While doing my review of Gregory Swain’s Troubleshooting Mac OS X, I became quite interested in the e-book concept, and why Swain chose to self publish his work. I was also curious about his background. The more I thought about e-books, the more questions I had about their economic and legal issues. Unfortunately, we could never find time for a telephone call, so I interviewed him via email Q and A.
If you’ve any interest in learning what one author did to enter the world of computer book writing, and why he chose the e-book format, you’ll enjoy Swain’s remarks.
MyMac: How long have you been using Macs?
Gregory Swain:Since November 2000. As a “power user” of personal computers, I grew tired of the inadequate laptops IBM (my employer at the time) was providing. The vast majority of employees essentially received whatever did not sell, whereas executives seemed to have no difficulty obtaining the latest and greatest hardware. Repeated requests to my manager of the time always resulted in “I would not know how to go about getting that equipment for you since you work remotely.”
I decided I needed my own computer. I always admired Macs and my wife had used them in the past. Given that I could get MS Office and Lotus Notes on Mac, I could get a Mac and still integrate with the IBM network and exchange documents with colleagues. I also spent some time in the Apple office at the Dallas Info Mart “test-driving” some Macs: this significantly predates Apple’s retail stores.
Hence I decided to think “very different” and get a Mac: I’m spending my own money, I’ll buy what I want. This was also part of a complete rework of my home office for improved ergonomics as I was suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome, which was resolved in Jan-Feb 2001 through separate surgeries on both of my hands. I had actually been working out of my house for ten years, being one of the first telecommuters in IBM, working remotely for groups in NY, NC, and CO from 1991-2001.
MyMac:List some of your current and previous Macs.
Gregory Swain: I only have “current” Macs:
PowerMac G4 Dual 500Mhz (Gigabit Ethernet) 1Gb RAM, 115 Gb HDDs (40Gb + 70Gb internal)
iBook 700Mhz, 640Mb RAM, 30Gb HDD
We use an AirPort wireless network with a Snow (Dual Ethernet) base station and have cable broadband. I have the usual (some unusual) peripherals including a APC Smart-UPS 1400 (a server-class uninterruptible power supply), a Lexmark Optra M412 laser printer, a UMAX Astra 6450 FireWire scanner, and an OWC Mercury Elite 120GB FireWire Hard Drive for backup. I use a Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2040u 21″ engineering-class monitor, an Apple Pro keyboard, and a Logitech MX700 wireless optical mouse. We use a Nikon CoolPix 880 for digital photography and I have a set of Monsoon electrostatic speakers with subwoofer for rattling the windows in my home office. 😉
The iBook is primarily my wife’s Mac as she’s taking some courses and has to write papers, so it made sense for her to have her own given the amount of time I spend on the PM G4. She is virtually the only one who uses the printer: I rarely print anything any more except for driving directions and am still working my way through a case of high-quality laser printer paper I bought five years ago ;-).
MyMac: Do you have PC or other hardware experience?
Gregory Swain: Over 25 years IT industry experience, including 20 years with IBM. I’ve written about 1 million lines of mainframe-based code in my lifetime, either directly or through applications I developed which created other applications. Invented, designed, and developed one of the largest internal user-support systems every deployed within IBM: IQSearch. I list some of my varied skills and experience in the “What qualifies the author to write this book?” section of the About This Book chapter (page 1). 😉
MyMac: Other OS experience?
Gregory Swain:Mainframe OSs including VM and MVS. And, of course, several versions of Windows. I’ve programmed in Basic, FORTRAN, COBOL, Assembler, APL, REXX, SmallTalk AppleScript, and a variety of scripting languages embedded in products such as Lotus Notes, Lotus SmartSuite, and MS Office (Visual Basic). Most of my significant programming projects were done in APL and REXX. Both are wonderful languages but have largely been discarded today in favor of C and its variants, which I regard as ugly and inelegant programming languages.
MyMac: How did you come to be active on the Apple Discussion boards?
Gregory Swain My first use of the Discussions was early in August 2002. I had purchased a 120Gb La Cie d2 FireWire drive that was essentially DOA out of the box. Since it was the weekend and could not reach La Cie for tech support until the following Monday, I decided to try the Apple Discussions to see if anyone had any advice.
While I received some good advice, I was unable to get it working and ultimately returned the drive after contacting La Cie and letting the support tech listen to the drive over the phone! Many people had problems with the early d2. I next bought an OWC 120Gb Mercury Elite with which I’m very happy (selected the OWC based on further research on my own, not recommendations from Discussions).
However, the good experience with the Discussions on this issue led me back there for a couple of other questions. Pretty soon I shifted from asking to answering questions and the rest is history.
I’m somewhat of a polymath and tend to absorb new technologies as if by osmosis. 😉
MyMac:Why the Apple boards, and not some other, like MacFixit.com or MacOSXhints.com?
Gregory Swain: Basically force of habit. I liked the community on the Apple Discussions and didn’t see a need to look elsewhere. Being invited to be a Helper after just about two months as a contributor also tended to have a certain lock-in effect. I may extend my contributions to other Discussions as an indirect channel to generate sales as I discuss in my response to your question 11 below.
MyMac: What do you do for a living?
Gregory Swain:Consulting, primarily in areas of corporate strategy and competitive intelligence, primarily for high-tech firms. I’m somewhat semi-retired despite being in my mid-forties, but I am interested in working on interesting problems with interesting companies in return for a large fee. I have a good bit of freedom right now to be selective in who I work with and what I work on. I see the rest of my working life spent in a combination of activities as both consultant and serial entrepreneur.
I also make neither excuses nor apologies for being a capitalist: in consulting, I provide a premium, boutique service at a premium price. However, it is the quality of the advice, the far out-of-the-box nature of my thinking, and the benefit it provides my consulting clients that make my consulting services an excellent value.
Launching this book was an experiment in potentially branching out in some new directions as the global recession had reduced opportunities in my primary consulting business. A good part of my consulting work has been subcontracting for other consulting firms since I cover some unique niches and have a unique skill set compared to the average consultant. My consulting-firm clients have suffered mightily in the recession: with people on the bench, they do not do much subcontracting.
My ideas regarding business and work largely parallel those of Sir Richard Branson, the found of Virgin Group. At this point in my life, it’s all about fun and profit, finding ways to deliver great value while engaging in interesting, high-margin activities.
I’ve always enjoyed writing and have some ideas for other books I am pondering that are more in line with my consulting practice but these will require additional, extensive research. This book let me test-drive the experience of being an author to see if I enjoyed it enough pursue it in other areas. One of the other book ideas I am developing could potentially put my specific consulting practice “on the map” and bring it squarely to the fore of my activities. Knocking on the doors of large companies as an individual consultant is a lot of work: better to have a unique bit of intellectual property, such as a book with some breakthrough ideas, and then let the clients beat a path to your door.
MyMac: Why did you choose e-publishing?
Gregory Swain: Fast and very profitable.
MyMac:Tell me about the costs of e-publishing versus traditional paper publishing?
Gregory Swain:My concerns are not with costs but profit.
As a new, unpublished author, no one was likely to give me an advance to work on the book, so going quickly from concept to sale is important. While I had been developing my content periodically through my work on the Discussions, once I realized I had enough for a book for which there was a critical need — and hence a market — I went from concept to first sale in 11 weeks.
In traditional publishing, the publisher bears the costs of printing, distribution, advertising, etc. in return for which the author gets 10-15 percent of sales. By e-publishing, I bear the costs of electronic distribution and advertising, but my overhead is no more than 15-20 percent, primarily related to the hosted Web sites — one for my Mac OS X-related ventures and another for the e-shop which handles credit-card clearing and provides the download bandwidth and space — hence my profit margin is in the range of 80 percent. I can sell far fewer books than other authors taking the traditional route and still make the same money on a given title.
Since my overhead is low and my profit margin is high, I can also price my offering below any potential competitive offerings in the traditional publishing space and offer a great value to readers while again making a nice, fair, and honest profit.
Adding traditional advertising to the mix will increase my overhead somewhat, but CPM rates are low right now and by cherry-picking the best channels I will still be far ahead of the game.
By e-publishing, my book is also instantly available worldwide. This, combined with the dominance of English as the global language of international commerce and technology, means there’s no delay in printing, distributing, or creating of an international market for my book. Customers all over the world have bought my book, with many sales in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, as well as numerous countries in the EU, South America, and Asia. Last night I received my first order from Thailand.
It’s also possible that success with an e-book could lead to a traditional publishing contract. Slywotzky and Morrison, consultants who had previously published titles such as The Profit Zone through traditional channels, decided to self-publish their third book as an e-book, which they marketed and retailed, on their own. This rapidly led to a traditional publishing contract. In those negotiations, it is very likely that they, the authors, sat in the cat-bird seat since they had proven it was the publisher who needed them, not the other way around.
I see us truly entering a new age where the distribution of digitally-based intellectual property directly from creator to consumer will become the norm. Current middlemen — publishers, record companies, etc. — will be drastically marginalized and their roles reduced to merely that of promoters, advertisers, and hosts for electronic distribution. In these areas, they will need to compete largely on price and service for the creator’s business and will no longer be able to earn the premiums they do on distributing the creative work of others.
MyMac Did you investigate paper self-publishing?
Gregory Swain: No. It doesn’t fit with the ideas I wanted to try with an e-book, such as extensive and effective use of hyperlinks, leveraging content on the Internet, full-text search, etc. Nor does it provide the benefits.
MyMac: What do you do for publicity?
Gregory Swain:I’m now at the stage where I will be buying some advertising. Ultimately I think this will be the channel through which I will achieve my sales objectives.
I circulated press releases to both major and niche Mac-related Web sites, including all the major Mac-related news sites. Most published my press release and this led rapidly to good initial sales. I staggered the press releases a bit so I could also see the effect on sales of a release published by a given news site. This would help me tune where I want to spend advertising dollars.
I’ve received some interest from a couple of the major Mac magazines, but it is unclear how any of that will pan out. I get a lot of requests for “evaluation copies” but few promises of definite action: it seems to be a way for members of the press to pad their libraries with free books more than an avenue for authors to gain exposure. One would think it should readily be a win-win — magazines need content, authors need exposure, both need sales — but so far I’ve been unimpressed. I’ve put out about a half-dozen evaluation copies and you are the only one who seems to be doing anything! We’ll see how the others turn out. 😉
I’m also getting in touch with the Mac User Groups (MUGs) in TX. I just made a presentation to the folks at Apple Corps Dallas (ACD) and I’ll be making a short presentation to the Houston MUG on 20 September. I’m thinking about buying an iSight and perhaps doing some presentations to more distant MUGs via video conference. I’ve previously used video conferencing with distant consulting clients in lieu of travel.
Another avenue for increasing awareness of the book is through my continued work on the Discussions. The Discussion Moderators do not object to people providing answers that are links to content on the responder’s commercial Web site, so long as the linked content provides a real answer to the question. My Web site offers a number of my personal FAQs (http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/faqs.html) for common questions posted on the Discussions. All are derived from the book, some being whole chapters.
When questions arise on the Discussions for which one of my FAQs is the answer, I respond with a link to the appropriate FAQ on my Web site. Not only does this give the person with the question a more comprehensive answer than can fit in a single posted reply, but it also introduces them to my Web site and provides an opportunity for them to explore such further and perhaps buy the book. This may result in my beginning to answer questions on a wider range of discussion boards than just the Apple Discussions, such as you asked about earlier.
Finally, I’m pursuing other channels in the media: several major newspapers, hosts on MacRadio.com, even TechTV. Gene Steinberg has an evaluation copy and I’m hoping he might want to interview me for his Internet Radio show. No response yet to multiple e-mails to Shawn King. Likewise, TechTV has yet to return my calls, but I’m sure persistence will eventually garner results through some of these channels. I think I have an interesting story to tell.
MyMac: Address your concerns about piracy.
Gregory Swain:Like anyone with a digital product, or a product readily converted into digital form, piracy is always a concern. PDFs are notoriously difficult to secure, just like MP3s ripped from CDs or movies on VHS, VCD, and even DVD. I considered going the route of distribution through an Adobe e-Book Server Service Provider, but when I looked into the process from the perspective of the consumer, it seemed tedious. I figured if the RIAA is losing 10-15 percent of sales to pirates, the same kind of hit on my own product would be tolerable: much like “shrinkage” in the retail industry, it is a cost of doing business, albeit a cost one hopes to minimize and perhaps avoid.
I’ve also found, however, that one should not underestimate the basic honesty of people.
Piracy is fundamentally a moral issue. While people who might not consider shoplifting or armed robbery as career choices may be tempted to download MP3s off a P2P service, all are facing the same moral question: are you a thief or not? The vast majority of people are not. I think Mac people — and not just those in the creative businesses who fundamentally understand and respect copyright — are more inclined to “do the right thing.”
Therefore, while piracy is a concern, facing the fact that it is likely to happen regardless of what one does in the realm of Digital Rights Management (DRM), my business objectives are best served by making my book easy to purchase and use, trusting in the inherent honesty of the majority vs. becoming overly concerned by the dishonesty of the few.
Nonetheless, this has led me to consider some ways of implementing DRM in PDFs that are easier for the consumer than the Adobe e-Book Server. I’m working on these ideas, which may lead to new business opportunities. I cannot disclose more than that at this time, for obvious reasons ;-).
MyMac What kind of “license” does a purchaser get? What restrictions are on the purchase?
Gregory Swain:It is a standard software license. I regard an e-book as software: technically, one could argue that a PDF-based e-book could be viewed as an application that runs in the Adobe¨ Acrobat¨ or Adobe Reader¨ environment. The customer has the opportunity to review the license before making their purchase through a readily visible link on the e-shop. The basic license permits the book to be installed on the customer’s primary Mac, a laptop for use when away from their primary Mac, and to make a backup copy that is not installed on any computer. This is all standard fare in software publishing. I recommend that they install the book in the /Applications folder so that any user of that specific Mac can access it, such as all members of a family with a single Mac, but networked access is prohibited. Multi-user and Site licenses are also available, which basically extend the rules of the single-user license to a fixed number of users (in the case of multi-user licenses) specified by the specific package purchased. I do not restrict printing, but the cost of printing copies and the fact that the book works best — due to the hyperlinks — when used on a computer, means I don’t see the widespread distribution of printed copies as a threat to sales.
MyMac Paper books have no restrictions. Please comment.
Gregory Swain:Define “restrictions.”
Legally, paper books have all the restrictions of copyright, which also apply to software. Piracy of paper books is more difficult if you intend to sell paper copies, since the cost of scanning and printing would be prohibitive. But with scanning and burning technology, it would be easy for a pirate to create copies of any paper book, convert them to PDFs, and sell them on CD for pennies on the dollar. I imagine if one spent some time browsing the street markets and back alleys of nations like China and Vietnam, where virtually all software is pirated, one could probably find pirated copies of best-selling books available on CD right alongside illegal copies of the latest products from Microsoft, Hollywood, and the major recording studios.
Functionally, paper books are highly restricted compared to e-books: full-text search in an e-book is more useful and easier to use than an index. Hyperlinks can ease navigation within the book as well as expand the range of content beyond the book to include the Internet. If you are like me and wear bifocals or otherwise have vision problems, the ability to zoom the text and images to any desired size in an e-book beats trying to read a conventional book with a magnifying glass. Adobe Reader will even read aloud from the e-book. These advantages of e-books over paper-based books are rarely cited.
Consequently, I think the statement “Paper books have no restrictions” is patently false.
Besides the potential for piracy, the two major disadvantages of e-books are:
(1) you need a computer or other appropriate device on which to read them;
(2) they are hard to read in the bathroom.
The second disadvantage can be overcome by either getting good at balancing a laptop while seated on “the throne.” Of course, it will no longer be a disadvantage if Apple offers a Mac in the tablet form-factor, i.e. an ‘iTablet.” I could easily publish a PDA version of my book for the convenience of the bathroom reader. 😉
While paper books have a perceived edge in portability and usability, the latter from the standpoint of making it easy to highlight passages and add marginalia, such annotations are also supported in Adobe Reader and work quite well. However, this conventional view of “usability” regarding paper books — portable, does not require a computer, and easily annotated — overlooks the other advantages of e-books I have previously cited.
Furthermore, if you’re going to carry a PDA or a laptop, why also carry along an additional couple of pounds of paper-based book? Tablet-format personal computers, improved PDA screens, new technologies like e-paper, and ubiquitous wireless broadband may eventually make the printed book a historical artifact within a generation or less.
MyMac: Can a purchase sell his copy of your work to another buyer? If not, why not.
Gregory Swain:This is expressly addressed in the Section 4, Transfer, of the license agreement. Basically, you can sell or transfer your copy to another entity provided you retain no copies and they accept the terms of the license. This is largely identical to a real book: sell or donate your copy and the new owner has it and you don’t.
The book is not available for sale by resellers. The latter is a choice I made since I do not want the complexity of negotiating with a variety of individual resellers. One Apple Authorized Reseller has request such, and I informed them that if they thought the book should be available to resellers, they should recommend such to Apple and have Apple contact me to cut a deal for their entire reseller channel.
MyMac: If a paper book is lost or stolen, you have to buy a replacement. Do you supply backup copies to purchasers? If not, why not.
Gregory Swain:The license permits the user to make a backup copy, and any responsible personal computer user should have and use a comprehensive backup and recovery solution. Making a backup copy and protecting such is therefore the responsibility of the consumer. Therefore, I am under no legal obligation to do so. However, I would entertain requests for replacements due to lost, stolen, or irreparably damaged Macs on a case-by-case basis, possibly requiring suitable proof of loss. I receive copies of all the orders so I have some means of verifying that someone requesting a replacement had actually purchased a license. Generally I’d be willing to trust such a claim and give the benefit of the doubt, but I reserve the right to handle any such requests individually.
MyMac:(follow up to question 16) If I buy MS Word, I can get a replacement CD if I lose my original. Why can’t I get a replacement copy of your book, if I can for software?
Gregory Swain:I’m not sure the way you are stating the question reflects reality. While you can “get” a replacement for your MS Word CD, I don’t believe this is a free replacement, i.e. there is probably a charge associated with this.
Microsoft will exchange or replace a defective CD, I believe, within the warranty period. My Office v.X CD was defective — the Value Pack would not install due to a defect on the CD — and they sent me a replacement after spending an hour on the phone with tech support.
Regarding lost, stolen, or damaged CDs, the Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) states in article:
“If you have lost, broken, or misplaced your original Publisher installation CD, you can order replacement media from Microsoft.
The operant word there is “order.” It is likely the statement “order a replacement” in that KB item applies to products beyond Publisher, though a search of their KB did not uncover similar items for other products.
Therefore, I think you would have to pay for the replacement. You should call Microsoft and confirm this before representing the question in the way you have stated it above.
Customers can purchase my book on CD. I make this available as an additional, fee-based service for those customers who (1) prefer a CD or (2) use ISPs that restrict the size of downloads. I even offer a “combo” pack of download + CD: download it now and get a copy of CD as well. I am truly amazed at how many folks purchase the combo package.
I use an on-demand CD-publishing service linked with Kagi.com (who hosts my e-shop) to provide the CDs. If a customer received a defective CD, we’d have another one shipped by the vendor. If the CD was subsequently lost, stolen, or broken then the customer would have to rely on their backup copy or order a new CD.
I think you’ll also find that CD replacement policies differ widely among software companies.
MyMac: Do you have a target number of sales?…how do you define “success” for your book?
Gregory Swain: It’s already a success: I’ve made a very nice profit on sales to-date without any marketing expenses. I hope viral marketing will also begin to add to sales. Ideally, I’d like to sell 10,000 licenses. Anything in excess of 2,500 licenses might make a second edition a practical venture.
Given that Apple claims there are 7 million users of Mac OS X, with 10 million projected by year end 2003, selling a license to the book to one tenth of one percent of those users would be a phenomenal success. Reach one percent of that market and I can retire.
Unfortunately, I don’t think Hollywood will be calling to buy the movie rights to my book. Pity. 😉
MyMac: What are your future plans?
Gregory Swain:In general, I plan to live long and prosper. 😉
A second edition re: Panther may be in the offing if I meet my minimal sales target of around 2,500 licenses for the current edition. I may (no promises — the logistics are tricky) offer a discount on such to those who purchased the First Edition, similar to what O’Reilly does. I’m considering a subscription-based product, as well as offering the existing and potential future editions in other formats besides PDF. Then there are the DRM ideas I discussed earlier, which may ultimately prove to be the most profitable follow-on idea to come from this venture.
I enjoy the Mac universe and most of the people in it. However, for me, this is a business and as such it has to be highly profitable in addition to being fun.
MyMac: Gregory, thanks for your candid and insightful answers. I hope your publishing career continues be a success.
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