Going Rouge: A Model for Digital Publishing

Sarah Palin’s recent biography “Going Rogue” has created huge media buzz and it has also created an opportunity for  the direct-to-digital publishing company OR Books to prove out a model for digital publishing, with their answer to Palin, called “Going Rouge.”

The book features a similar cover to Palin’s book, so similar, in fact, that many news sites have mistakenly interposed the two book titles and images. Fox News, for example, erroneously used the wrong book image twice during an interview.

Having had time to speak with one of the company’s founders, Colin Robinson, I am impressed by the company’s approach and results for a few reasons:

Speed to Market

• They went from concept to publication in approximately six weeks!
• This opens interesting opportunities to publish rapidly based on current events and market trends.

Distribution Strategy

• They have sold many thousands of books through a destination website, even before going through the major distribution channels at Amazon and Barnes and Noble
• Since they still plan to go through the major distribution channels, they have essentially windowed the publishing world in a manner similar movie releases, first selling it through their own channel (the most profitable channel) and later through Amazon and B&N

Customization

• When somebody orders a book, it is custom printed and shipped and the margins are STILL much better than mass book publishing (think of a world with now returns!)
• This opens mass customization opportunities that would be difficult for bulk publishers to provide.

Marketing

• With less money spent on distribution, OR is able to spend much more effectively on Marketing, which is evidenced by the huge amount of publicity around Going Rouge (Although, as a note, their marketing success is much more attributed to the creative marketing techniques of their team than to the size of their budget, which is still small in comparison to most major book releases).
• Since each order is a personalized order, the publisher now has a list of customers – something typically reserved for the distribution outlet!

While it is clear that not every genre lends itself to the same type of model pursued by OR Books, I do think that their success points towards one potential scenario for independent publishers – a scenario that is similar, in some ways, to the the highly publicized success of music artists which have gone direct-to-consumer, like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails.

The publisher of Palin’s book, Harper Collins, ma tend to agree, since they have reacted directly to OR Books by taking out ads on Google to direct buyers to the “official version” of Palin’s book.