News and opinion on the changing world of book publishing
August 2011
A new horse entered the e-reader race this past month, creating intrigue, though not a lot of fear, among its competitors. The iRiver Story represents the first e-reader that is integrated with Google eBooks, which gives it a bit of clout. But while the iRiver Story’s HD display with eInk technology helps ranks its screen [...]
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July 2011
PEOPLE John Glusman, who was Executive Editor at Crown, has been named VP andEditor-in-Chief at Norton, replacing Star Lawrence, who will remain Vice Chairman and become Editor at Large. Fodor Publisher Tim Jarrell is leaving the company, as a result of a reorganization announced by Nina von Moltke, VP Digital Publishing Development. He may be [...]
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June was a busy month for e-reader coverage, as the unveiling of the All-New Nook from Barnes & Noble at the end of May inspired a changing of the tide for the Little E-reader That Could, propelling a once-clumsy model into the lead with reviewers in the e-reader arms race thanks to its affordable price [...]
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June 2011
PEOPLE The big news of the month-and at BEA-is that Larry Kirshbaum will become VP and Publisher of Amazon Publishing in New York, a new position many had vied for. Kirshbaum has been an agent since he left Time Warner Books as it was merged with Hachette in 2005. Amazon has had a busy month [...]
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April 2011
People Philip Patrick has joined Amazon.com, in Seattle, as Senior Leader, Rights & Licensing. He was most recently VP, Digital & Marketing Strategy, Publisher Ebooks at Crown Publishing Group. Margot Schupf has left her position as VP, Publisher, Sterling Innovation. She was previously SVP, Editorial Director, Digital Publishing for the Morrow/Avon/Eos group. Meanwhile, Derry Wilkins, [...]
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Laura Hazard Owen | February 2011
Methodology: We calculated each title’s points score based on its position on the respective e-book retailer’s top sellers list, that retailer’s market share, and the average sales ratio between each title in the print book hardcover fiction lists for the past 20 weeks (based on Nielsen BookScan data). Market share was tricky to calculate, especially [...]
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Laura Hazard Owen | December 2010
For more results from this survey, check out Book-Giving Etiquette Guide and I Love You, Keith Richards. “My siblings assume that every book I get is free, so they expect books AND a ‘real present.’” “Any time I give a book, I fear it will be assumed that I did not pay for it, so [...]
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Laura Hazard Owen | October 2010
In a recent interview, Random House CEO Markus Dohle said he is “convinced that publishers have to become more reader oriented in a marketing and trend finding/setting way rather than in a direct to consumer selling way.” The tricky part: How can publishers be trendspotters? In this two-part series, we will try to address that [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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