Background

Please tell us a little bit about Fatbrain.com.

Fatbrain.com is the Internet's most comprehensive bookstore for professionals. Recently named the number two fastest-growing public company in Silicon Valley, Fatbrain.com offers a world-class selection of books, training materials and print-on-demand documentation for business, finance, math, science and technology experts. Our industry experience and in-depth knowledge of authors, topics and trends help customers find the best resources for their needs. 

Our track record stems from our days as ComputerLiteracy.com. We built a loyal following among programmers and IT professionals in our early years with a unique specialty in resources for technology experts. As more professionals outside technology took to the Internet for occupational information, we expanded our store to include materials geared to their career paths.

What is eMatter? What is your role? 

eMatter is the first-ever secure digital publishing model that allows publishers and authors to publish and sell works online, earning significant royalties on every copy sold. The eMatter initiative combines new digital rights technologies with Fatbrain.com's established community of customers to provide a rich channel for the exchange of timely, valuable information between writers and readers everywhere. 

Reactions 

How have publishers reacted to eMatter?  

Extremely well.

Is it a threat, or is it an opportunity for synergy?  

It is an opportunity to expand their existing markets on to the Internet.  It's not about converting existing books into written form, but enabling such things as specialty publishing where the economics of printing and distributing certain titles is not economical.  However, as digital files, distributed as eMatter via the Internet, this opens up a whole new world. 

How have authors reacted to eMatter? What's in it for them?  

Very very excited!  What's in it for them are royalties of at least 50%.  Today, the typical author receives 10 - 15% royalties from their publishers.  This is because of the costs incurred by publishers for things like editing, layout, promotion, marketing, distribution, printing, production and binding.  In the e-world, almost 40% of these expenses go away. 

How have readers reacted to eMatter? What kind of feedback have you received?  

Still an early market and we're getting our share of raves ("I've been waiting all my life for this.") to rants ("Get a real job, forget about eMatter.")  What I love about it is the debate.  If people weren't actively discussing eMatter, both positive and negative, it wouldn't be interesting.  It would mean that nobody is passionate about it and that no one cares.  We are in the enviable position of creating an entirely new way to publish and this is creating excitement, concern over existing business models, in an industry that literally hasn't changed in hundreds of years.  For the unpublished authors, they are so excited to have a "home" to publish their missives. 

Inside eMatter 

Fatbrain specializes in technical books, in areas such as computers, engineering, and communications. However, eMatter can be about anything. Why?  

Because professionals read information for personal interest and entertainment as well. As a matter of fact, as a result of this, last quarter we added the entire "books in print" database to our site so that our customers could order any book in print.  We will continue to stay focused on the professional with our bookstore, but you will see us broaden the appeal for eMatter to the consumer. 

Some people have told me that they love the eMatter idea. But, they don't like the format used (secure PDF), so they won't publish eMatter and they won't make purchases. What do you think about this?  

I would like to know what they specifically don't like about PDF to see if we can fix it, enhance it, etc.  Here's why we picked PDF.  We wanted to offer all authors the largest community of potential "consumers" to buy their content.  So, instead of delivering information in electronic form for some kind of "gadget" (Palm, RocketBook etc.) we targeted the Personal Computer.  Adobe has delivered over 100 million copies of the free Acrobat Reader since it's inception.  And, it prints beautifully.  While digital distribution of content makes economic sense, most consumers we know want to print anything that's longer than 3 - 4 pages and read it in hard copy.  PDF is the best format for meeting all of these requirements.  We are not "wedded" to PDF and will continue to evaluate other formats.  Another leading contender could turn out to be Microsoft Reader. 

What eMatter is most likely to succeed? What makes a great e-book? 

Compelling content.  Content that enables you to solve a business problem quickly because it's short, authoritative and readily available.  (George Gilder has told us that he never met a business book he wishes wasn't less than 100 pages!)  We simply don't have time to read long missives any more.  Also, for the average consumer, here's an example.  Albert Einstein was just nominated "Person of the Century" by Time Magazine.  Now, I don't have time to go buy a biography of Einstein that's 500 pages long, but if I could get a 50 page version, I would read it over the weekend.  Likewise, having good, compelling short reads that can compete for the consumers attention on a Friday  night instead of going to BlockBuster to get a two hour movie, that's an interesting opportunity as well.  As Geoffrey Moore said....''Fatbrain.com is creating a new publishing outlet for short to middle length prose, in particular the short story and the personal essay. In prior eras they were the stuff of magazines and pamphlets, the talk of salons, the occupation of afternoons. Today they have got lost amid the all the paperbacks and the emails. It will be good to see them in circulation again.'' 

What kind of promotion has Fatbrain done for eMatter? What has worked? What hasn't?

So far, we've focused on a campaign to drive awareness for authors to come and publish at the site. This ad campaign, print based, ran in major metro newspapers, and in Business Week, PC Magazine, Harvard Business Review, and Scientific American.  We've also done significant direct marketing via email and other methods.  Similarly, we've done a fair amount of online advertising as well.  Our single biggest marketing weapon has been PR.  We have had tremendous success getting visibility in the NYT, WSJ, Time, CNNfn, ZDNet TV, NPR, Publisher's Weekly and a long list of others.  We've had over 600 articles written (that we know of) regarding the eMatter program.  So, PR has been our most successful tool to date. 

What usability testing have you done with eMatter? Similarly, what are your quality initiatives? 

Usability testing here has taken the form of 1:1 sessions with potential consumers.  Where we give them a "problem" and watch how the proceed to "solve" it.  In other words, we bring in customers and watch their experience browsing the site, finding a specific piece of eMatter, purchasing it, etc. We've also done focus groups to identify such things as consumer needs, new feature requests and others.  Unfortunately, I'm unable to speak about our quality initiatives.  I can point you to Kim Orumchian, our VP of Product Development (kimo@fatbrain.com) who may have some input on this subject. 

Wrap Up 

What is the eMatter business model? What are your goals? What's next? 

Our business model is simple.  We are creating a digital marketplace for the written word that protects the copy rights of our authors and writers.  For the first time, these authors can achieve significant royalties, up to 60%, for every copy sold.  We receive $1 per month for every file that is uploaded and published to the site.  This is a modest hosting fee to enable us to support our eCommerce infrastructure.  Simply, our goals are to create the largest, for sale repository of digital content the world has ever seen. We will create a dynamic and vibrant community around the site that will meet the needs of a wide and diverse range of consumers, touching every genre of information.  We want to create a dialog between authors and readers that has never existed before.  What's next?  You'll have to stay tuned! 

Final comments? Words of wisdom? What should every person remember about this interview? 

The magic of eMatter will be our ability to connect with authors and writers and have them begin publishing exciting, unique, new compelling content as eMatter. I predict that an entirely new category of authors will be created and become the "Best Selling Authors" of the digital age.  Why?  Most NYT best selling authors are masters of their craft.  The 300 - 600 page book or novel.  eMatter is that piece of information that is longer than a magazine, shorter than a book. Thereby, creating a new opportunity for writers and authors, professionals and amateurs, to communicate and share their ideas on a global basis, for profit. 


Judy, thank you for sharing your inside view of eMatter with us. This is definitely an exciting opportunity for many people.

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