News and opinion on the changing world of book publishing
Cindy Peng | August 2010
In this age of undead Bennets and robo-Karenina, a different kind of mash-up is on the literary horizon: cross-vertical social media. Startups like GetGlue, LivingSocial, and Blippr are all-in-one social media hubs for a user’s complete entertainment discussion needs: books, films, TV shows, music, even beer and wine. Cross-vertical referrals match books with films or [...]
{ 0 comments }
Laura Hazard Owen | July 2010
The 3 million iPads sold as of June were a major topic of discussion at two conferences this month: The Big Money’s Untethered 2010: Profitable Media in the Tablet Era, and the Digital Publishing and Advertising Conference. Untethered was aimed more directly at book publishers, and its “Future of Book Publishing” panel included publishing head [...]
{ 1 comment }
Cindy Peng | April 2010
As authors venture further into inking separate e-book or multimedia deals with publishers like Open Road, the threat of lawsuits from their print publishers looms. The legal tug-of-war has only just begun with the 2001 judgment in the Random House v. Rosetta Books case, said speakers at the “Rethinking Author Contracts for the Digital World” panel during last month’s Publishing Business Conference in New York.
{ 3 comments }
Laura Hazard Owen | March 2010
“If you don’t eat your own children, someone else will”: That’s how Michael Mace, Principal of the Silicon Valley–based Rubicon Consulting, began his presentation, “Check Out My Scars: Seven Lessons from the Failure of E-Books in 2000, and What They Mean to the Future of Electronic Publishing,” at the 2010 O’Reilly Tools of Change for [...]
{ 3 comments }
February 2010
People Roundup Lots of movement at Barnes & Noble: Liz Scheier has joined Barnes & Noble.com as Editorial Director, working with publishers to create “unique, exclusive content digital opportunities throughout our digital distribution platforms, including in store programs” and reporting to Theresa Horner, VP Digital Products. She was most recently Director of Publishing Relations at [...]
{ 0 comments }
Laura Hazard Owen | July 2009
Colin Robinson, former Publisher, Verso Press and The New Press, and Scribner senior editor; John Oakes, former Grove Press Editor and founder of 4 Walls, 8 Windows ORBooks The Model Sell books directly to the customer, or through independent bookstores, in either print-on-demand format or as e-books. No returns, so selling and buying on a [...]
{ 0 comments }
April 2009
PT thanks New York–based marketing consultant Rich Kelley for his reporting. Social media and search had quite a mashup at this year’s Search Engine Strategies Conference. For three days, 5500 attendees alternated between panels on social media optimization strategies, talks on Google’s new AdWords interface, tuning websites for search, and much more. For its opening [...]
{ 0 comments }
January 2009
David Rothman Founder, Teleread.org Sure, Oprah loves the Kindle, Amazon’s gizmo for reading electronic books, even if it looks a bit like a Soviet-made adding machine. And a second model probably will be on the way—in fact, perhaps two. We just might see an econo-Kindle and a large-screened version for students. Forbes is so excited [...]
{ 0 comments }
Laura Hazard Owen | November 2008
They’re not yet ubiquitous on the subway. And the “paperless office” is still a dream at this point. Our second annual industry survey of industry professionals found that 70% of respondents had never read an e-book. It’s unlikely that entry-level employees will receive shiny new Sony Readers with their company handbooks any time soon. Still, [...]
{ 1 comment }
Laura Hazard Owen | September 2008
Even though much of the Manhattan publishing crowd was out of the city for at least a couple of weeks, Summer 2008 was surprisingly heavy on drama of the publishing variety. Here, we spice up your Labor Day weekend by providing a rundown of the events that shook up the city this season. SHERRY ARGOV [...]
{ 0 comments }
