picard, an eccentric, still reads books.
>
> Today, millions of people still insist on reading
> physical books. They have a bias against e-books. This is
> Picard's Syndrome.
>
>
> THE FAILURE OF E-BOOKS
>
> Barnes & Noble recently announced that it is getting
> out of the e-book business. E-books don't sell.
>
> Why not? Think of an e-book's advantages. It can be
> printed out for a penny a page. You can underline the
> printout, make notes in the margins, or file chapters in
> filing cabinets. You can use a three-hole punch to create a
> permanent book on your shelf -- tall, but functional.
>
> You can search the e-text for key words
> electronically. You can use your cursor and CTRL-C to
> extract sentences or paragraphs that can then be inserted
> into reports or term papers, word for word, without the
> necessity of proofreading the citation. You can use a
> free-form database to store pages or extracts. You can
> add keywords to this database for easy future searching.
> You can't do any of this with a printed book.
>
> Yet there is no well-known free-form database, over
> two decades into the microcomputer revolution. College
> students still buy 3x5 cards for note taking. The cost
> advantages of electronic reading, filing, and printing out
> are passed over in favor of books with bindings.
>
> Book readers suffer from Picard Syndrome. If a book
> doesn't have a binding -- if it isn't suitable for reading
> in bed -- well, it just isn't a real book. That's what
> most book buyers believe.
>
> Why isn't an e-book a real book?
>
> We are operating in terms of our youth. Books came in
> bound form. Publishers had to order 5,000 copies to get a
> good price -- 5,000 copies in inventory. Five years ago, I
> had over 100,000 books in inventory. Then I gave up. I
> gave away all of them to a non-profit publishing firm. It
> took three semis, and the outfit now wishes it had never
> accepted the deal. I had at least $400,000 tied up in
> those books.
>
> There is now print-on-demand technology: one book
> order at a time. The machine prints it, collates it, and
> binds it. Then the printing company mails it. The
> technology is great for sufferers of Picard Syndrome, but
> it still has not taken off commercially.
>
>
> O COME, O COME E-MANUAL
>
> At the same time, I can sell an e-manual for over
> $100. Such a manual is typeset to look like a report: 13-
> point type, unjustified right-hand margins, and no binding.
> If it looks like a high-priced business report, I can
> charge what a physical business manual used to cost. It
> costs me virtually nothing to deliver it to the reader.
> The buyer downloads it, prints it out, and reads it. No
> problem.
>
> It's all in packaging. You can charge 5 to 10
> times what a physical book would cost, deliver it free of
> charge, and avoid inventory. Sufferers from Picard
> Syndrome get instant emotional relief when the read the
> words, "special report." These words calm the sufferer.
> He types in his credit card number and downloads the
> document.
>
> The document is not called a book, let alone an e-
> book. If it were an e-book, you could not give it away.
>
> An example is my manual on how to create a Yellow
> Pages ad that triples any existing ad's response. The
> local Yellow Pages directory is the primary means of
> advertising for 95% of businesses. Yet only a handful of
> businessmen know how to design an effective Yellow Pages
> ad. This market is a small fraction of 14%. I
> face what economists call an inelastic demand curve.
> Revenues do not rise proportional to a fall in price.
>
> I sell my 88-page manual for $176 -- $2/page. For a
> businessman who wants to make his Yellow Pages ad work,
> $176 is not much money. He pays that much every month, or
> even every week, to run his ad. As for everyone else, they
> would not pay me $17.60 for such a report. Most would not
> pay $1.76. They are not interested in writing Yellow Pages
> ads. So, I sell my manual to a tiny market at a high price
> -- high in relation to what paperback books at Barnes &
> Noble cost.
>
> http://www.publishers-management.com/store/gnypm.html
>
> Only a few people truly understand that the value of a
> book is the information it contains. Their buying habits
> prove this. They refuse to buy e-books. They think, "I'm
> paying for paper. So, the e-book ought to sell for $1."
> When it sells for $20, they refuse to buy. Ideas in
> digital form are not worth what the same ideas are worth in
> a bound book. Yet the seller's cost of production ought to
> be irrelevant for the buyer. What matters is the value of
> the information. Similarly, his major cost is the time it
> takes him to read it.
>
> They understand this with respect to computer software
> or music CDs or DVDs. They know that the cost of
> physical storage of digits is low: a 50-cent piece of
> plastic in a $1 plastic box. But they refuse to make the
> same mental transition when it comes to books. They suffer
> from Picard Syndrome.
>
> This also applies to newsletters. Subscribers to
> paper-printed newsletters will pay $200 a year to be sent a
> monthly report by second-class mail, yet they will not pay
> $200 (or even $100) to receive the same information by e-
> mail within 10 minutes after publication.
>
> Why? No one knows. Picard Syndrome produces
> irrational behavior.
>
> There is one area where Picard Syndrome has been
> defeated: standard encyclopedias. The day of the $2,000,
> printed, years out-of-date, 20-volume encyclopedia is gone.
> It is now on a disk, updated yearly, for $89 or less. But
> the mental transition from encyclopedias to books,
> magazines, and newsletters has not taken place.
>
>
> MY MAGNUM OPUS
>
> You can learn something about book publishing from my
> experience.
>
> In 1999, I paid a professional typesetter to typeset
> my magnum opus, a 1,300-page economic commentary on the
> book of Deuteronomy. Her bill was $13,000. To publish it
> in one hardback volume would have cost about $10 per copy
> if I ordered 5,000 copies, or $50,000. So, not counting
> shipping or inventory expenses, I would have had to pay
> $63,000 up front. That up-front expense is what keeps
> authors from publishing books.
>
> I decided not to do this. I made the right decision.
> Earlier this year, I used a copy of WordPerfect 8, which I
> bought on eBay for $25, to retypeset my book. I used a
> larger type face, so it's now 1,500 pages. I decided to
> publish it in three volumes.
>
> I then used a $97 program, pdfFactory Pro, to convert
> my Word Perfect files to PDF format, which can be posted on
> the Web. This took me under six minutes, total, for all
> three volumes.
>
> I then posted all three volumes/files on a Web site.
> This took a few minutes: under 10. Then I sent an e-mail
> to 3,000 subscribers telling of its existence. I offered
> all three volumes for free. People started downloading it.
>
> http://www.demischools.org/pdfdocs/deuteronomy-v1.pdf
> http://www.demischools.org/pdfdocs/deuteronomy-v2.pdf
> http://www.demischools.org/pdfdocs/deuteronomy-v3.pdf
>
> I mentioned in my e-letter that sometime next year, I
> plan to publish all three volumes in hardback. I will use
> new technology: print on demand. It allows book sales, one
> copy at a time: printing, collating, and binding. Then the
> publisher mails out the physical book. The author gets a
> standard 15% royalty.
>
> I immediately received a letter from someone saying
> that he was not going to download the books in PDF, which
> are typeset to look just like books. He would wait for the
> hardbacks.
>
> Consider what he is saying. My ideas are worth
> reading only in a bound book. Apart from a bound book, he
> is unwilling to read what I have to say. He will wait for
> months, then pay a lot of money. Here is another case of
> Picard Syndrome.
>
> I will charge at least $30 per hardback volume. I may
> charge $50. I will therefore get some buyers to spend $90
> to $150 for the set. They could download the same books
> for free and print them out for $15, total. But they
> prefer to pay me 10 times as much in a year. Why? Picard
> Syndrome.
>
> Are my ideas worth more in a bound book? For
> sufferers from Picard Syndrome, yes. These ideas are worth
> far more in dollars and sense. But they are the same
> ideas, bound or not bound. This does not matter in the
> slightest to some readers.
>
> Why?
>
> I offer this thesis. It is a holdover from pre-
> Internet times. Generations of book buyers for over 500
> years have become accustomed to the idea that what makes a
> book valuable is the pre-publication screening, especially
> by censors.
>
> This may sound crazy. Lovers of ideas joyfully paying
> for pre-publication censorship? Yet this is exactly what
> they did, and still do.
>
>
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>
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>
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> consistently rack up double- and triple-digit investment
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>
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>
> -----------------------
>
>
> RESPECT FOR CENSORS
>
> From the year 1450 until today, people have associated
> wisdom with printed books that have bindings. A book with
> a binding implied the following: (1) an editor, (2) a
> costly printing press, (3) a distribution system, (4) a
> publisher's risk. A book required a lot of front-end
> costs. The reader assumed that a book had value because a
> publisher concluded, "this will make me money."
>
> In a very real sense, the reader accepted the false
> idea of the labor theory of value. He paid money in order
> to compensate the publisher for his cost and risk. But
> then the equation got turned around: the value of the book
> was thought to be in its cost of production. This
> confusion was universal among economists until the 1870s,
> when a few of them finally figured out that the value of
> every item comes from people's willingness to pay for the
> item, not from the item's cost of production.
>
> People suffering from Picard's Syndrome have not
> abandoned the older view: economic value based on physical
> costs of production.
>
> Then there was the issue of editors, i.e. screeners of
> ideas. A bound book was a surrogate for the reader's input
> of prior intellectual evaluation. Someone else had done
> his screening work for him. Now all he had to do was pay
> for the book and read it.
>
> The problem was, and still is, this system of
> publication requires intellectual gatekeepers. It is a
> system of censorship. It allows the State and other groups
> to control what the public reads. This means that the
> gatekeepers can control what people think, merely by
> cutting off access to politically incorrect material.
>
> Picard Syndrome creates in its victims a longing for
> layers of hirelings, none of whom has ever written a book,
> each of whom declares "yes" or "no" with respect to the
> content of a book. These censors stand in between the
> author and his audience. They tell the author that "this
> book won't sell unless you allow us to modify it." They
> tell readers, "we will screen out the useless, the ugly,
> and the politically offensive." To both, they say, "trust
> us."
>
> Picard Syndrome is an affliction that is left over
> from the era of censors, i.e., pre-Internet. The Internet
> has created, for the first time in human history, an
> international society with almost no intellectual
> gatekeepers. An author can reach his readers without going
> through the labyrinth of printers and distributors. With
> Google, they can reach him.
>
> Picard Syndrome is visible evidence that we readers
> not only trusted them, but we are also still unwilling to read a
> book that does not show signs of the censorship system.
> Print-on-demand publishing has not fared well because it
> offers no censorship.
>
> In volume 3 of my book on Deuteronomy, I include a
> highly controversial essay, Appendix D. I prefer not to
> discuss its contents here. Let us say that an editor at
> any major book publishing firm probably would have asked me
> to drop it or modify it. Yet the essay is important for
> the overall thesis of my book. The only way for me to get
> the information into the hands of readers was by self-
> publishing. The cost of self-publishing is vastly lower
> this way.
>
> http://www.demischools.org/pdfdocs/deuteronomy-v3.pdf
>
> In contrast, for specialized manuals, which imply
> inside information, readers will pay a bundle and download
> them. A special report is special. It isn't supposed to
> go through layers of readers, editors, and all the rest of
> the censorship apparatus. No, it's a direct link between
> the author and the reader. For this, readers will pay big
> bucks.
>
> It's all in the packaging.
>
>
> TOUCHIE-FEELIE
>
> Why do book readers want to hold a book in their laps?
> Because they want to touch and be touched. They want the
> intimacy of holding a book.
>
> At some point, there will be book-sized electronic
> reading machines with screens that have the equivalent of a
> printed book's 1,200 dots per inch. We will then insert a
> card or download a book. The book will be there for us to
> read any place or any time, page by page. We will be able
> to extract passages, mark them with keywords, and in other
> ways file them for future reference. But until the
> electronic reader looks like a book and feels like a book
> in our laps, Picard Syndrome will keep the product from
> selling well. It will be a gadget, unlike a printed book,
> which is a necessity.
>
> At some point, public schools will require books on a
> disk. This will cut the costs of delivery and maintaining
> lists of students and books. Textbook production costs
> will fall. Then anyone can get into the field. The world
> of textbook publishing will cease to be a government-
> funded, textbook publisher oligopoly. We will then have a
> free market in textbook production. Well, not a free
> market, exactly, but something that some University of
> Chicago economist will call a free market: tax coercion
> coupled with lower costs of book production.
>
> Okay, so I'm wrong. Public school textbooks won't be on
> disk until long after the public has gone to digital
> lapbooks. But it sounded good, briefly.
>
> My point is this: Readers grew so fond of a system of
> censorship that was the product of the copyright-licensed-
> printing establishment that they still cannot look at a
> printed book and think, "screened by multiple committees
> acting on behalf of the State." We still think, "That's a
> real book." In fact, it's a censored book.
>
> There is a case for screening, of course: letting
> experts judge quality. But this is a service that
> publishing companies can charge for, based on productive
> services actually rendered. This screening will not be a
> function of printing and distribution technology. It will
> be part of editorial expertise. Those who want this can
> buy it. Those who prefer to get their books straight from
> the authors with no middlemen will be able to do so.
>
> Basically, it's a war between Matt Drudge and Jean-Luc
> Picard. When the editors at Newsweek spiked the story of
> President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, the editors relied
> on Picard Syndrome to shield the president. Matt Drudge
> within hours blew away that shield.
>
> I am betting on Drudge and his imitators, but not
> before the death in the wilderness of the generation of
> Picard.
>
> When newsletter readers think, "I'll pay more for a
> newsletter because it's delivered electronically in
> seconds," Druge Syndrome will have replaced Picard
> Syndrome.
>
> What about you? Which syndrome do you prefer,
> Drudge's or Picard's?
>
> CONCLUSION
>
> I like to go to Barnes & Noble. I like to buy books
> on a shelf. I especially like to buy steeply discounted
> books that did not survive the stiff competition of the
> market. I buy other people's mistakes.
>
> But if I had a book reading device that looks like a
> book, feels like a book, and lets me store (say) 500 books
> that are searchable by text or (at my discretion) keywords,
> Barnes & Noble can kiss me goodbye.
>
> As for my 3,000 square foot library building and my
> 13,000 books, make me an offer. But not yet.
>
> --------
>
> Appendix 63
>
> Abraham Case Study #292 is another example of how to
> use referrals to build your business. I like it because it
> began with a failure.
>
> The testimonial comes from a man who had run a memory-
> improvement business. He finally quit. Then he read
> Abraham's books. Within a year, everything changed.
>
> He began with this principle: "fish where the big fish
> are." He had kept detailed records of who had bought from
> him. He discovered that the biggest buyers had been
> salesmen. He had not originally had a targeted market.
> This is always a mistake.
>
> Then he began testing. He had not done that, either.
>
>
> a. Doing a memory demonstration
> increased sales 10 times.
>
> b. Invite-only, limited seminars were
> three times more profitable than
> advertised seminars.
>
> c. Memory seminars were 5 times more
> profitable than motivational
> seminars. I now always do memory
> demonstrations, do invite-only
> seminars and have stopped doing
> any motivational seminars.
>
> The third Jay technique I have found
> invaluable is the referral generating tips.
> Previously at the end of the memory seminar I
> nonchalantly mentioned that I would like
> referrals. This resulted in an average of one
> referral for every two people attending the
> seminar. I repositioned the referral as if I were
> doing the clients a favour by offering the course
> to a friend and promoted referrals heavily. I
> also offered a free book to anyone who brought in
> at least three referrals. My referral rate has
> quadrupled, and considering referrals are on
> average four times more profitable than cold
> calls, this is an extremely invaluable technique.
> After I have dealt with the referral, I give the
> referrer a call to thank him and inform him of
> the outcome. This has resulted in more
> referrals.
>
> Here were the results: "I am earning more working
> 10 hours a week than when I was working 60 hours a
> week." More important, he is back in business.
>
> -------------
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Looking for an opportunity? http://arisbe.estarnetwork.com/.
I assume it is all right to forward it to my LJ friends in this manner.
It is rather long, but worth it. I will put cuts in, but, in fairness
to Mr. North, leave the commercial messages.]
> Gary North's REALITY CHECK
>
> Issue 293 November 18, 2003
>
>
> PICARD SYNDROME
>
> You probably suffer from an affliction. Millions of
> Americans share this affliction. I am doing my best to
> deliver you from it, but I am having only minimal success.
>
> There may be a book inside you. There may be two.
> Because of the Internet revolution, it is now possible for
> you to publish your book online for almost no money. But
> if you do, you will come up against a major resistance
> factor. I call it Picard Syndrome.
> Fans of the second generation of "Star Trek" are aware
> that only two adults on the Enterprise ever read books:
> Commander Data and Captain Picard. Data reads digital
> books online that flashed past his eyes at lightening
> speed. He shifts his eyes back and forth rapidly across
> the pages. Why he doesn't simply download the data
> directly into his positronic brain remains a mystery,
> rather like another major mystery, i.e., why the crew never
> wears seat belts when going into battle. ("Click it or
> ticket!")
>
> Captain Picard can occasionally be seen, sitting in
> his lounge chair in his stateroom, reading a book. The
> book is made of paper. It has a binding.
>
> Captain Picard is an amateur archeologist. He
> collects ancient tools and implements of various kinds. He
> loves nothing more on his vacation than to spend a few days
> on some planet that was noted for its ruins.
>
> As far as Star Trek was concerned, "books = ruins."
> Picard, an eccentric, still reads books.
>
> Today, millions of people still insist on reading
> physical books. They have a bias against e-books. This is
> Picard's Syndrome.
>
>
> THE FAILURE OF E-BOOKS
>
> Barnes & Noble recently announced that it is getting
> out of the e-book business. E-books don't sell.
>
> Why not? Think of an e-book's advantages. It can be
> printed out for a penny a page. You can underline the
> printout, make notes in the margins, or file chapters in
> filing cabinets. You can use a three-hole punch to create a
> permanent book on your shelf -- tall, but functional.
>
> You can search the e-text for key words
> electronically. You can use your cursor and CTRL-C to
> extract sentences or paragraphs that can then be inserted
> into reports or term papers, word for word, without the
> necessity of proofreading the citation. You can use a
> free-form database to store pages or extracts. You can
> add keywords to this database for easy future searching.
> You can't do any of this with a printed book.
>
> Yet there is no well-known free-form database, over
> two decades into the microcomputer revolution. College
> students still buy 3x5 cards for note taking. The cost
> advantages of electronic reading, filing, and printing out
> are passed over in favor of books with bindings.
>
> Book readers suffer from Picard Syndrome. If a book
> doesn't have a binding -- if it isn't suitable for reading
> in bed -- well, it just isn't a real book. That's what
> most book buyers believe.
>
> Why isn't an e-book a real book?
>
> We are operating in terms of our youth. Books came in
> bound form. Publishers had to order 5,000 copies to get a
> good price -- 5,000 copies in inventory. Five years ago, I
> had over 100,000 books in inventory. Then I gave up. I
> gave away all of them to a non-profit publishing firm. It
> took three semis, and the outfit now wishes it had never
> accepted the deal. I had at least $400,000 tied up in
> those books.
>
> There is now print-on-demand technology: one book
> order at a time. The machine prints it, collates it, and
> binds it. Then the printing company mails it. The
> technology is great for sufferers of Picard Syndrome, but
> it still has not taken off commercially.
>
>
> O COME, O COME E-MANUAL
>
> At the same time, I can sell an e-manual for over
> $100. Such a manual is typeset to look like a report: 13-
> point type, unjustified right-hand margins, and no binding.
> If it looks like a high-priced business report, I can
> charge what a physical business manual used to cost. It
> costs me virtually nothing to deliver it to the reader.
> The buyer downloads it, prints it out, and reads it. No
> problem.
>
> It's all in packaging. You can charge 5 to 10
> times what a physical book would cost, deliver it free of
> charge, and avoid inventory. Sufferers from Picard
> Syndrome get instant emotional relief when the read the
> words, "special report." These words calm the sufferer.
> He types in his credit card number and downloads the
> document.
>
> The document is not called a book, let alone an e-
> book. If it were an e-book, you could not give it away.
>
> An example is my manual on how to create a Yellow
> Pages ad that triples any existing ad's response. The
> local Yellow Pages directory is the primary means of
> advertising for 95% of businesses. Yet only a handful of
> businessmen know how to design an effective Yellow Pages
> ad. This market is a small fraction of 14%. I
> face what economists call an inelastic demand curve.
> Revenues do not rise proportional to a fall in price.
>
> I sell my 88-page manual for $176 -- $2/page. For a
> businessman who wants to make his Yellow Pages ad work,
> $176 is not much money. He pays that much every month, or
> even every week, to run his ad. As for everyone else, they
> would not pay me $17.60 for such a report. Most would not
> pay $1.76. They are not interested in writing Yellow Pages
> ads. So, I sell my manual to a tiny market at a high price
> -- high in relation to what paperback books at Barnes &
> Noble cost.
>
> http://www.publishers-management.com/store/gnypm.html
>
> Only a few people truly understand that the value of a
> book is the information it contains. Their buying habits
> prove this. They refuse to buy e-books. They think, "I'm
> paying for paper. So, the e-book ought to sell for $1."
> When it sells for $20, they refuse to buy. Ideas in
> digital form are not worth what the same ideas are worth in
> a bound book. Yet the seller's cost of production ought to
> be irrelevant for the buyer. What matters is the value of
> the information. Similarly, his major cost is the time it
> takes him to read it.
>
> They understand this with respect to computer software
> or music CDs or DVDs. They know that the cost of
> physical storage of digits is low: a 50-cent piece of
> plastic in a $1 plastic box. But they refuse to make the
> same mental transition when it comes to books. They suffer
> from Picard Syndrome.
>
> This also applies to newsletters. Subscribers to
> paper-printed newsletters will pay $200 a year to be sent a
> monthly report by second-class mail, yet they will not pay
> $200 (or even $100) to receive the same information by e-
> mail within 10 minutes after publication.
>
> Why? No one knows. Picard Syndrome produces
> irrational behavior.
>
> There is one area where Picard Syndrome has been
> defeated: standard encyclopedias. The day of the $2,000,
> printed, years out-of-date, 20-volume encyclopedia is gone.
> It is now on a disk, updated yearly, for $89 or less. But
> the mental transition from encyclopedias to books,
> magazines, and newsletters has not taken place.
>
>
> MY MAGNUM OPUS
>
> You can learn something about book publishing from my
> experience.
>
> In 1999, I paid a professional typesetter to typeset
> my magnum opus, a 1,300-page economic commentary on the
> book of Deuteronomy. Her bill was $13,000. To publish it
> in one hardback volume would have cost about $10 per copy
> if I ordered 5,000 copies, or $50,000. So, not counting
> shipping or inventory expenses, I would have had to pay
> $63,000 up front. That up-front expense is what keeps
> authors from publishing books.
>
> I decided not to do this. I made the right decision.
> Earlier this year, I used a copy of WordPerfect 8, which I
> bought on eBay for $25, to retypeset my book. I used a
> larger type face, so it's now 1,500 pages. I decided to
> publish it in three volumes.
>
> I then used a $97 program, pdfFactory Pro, to convert
> my Word Perfect files to PDF format, which can be posted on
> the Web. This took me under six minutes, total, for all
> three volumes.
>
> I then posted all three volumes/files on a Web site.
> This took a few minutes: under 10. Then I sent an e-mail
> to 3,000 subscribers telling of its existence. I offered
> all three volumes for free. People started downloading it.
>
> http://www.demischools.org/pdfdocs/deuteronomy-v1.pdf
> http://www.demischools.org/pdfdocs/deuteronomy-v2.pdf
> http://www.demischools.org/pdfdocs/deuteronomy-v3.pdf
>
> I mentioned in my e-letter that sometime next year, I
> plan to publish all three volumes in hardback. I will use
> new technology: print on demand. It allows book sales, one
> copy at a time: printing, collating, and binding. Then the
> publisher mails out the physical book. The author gets a
> standard 15% royalty.
>
> I immediately received a letter from someone saying
> that he was not going to download the books in PDF, which
> are typeset to look just like books. He would wait for the
> hardbacks.
>
> Consider what he is saying. My ideas are worth
> reading only in a bound book. Apart from a bound book, he
> is unwilling to read what I have to say. He will wait for
> months, then pay a lot of money. Here is another case of
> Picard Syndrome.
>
> I will charge at least $30 per hardback volume. I may
> charge $50. I will therefore get some buyers to spend $90
> to $150 for the set. They could download the same books
> for free and print them out for $15, total. But they
> prefer to pay me 10 times as much in a year. Why? Picard
> Syndrome.
>
> Are my ideas worth more in a bound book? For
> sufferers from Picard Syndrome, yes. These ideas are worth
> far more in dollars and sense. But they are the same
> ideas, bound or not bound. This does not matter in the
> slightest to some readers.
>
> Why?
>
> I offer this thesis. It is a holdover from pre-
> Internet times. Generations of book buyers for over 500
> years have become accustomed to the idea that what makes a
> book valuable is the pre-publication screening, especially
> by censors.
>
> This may sound crazy. Lovers of ideas joyfully paying
> for pre-publication censorship? Yet this is exactly what
> they did, and still do.
>
>
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> -----------------------
>
>
> RESPECT FOR CENSORS
>
> From the year 1450 until today, people have associated
> wisdom with printed books that have bindings. A book with
> a binding implied the following: (1) an editor, (2) a
> costly printing press, (3) a distribution system, (4) a
> publisher's risk. A book required a lot of front-end
> costs. The reader assumed that a book had value because a
> publisher concluded, "this will make me money."
>
> In a very real sense, the reader accepted the false
> idea of the labor theory of value. He paid money in order
> to compensate the publisher for his cost and risk. But
> then the equation got turned around: the value of the book
> was thought to be in its cost of production. This
> confusion was universal among economists until the 1870s,
> when a few of them finally figured out that the value of
> every item comes from people's willingness to pay for the
> item, not from the item's cost of production.
>
> People suffering from Picard's Syndrome have not
> abandoned the older view: economic value based on physical
> costs of production.
>
> Then there was the issue of editors, i.e. screeners of
> ideas. A bound book was a surrogate for the reader's input
> of prior intellectual evaluation. Someone else had done
> his screening work for him. Now all he had to do was pay
> for the book and read it.
>
> The problem was, and still is, this system of
> publication requires intellectual gatekeepers. It is a
> system of censorship. It allows the State and other groups
> to control what the public reads. This means that the
> gatekeepers can control what people think, merely by
> cutting off access to politically incorrect material.
>
> Picard Syndrome creates in its victims a longing for
> layers of hirelings, none of whom has ever written a book,
> each of whom declares "yes" or "no" with respect to the
> content of a book. These censors stand in between the
> author and his audience. They tell the author that "this
> book won't sell unless you allow us to modify it." They
> tell readers, "we will screen out the useless, the ugly,
> and the politically offensive." To both, they say, "trust
> us."
>
> Picard Syndrome is an affliction that is left over
> from the era of censors, i.e., pre-Internet. The Internet
> has created, for the first time in human history, an
> international society with almost no intellectual
> gatekeepers. An author can reach his readers without going
> through the labyrinth of printers and distributors. With
> Google, they can reach him.
>
> Picard Syndrome is visible evidence that we readers
> not only trusted them, but we are also still unwilling to read a
> book that does not show signs of the censorship system.
> Print-on-demand publishing has not fared well because it
> offers no censorship.
>
> In volume 3 of my book on Deuteronomy, I include a
> highly controversial essay, Appendix D. I prefer not to
> discuss its contents here. Let us say that an editor at
> any major book publishing firm probably would have asked me
> to drop it or modify it. Yet the essay is important for
> the overall thesis of my book. The only way for me to get
> the information into the hands of readers was by self-
> publishing. The cost of self-publishing is vastly lower
> this way.
>
> http://www.demischools.org/pdfdocs/deuteronomy-v3.pdf
>
> In contrast, for specialized manuals, which imply
> inside information, readers will pay a bundle and download
> them. A special report is special. It isn't supposed to
> go through layers of readers, editors, and all the rest of
> the censorship apparatus. No, it's a direct link between
> the author and the reader. For this, readers will pay big
> bucks.
>
> It's all in the packaging.
>
>
> TOUCHIE-FEELIE
>
> Why do book readers want to hold a book in their laps?
> Because they want to touch and be touched. They want the
> intimacy of holding a book.
>
> At some point, there will be book-sized electronic
> reading machines with screens that have the equivalent of a
> printed book's 1,200 dots per inch. We will then insert a
> card or download a book. The book will be there for us to
> read any place or any time, page by page. We will be able
> to extract passages, mark them with keywords, and in other
> ways file them for future reference. But until the
> electronic reader looks like a book and feels like a book
> in our laps, Picard Syndrome will keep the product from
> selling well. It will be a gadget, unlike a printed book,
> which is a necessity.
>
> At some point, public schools will require books on a
> disk. This will cut the costs of delivery and maintaining
> lists of students and books. Textbook production costs
> will fall. Then anyone can get into the field. The world
> of textbook publishing will cease to be a government-
> funded, textbook publisher oligopoly. We will then have a
> free market in textbook production. Well, not a free
> market, exactly, but something that some University of
> Chicago economist will call a free market: tax coercion
> coupled with lower costs of book production.
>
> Okay, so I'm wrong. Public school textbooks won't be on
> disk until long after the public has gone to digital
> lapbooks. But it sounded good, briefly.
>
> My point is this: Readers grew so fond of a system of
> censorship that was the product of the copyright-licensed-
> printing establishment that they still cannot look at a
> printed book and think, "screened by multiple committees
> acting on behalf of the State." We still think, "That's a
> real book." In fact, it's a censored book.
>
> There is a case for screening, of course: letting
> experts judge quality. But this is a service that
> publishing companies can charge for, based on productive
> services actually rendered. This screening will not be a
> function of printing and distribution technology. It will
> be part of editorial expertise. Those who want this can
> buy it. Those who prefer to get their books straight from
> the authors with no middlemen will be able to do so.
>
> Basically, it's a war between Matt Drudge and Jean-Luc
> Picard. When the editors at Newsweek spiked the story of
> President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, the editors relied
> on Picard Syndrome to shield the president. Matt Drudge
> within hours blew away that shield.
>
> I am betting on Drudge and his imitators, but not
> before the death in the wilderness of the generation of
> Picard.
>
> When newsletter readers think, "I'll pay more for a
> newsletter because it's delivered electronically in
> seconds," Druge Syndrome will have replaced Picard
> Syndrome.
>
> What about you? Which syndrome do you prefer,
> Drudge's or Picard's?
>
> CONCLUSION
>
> I like to go to Barnes & Noble. I like to buy books
> on a shelf. I especially like to buy steeply discounted
> books that did not survive the stiff competition of the
> market. I buy other people's mistakes.
>
> But if I had a book reading device that looks like a
> book, feels like a book, and lets me store (say) 500 books
> that are searchable by text or (at my discretion) keywords,
> Barnes & Noble can kiss me goodbye.
>
> As for my 3,000 square foot library building and my
> 13,000 books, make me an offer. But not yet.
>
> --------
>
> Appendix 63
>
> Abraham Case Study #292 is another example of how to
> use referrals to build your business. I like it because it
> began with a failure.
>
> The testimonial comes from a man who had run a memory-
> improvement business. He finally quit. Then he read
> Abraham's books. Within a year, everything changed.
>
> He began with this principle: "fish where the big fish
> are." He had kept detailed records of who had bought from
> him. He discovered that the biggest buyers had been
> salesmen. He had not originally had a targeted market.
> This is always a mistake.
>
> Then he began testing. He had not done that, either.
>
>
> a. Doing a memory demonstration
> increased sales 10 times.
>
> b. Invite-only, limited seminars were
> three times more profitable than
> advertised seminars.
>
> c. Memory seminars were 5 times more
> profitable than motivational
> seminars. I now always do memory
> demonstrations, do invite-only
> seminars and have stopped doing
> any motivational seminars.
>
> The third Jay technique I have found
> invaluable is the referral generating tips.
> Previously at the end of the memory seminar I
> nonchalantly mentioned that I would like
> referrals. This resulted in an average of one
> referral for every two people attending the
> seminar. I repositioned the referral as if I were
> doing the clients a favour by offering the course
> to a friend and promoted referrals heavily. I
> also offered a free book to anyone who brought in
> at least three referrals. My referral rate has
> quadrupled, and considering referrals are on
> average four times more profitable than cold
> calls, this is an extremely invaluable technique.
> After I have dealt with the referral, I give the
> referrer a call to thank him and inform him of
> the outcome. This has resulted in more
> referrals.
>
> Here were the results: "I am earning more working
> 10 hours a week than when I was working 60 hours a
> week." More important, he is back in business.
>
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no subject
2. I recall seeing somewhere (source not handy, sorry) that they've learned people read 33% slower from a computer screen.
3. So far there is no good way to curl up in bed, lounge on the beach, or read about weighty matters on the throne, with an e-book as opposed to a bound book.
no subject
Would I feel safe whipping out a piece of electronics on the subway late at night, alone? I wouldn't mind whipping out a library book or a paperback I got off the street (or even one I paid full price for)!
Can you share as well, cuddle together with your kids, your family, around a screen? Glare from things usually means only the person in front of it can see it clearly.
And printing it out myself? Defeats the purpose of an ebook, and then it's not bound, and paper is 8 1/2 x 11, which is bigger than a paperback that I would toss in my purse, or in my jacket, and read in the park waiting to pick my kid up from school.
It's not Picard syndrome, it is reality, economics. Or shall we find more and more ways to keep information out of the hands of the poor? Going to ebooks is just another way to seperate the haves from the have nots. Not fair at ALL.
no subject
Economic reality:
People are always going to buy what they want to buy rather than what some seller thinks they should buy. Period. Obviously people like bound books. The failure of the e-book demonstrates this. It simply didn't take off because people *enjoy* the experience of holding a physical book.
I guess this debunks the idea that we are all passive little sheep being guiding by big bad publishers. They had every economic reason to want the e-book to be successful. It didn't.
Arguing with people about what they prefer, and suggesting that they shouldn't like what they like or enjoy what they enjoy is pretty pointless.
E-books remind me a little of some of the weird gadgets they came up with in the seventies. I seem to remember one idea called "Smellavision" in which your tv would emit scents that would match whatever was on the screen. Uhhhh gee, guess people didn't like it.
no subject
2) I believe it.
3) Amen².
no subject
I did a study of a Scottish book binding once (Scotland has a great history for fine bindings, particularly in the 18th century) which had an elaborately tooled cover-- over 2500 handstrikes by a Master binder with his gold tooling instruments.
That's love, baby. Someone actually cared about the poetry within those pages. When someone puts that kind of effort and expense into a book, you are not just reading the book: you are reading the love someone else had for that book.
I crave this as much as I crave anything.
I
Two Things
The past few days Confederacy of Dunces has been mentioned several times on television and by friends who are currently enjoying this lovable and quirky book. John Kennedy Toole, the author of COD, committed suicide because no publisher wanted his books and rejected him again and again. His mother, who believed in his talent, bugged a professor at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA to read the book, which he said he would do just to get rid of the persistent old woman. If he had a dime... Anyway, he read COD and discovered a wondrously talented young man who had gone unappreciated and undiscovered and he helped get JKT's books published. COD is a classic and to prove it, New Orleans honored their native son with a statue in front of his favorite department store on Canal Street just outside the Quarter. Publishers don't always know best and lately they have been looking at bottom lines and numbers, a habit that has cost them millions (like the book deal for Hillary Clinton, which they knew up front would never make back the money they paid her. Economics? Right!! No wonder they have no money for real talent).
Secondly, it is hard to hold an ebook reader with any comfort. There is something special about holding a book in your hand until your wrist is tired and you can't read any more at night. Best sleeping pill in the world is a book that rivets your attention until your eyes and body give out.
I love second hand books because you get to touch a piece of someone's life, of their heart and their thoughts. Scribbled notes in margins, dedications on fly leaves, and the way some books open to a well loved passage or chapter when you let it have its say.
I always feel more comfortable reading when I have words on a page I can thumb. The writing on a reader is cramped and uncomfortable and doesn't flow the same way.
As a reviewer I dislike having to sit at the computer reading an ebook when I would rather have it in my hands so I can take it wherever I want to sit and read -- like the deck on a sunny day where the animals are calling and cursing and the air is fresh and the wind is soughing through the trees. Or in bed or with a child in my lap so I can point out the pictures and help them pick out new words to learn or just to listen while I do the voices.
No, books will never go out of style and the only arbiter of taste is the reader.
no subject
A book as an object also has an aesthetic value.
no subject
I've had friends ask me to read their fan fiction and I get terrible eyestrain after the first few pages. But I can read a good hundred pages of a paperback no problem.
I read every night and if the e books were as easy to read as a book I might consider using one, but I don't think my eyes could cope.
I too have arthritis (RA) and there are times when large books are too painful to read (fortunately not in over a year) and sitting at the computor is even more painful.
I'm firmly in the book camp from physical necessity. I will buy paperbacks for cost, and get hardbacks when they are on sale. The quality of the binding on hardbacks means they will last a long time. Who knows when the ebooks will need upgrading?
no subject
"A room without books is like a body without a soul."
- Marcus Tulius Cicero.
no subject
Furthermore, it's not censorship we want, it's editing. When a famous author reaches a point where s/he can decline to be edited, the results are rarely improvements. Look at JK Rowling's last two books versus her first three, or anything Anne Rice has written in the last ten years vs. Interview.
Even in the fanfiction world, it's very hard to get people to read your stories if you don't use a 'beta reader'. A beta reader is really an editor, except that she doesn't get paid.