In the May Issue:

Bookview 05/07

The Shape Shifters

International Bestsellers: Murders and Miracles

This Book Is Brought To You By...

What's New at BEA

Publishing Trends May Issue 2007

IN THIS ISSUE (VOL.XIV, NUMBER V):

The Shape Shifters
Publishers Adapt the Physical Limits of the Books for a Better Fit in a Digital World
Countless are the questions and few are the solutions publishers encounter when approaching “the digital problem” confronting the industry. But several publishers seem to be cracking the code, albeit from different ends of the spectrum. Travel publishers are capitalizing on its category’s unique potential to be nuggetized and monetized digitally, at times even rendering a physical book unnecessary. Other publishers are inadvertantly solving the problem by enhancing exactly the elements of a book that a download will never have–texture, heft, uniqueness–through issuing special limited editions. PT checks out both strategies. . .

International Bestsellers: Murders and Miracles
Tannöd, Germany’s current number one fiction title, overcame two obstacles to win the prestigious 2007 Krimipreis for the best crime novel: the protagonist is not an investigator or super sleuth as is typical in crime fiction, and it is Andrea Maria Schenkel’s debut. She based the genre-bending novel on actual unsolved murders that took place in a small Bavarian village called Tannöd over eighty years ago. Late at night on an isolated farm, six people, including two children, were killed with a pickaxe. . .
(To view the International Bestselling Fiction chart, download the full issue here)

May Bookview
Carl Raymond has been recruited by Scholastic’s Trade president, Lisa Holton, to the newly created position of Director of New Media Projects. He was most recently Adult Publishing Director of DK. . .

This Book Is Brought To You By...
With ads appearing on everything from cup holders to subway risers to (ok, to use an extreme case) people’s skin, books remain one of the last of the ad-free sacred spaces. Other than the occasional unsuccessful attempt at inserts (1970's cigarette ads) and product placement (Bulgari anyone?), publishing has never looked seriously at advertising as a means to float the written word. . .

What's New BEA?
During the last week of April, everyone registered for BEA received an email with a log-in code and password for MyBEA – the BEA social networking site created by EventMingle. Following the links and setting up an account is easy (especially for the MySpace crowd), but whether people will actually use the site to its full potential (or at all for that matter) is yet to be seen. . .

©2007 Publishing Trends