Cultural Industries and Creative Organizations - Essay Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Cultural Industries and Creative Organizations: Publishing Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx @ 2011 Cultural Industries and Creative Organizations: Publishing Introduction Basically, publishing is a strategic industry within the global development. Publishing entails producing and disseminating information: therefore, it is the process of availing information to the society and general public at large. “Publishing as a cultural and creative industry is an economic activity that generates both knowledge and information. As much as literary works and books are educational tools, they are also cultural products. Books and literary works are cultural in themselves”. (Katie, Pg.8-9, 2010)1. This essay will be analyzing publishing industry as a cultural industry, and hence the essay will compare the economic and creative advantages and disadvantages of two publishing companies. In this paper, I will be tackling HarperCollins Publishers as the major company, which is locate in US and Coach House Publishers, which is the independent company, located in Toronto, Canada. The essay will be analyzing and comparing different creative strategies utilized in both companies when publishing their work to their audience. Both HarperCollins Publishers and Coach House use different strategies to achieve their goal of publishing and disseminating information to the public. This paper will be discussing various creative strategies that the companies use to achieve this. The paper will also discuss and analyze the creative and economic advantages of the companies and the effect of these advantages to the company itself, the audience, the companies’ authors, the employees and the society at large. The Comparative Advantage of Cooperation through publishing as a Creative Culture Publishing is a highly competitive industry yet all publishing companies have their own particular competence and experience based on each company’s history, culture as well as environment. Additionally, through joint action alongside cooperation, this industry can realize important local comparative advantages to generate global economic impacts. According to Jeff, 25, 2001, “Alliance within regional “creative group” is a tactical approach that can facilitate synergies between such companies to promote the industry as a driver of development, able to reach even the most ingrained pockets of poverty.” Simultaneously, a clustering strategy can serve to influence the competitive edge of the companies’ products within the global marketplace (Jeff, Pg.232, 2001). 2 History of HarperCollins Publishers HarperCollins Publishers was established in 1819 by William Collins and Charles Chalmers in Glasgow. The company had to prevail over several early hindrances and Charles left the business in 1825. In 1841, the company somehow stabilized as a printer of bibles and in 1848, the company became an established publishing venture, where it specialized in publishing educational and religious books. In 1917, the company began publishing fiction works, for example Agatha Christie’s first books as well as other fiction books were published from this firm (James, Pg.44-48, 2008). In due course, the company became a diverse and creative company. It published diverse titles, consisting several aimed at a young audience. In 1988, Harper and Row purchased Marshall Pickering, which was an established in 1981. In 1989, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation purchased Collins publishers and it was joined with Harper and Row. Up to date, Collins is still being used as an imprint, primarily for wildlife and natural books, field guides in addition to English texts. In 1999, News Corporation bought the Hearst Book Group including William Morrow & Company as well as Avon Books. History of Coach House Publishers 1n 1965, Stan Bevington started printing versions of the new Canadian maple-leaf flag. After gaining some profits after hawking these flags, he rented an old coach house and purchased a Challenge Gordon platen press. Together with Dennis Reid, he printed a poetry book and from there authors started flocking the small coach house with their projects. The main books Coach House published then were Nichol’s Journeying and the Returns along with Michael Ondaatje’s The Dainty Monsters (Samuel, Pg.4-6, 2005). 3 However in 1997, Stan Bevington re-established Coach House, back in its primary home within the old Coach House; printing business was still taking place. Stan partnered with Hilary Clark and Victor Colman and they revived and expanded the business, whereby they ventured online, published electronic editions and also published luscious print versions of the books. Henry became the editor and Alana became the internet controller and the publishing atmosphere and Coach House started majoring in book printing. As a result, at present Coach House is publishing at the frontiers of the book with the inventive fiction, poetry, film and drama. The company also prints Christian Books. The company has since won several awards including, Toronto Book Awards and also Amazon First Novel Awards among others. In 2009, the company finally managed to buy the Coach house back (Samuel, Pg.4-6, 2005). 4 Economic and creative advantages of HarperCollins Publishers HarperCollins Publishers basically generates its money through charging author fee for various services, which include custom cover design as well as marketing and distribution to online retailers. It also delivers the books for sale to its customers. The company allows the author to develop the book free, but then generate their profits on printing mark up as well as through splitting the profits with the author. The most enticing characteristic with HarperCollins Publishers is that the authors find it easier for their books to be put on the market. This is because it is a well known company and the customers are more willing to buy books that have been published by such a renowned and trusted publishing company. The company also distributes books for sale for its clients, which is also an advantage to the company since this is an appeal a number of authors (James, Pg.56m 2008). 5 HarperCollins Publishers offers a wide collection of tools and service to enable the authors to make their own choices during the publishing procedure. The authors publishing with this company retain all their rights, retain editorial control and also they are at liberty to decide the precise selection of services that best suits their objectives. As a result, HarperCollins Publishers allows all its authors to control their own publishing destiny and this has earned the company steady and numerous clients (James, Pg.25-28, 2008). 6 HarperCollins Publishers assists authors in self-publishing numerous titles and hence irrespective of whether the author is writing a religious book, fiction, educational, juvenile, poetry or any other genre, the company helps them reach their publishing aims. Through the company’s exclusive publishing procedure, the authors are able to maintain control of their books. From editing as well as proof reading to cover design and page layout: from royalties and distribution to marketing and returnability, the authors with this company are entirely able to decide on what they want for their books. Moreover, the company has a personal team of author advocates that supports and encourages the authors throughout the entire publishing process. Because HarperCollins Publishers provides a wide range of professional editorial, marketing as well as publishing services, they normally offer their clients the best services and hence the books are able to compete effectively within the marketplace. Through the company’s Libraries as an initiative of publishers, the company is efficient in handling the needs of special vertical industries as well as educational presses through supporting digital efforts and availing critical historical collections for sale online and also through other retail channels (James, Pg.29-32, 2008). Furthermore, HarperCollins Publishers has several economic advantages which include brand recognition, a larger marketing budget, which includes great marketing, editing as well as design, bigger print runs, and larger advances and also better distribution of the published materials to the book stores and clients. The company also offers large advances to its clients and hence it is likely to attract more customers meaning higher returns to the company (James, Pg.15-16, 2008). Moreover, since HarperCollins Publishers is a big publishing company, it has lower production costs. As a result, it is able to sell its published books at much lower prices; yet it is still able to pay larger royalties as well. James, 22, 2008, 7explains that, “more people buy their books since the lower price is an advantage to the clients and hence the company increases its returns in a big way.” Additionally, HarperCollins Publishers is a big company and hence it is less likely to run out during a critical time, in case there is sudden surge of publicity. Finally, the fact that HarperCollins Publishers is a renowned company attracts a lot of clients. Honestly, many authors would pride in having their books published by such a renowned company. This is because brand recognition has numerous benefits to the authors. The blend of the brand, the publisher's connections and a larger marketing budget provides a much better chance at big sales, media appearances and selling foreign, movie in addition to TV rights (James, Pg.22, 2008). Nevertheless, the key driving force of HarperCollins Publishers is its clients. In all interactions, the company strives to go beyond expectations; it has employees who carefully listen and respond, while making use of information, practical products in addition to quality services. Consequently, “HarperCollins Publishers continues to grow and innovate publishing industry with a new vision, special programs and incomparable opportunities” (James, Pg.32-22, 2008). 8 Economic and creative advantages Coach House Publishers Coach House Publishers mainly takes advantage of publishing some of the works that many big publishers will not, for example poetry or fiction by new writers and with this, they are able to attract new clients and grow with these authors and hence they grow economically with them. Normally, Coach House Publishers allows clients to take part in all elements of the publishing procedure, including layout and cover design, marketing as well as promotion. As a result, the authors are able to create a personal relationship with the publisher and hence they develop loyalty to the company. The authors are able to maintain their vision of how the books will be published since it is a small publishing company and hence many authors are able to identify with Coach House Publishers and thus maintaining the customers. Another key economic advantage with Coach House Publishers is that it accepts books by authors who do not have agents and hence able to attract many authors (Pauline, Pg.22, 2005).9 Coach House Publishers also manufactures physical products when clients order and therefore no pre-built inventory is required. Through their service, they can sell DVDs, CDs as well as books, for a percentage of the cost of manufacturing whereas retaining control over the clients’ materials. As a result, with the company’s services, the clients are able to make books, music in addition to video and avail them to millions of clients through selling them over the internet, for instance CreateSpace shop as well as through customers’ websites using a customized eStore. This attracts many customers to the company (Samuel, Pg.6-8, 2005). 10 The clients publishing their books with Coach House Publishers are provided with an array options and hence the customers realize that it is easy to get the book they have always dreamed of very easily. The authors are given an opportunity to use the company’s free Cover Creator to come up with a great looking cover-or the authors can design their own cover for even more customization (Pauline, Pg.12, 2005). What’s more, after the books are published, the company takes care of manufacturing as well as shipping. The book remains in stock, devoid of inventory, made on-demand when clients order. “Coach House also sets up all the books using their free online tools and all book covers are printed in full-color on cover stock and finished using a protective laminate coating.”, (Pauline, 15, 2005)11. Still, Coach House Publishers assigns its customers Free CreateSpace ISBN if they do not already have one and it therefore provides the authors the likelihood of reaching millions of potential clients over the internet. This is an economic advantage to the company since the company is able to retain all its clients and also able make a lot of sales and hence benefiting directly from these sales. The company also is able to turn a manuscript into a finished book within a month which is a short time frame and hence can publish more books and therefore more sales. The company also invests in a book and its author for several years and tends to focus more equally on all of their titles and authors and with this, they tend to retain their clients and attract many other and hence it is an economical advantage to the company (Pauline, Pg.15, 2005). Strategies Publishing companies should consider substantive audit as their main strategy in their operations. This is an analysis and recommendations procedure. Therefore, the management within the companies should evaluate the publishing needs of the company, content life cycle procedures in addition to the content. The publishing content should be examined in order to establish how it is structured and hence establish opportunities for content reuse. “Basing on the analysis, recommendations intended to lead the company towards integrated content strategy should be availed. The recommendations are important to the companies since they empower the companies to optimize their content life cycle, take full advantage of content reuse and also chose the appropriate publishing technologies”, (Europa Publications Limited, Pg.18-20, 2006). The publishing strategies should include, analyzing the publishing need, content life cycle, auditing the content, analyzing the needs of the customers, tools selection as well as analyzing the marketing and returns and also how the books are received by the audience at large (Samuel, Pg. 5-8, 2005). Analyzing the publishing requirements will assist the companies in identifying the business goals, isolating the problems, identifying the challenges to be overcome and finally establishing success criteria and corrective actions required to move the industry forward. Eventually, it will be possible to identify the content management opportunities, establish the strengths and weaknesses and aid the industry in establishing a foundation on which to build success (Bob, Pg.68, 2006). On the other hand, the content life cycle analysis is important in identifying the problem areas allied to the creation, management and delivery of the content. Identification of the problems up front will assist the companies in: determining the scope and functionality of the company’s unified content strategy, establish the criteria for selecting appropriate publishing and software tools.” Identification of the problems also defines the procedures that should be redesigned or created from scratch in order to support all publishing needs”, (Albert, Pg.95, 2005). 12 When it comes to content audit, the content will be analyzed how it’s being used currently, reused, published and how it is eventually delivered to the audiences. Generally, the content will be analyzed critically in order to locate the opportunities for reuse. The outcome uncovered when auditing the content will be useful in recommending suitable forms of reuse, in addition to strategies for achieving all the publishing goals. It is also important to analyze the clients’ needs since this will help in the identification of the content requirements of the clients and recommend tactics that will help the publishing companies in developing a unified content strategy designed to fulfill those needs. The customer-needs analysis includes client research as well as client surveys. Furthermore, tool selection and report is valuable to publishing companies in that it helps them select the publishing tools, for example, authoring processes, content management, workflow in addition to delivery, that best match the company’s special criteria (Peter, Pg.442, 1994).13 The identified requirements are combined within the substantive audit in order to establish the tools that best meets the company’s needs. Finally, these publishing companies analyze a report on return on investment, which assists them in determining the potential return on investments for their operations. Return on investment is based on the companies’ main opportunities for saving as established with the substantive audit and cost of both tools and implementation, in addition to additional elements including design, training and also content conversion costs. The report serves as a major component for the companies’ business operations (Albert, Pg.97-102, 2005). HarperCollins Publishers’ Creative strategies HarperCollins Publishers offers Full Color Book Publishing. The company assists the authors in publishing almost anything in full color. From juveniles’ books to educational books, family photo albums to commercial materials, graphic novels to catalogues; generally, the services opportunities are inexhaustible. With seven entire full-color books publishing packages to select from, HarperCollins Publishers makes the authors decision to publish simple and straightforward. The company also offers a broad range of additional services to provide the authors with more flexibility. To even simplify the publishing procedure more, the company’s competent publishing consultants are available to provide free consultation to assist the authors to pick the package that is right for them. Most authors as well as other clients acknowledge that publishing their full color book at HarperCollins Publishers; they are choosing the world’s most affordable and convenient route to accomplishing first rate digital color publication. “Once the books are published, the company avails them to the readers as well as booksellers worldwide within a beautiful, full-color edition and hence the company’s clients get a royalty on every copy bought by their audience” (James, Pg.24, 2008).14 HarperCollins Publishers while publishing its books creates the finished Ad: through using computers and design. It utilizes software like Adobe Photoshop when creating images and also texts. Since these applications are able to manipulate images, the employees are able to create interesting eye-catching texts and visuals. Still, HarperCollins Publishers concentrates most on the author and the book. More than just the authors and books, the books the company publishes, it also publishes the idea of the book. The initiative of an individual’s unlimited and surprising creativity, daring and singularity; these are the key attributes that are easy to identify, from the imagination of the author, to the vision of the author. When the company’s employees identify these attributes, they identify all of the possibilities, inexhaustible as well surprising (David, Pg.27-30, 2006). HarperCollins Publishers has an experimental unit that does away with the conventional profit distributions to authors. The approach HarperCollins Publishers takes is to provide less or no advance, but as an alternative split the profit by 50 percent, instead of the industry standard of fifteen percent with the author (James, Pg25, 2008).15 Still, HarperCollins Publishers has web approach that is extremely critical to its publishing activities. In order to heighten book sales and reach the online market, the company provides a browsing feature on its website, where clients are able to read selected extracts from books before buying. Moreover, HarperCollins Publishers provides books’ excerpts to mobile phone users. The company was the first one to market using an innovative approach slushpile management with the beginning of the authonomy website (James, Pg25-26, 2008). Coach House Publishers’ Creative strategies Coach House Publishers makes use of very effective independent web during its publishing process as well as during the marketing. It combines the best in class ad solutions and engagement of a premium media firm with the reach of a very superior network. The company uses proprietary procedures and tools and therefore it is able to identify and link with the highest quality audiences in addition to conversations across the web, and then offers streamlined means for marketers to add value to those conversations at scale with profound engagement (Frank, Pg.12, 2008).16 Basically, Coach House Publishers utilizes some of the creative strategies that assist the small publishers compete effectively as compared to major publishers. They include; the company publishes books and advertising products for very small audiences, it has a very fast publishing procedure, the company staff does not give up on its work or its clients very easily, it has more creative marketing approaches and also the company ensures that the employees are very keen on listening to the wishes of the clients. Moreover, Coach House Publishers is always ready and willing to publish tiny print-runs: within the three figures, or at times even within the two figures (Jerome, Pg.15, 2005). Conclusion In my opinion, I would prefer to work with HarperCollins Publishers. This is because the company being a major international company offers some undeniable benefits. HarperCollins Publishers offers relaxed work atmosphere. According to the company’s employees, the workers are not pressured to get things done. The managers have confidence in the workers capacity to perform the jobs they were recruited to do therefore the tasks are not micro-managed. The working environment is very relaxing and casual. The company lets the workers have a great life balance. The company offers summer Friday hours to the employees (Maury, Pg.52-54, 2009). 17 In addition, HarperCollins Publishers gives the employees great benefits package as well as a fairly accommodating attitude towards time off. The company had a lot of talented people who develop marvelous books. A solid reputation of great titles and an instantaneously recognizable company name. This company is also gender sensitive, for example it has a large female employee network, even though this is the standard within the industry. The previous HarperCollins Publishers employees also confess that the company has very fair working hours and a good-life balance. Most individuals are friendly and the overall culture in the company is very nice. HarperCollins Publishers is a very well respected company, looks great on resume, at attracts great authors, it’s a casual work atmosphere, benefits are pretty standard when compared to Coach House (Maury, Pg.55, 2009). The company also has the ability to seek out low cost production opportunities which offers a benefit to the consumers in the form of reduced prices. This is because the company publishes the books in bulk and hence this generally lowers the production cost, and as a result their books are relatively cheaper when compared to small publishers such as Coach House (Bowker Company, Pg.45 2009). Furthermore, larger companies have lower likelihood of being bankrupt and hence the steadiness of larger companies attracts investors seeking security and comparatively steady returns (Lydia, Pg.4, 2009).18 For example, “in 1996, government funding cuts ruined the Coach House’s feasibility, and it wound down”, (Samuel, 22, 2005).19 This is a scenario that has not taken place in HarperCollins Publishers, ever since it was established. This implies HarperCollins Publishers being a major company is more stable as compared to Coach House which is an independent company. Therefore, I would prefer working at HarperCollins Publishers since it provide more job security to its employees as compared to Coach House. Finally, large organizations unreservedly acknowledge their interconnection with society during their donations to non-profit organizations and the society. This would provide me with an opportunity to link with the community effectively and give back to the society as well. Again, there are so many growing opportunities in HarperCollins Publishers as compared to Coach House Publishers and therefore the likelihood of advancing my career is much higher. HarperCollins Publishers also offers so many training programs as compared to Coach House Publishers. For example, HarperCollins Publishers provides Summer Internships as well as many other beneficial courses that would be essential for an employee (Albert, Pg78, 2005). 20 Bibliography Katie Hughes. (2010). Publishing industry. Key Note market review. London: Key Note Ltd. Albert Greco. (2005). The book publishing industry. New York: Routledge. Bob Adams. (2006). The Adams jobs almanac. Toronto: Bob Adams, Inc. James Pritchard. (2008). HarperCollins Atlas of Bible History. California: HarperCollins. Samuel Faustino. (2005). Canadian publishers' directory. Toronto: Greey de Pencier Publications. Pauline Butling. (2005). Canadian electronic library: Books collection. Toronto: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. Europa Publications Limited. (2006). International who's who of authors and writers. New York: Routledge. Jerome Gold. (2005). Publishing lives: interviews with independent book publishers in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. Columbia: Black Heron Press. David Jary. (2006). The HarperCollins dictionary of sociology. Michigan: University of Michigan. Jeff Herman. (2001). Insider's guide to book editors, publishers, and literary agents, 1995-1996. New York: Prima Pub. Peter Dow. (1994). The HarperCollins concise handbook for writers. Glasgow: HarperCollins College. Maury Peiperl. (2009). Career creativity: explorations in the remaking of work. London: Oxford University Press. Frank Davey. (2008.) Coach House Press, 1965-1996. Michigan: University of Michigan. Bowker Company. (2009). American book publishing record, Volume 48, Issues 3-4. Michigan: University of Michigan. Lydia Peelle. (2009). Advantages of Working in Large Organizations. New York: Bloomsbury Publishers. Read More