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Q:So, when are we getting DFTBA Publishing?

Anonymous

Well, DFTBA is distributing Mike Falzone’s book Never Stop Shutting Up, which is awesome. And we are considering publishing a few things at some point in the future. But there are a few important hurdles to consider here. This will be boring and businessy, but I like to be transparent with you guys:

1. Unlike music and merch, publishing is already pretty efficient at targeting niches. One of the reasons a small company like DFTBA can work is that we provide extremely high royalties to our artists (with very few exceptions, most of what you spend at DFTBA.com goes directly to the artist). We can do this because we work with creators who have established audiences and know what kinds of stuff those audiences want and how to make it for them. Books are different: The overall profit margins are slimmer, and the upfront costs are bigger. (This is primarily because good books need good editors, which is highly skilled and not-inexpensive work.)

2. Also, DFTBA is only interested in businesses where we can add value both to the lives of our customers and to the lives of the creators we work with. Writers don’t need our help to get their work available on the kindle, and they can use Amazon’s CreateSpace to publish printed books. So it seems to me the only place we could add value would be in fancy books—like, ones that are printed and bound with exceptional quality. CreateSpace doesn’t do that well, and there are some books you just want on your shelf instead of on your kindle.

3. Publishing a book involves big upfront costs with no assurance of sales, and because of the way inventory is taxed (NOW IT’S GETTING BORING!) you don’t really want to risk having lots of leftover stock in the warehouse for years and years.

So those are the barriers to entry for us. That said, we do hope to publish a few books in the coming years!