An Interview with Bruce Batchelor

Recently, we at Inditer dot Com had the pleasure of interviewing Bruce Batchelor, co-founder and CEO of Trafford Publishing. Trafford is the original "on-demand publishing service", started back in 1995 to enable and empower self-publishing authors through the new tools of print-on-demand manufacturing (one book printed and bound in response to each order), Internet publicity and e-commerce.

This interview was made possible because Bruce Batchelor and his family, with good taste in mind, moved into our neighbourhood....right next door to us. As good neighbours do, we became back fence friends. Because Inditer dot Com was intrigued with this new concept of book publishing, we thought our writers and readers would be interested to know a bit more about it too.

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The Interview

Bill: editor/publisher at Inditer dot com:

My website hosts the writings of about 350 writers, poets and artists, some of them damn good, some of them near geniuses. I suspect all of them would like to have a publisher offer them a contract with a fat advance, saying, "Your work is fabulous. I'm going to make you a bestselling, prize-winning author -- and rich to boot." How about you doing that for some of the craftspeople whose work is at www.Inditer dot com? Can you do that? Their work is better than much of the trash that is published these days and passes for "literature."

Bruce & Tyhee
That's Bruce on the top

Bruce: CEO, Trafford On Demand Publishing

I wish I could magically do that, Bill. I'd love to have a big bag of money to invest in the best undiscovered talent. But it would take all of Bill Gates's money and then some to underwrite everyone who has a message and an ambition to share his or her thoughts. But let's not focus on the gloomy -- the access to "being published" has never been greater for the lowly writer, and the situation is getting better at a dizzying pace.

Your question points to two key issues:
1. who decides (is the gatekeeper) what gets published.
2. how is this affordable.

Way back in the days before movable type, the only way someone's writings were "published" was by hiring a monastery full of monk/scribes with quill pens. The costs meant that publishing was available to only the rich and powerful (church and state).

With the advent of printing presses, books were simpler to print and cheaper. Yet, the per book price was only economical if the books were printed in large quantities -- necessitating access to channels of mass marketing/distribution. Preparing, printing, promoting and getting books out to all the booksellers (on a consignment basis to boot!) was/is a capital intensive operation. Economies of scale meant publishers of many titles had an advantage -- so they became the gatekeepers to "who gets published."

Bill:

Get to the point, Bruce. What's changed? Who's going to publish Inditer's authors and poets?

Bruce:

Now we have new marvelous tools and services that are redefining the economics and control. The publishing industry is being reinvented in front of our eyes. Those with the most vested interests who are not able to adapt, will have the most to lose. For many, though, there are fabulous opportunities -- some available now, and others we can't even foresee right now.

Bill:

Maybe for Stephen King. Are we all supposed to set up websites and sell one chapter or poem at a time?

Bruce:

A writer is faced with many choices. He or she could:
• submit their work to agents and publishers, knowing that the odds of being accepted are steadily shrinking as publishing companies go bankrupt
• promote their work as widely as possible, including through sites such as Inditer.com
• self-publish, being aware of the new opportunities there.

Bill:

Okay, tell me about these self-publishing opportunities, but don't make this a crass advertisement for your company.

Bruce:

First point -- print-on-demand manufacturing. Think about inside pages printed both sides on a high-speed, crisp-resolution laser printer. This is black toner on white paper. That's the inside or "book block". Want one copy of your book, print one copy. Want another, print another. It is what you could do in your own home office, only scaled up a step.

Covers are produced also on a colour laser printer, in full colour on card stock. Again one at a time, as needed. Printed directly from a computer file. The cover is then laminated (if desired), scored (so it will fold at the correct place) and bound with the inside pages on a small "perfect binding" machine. This equipment is about the size of a small fridge lying on its side, and what it does is rough up the spine edge of the inside pages, spread glue that seeps up a bit between the pages, and press up the cover. After guillotine trimming on three sides, the result is a trade paperback.

Having access to a small print shop that can do on-demand production allows the self-publishing author is avoid the cost of printing (and storing) hundreds or thousands of copies on speculation.

Second point -- promoting via the Internet. Access to the Internet is now ubiquitous. Transmission, once you've paid for basic access and your equipment, is virtually free. Think about websites (your own and others'), emails, newsgroups, banner exchanges, broadcasting news releases and announcements. To build awareness with potential buyers, we have a better toolkit than ever before. The author doesn't need to do everything personally -- services like Trafford can help.

Third point -- distribution via the Internet. Books are being purchased in ever-building numbers from Amazon.com and hundreds of other online retailers. Back in 1995 when Trafford started, people thought online book retailing was a wacko concept -- now this is a multi-billion dollar industry. The author can work toward having various retailers offering the book, or pay for a bundled publishing service package that includes listings at the key retail sites.

Fourth point -- distribution as an e-book. Like Stephen King is doing, you too can have your book offered for sale as a "digital download" in Adobe Acrobat pdf format. This means a customer pays a fee, downloads the file and can read the book on a PC or laptop, or print off a copy. Digital rights management (DRM) software attempts to thwart piracy -- the illegal passing around of copies without paying the author royalties.

Fifth point -- distribution as an "instant book" to be printed inside bookstores. Imagine a single device that does all I described in point one above. This sounds like something out of the Jeffersons cartoons, doesn't it? Yet the first "vending machines" that will manufacture and dispense trade paperbacks are being installed in Borders, Follett and J.A. Majors stores this year. Though the first wave of "vending machines" are actually a cluster of machines, dozens of huge companies and quite a few garage inventors are frantically racing to cram all this into one large, simple, reliable machine. It will take a few years for the technology wrinkles to be ironed out, for the library of digital titles to be amassed, and for machines to be widely installed, but this trend definitely is coming.

Right now, you find a coffee shop inside a large bookstore. Within a few years, there will be a bookstore (this vending machine) inside a corner coffee shop. At an airport waiting room, bus station, hotel lobby... Trafford has an agreement with Sprout, Inc., to have Trafford's authors' titles available in the first wave of this technology.

Sixth point -- service companies that will arrange access to these technologies and manage other aspects of the self-publishing process. Trafford Publishing provides what we dubbed "on-demand publishing service" to authors from 15 countries now -- about 500 titles that have sold into over 40 countries. We arrange ISBN number, CIP data listing, legal deposit at the national library, EAN barcode, listing in Books-in-Print and many other legal and administrative aspects.

Two other companies that provide somewhat similar service offerings are Xlibris (funded by the Random House/ Bertelsmann media empire) and iUniverse (funded by Barnes & Noble). Our specialty is personalize service -- each author works closely with a designated member of our staff. We also allow more control over layout and design.

Bill:

You did work that into an advertisement for Trafford, didn't you? But is anyone making any money at this?

Bruce:

Some are. Our record was one fellow earning over $7,000 royalties in one month. A handful of authors regularly receive thousands each quarter. The bestsellers are decidedly practical, non-fiction books: how to interview criminal suspects (popular for training cops, and with the bad guys, too, I imagine), how to promote your website, how to research your Irish genealogy, a full season account of how a champion track team trained...

Others are finding out some very valuable market research information: perhaps that the public demand of their book is limited ("Thank goodness I didn't print up 3,000 copies right away"), or that the work needs refinement before a re-launch.

Since the author always retains copyright and can cancel with us at any time, their sales figures can be important for getting a conventional publishing house's serious consideration and may be solid bargaining points when negotiating a contract.

To some authors, knowing their book is finally available, and has been read and has had impact on even a few key people, is a level of accomplishment and achievement. We must have over a dozen authors in their 80s and 90s who are publishing through us -- losing patience with the conventional gatekeepers of the publishing process and deciding to make something happen. These net-savvy old authors really rock.

Bill:

What's the investment cost?

Bruce:

Trafford's most expensive package is $950 US ($1430 CDN). The author pays for book layout (either by us or a freelancer of their choice) or performs that task himself. We assist with producing the colour cover layout.

Bill:

Is editing included?

Bruce:

Nope. Book editing is highly subjective. Some books might require a thousand hours of time, others are ready to go. We leave that responsibility with the author. Otherwise we'd become a "gatekeeper", rather than an enabler-empowerer.

Bill:

There's lots more to talk about. Shall we pick this up again in a few weeks?

Bruce:

I'd like that.

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Ed Note: Moments after closing this interview with Bruce Batchelor, an afterthought by Bruce. At his suggestion, we ask readers, authors and artists with specific questions about this"Publish On Demand" service to forward those questions directly to Bruce. An answer will appear in Inditer.com, or will be sent to you personally by email. Contact Bruce Batchelor by email.