Richard Day remembers when the introduction of the paperback novel sparked widespread panic in the publishing world.
“This was going to kill the industry,” he said, “because these things were cheap and nasty.”
Day has been the publisher at Vancouver-based Self-Counsel Press since 1999 and has been largely responsible for helping it navigate the digital world’s ever-shifting tides.
Despite being faced with a poor economy, a tumultuous industry and growing uncertainty in the global book publishing industry created by e-books and other digital innovations, Self-Counsel, which will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year, has managed to survive and thrive.
But Day, a 50-year publishing veteran, is confident that digitized books won’t kill the industry. If anything, he’s looking forward to getting creative in the new era of publishing.
“In the publishing business, we’re in a very challenging period,” said Day. “I’ve been in a lot of those, and I’ve seen so many challenges and each was doom and gloom; it’s [always] the end of the industry.”
He’s seen the same panic follow the introduction of photocopying, the personal computer and, more recently, the Internet.
“I had people who wanted to jump out of windows,” said Day, recalling reaction to his efforts to replace typewriters with personal computers when he worked as a publisher in Hong Kong.
“The same thing recurs over and over [in this industry].”
Meanwhile, it’s also been a big year for Self Counsel’s co-founder Diana Douglas, one of 12 women in Canada to receive the president’s award from the Association of Canadian Publishers (ACP) recently for being “pioneers in Canada’s publishing industry.”
Douglas describes her inspiration for several of the books the company produces as coming from situations in her own life, the best example being the seed that started Self-Counsel: the need for a cheap divorce.
“I’m one of these kinds of people that sort of look around and think, ‘How do you do this cheaply? Why can’t I do this myself?’” said Douglas.
She teamed up with then-articling lawyer Jack James to form Self-Counsel Press in 1971.
The pair made it their goal to “demystify the legal world” and provide people with a simple, cheap way to access and understand complex information.
Douglas took full-ownership of the company in 1984 when she bought James out and has since helped Self-Counsel expand its library to include everything from the original Do Your Own Divorce Kit to the more recent How to Start and Run a Tattoo and Body Piercing Studio.
Margaret Reynolds, executive director of the Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia, believes the company’s success stems from a combination of Douglas’ business savvy and its unique market niche in publishing legal and business how-to guides.
“They found a niche and published well to it over the years,” Reynolds said. “As the trade retail market became more challenging, niche markets became essential, so Self-Counsel was well placed.”
But mining a tight niche presents hurdles that other publishers might never have to face.
The first was erected in the early ’90s when the government started to make more legal processes such as incorporating a company available online. While the act resonated with Douglas’ reasons for starting Self-Counsel, it wasn’t necessarily good for business.
“It took away sales for us [but] the whole point [for starting] the company was to have this access for the consumer – an easy inexpensive access. It did that. We take pride in that. At the same time, we’ve had to keep our dancing shoes on because of that.”
Having attributed most sales to visibility in bricks-and-mortar retail stores, Douglas and Day’s current challenge is adjusting their business model to become more visible and accessible in the digital world.
With online companies like Amazon and Barnes and Noble now representing more than half of all print book sales, creating an online presence and reputation is becoming vital for publishers.
“There’s no question that we must go this route,” said Reynolds, “and there are indications that sales, which for some of my members now represent 30% in digital, will continue to increase, at least in the short term. They will likely level off, but they’ll still make up a significant amount of publishers’ sales, some say 50% by 2013.”
And that’s how Day has been spending his days in Self-Counsel’s North Vancouver offices: adjusting its focus from bookshelf to e-book.
The challenge however, is a radically overhauled business model.
“E-books present an opportunity,” said Reynolds, “but there are still many unknowns in terms of delivery, terms and the business model in general. Publishers are basically running two operations now: print and digital, and while the acquisitions and editing [are] largely the same for most books, the design [not so much for straight text] and production, distribution and marketing are very different.”
When it comes to meeting consumer demand to switch to e-books, the frustration for Self-Counsel has been in waiting for e-book reader technology to improve.
Several of its books come with legal forms and software – something e-books thus far have not done well. It’s a challenge shared by several publishing companies in the same field.
Although Day is optimistic the company will have its 300-plus catalogue in e-book format soon, he’s pursuing other options, such as print-on-demand.
That technology has been a popular tool for reference book publishers because it allows them to print only what has been ordered.
The challenge with e-books aside, Day has optimized Self-Counsel’s online presence through Facebook, Twitter and the company’s website, which also features a news section and blog. •
