How can the Japanese nonfiction sector survive? An outline of my experiment: REPOSEED
I would like to create a new, stable business model for narrative nonfiction in Japan. However, I do not want to repeat clichés concerning how to sustain the journalism business model.
For six years, as an acquiring editor in a Japanese publishing house, publishing narrative nonfiction has been a very difficult task for me to handle. A lot of time and money are required to publish a book. When there were a lot of magazines that focused on nonfiction 10 years ago, each magazine paid writers almost the whole coverage cost, even providing them with assistant staff for coverage and giving them a manuscript fee. For example, when I asked one of the prominent journalists in Japan, Shinichi Sano, to write about a female serial killer in 2012, it took one year of investigative devotion and cost $80,000. In practice, the sale of the books, generally published by the same publisher as the magazine, compensated for the loss of the coverage cost. However, today’s writers have lost both the place for the serial publication of narrative nonfiction and the means to receive the coverage cost since magazines have disappeared.
What happened after the magazine industry collapsed? Most writers have had to work independently without the help of an editor before submitting the first the manuscript of a book, the quality and quantity of which are decreasing. Readers cannot know when their favorite author’s book will be published until just before publication, while, in the past, serial articles in magazines worked as promotion for a book. Therefore, many nonfiction books of dubious quality are distributed, which disappoints readers. Additionally, many authors in Japan do not even have their own websites and rarely appear at events, which prevents readers from knowing their works well.
On the other hand, there remains a demand for great investigative journalism in Japan even now. Firstly, there is still a great readers’ market in nonfiction books. Even serious narrative nonfiction sales are stable, with average initial sales of around 10,000 copies. There are many bestselling nonfiction titles, of which sales are over 100,000, even if they are written by nameless journalists. Secondly, many readers want to engage directly with authors. Some journalists succeed in charging an annual fee of $100 for fans’ newsletters. Some journalists receive a lot of money from their fans’ patronage in online forums. I can say that many nonfiction lovers want a place in which they can engage, as long as the topic or writer is appropriate.
To distribute more thoroughly investigated, reliable, and interesting nonfiction, we have to change the nonfiction system in Japan. My new project, named REPOSEED, is a platform for Japanese nonfiction. Writers publish stories and are reimbursed for research costs. Readers enroll to access stories. Editors work as writers’ agents. It is akin to a combination of a publishing platform and crowd-funding site. The most essential part is that readers can participate in creating complete works with writers. I will explain the function of REPOSEED in terms of the three central roles of journalists, writers, and editors.
1) Journalists
Journalists will have their own pages on REPOSEED. First, they present their topic, the estimated time needed to complete a story, and the total research costs required. They can also choose the degree to which each readers who fund the project can participate in the project. Then, appeals for readers begin. Once journalists obtain sufficient funds from readers, they receive research costs after overhead is deducted. Journalists can also choose their preferred editor from a REPOSEED pool. Then they begin coverage and publish their serial articles on this page.
2) Writers
Unlike with fiction, readers can truly participate in the activity of journalists, affect their ideas, and perhaps change the stories themselves. The basic stories can be read for free, but those who pay to support particular writers can read their exclusive stories, comment on stories on REPOSEED, obtain periodic updates from writers, join brainstorming meetings for story ideas, listen to interviews the writers conduct, and even help with research.
3) Editors
The editors are responsible for all stories assigned to them until these stories are completed. The editors manage all activities for readers, including setting up meetings and editing exclusive newsletters. After the stories on a given topic are complete, editors can sell the rights for print and e-books, receiving a licensing fee. They effectively work as agents, which do not exist in today’s Japanese publishing world.
The revenue model is mainly based on the rights for print and e-books. In the first stage, I suspect such revenue will not be enough because I have to begin mainly within the specific publishing house I now belong to. However, I think this system will work well because the amount of books published would increase by using this system. Gradually, I would solicit other journalists and editors, while the system would work autonomously, giving stable commission fees.
I am currently preparing for some experiments with a friend who is an investigative journalist, who would publish serial articles and join in all the activities mentioned above until he completes and publishes them as a whole book. I would release it in early March. I’d appreciate your thoughts and opinion on this project.
www.Reposeed.com (in Japanese)
