Wednesday, December 10, 2008

What a ride - welcome NetGalley!

It has been quite a ride this year - starting off as Quality Solutions, ending up as Firebrand Technologies and NetGalley. This year, we have seen urgent adoption of our solutions in virtually every segment of publishing. I guess it takes longer to come up the adoption curve than we expected. As Fran Toolan (@ftoolan) has put it, we have hit the point where publishers say 'I want what they got'. But the excitement is really just starting!

For years we have worked with publicists, offering tools to help manage the book review process - contacts connected to titles and in some cases connected to the warehouse for shipment. We have always felt that we were underserving the market in our publicity functions - but we have never been able to truly make progress there. Now with NetGalley, we have the opportunity to take the work we have done in the past and build a true next generation solution. As NetGalley is built on the concept of private communities of publishers and reviewers, we can expand out to provide real connections between these constituents. You can read about the Firebrand/NetGalley joint-venture in this press release.

We will be in the bona-fide content business from here on out, although it is still unclear to me what direction we will take in the coming years. Right now, the best strategy is a sharp focus on providing the best tools for publishers and reviewers to efficiently manage and deliver electronic copies of review titles, with options for printed copies if elected. This solution, when integrated with our Title Management, Eloquence and Ecommerce solutions, offers all sorts of opportunities

One of the advantages of NetGalley is an ROI which can be proven - clearly showing how wasted money on printed review copies can be saved. We have often had softer ROI's with our solutions which clearly exist, but require some faith to prove out.

And important to me, with a roof full of solar photovoltaic panels providing electric to my house, are the green benefits of NetGalley. The thought of all those wasted galleys printed and mailed to reviewers who aren't interesting is sooo last century.

It is going to be an exciting ride in the next year as Firebrand and NetGalley kickoff together, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

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