From Dennis Lowery

We spotted something in a review of the fantastically successful novel The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Read what the reviewer says in the middle of his review of that book. He compares The Hunger Games to our book Serpentauria: Ark of Extinction:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Gripping Story, January 6, 2012

By Reggie Brown (Seattle, WA USA) – See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hunger Games (Paperback)

This is a very unique story line that grips you from page one and doesn’t let go until the end. Very futuristic as it takes place in what used to be North America. This is very well written and gets very intense at times with the vivid descriptions the author uses. If you enjoyed this book you will love Serpentauria: Ark of Extinction. This is a fictional book as well but what I really liked about it is, there are a lot of principles in the book that can and should be implemented in today’s world. Very exciting family adventure book that I highly recommend.

We’re very pleased that Serpentauria is starting to get noticed and found it very interesting to be compared favorably to The Hunger Games. Why? Because from a business standpoint one of our objectives has been to create stories with compelling messages about specific causes and social concerns that also are commercially successful. The success of The Hunger Games is something we used as an attainable goal to shoot for. Here’s some information on the commercial success of that brand. (Source: Wikipedia)

The Hunger Games Sales

After writing the novel, Collins signed a six-figure deal for three books with Scholastic in 2006.^[5] The first book originally had a 50,000 first printing, which was then bumped up twice to 200,000 copies.^[5] As of February 11, 2010, The Hunger Games has sold 800,000 copies^[15] and 26 foreign editions.^[16] Rights to the novel have been sold in 38 territories,^[15] and there are over 2.9 million copies in print.^[17] The book is a USA Today^[18] and The New York Times Best Seller.^[19] It was on The New York Times list for over 100 consecutive weeks as of September 2010.^[20]

The Hunger Games trilogy has sold exceptionally well in ebook format. Suzanne Collins is the first children’s or young adult author to sell over one million Kindle ebooks, making her the sixth author to join the “Kindle Million Club,” which recognizes authors who have sold over 1 million paid units in the Amazon Kindle store.^[21]

The 2011 numbers are obviously higher than the above and they will go higher in 2012.

How the above data on book sales for The Hunger Games is relevant: We feel we have the potential to do equally well. We know the power of the messages within the stories we’ll write and publish for our Serpentauria and Mirabella series will strike a chord with readers.

The reviews and comments we’re receiving are proving that.

The following is an excerpt from the Executive Summary we prepared to clearly define our focus and specifically brand development of our Serpentauria series (beginning with Serpentauria: Ark of Extinction) and our Mirabella series (beginning with Mirabella and the Pearl of Chulothe). Serpentauria contains a strong message supporting the need to save and protect animals, and that we need to do more to save and protect our planet. Mirabella contains a compelling message that despite differences in race, ethnicity or creed—we are all humans and are more alike than we are different. Both series resonate with a theme of faith and belief in inner strength, integrity and purpose and a determination to discover something better within ourselves and others in order to manifest positive changes for our society and our world.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT

Important Note: The following centers on the reward/potential for an organization based on its film version of a popular series of books. This is analogous to what we are doing with development of our intellectual property (our books) and developmental pipeline. There is a formula here (and as learned from the success of the Harry Potter books, movie and merchandising) we are pulling best practices from for our own business efforts.

(Excerpted from this article: http://seekingalpha.com/article/289012-new-movie-franchise-has-the-potential-to-transform-lions-gate-films)

The company has a huge possibility in its Hunger Games franchise. The movies will be based on the best-selling book series by Suzanne Collins… The idea actually came to the author while channel surfing between reality television and footage from the Iraq War. The book series consists of three books: Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay. The distribution rights worldwide for these movies are with Lions Gate Films.

The first movie will be released by the company in March of 2012. The other two books will be turned into movies as well and currently rest with Lions Gate Films unless someone of course buys out Lions Gate due to the success of the first movie. The movie has a current budget of $75 million and is shooting now. The movie stars Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, Donald Sutherland, Woody Harrelson, and Lenny Kravitz. For a look at how this movie could do at the box office I am using the following for comparison. ($ in millions):

For this example I used Twilight due to the fact it is based on a book and centers around a love triangle much as Hunger Games does. Death Race is an example of killing and being the last person standing to win something. Harry Potter was based on a best-selling book and part of a series as well. I am Legend is the top grossing movie based in an apocalyptic world. Saw was the first movie in the successful series from Lions Gate. What does looking at the success of these movies say for the future results of Hunger Games? Here are my predictions ($ in millions):

Our two series brands have the same franchise potential and each are slated to have five books in each series.

Serpentauria: Ark of Extinction has recently been optioned by Enriching Pictures to become a motion picture.

We’ll keep you posted as interest continues to grow and we move steadily forward.

From Dennis Lowery

“…if you look at 2012 or 2013, there is not a lot of product out there for studios,” Mike Goldberg, a literary manager with New Wave Entertainment, told TheWrap.

Read the complete article

In the above quote is the essence of our raison d’être.

This is something I’ve talked about before and was the basis of our teaming agreement announced with ArkWatch Holdings. It is the primary reason we set out to create our infrastructure to be both a publisher and producer of a tangible product AND to be part, in some cases the source and creator, of the intellectual property that is turned into books and books that are turned into film.

We create and have access to a pipeline of original and unique content. We are agile and responsive. We follow through and deliver; efficiently and economically. No one has time for prima donnas and people who just talk; those that are more ego than go. We believe in getting things done.

From Dennis Lowery

I read an interesting article this morning that is important.

 Act of Survival or Act of Bullies: Books-A-Million Follows Barnes & Noble’s Lead

It touches on the stupidity (or cupidity… maybe both) of some bookseller chains that think what and who they are, is still more important than the authors/publishers that control the content pipeline and more important than their customer… the book buyer.

In today’s business environment nothing is more important than those who control the creation, quality and availability of the content for a well-defined market. Consumers want and will buy good content. The folks (businesses) in the middle (between creation/production and purchase/consumption) should go along for the ride and profit from doing their part in the process.

Here’s a quote from the article but please read the complete article. It’s insightful on other levels  (especially for authors and creators of intellectual property intended for monetization):

“…. they (the bookseller chains) should look in the mirror and figure out why they didn’t get that exclusive deal…

Another quote from the article is how companies like Amazon and Walmart think (and how authors and publisher’s should too):

“Money makers don’t throw away opportunities to make money”

I believe this to be an absolute truth:

Stupidity or Cupidity can kill a business…(or an opportunity)

There’s tremendous opportunities to make substantial profits for all parties concerned in developing, creating and getting appealing books to market (and derivatives of the intellectual property). Why run the risk of screwing that up?

From Dennis Lowery:

This article, The Power of Innovation in Publishing, in Publishing Perspectives touches on some vital elements to achieving significant success in business but particularly in publishing.

Companies whose business is centered on taking ideas and concepts and turning them into content (books and/or video, films, etc.) for consumers must  be aware of and actually incorporate them if they want to succeed to any degree or scale. 

“Digital publishing innovations like print on demand, metadata, content enrichment and e-book conversion are just some of the services opening new doors, increasing distribution, boosting sales, cutting costs, and enhancing the reader experience. They are shaping the future of the publishing industry for the better and more publishers should be taking full advantage of these advances to grow their business.”

Regarding the above statement (and more that is in the article) I have a clear belief and reply:

We believe that the innovations mentioned above are a cornerstone of publishing success in the future. That’s why we built our foundation on them–getting the infrastructure firmly planted with a capability for flexibility, adaptability and scale. And as to the advice offered above about innovations that publishers should be taking full advantage of …

We already are.

P.S. Here’s one of my personal beliefs:

“I respect the person who knows what they wish. The greatest part of all mischief in the world arises from the fact that most do not sufficiently understand their own aims. They have undertaken to build a tower, and spend no more labor on the foundation than would be necessary to erect a hut.”

~ Goethe

From Dennis Lowery:

It’s perhaps not astounding but is certainly interesting that Jeff Bezos (a CEO whose business is largely built on delivering books) and J.K. Rowling (an author) top the 2011 Guardian and Observer Power 100 list of people that have the greatest influence on the UK’s reading habits. I know their influence reaches far beyond the United Kingdom, in fact it extends worldwide. I also note that James Patterson is in the top five. Patterson, a prolific author and even more prolific book developer, leveraging his name and book franchise/brands, is the poster boy for how to take creative talent (his own and others) fuse that with proven business concepts and become the Henry Ford of producing commercially successful books. (According to Forbes, Patterson earned his publisher about $500 million over the last two years.)

Writers, publishers and those whose business model is predicated on intellectual property should view these successful individuals and their respective way of achieving significant financial and professional success as a learning guide to cherry pick applicable parts for their own business and creative efforts (by the way I don’t consider the two, business and creative, mutually exclusive). I certainly have. (Read closely this article about James Patterson from the New York Times.)

At Adducent and with our teaming partner, ArkWatch Holdings, we have in work projects that are the first of a steady flow of books with original characters and story lines that have all the elements of other tremendously successful book and character brands. We’re excited at the prospects the future holds.

This is just another stone in the foundation of what I believe in—creating and controlling content and/or the delivery mechanism (or aligning with someone who can provide that) is the key to creating wealth with intellectual property. And that is perhaps the ultimate diversification move to compensate for vagaries in other markets.

As Louis Armstrong once sang, “I think to myself… what a wonderful world.” 

At MarketWatch you’ll you see:

Adducent and ArkWatch Launch Venture to Monetize Intellectual Property of Digital Entertainment Assets

12 September, 2011: JACKSONVILLE, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Look at it from a business perspective. Many factors affect the value of real estate, of stocks and commodities in the financial markets… and even the equity in privately held businesses. Often those factors are beyond the investor or business owner’s control. But what about the value of intellectual property that has mass market appeal and interest?

http://eon.businesswire.com/news/eon/20110912006690/en

The stability and value of intellectual property is a unique story (no pun intended) as a business model. Ideas, thoughts put to paper, manifested in print, audio and film (including today’s digital environment)—a creator’s labor turned into a tangible product with appeal to a mass market. This is a rich and fertile environment for those who know how to develop a pipeline for it. Fantastic wealth and business empires have been built on that very fact (think of Walt Disney and how J.K Rowling became one of the richest people in the world in less than ten years).

Two established companies have teamed to make that a focus: the development of intellectual property with brand and franchise potential with mass market global appeal and then delivering it through established distribution and sales channels.

The companies are Adducent, Inc., a Florida based publisher, and ArkWatch Holdings LLC, an Arizona based intellectual property holding company. Working together to leverage their experience, expertise and existing portfolio; they have developed new intellectual property (and more to come) with shelf-life and lasting value in the market. This is possible because of their ability to develop, as the core of all of their intellectual property, topics and themes that have huge perennial interest from readers and movie goers. The first book from this collaboration, Serpentauria: Ark of Extinction will release in November and the live-action movie based on the book (part of a co-production agreement with Enriching Pictures Inc.) begins production in 2012. A completed feature-length animated movie, The Legend of Secret Pass, from an original story by ArkWatch’s CEO, Erik Daniel Shein, will be released in early 2012 and follows the ArkWatch mission of “Believe in magic.”

ArkWatch Holdings LLC, Erik Daniel Shein, CEO & Managing Principal

Adducent, Inc., Dennis M. Lowery, President

Enriching Pictures Inc., David Borg, President

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6857410&lang=en