News and opinion on the changing world of book publishing
PT thanks content developer and marketing consultant Rich Kelley for this piece. When Pulitzer Prize-winner Jonathan Weiner, author of a book on immortality (Long for This World), blogs that he is looking forward to hearing four scientists “talk (and possibly) spar” about the current state of longevity research, you expect he knows something. And World Science Festival [...]
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PT thanks New York-based marketing consultant Rich Kelley for this report. “Content is no longer something you hand down from on high on a sacred tablet,” advised John Byrne, editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek. Today it’s more like “a campfire that you use to gather people. What becomes important is what then happens among the people.” The [...]
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August 2007
It’s over, tape worms. Audio Renaissance published its last cassette this year: Janet Evanovich’s Lean Mean Thirteen. Random House Audio reports a format breakdown of 85% CDs and 15% digital downloads, with tape sales negligible. Retailers don’t sell cassettes, duplicators don’t duplicate them, and publishers don’t produce them anymore. Audible.com, often considered the benchmark of [...]
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May 2005
NYU’s Center for Publishing hosted its third Management Forum for Small and Independent Publishers April 15-16, and got an impressive turnout from around the country. Director Robert Baensch hosted the event. Friday morning was devoted to the Big Picture, and Bruce Harris, who headed sales at Random before going to Workman and now, consulting, gave [...]
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September 2004
People Maureen O’Neal has left Ballantine and can be reached by email at mrnoneal@aol.com. Elizabeth Dyssegaard is also leaving at the end of the summer. Katherine Beitner to HarperCollins as Associate Publishing Director. She was Director of Publicity for Harmony and Shaye Areheart Books. In children’s books there is more movement: Last month Diana Blough [...]
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February 2004
Far-Flung Regional Houses Hit the Heartland Bull’s-Eye Just one word: scrapbooking. Yes, scrapbooking is the fastest-growing hobby sector in the United States, with sales of related supplies — presumably including books — quadrupling in the past five years to an estimated $2 billion, as the New York Times recently noted, and projected to grow as [...]
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February 2003
MP3 Audio Is the Next Big Thing. Unless It’s Audiobook Suicide. The average Los Angeles motorist now spends 136 hours per year sitting stock-still in traffic, according to the landmark Texas Transportation Institute study, and audiobook publishers are thrilled. Indeed, the apocalyptic fate of our nation’s highway infrastructure is rehearsed by audio industry brass with [...]
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