Piloting the Web:
Identifying Profit through Internet Publishing

by Laura Fillmore
President, Open Book Systems (OBS)

9:00 a.m. April 30, 1996

Evangelical Christian Publishers Association
Spring Management Seminar
"Facing Future Publishing Challenges"
Hyatt Regency, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
April 27 -- May 1, 1996

Copyright © 1996–2024 by Laura Fillmore; written permission required to reprint.
laura@obs.com

"Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God." 2 Corinthians 2:17

• Internet offers opportunity for new business models
• Paradox of Internet publishing: Profit by giving it away for free
• Publishing with a point of view

Introduction

• What is OBS: From Online BookStore to Open Book Systems
• Distribution vs access
• Mass customization of information
• Distributed publishing : Using the Web as a living publishing medium

Definitions of terms

• "Publish"
  • Making ideas and information public in a recorded environment
  • Process not product
  • Bringing the Word to life: Successful publishing is kinetic
  • Some of the best publishing sites are not publishers' sites
  • The Recorded Reader: The new participant in the publishing process

• "Profit"
  • Building traffic and winning the hearts and minds of readers
  • Selling existing products and identifying new business models

Business advantages for publishing online

• Compelling reason: Your readers and your competitors are there already
• Internet and intranets
• Acquiring authors who seek largest possible audience
• Inexpensive
• Adaptable

Business models

• Successful hybrid models for marketing
  • Selling bibles globally
  • Travelling the .gifs and blurbs download route
  • Protecting copies : Dangers of retrofitting
  • Database catalogs to sell products

• Experimenting with Web-specific publishing
  • Integrating products and process
  • A new process involving the reader
  • Possibilities for subscription and sponsorship:
    1. Database and interactive books
    2. Creating communities of interest
       • Forums
       • IRCs
    3. Localizing in multiple languages
    4. Pointing to and authenticating online texts

Profit from publishing on the Web:
"Resist not Evil" Matthew 5:39

• Cater to the audience on the Web now
• Use the content available on the Web Now
• Use existing content as a lens through which to view content on the Web
• Be an enabler rather than a censor
• Offer your readers a point of view, a way to live on the Web

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