ePublishing Associates

Getting an iPad for Christmas? Get these apps now!

2011-12-22T14:16:00.006-06:00

Yes, this is only my third post this year, and it doesn't count because I am using it to promote some really good deals on some really cool stuff we've built this year. If you have an iPad or you are getting one for Christmas there are three apps I must recommend. We just lowered the prices to $.99 each at least through January so get them now.

Resurrection iWitness

Hands down, this is the coolest app we've done to date--great graphics, music, animation, and content. You can check out this video if you don't believe me, but I'm telling you it is totally worth $.99 just to play with it.

A Parable About the King

This is the bestselling children's book by Beth Moore. It includes audio of Beth reading the book or record yourself reading it to your child.

My Go to Bed Book

Originally published in 1956, the classic bedtime book is great for toddlers or early readers. Turn on the highlight feature to see each word light up as it is read. Or record Grandma reading the story while she's in town for Christmas and she can haunt your dreams, I mean read to your precious children, all year long.

Get all of them now for just $.99 each.

The Value of Access

2011-06-24T11:42:00.004-05:00

Today we introduced a new, potentially disruptive, digital book selling paradigm through MyStudyBible.com. For the first time ever readers are able to purchase access to our content based on their access need: 24-hours, 30-days, and unlimited. Most books will be available for $.99 for 24-hours.

If you are an avid fiction reader you may be thinking 24-hour access is worthless, and you'd be right unless you're a speed-reader or if you'd prefer to sample an entire book instead of a single chapter or the percentage you can get from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Google, etc. This new paid access paradigm is an experiment and we may discover our readers want a minimum of 72 hours or that they only access their 30-day content for 2 weeks, but timed access is a model that I think is going to resonate with our users.

Kevin Kelly, one of the founders of Wired magazine, challenged publishers with his "Better than Free" presentation at Tools of Change in February to prepare as though the value of a book in the future will be $0 - $.99. Kelly also talked about the shifting consumer value paradigm from ownership to access--the concept that spending $100 to access a library of 10,000 books is more valuable than spending $100 to own 10 books. We are taking steps to answer Kelly's challenge.

In a blog post "Ebooks. How far? How fast?" Dominique Raccah of Sourcebooks pointed out how nonfiction categories of "dippable" books are lagging in the ebook market. The Bible is the quintessential "dippable" text, with readers often dipping into several different sections in one sitting. The ebook industry to date has been established on narrative text--fiction, history, business, leadership--anything you can read from beginning to end. But, try to read any kind of complex text on a simple text reading device or app and you are in for a rough experience. The Kindle or Nook are not the best delivery vehicles for reference books, textbooks, and the like. If you've ever tried to follow a sermon reading a Bible on the Kindle and had to navigate its 66 books and 1189 chapters by the table of contents, you know exactly what I mean.

The Bible is a unique text that is central to the Christian life and a common thread in everything we publish. MyStudyBible.com is a platform built to deliver a superior experience for reading and studying the Bible, and discovering other related content. The Bible itself becomes the circuitry connecting any content that references the Bible to any other content making the same reference. Our vision is to provide free, affordable, and accessible world-class biblical solutions for leaders and Christians around the world. Not all our users can afford a $500 set of commentaries, but $20 per month may be a more affordable option for them.

It is an exciting future as you imagine this system becoming extensible in a transmedia age, linking not only text but images, sermons, music, blog posts and other content, all discoverable and accessible through the lens of Scripture.

"For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any two-edged sword" Hebrews 4:12

Do eBooks Hold the Keys to Monetizing Web Content?

2011-02-01T21:19:00.010-06:00

Digital Book World was challenging, energizing, and inspiring. So many great opportunities and ideas.

One of the challenges we all face is "free." There was some good data and discussion at the conference. Mike Shatzin addresses part of the conversation here in his post on the crowded publishing space. Research presented at the conference showed that 40%-50% of the content downloaded by digital book readers is free, meaning those readers are paying for 50%-60% of the content they are downloading. The reality is that the market expects free content and will pay for what it likes. Free increases the pressure to publish excellent content. Finding the balance between free and paid, how much is free, and how long it is free is something we'll continue to experiment with and discover. I suspect the free equation will remain dynamic--a moving target--and an important part of content pricing strategy.

As a Bible publisher. we've been especially challenged with the proposition of free. The Bible is free digitally everywhere, but that is nothing new. Bibles have been freely available in hotel rooms and church pews for decades, and online for the the past decade. Now we are making it available free by download too, through YouVersion apps and ebook downloads, but we've found other value propositions for the consumer. The text edition is free, but the reference edition with linked cross references and footnotes is one price, and the Study Bible with linked commentary and notes is another price. I'll share more of that at my Tools of Change presentation, MoBible: Why LifeWay Wants You to Play with Your Phone in Church.

One of the more exciting thoughts I had at the conference, though, is the idea that books--ebooks--may hold the key to monetization of web content. For years media companies have struggled with how to monetize content (beyond advertising) when the market expects/demands to get information, news, and entertainment for free. The answer may very well be the ebook. The market understands a book is a unit of text-based content that carries value, and the market has demonstrated a willingness to purchase and consume content digitally in these units. With the new ePub3 spec due out in March supporting external links and HTML5, ebooks also become sellable units and delivery mechanisms for related video, audio, and more external content. Ebooks become the new cross-platform apps.

As Shatzkin pointed out, The New York Times "Open Secrets" wikileaks insta-ebook is a perfect example of a news media company monetizing content in and through an ebook. Yes, the digital marketplace makes it easier for any media company to publish and monetize content and puts more pressure on publishing companies to produce superior product, all of which is only good for reading, readers, writers, editors, and all the rest of us who love books.

New HCSB eBook Editions Available Now, More Coming Soon

2010-10-07T16:24:00.016-05:00

I'm excited about our publishing plan for digital editions of the HCSB (Holman Christian Standard Bible). There's been a lot of downward pressure on prices in the publishing industry. precipitated largely by mass market price wars and the digital revolution. One of the hardest hit is the bestselling book of all time, The Bible, available (as it should be) free almost anywhere you look online. So, how does a Bible publisher exist when the core text is free?

Don't fight it.

We are releasing several editions of the HCSB at different price points, the core of which is the HCSB: Digital Text Edition. All the footnotes, cross references, and textual links have been removed, funky line breaks and formatting issues have been cleaned up, the words of Christ are rendered in black, not red, for optimal display on e-ink devices, the table of contents links to the chapter level only--all of which provides a very clean presentation that is easy and fast to navigate. It is the cleanest version of the HCSB text and it is free. It is available now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CBD, Sony, iBooks (Dear Apple, please give us a way to link to product pages for iBooks like you have for apps), and others coming online soon.

The HCSB: Digital Reference Edition has also been updated and optimized for easy reading on digital devices. It includes more than 35,000 links to textual notes, alternate readings, explanatory notes, cross references, and Old Testament citations in the New Testament. THIRTY-FIVE THOUSAND LINKS. Let that sink in for just a minute. It is available for $9.99. It is also available now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CBD, eBooks.com, Sony, iBooks, and others coming online soon.

The ebook edition of the HCSB Study Bible is still being optimized for use on ebook devices. In addition to the 35,000+ linked footnotes from the Reference Edition, the Study Bible also includes links more than 15,000 study notes and essays, 290 word studies, and 250 photographs, maps, illustrations, and charts. While the ebook version is still in development, we continue to get rave reviews for the iOS app and free online version at MyStudyBible.com.

The HCSB: Word Study Edition is also in development now. It is the reference edition with additional links to the Strong's Greek & Hebrew Dictionary definitions for the original language root words behind the English words. While this is still in development for most ebook reading devices, it is available now from Olive Tree for iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Symbian, or find links to Strong's Definitions on any web enabled device at MyStudyBible.com.

Each of these editions offer additional content and varying depths of connectivity providing the reader with different tools around which the value can be established, while at its core the Bible is free--as it should be.

Announcing the HCSB Study Bible app for iPhone and iPad

2010-08-31T11:56:00.011-05:00

It is finally here! The HCSB Study Bible has been in development for several years and I am thrilled to have a hand in publishing this important Bible and I'm genuinely excited about some of the amazing digital tools we are able to provide for those interested in deeper, richer study the Bible.

Carefully developed and designed for study Bible readers, The HCSB Study Bible includes more than 15,000 study notes, 290 word studies, 141 photographs, 62 timelines, 59 maps, 24 articles, 16 illustrations and reconstructions, 15 charts, 3 Bible reading plans, and much more.

The HCSB Study Bible App for iPhone and iPad features include:

* Synced side-by-side display of Bible text and study notes

* Synced image display of maps, charts, illustrations, and more

* Words linked to Strong's Greek & Hebrew definition popups

* Linked footnotes, cross references, and HCSB bullet notes popups

* Add your own personal notes, highlights, and bookmarks

* Customized reading plans

Other features include:

* An introduction to every book of the Bible, the circumstances of writing, author, background, message and purpose of the book, its contribution to the Bible, structure, outline and timeline.

* Topical concordance

* 52-week Scripture memory plan

* Plan of salvation

Some of the essays and contributors include:

"How to Read and Study the Bible" by George H. Guthrie

"The Resurrection of Jesus Christ as a Historical Event" by Gary R. Habermas

"The Missional Church" by Ed Stetzer

"Jesus and Atonement in the Old Testament" by Eugene H. Merrill

"The Historical Reliability of the New Testament" by Craig L. Blomberg

Study notes contributors include Tremper Longman III, Walter C. Kaiser, A. Boyd Luter, Andreas J. Köstenberger, Kendell H. Easley, David S. Dockery, and many others. For a complete list of contributors visit http://hcsbstudybible.com/contributors

Powered by the bestselling Olive Tree BibleReader engine, this app can also be synced to include other content from your Olive Tree account.

Right now, we are offering this app for $9.99 for a limited time only!

And, that's not even the best news.

We still have yet to unveil Secret Project H.

Coming soon...

LifeWay's Best iOS Apps

2010-08-27T09:37:00.018-05:00

We've been creating and publishing apps for a little more than a year. We currently have 13 apps available in the iTunes App Store, two more in review at Apple, and several in development. Of our 13 app, 8 are ranked among the top sellers and free downloads of ALL book apps.

BEST SELLING iPHONE APPS (at 9:44 am Central time August 27, 2010)

#18 The Love Dare: 40 Dares

#85 Fast Facts

#82 memoryVerses

#93 Love Dare Reminders

#130 Twisted Scripture

#139 HCSB BibleReader

TOP FREE iPHONE APPS (at 9:51 am Central time August 27, 2010)

#44 The Love Dare Day by Day

#63 Praying God's Word Prayer Cards

BEST SELLING iPAD APPS (at 9:53 am Central time August 27, 2010)

#78 Love Dare Reminders

#82 memoryVerses

TOP FREE iPAD APPS (at 9:56 am Central time August 27, 2010)

#71 Praying God's Word Prayer Cards

iPhone Apps from LifeWay Digital and B&H Publishing Group

2010-04-02T11:54:00.023-05:00

Someone recently asked where they could find a link to all our apps. An iTunes search for HCSB or LifeWay will turn up most of them, but not all. Here are links to each of them. Just click the icon to launch iTunes and/or see the info page at apple.com.

Four new apps just released this week, The Apologetics Study Bible, The Apologetics Study Bible for Students, Twisted Scripture, and Fast Facts, Challenges and Tactics.

Going Hulu: Six Things Bible Publishers Can REALLY Do to Work Together - (My BibleTech Presentation Part 3 of 3)

2010-03-30T22:00:00.012-05:00

What does any of this have to do with Hulu? Well I have to admit, I went a different direction from what I originally had in mind, but to a certain degree it still applies. As you know, Hulu is owned by NBC Universal and Fox but is run independently. Their structure gives them freedom to move in the market without being encumbered by the branding or individual priorities of the different owners, yet gives them access to a great pool of content, and marketing reach to a huge consumer base. And Hulu demonstrates each of the six lessons we are learning about digital publishing.

Lesson 1: Content is more valuable together than in silos.
The great pool of content amassed by NBC and Fox draws a significant audience making this attractive for other content providers and advertisers.

Lesson 2: There is no “either—or.” You must think, “both—and.”
It is not broadcast or syndication, cable or satellite, television or Internet. It is both-and.

Lesson 3: Connecting directly with consumers is more important than ever.
Hulu connects two major networks directly with consumers without intermediary broadcast stations, cable or satellite providers. Through that access they gain valuable data to people’s viewing habits and trends that can help inform programming decisions, as well as another advertising revenue channel.

Lesson 4: Online content represents new revenue, not a threat to old models.
Hulu broke two traditions: going direct to consumers through the Internet and the collaboration of two significant competitors instead of building their own individual platforms.

Lesson 5: Capture all the value under the demand curve.
NBC and Fox are capturing one more valuable channel. They get ad revenue, data, and a direct connection with their customers. They are still broadcasting, syndicating, airing reruns, selling DVDs, and more.

Lesson 6: Enhanced content does not have to mean bells and whistles.
One of my favorit features of Hulu is the ability to low light everything around the screen and just watch the show. Simple and effective.

Now, what can Bible publishers do to achieve the Hulu effect? Here are six things we came up with at BibleTech and I’d love to hear more.

Put your content everywhere. Our content is more valuable together. Amazon, Sony, Apple, Logos, WORDsearch, Olive Tree. The burden is on each of those retailers and each of us publishers to create a community, an environment, and content people like and trust. Consumers will be loyal to their communities so put your stuff everywhere if you want everyone to have it.

Make a direct connection with your customers. If you don’t want to sell directly, work out a unique deal with someone who will process the orders and share the data. You’ve got to give your consumers a place to gather and talk to you directly.

Put your money where your mouth is. If you like the agency model, are you willing to offer it? If you have an app or a Web site where you can sell a competitor’s digital products, will you do it? Will you give them 70%? Don’t cling to the licensing model when selling other publishers’ content and ask for the agency model when selling your own content.

Develop a better ePub Bible. We’ve finally arrived at a place where one file format allows us to get to the entire market, more or less, but it is not entirely conducive to Bible reading, especially linking. Let’s develop a standard for best TOC navigation, footnote and cross-reference linking, study Bible notes and extra-biblical content (think ebook+ Bible with link Scripture references).

Share. Let’s tell each other what we are doing and what we are learning from it. Of course we need to protect certain trade secrets and attempt to gain some strategic advantage in a competitive market, but some of that can be accomplished by actually helping each other. Sean Harrison from Tyndale has started a new site at DigitalBibleForum.com. Join the conversation.

Get face to face. BibleTech was a great conference because of the people and the time we had to share our ideas. If you are involved in religious and digital publishing at any level, go ahead and put it on your calendar for next year. And, we need to meet regularly throughout the year, together, and in our own cities. B&H is in Nashville with Nelson, Howard, FaithWords, and UMPH. Tyndale and Crossway and Moody are close enough for a snowball fight. Zondervan and Baker are in each other’s backyard. And I promise that every one of us has somebody who is interested in growing digital publishing. Go to lunch and talk about your boss who doesn’t “get it” and all the ways we could be working together. Then look for an announcement on a time for all of us to convene around the topic of digital for the express purpose of helping each other succeed for the kingdom and glory of God.

Thank you.

Six Lessons We've Learned About Digital Publishing (My BibleTech Presentation Part 2)

2010-03-30T21:56:00.026-05:00

Lesson 1: Content is more valuable together than in silos.

Consumers want convenience. They want what the want when they want it. Period. A customer who is loyal to Amazon or Logos is happy when they want a B&H resource and a Tyndale resource and don’t have to go two places to get it. Our content needs to be everywhere, available any way a customer wants to consume it.

We are learning this lesson from Logos. Bob Pritchett made an excellent presentation at Tools of Change where he said, “The margin is in the mystery.” What he meant was that the Logos database is mysterious to the consumer. They know it is deep and rich, inner-connected and constantly growing and being updated and that is worth something. Bob also said, “We publish ebooks. We used to call it Bible software, but we publish ebooks.” The difference is when you sell a $15 print book and turn around to sell the digital edition the consumer expects to get that digital edition for less than the price of the print edition. When the consumer looks at the Logos database they have no frame of reference to determine the value. They can charge hundreds of dollars for libraries of content and the margin is in the mystery. Pretty smart.

Other examples include YouVersion and BibleGateway. A guy in my men’s group recently held up his iPhone and said, “I’ve never read the Scriptures like this before—comparing one translation to another.” The ability to immediately compare translations without lugging around some massive parallel Bible is a great consumer benefit, and it is the new expectation—any translation I want, free. Our Bibles are more valuable to consumers together than on their own.

Lesson 2: There is no “either—or.” You must think, “both—and.”

Digital is a long way from dominating print. It may never dominate print in some categories. Let’s face it: the printed, bound book is an amazing piece of technology. It is portable, economical, durable, user-friendly and intuitive, instantly on, sharable, you can add notes and bookmarks, etc, etc. And, printed books have been around for hundreds of years and will continue to be produced for hundreds more. I am reminded of a conversation I had with a friend recently remembering when digital watches came on the scene and people were concerned that digital clocks would take over and people would forget how to tell time on an analog clock. Today we have both. It is not a matter of analog or digital, print or ebook, brick-and-mortar or online, wholesale or direct, professionally published or self-published (See Scott Sigler’s talk from Tools of Change), it is both-and.

Lesson 3: Connecting directly with consumers is more important than ever.

Consumers are gravitating to, and influenced by, communities more than ever. A publisher’s identity at the consumer level means more today than ever before. Your brand already means something to a community—it already IS a community. There is an opportunity to increase the value of your brand and increase the size of your community by connecting with the people in that community. We need to know our consumers now more than ever before, and as we connect with them we create an opportunity for greater learning and better product development, greater influence, and higher margin sales.

At the same time, we know people are loyal to their communities. People who love Crossway may never join the LifeWay community, and vice versa, but we still want those people to have access to our material, and we want our community to have access to Crossway’s material. (Another example of both-and.)

By connecting directly with consumers digital provides fascinating analytics to inform new decisions. One of the things we are able to see through our Praying God’s Word app are 14 different spiritual strongholds people wrestle with. We can track trends in the seasons and volume at which people are dealing with things like depression, addiction, etc. It becomes one more window to get to know our customers better so we can provide better resources and solutions for them.

Another interesting piece of learning (that seems obvious now but was not as we were racing to market) is connecting with felt needs. We developed two free apps with the intent of driving in-app sales of $.99 content parcels. Praying God’s Word comes free with prayers on one topic and 13 more topics available for $.99 each. If someone were to purchase all of them they would get all the same content from the book and pay about the price of a paperback. We used the same logic for a daily devotional, giving away 30 days free and selling additional 30-day readings for $.99 each. If one were to buy all 12 installments they would pay about the same price as the print edition. Smart huh?

In-app sales of the Praying God’s Word have been through the roof. We are very pleased. In-app sales of the devo are dismal. What did we do wrong?

We didn’t connect with the user’s felt need. We presented the content as days 31-60, 61-90, etc. We repeated the same graphic and didn’t give the consumer any indication that this content would meet a need. The great thing about digital is that we get to do it over and issue updates. We are currently reviewing and categorizing the daily readings by topic so we can present, “Devotions for Intimacy,” “Devotions for Communication,” etc, etc., and we expect a significant increase in in-app sales.

Another fascinating thing to consider is tracking where people are in books. Sync technology allows Amazon to sync the last place you read on your desktop with your Kindle and your phone, so whatever device you’re reading you pick up exactly where you left off. That means Amazon knows exactly what people are reading. As an editor, wouldn’t it be great to know something like 70% of readers never come back to the book after chapter 3? You would know something is wrong with chapter 3 and needs to be fixed. Imagine how we could increase the effectiveness of written communication with that kind of reader feedback.

Lesson 4: Online content represents new revenue, not a threat to old models.

One of the great examples I heard about at the Digital Book World Conference was PoetrySpeaks.com—a site for poets, poetry readers, and poetry publishers. It is a well-defined niche with a strong sense of personal identity and community and they are selling text, audio, and video poetry online. They tracked one publisher’s physical books through retail using Neilsen Bookscan and sales for that publisher increased 55% in the six weeks following posting their content on the site compared to the six weeks prior. Granted, this is very new data, not a very long reporting period, and it is POETRY. You can go from selling 9 copies to 14 copies and it is a 55% increase, but it is still an impressive and important report. In her presentation at TOC, Dominique Raccah, CEO and publisher of Sourcebooks, Inc. and PoetrySpeaks.com, commenting on the need for accurate data also said that, “Transformation is in the margins,” meaning that the change we all feel coming is happening now, in the tiny fractions on the fringes of our business and that information can teach us a lot if we can get accurate data and pay attention to it.

Another example, closer to home for us, is our iPhone app for Praying God’s Word. The app is based on the bestselling book of the same title by Beth Moore. It contains an introduction and Scripture prayers on 14 different topics. Originally, we sold the app for $.99 it came with the general introduction and 30 prayers on the topic of faith. Also available were prayers on the other 13 topics for $.99 each.

Initially there was backlash from customers who thought they were getting ALL the topics for $.99, regardless of how clear we made the description. We decided to experiment with pricing and made the base app and 30 prayers free. Downloads went up 700% and in-app purchases rose as well. We increased brand exposure and the customer base by giving the app away free, and we are converting about 30% of the giveaways to in-app purchases. Is there any other direct marketing strategy with a 30% conversion rate? I hear 1-3% is more typical. But what about print sales? Well, our example is skewed because we released a paperback edition of the book a few months prior to releasing the app but all indications are that print sales are as strong or stronger than ever.

You all are familiar with O’Reilly—publisher of software manuals? They started BookSafariOnline five years ago, at which time about one-third of their business came from digital and two-thirds from print. In five years that split has completely reversed. 70% of their business now comes from digital and 30% print. Granted they have a digitally inclined community, but that is an awesome shift. What are some key factors: they experiment with pricing models, they have included other publishers’ content, they connected directly with their customers and listened to them.

Lesson 5: Capture all the value under the demand curve.

Richard Nash is launching a new digital publishing venture called Cursor and made this point very well on a panel discussing new business models at Digital Book World. His point was that there are people who would pay $25,000 for a private weekend with an author, and thousands who would download a free mobile app, and others who will spend $.99 for a piece of the content. His point was that as a publisher, our job is to capture all the value of the demand curve. Dominique Raccah or Sourcebooks made a similar point at Tools of Change, referring to this idea as the “content continuum.”

In either case, this is a major shift in perspective for traditional publishers. It used to be that publishers were interested in hardcover and paperback rights and would sell off subsidiary rights for video, audio, curriculum, even digital. Publishers are now going to need to exploit all rights in order to capture all the value under the demand curve. Hardcover and paperback does not a book make.

Lesson 6: Enhanced content does not have to mean bells and whistles.

So often when people talk about enhanced ebooks they talk about integrating audio and video and gaming and other bells and whistles, which are all great and we should pursue all of it, but it is not the only way to enhance an ebook. In fact, it may not even be the most valuable way to enhance an ebook. Watching video or listening to audio or playing a game are all very different experiences from reading. Reading engages the mind unlike any other activity. One friend said to me recently that he feared significant decline in reading when the iPad hits the market. “Are people really going to choose to read when they could watch video or play a game?” I actually think the effect will be the opposite. That choice is in front of us right now and you either like to read or you don’t. I actually think tablet devices are a kind of Trojan horse for ebooks. Many people will buy them for video, gaming, computing, etc, and the ease of purchase, portability, attractive user interface, and enhancements that make digital reader a more meaningful experience than reading in print, will actually attract more readers and increase reading.

Peter Meyers made an excellent presentation at Tools of Change called “Book Meets Tablet” where he shared several ideas for enhanced ebooks. One of my favorites was one he called the Col. Fitzwilliam problem. In Pride and Prejudice, the first name of the character Mr. Darcy is Fitzwilliam. There is a different character, Fitzwilliam Darcy’s cousin, Col. Fitzwilliam. Mayer’s idea is to tag every character and pronoun with a brief character bio and relationship profile so with a touch you can be reminded who someone is and their relationship to the story. You could tag settings, locations, etc. You could add notes to have curated content, with one author commenting on another author’s work.

Another one of the apps we created is an eBook+ BibleReader. It contains the complete text of the book, The Love Dare, and the complete text of the HCSB. All Scripture references in the book are linked to bring up a popup with the verse, or the user can set a split screen or tap over to read the verse in context of the complete Bible text. We are working on a similar structure for ePub to create eBook+ files for rendering in any ebook reader.

Come back tomorrow for six practical applications for ways publishers can apply these lessons and innovate together.

The Hulu Effect: A Call to Bible Publishers for Collaboration in Innovation - BibleTech Part 1

2010-03-30T21:37:00.027-05:00

Following is the script for a presentation I delivered at BibleTech Conference on March 26, 2010 entitled, The Hulu Effect: A Call to Bible Publishers for Collaboration in Innovation. I’d like to thank my friends, new and old, from Tyndale, Crossway, Olive Tree, YouVersion, Logos, and others, for following up this presentation with discussion on real application of these lessons to actually work together in the days ahead. While the following posts aren’t exactly what I said, it is pretty close, and it is what I intended to say. I will be serializing the presentation over the next several days, and I’ll be augmenting it with new thoughts from the conversations that have occurred since, so even if you heard the presentation you may want to read along and please comment and keep the conversation going.

When I submitted my topic for consideration it came with a suggestion for a “business” or “publishing” track for the conference. I know most of you are technical people interested in technical information, but I am here to talk about the impact of digital on the business of Bible and reference publishers. I am calling this talk The Hulu Effect: A Call for Bible Publishers to Work Together.

My name is Paul Mikos and I am a publishing guy. I’ve been in the book and Bible publishing business for about 15 years and it is in my blood. I love publishing. I love the mission. I love the people. I love the tradition. I love the opportunity to be creative and entrepreneurial and independent. I’ve worked most of my career in marketing trade books and Bibles, the last five years acquiring and developing products, and the past year building a digital publishing program for B&H Publishing Group.

B&H is the trade book and Bible division of LifeWay Christian Resources. LifeWay is (arguably) the largest publisher of Christian materials in the world. We have three primary business units: LifeWay Christian Stores with 160 retail locations around the country; LifeWay Church Resources publishing quarterly Sunday school curriculum and small group resources for the church; and B&H Publishing Group publishing books and Bibles distributed through trade channels.

LifeWay is a self-funded, nonprofit agency of the Southern Baptist Convention—the largest Protestant denomination in the world with some 16 million members in 40,000 churches. LifeWay serves the denomination as well as the greater Church (capital C) providing resources for millions of people and nearly 100,000 churches.

In February LifeWay president Dr. Thom Rainer announced to our trustees that LifeWay will be a leader in the digital publishing space, presenting this vision: "LifeWay's digital strategy is to provide the right information to the right customer at the right time through the right medium at the right price."

Recently, I attended the Digital Book World Conference and the Tools of Change Conference and paid close attention to what I liked and disliked in the presentations. I found the most valuable presentations had data and ideas, so I’d like to share some data and ideas and six lessons we’ve learned in the past year.

The task of getting 120 year old traditional, institutional publisher geared up to be a leader in the digital arena has been wonderfully challenging and educational. I am very pleased with our progress. So, before I get to the lessons, here’s a quick report card on how we are doing.

Last year B&H adopted a 4-part digital strategy:

1. Increase ebook selection.

We have grown 233% from 75 titles this time last year to 250 titles today, and we expect to be at 600+ titles by June, which represents 99% of our active backlist sales. 100% of front list titles are now being published simultaneously in digital with print.

2. Increase ebook distribution.

Distribution channels have increased from 1 to 12 and we now believe we are reaching better than 95% of the ebook retail and library market.

Ebook sales have increased every quarter, and while this is certainly skewed by our increased selection, we understand this is a similar growth pattern across the industry. Note: we are looking at the Kindle growth chart because at this point Amazon has better than half the market share for us and they provide the best reports for analysis.

One interesting thing we spotted was the spike that occurs with the release of new devices. Kindle 2 and Kindle for iPhone released within a week of each other at this time last year and we saw a significant spike in sales, and we did not add any new titles in that period. Kindle DX released in the summer and we saw another bump. Kindle for PC released in November and we saw a HUGE rise in sales in November and December, which we must also attribute to Christmas but were delighted to see sales increase yet again in January. I am anxious to look at the February numbers and see the impact of Kindle for Blackberry, and Kindle for Mac which released last week, and of course the coming iPad app!

Some digital book milestones: Sales were up 800% January over January. In one month alone, sales in December 2009 doubled sales of November 2009. And in December, another title upset The Love Dare as our number one revenue producer for Kindle—The Apologetics Study Bible.

3. Increase experimentation.

Some experimentation we are doing is testing selling certain titles by chapters and sections, particularly for the academic arena. We are creating and selling derivative essays such as Senator DeMint’s Saving Freedom in Health Care, where we excerpted and edited everything the Senator had to say on the one issue of health care and sold it as a stand alone item. We are looking into selling spoken word audio downloads, separate from audio books, particularly when there is a sermon series connected with a particular title—which is pretty common for a lot of what we publish. And we are looking at a one price-all formats strategy for selling ebooks through LifeWay.com, though that is quickly becoming less relevant with the proliferation of apps across device platforms and books in the cloud, like the coming Google Editions.

4. Go mobile.

On the mobile front, we have been very successful. We currently have 13 branded apps in iTunes, 4 of which released this week, and 5 of which are in the top 100 paid and free book apps. I am very proud of that work and appreciative of our partnership with Olive Tree and others. I don’t see five apps in the app store from Penguin, or Macmillan, or any other the other big six New York publishers, but LifeWay has five and they are all connected in some way to pointing people to God’s Word.

So, what have we learned from all this?

Come back this week for the six lessons we’ve learned about digital publishing.

Digital Book World Conference schedule for Google Calendar and iCal

2009-12-21T10:25:00.005-06:00

I created this calendar for the schedule of events at the Digital Book World Conference and thought I would share it for anyone else using Google calendars or iCal imports.

To add this to Google Calendar, under Other Calendars, choose Add > By URL and paste in the following link: http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/lifeway.com_37ac0lbh1ipdd674ed0bpo0a4g@group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics

Or, click the link above and save the .ics file to import to your calendar.

This is my first time sharing a calendar so please post a comment to let me know if it worked or not.

Thanks, Paul.

Will delaying ebook releases of most popular titles "preserve our industry"?

2009-12-09T21:46:00.016-06:00

My work day started and ended (and twice in the middle) with people asking me if I heard the story from the Wall Street Journal that Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy announced they are planning to delay the ebook release of some of their new titles three to four months after the hardcover release, taking a stand against discount ebook pricing, and Hachette is doing the same. Before I went to bed I read the news that Harper Collins is also falling in line.

It is important not to lose sight of the fact that Simon & Schuster is talking about doing this with 35 out of 2000 titles they publish in a year. This strategy is for blockbuster releases, not for most books.

Last summer I applauded Dominique Raccah (in this post) for taking a similar, bold, and (at the time) unpopular stand, and starting this conversation when the WSJ reported that Sourcebooks would delay the ebook release of one of their major Fall titles. I'm becoming less convinced of the viability of this strategy.

Did you read the quote from Hachette Book Group CEO David Young?

"We're doing this to preserve our industry," Mr. Young said. "I can't sit back and watch years of building authors sold off at bargain-basement prices. It's about the future of the business."

Preserve our industry? Years of building authors? For a company as progressive as Hachette on the digital front, it sounds to me like Young is more concerned about the past than the "future of the business." This feels more like grasping at the stream to pull the water back into the bucket, but it may be too late. Compare these actions and statements to the position Amazon took three years ago selling digital books, often at a loss, to prime their pump into the digital market. They actually encouraged publishers to set their digital list price to match highest priced available print edition to increase the value of their $9.99 price point. Publishers were happy to oblige since Amazon pays publishers a percentage of the digital list price. The higher the list price, the more the publisher makes and Amazon potentially loses. This is tempered somewhat by distribution agreement clauses stating that digital list prices will be consistent across retailers, so publishers can't drive up the list price for Amazon and lower it for Sony, B&N, eBooks.com, etc.

Unfortunately, industry leaders are now telling digital book consumers that they are not important. They are attempting to roll back the swell Amazon has been stirring up for three years. They want to band together to cling to old practices before the market grows large enough to be deemed significant. Yet, regardless of the desire to preserve our old business model, the real power is in the hands of the market--the reader, the consumer. Consumers don't care about "preserving our industry" or protecting the "years of building an author." Consumers of all goods and services today expect to get what they want, when they want it, for the best price they can get it. Period.

The strategy of delaying ebook releases may actually harm the industry more than it will help. The digital market may be small, but they are also voracious readers, active consumers of digital and print books, technically savvy, and vocal. Do we really want to piss them off? Seems to me that denying this group access to the most popular titles is simply going to promote piracy. (Note: Piracy, IMHO, is really only an issue for the blockbuster titles anyway. It is word-of-mouth marketing for the rest of us.)

Rather than denying consumers access to the most popular titles in the digital editions they want, why not take advantage of the flexibility the digital market provides? Big ticket publishers could offer prerelease digital editions before hardcover and actually charge a premium for it. Publishers can also offset high priced new release ebooks with sale priced and even free backlist. And, publishers should adjust the price of a title through its life cycle. Why should a digital edition be $9.99 if a mass market paperback is available for $6.99?

I know that publishers cannot dictate the selling price a retailer sets for its books but if retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble aren't willing to honor a publisher's premium list price, pull it. That is another benefit of the digital market. You can change prices, and even turn things on and off with a "flip of a switch." And, there's no reason a publisher can't sell digital editions direct from their own Web sites. If it is a premium, prerelease edition of a blockbuster title, consumers will find it.

At B&H we are actively exploring and experimenting with fluid pricing strategies. We are also embracing the real challenge of using the power of technology to enrich and connect content, readers, and authors to add value consumers are willing to pay for beyond a $9.99 read.

That's the way I see it, today anyway.

Is there an antitrust issue at play with iTunes and Audible.com?

2009-11-30T11:33:00.003-06:00

B&H Publishing Group currently has contracts with Apple to distribute our music and applications through iTunes. Terms for sale of these digital products are generally more in our favor than standard retail terms for physical product sales.

Selling Audio books through iTunes, however, requires a relationship with Audible.com (owned by Amazon.com). You will notice that all audio books in iTunes are "published" or "presented" by Audible.com. Audible, however, is only offering standard licensing terms--a tiny fraction of what we earn from music and app sales.

We typically enter audio book licensing deals at the standard (anemic) royalty rates because we bear no burden or risk in cost of recording, distribution, marketing, or sales. In the case of iTunes, however, we own several audio books that we've already produced over the years. We own the content. We own the recording. We are willing to format in whatever way necessary to sell that content and those recordings through iTunes, yet Apple forces us to work through Audible, and Audible (quite smugly, I would add) will only work with us if they get to keep another HUGE percentage (almost double what Apple keeps) on top of Apple's take. For what?

Audible's answer: formatting. iTunes uses some proprietary coding that they (to my knowledge) have not made public. Audible is the only gateway for audio books to go on iTunes, or we can enter a distribution with another audio publisher who is already on terms with Audible and splinter off yet another piece of the revenue. Why?

For new products we are happy to partner with audio book publishers who specialize in the development and distribution of these specialized products, but for assets already in the can, already produced, why should we surrender so much of the revenue just because Apple has placed Audible between us and iTunes? At worst, this feels like extortion. At best, it leaves me simply not wanting to play ball and find other ways to work around selling our audio book content through iTunes.

Is the Digital Book Market Catching Up to the Print Market?

2009-10-23T11:03:00.014-05:00

Three months ago Sourcebooks publisher and CEO Dominique Raccah announced a bold plan to withhold the ebook release of a major YA novel. My understanding of her rationale is that a market for $25+ new release hardcover books still exists (upon which much of the traditional publishing business model is built), and if the digital market is setting the value for content below ten dollars (a la Amazon and B&N's $9.99 ebook editions), then a digital edition deserves a place in the life cycle of a book, probably somewhere between the $15 paperback and $7 mass market edition.

Initially there was quite a bit of blow back from outraged digital book enthusiasts, while other publishers had "no comment" in the moment, refusing to say if they would follow Dominique's bold and innovative lead. Still, it touched off great discussion and debate over the pricing and release strategy of ebooks--my favorite being a fluid price for a digital edition that starts at a premium price and is available before any other editions, with prices decreasing with demand, eventually all the way down to free. (I forget where I read that suggestion so if it is yours please email me so I can give a link and proper attribution.)

Not surprising now, however, we see that the major corporate publishers are following independent Sourcebook's lead. Hachette paid a widely reported $8 million advance for the Ted Kennedy memoir True Compass that released September 14 with a $35 price tag--and they are still holding the ebook release. Publisher's Weekly reported yesterday that Simon & Schuster will hold the ebook release of Stephen King's new novel, Under the Dome, Random House will hold the ebook release of the new John Grisham book, Ford County, and Harper is holding the ebook release of Sarah Palin's book, Going Rogue.

The grand irony of course is that while publishers are holding ebooks hostage to keep from undermining hardcover sales, the mass market price war is raging between Wal-Mart, Amazon, and now Target with these same titles being sold IN HARDCOVER for $8.98. In just 3 months since the Sourcebooks announcement it appears the digital market has caught up to the hardcover market. As I listened to a price war story on NPR I heard one more death knell ring out for the traditional publishing business model, multi-million dollar advances, and overpriced hardcover books that offer almost no consumer value over less expensive formats.

The market is telling us that a good read is worth about ten bucks, while Publishers Weekly reported today that Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, in a statement about their 3rd quarter earnings, said that “[the Kindle] has become the #1 bestselling item by both unit sales and dollars – not just in our electronics store but across all product categories on Amazon.com. It’s also the most wished for and the most gifted.”

What? Did I read that right? The world's largest book retailer just announced that sales from digital readers and books overtook ALL other products?

The other big announcement from Amazon is the release of a PC desktop reader for Kindle. Why is this a big deal? Earlier this year the Kindle 2 (2/24/09) and Kindle for iPhone (3/4/09) released within a week of each other. From February to March 2009 sales of B&H Kindle titles more than DOUBLED, jumping 148% in one month, and sales continue to climb. If we saw that kind of increase with the Kindle going to the universe of 30 million iPhones and iTouches, imagine the impact when the Kindle is released to the universe of more than one billion PCs.

Here come the ebooks!

Answering the Call of the IBPA with Our Amazon Kindle Statistics

2009-07-23T11:24:00.010-05:00

Earlier today a ripple went through the ebook Twittersphere as the Independent Book Publishers Association put out a call for information about ebooks: "If the e-books knowledge level matched the e-books noise level, publishers could proceed with confidence, devoting resources to e-books or not and managing the format to maximize profitability. The fact is, though, that very little is known." True.

If you are a publisher, I hope you will follow this link, answer whatever questions you can and get your information submitted by the August 3 deadline. And, please share any data you have in a comment on this post.

Not content to wait for the survey to be published, I am going to share my answers here (in interview form to entertain myself) in hopes that if I show you mine... well, you know.

At B&H we are putting a big push on our digital publishing initiatives. For the last 13 months we've published a handful of ebooks almost exclusively for Amazon Kindle but in fewer than 8 weeks we will have 70% of our active backlist and all new releases into full distribution to ebook retail, library, and academic channels. Given our aggressive posture, I've spent a fair amount of time analyzing Kindle sales data to build the business case for the work we are doing.

E-book/p-book ratios
IBPA: How many print-on-paper titles do you have?
PM: More than 700 active titles.

IBPA: How many e-book titles?
PM: 166 as of today. We will have more than 500 by end of September.

IBPA: What percentages of your annual revenue come from p-books vs. e-books?
PM: Less than 1%, but we are conservatively projecting 1000% growth next year.

Extent of experience
IBPA: How long have you been publishing e-books?
PM: 13 months

IBPA: What trends have you noticed?
PM: I have been tracking industry news stories about ebooks and digital publishing since last October when Oprah declared the Kindle her new favorite gadget. When I started there was one or two stories a week, now it is unusual to have a day without some piece of digital publishing news, and typically three or four stories--every day!

We are very encouraged by the growth patterns we've seen with Kindle sales but market conditions are changing so rapidly it is almost impossible to attribute trends. Excluding the anomaly of our NYT bestseller (The Love Dare), in one year of Kindle sales from June 08 to June 09, copies per title sales increased: 11% Q2 over Q1, 71% Q3 over Q2, 86% Q4 over Q3, and revenue per title increased 27% Q2 over Q1, 65% Q3 over Q2, 78% Q4 over Q3.

Market factors include selection and universe. The number of our titles for Kindle grew from 2 to 135, while Amazon released the Kindle 2, the Kindle iPhone app, and Kindle DX significantly increasing the number of devices in the market in the same 12 month period.

Relationships between formats

IBPA: Are your e-books versions of your p-books? If so, sometimes or always?
PM: Always, so far. We've also released some enhanced ebooks (marrying book and Bible content) and derivatives (checklist, quotes) as iPhone apps.

IBPA: Which version usually or always appears first?
PM: Print first or simultaneous, though we are looking at a couple of projects that may be digital first or digital only.

IBPA: What is the time period between versions? Or do you publish in both formats simultaneously?
PM: Currently we are doing simultaneous release of ebooks and print editions on new releases, though we are watching closely the current discussions related to pricing and timing.

IBPA: If your e-books are not versions of p-books, why did you decide to issue these titles only in electronic form?
PM: One product we are considering would be most used as a digital product, the other is going to be very expensive to print so we are considering digital to build the audience.

Pricing
IBPA: What are your e-book pricing policies?
PM: We match what is currently available in print.

IBPA: What are your e-book prices?
PM: $5.99 and up, matching print, though we are about to test $.99 essays and $4.99 sections from a nonfiction title on our Web site. The complete book is still the best value for $31.99 in print or digital, but some readers will only be interested in specific essays that are well worth $.99, but would not pay $32 for the complete book.

IBPA: What guidelines do you use in setting prices?
PM: Honoring our commitments to our retail partners, authors, and readers (not necessarily in that order), and watching the market like a hawk.

IBPA: Have you noticed price sensitivity?
PM: Can you still have a pulse and not notice? What drives me bananas is the misconception that ebook publishing is free, or even cheap. It is true (today) that print still pays the bills and digital is incremental revenue, but there is a lot of cost in developing, distributing, and retailing ebooks--everybody takes a piece. It will be very interesting to see how the supply chain changes when there's not enough to go around at $9.99. (More on the pricing debate here.)

Reaching readers
IBPA How are your e-books distributed?

PM: Through major e-book retailers, and we currently in negotiations with more retailers and distributors.

IBPA: Which reading devices do you publish for?
PM: Kindle, MobiPocket, iPhone, B&N eReader, Sony, Adobe Digital Editions, many others to come in the very near future.

Insights, lessons, tips and plans
IBPA: What have you learned from your e-book experiences so far?
PM: Pay attention.

IBPA: What e-book plans do you have for the future?
PM: Enhancing the reader experience with the content and connectivity. We are counting on the device manufacturers to enhance the reading experience, and the retailers to enhance the shopping and purchasing experience, but we've got to deliver the content.

Would You Participate in a Virtual Trade Show?

2009-07-22T11:53:00.008-05:00

This is the first summer in nearly fifteen years I have not attended one summer book show. No BEA, no ALA, no PLA, no ICRS, no RWA, nothing. I really missed getting out of town, seeing friends, and the energy and ideas I usually pick up from a crowded exhibit hall and days filled with 20 minute meetings, but am I any further behind with my business or relationships because I missed the shows? I don't think so. In fact, thanks to Twitter and my favorite industry enewsletters and blogs, I probably know more about what happened at each of those shows than if I attended. I am certainly more connected and aware of what is happening in our industry than ever before. Which got me thinking...

Why doesn't one of industry associations (or heck, why not Ingram or Baker & Taylor or Levy) host a virtual trade show next year? Plan a full schedule of online seminars for retailers and publishers. Allow publishers to host online author events. Set up a virtual exhibit floor where publishers pay for size of their "booth" by the number of titles they feature and location. (If you think location doesn't matter online, explain to me how that stupid Evolution of Dance video remains the most viewed YouTube video of all time). Put a reception desk in each booth where industry people can schedule meetings, drop off business cards, and pick up digital schwag. Provide "meeting space" in each booth for live chats. (In many ways, publisher Web sites should act the same way I suggest for virtual exhibit booths.)

To be really effective, everything would have to be concentrated over two or three days, including a couple marquise events to generate awareness and buzz for getting people to participate within a specific window of time. Yet, one great benefit for exhibitors and attendees (association members) is that the exhibit environment could be accessed or updated any time. As with trade shows now, the bigger or more creative, proactive, and interactive a publisher gets with their exhibit space and products, the more attention they will draw.

I just Googled virtual trade show and a lot of people much smarter and more foward-thinking than me have been doing this for a long time, but who is doing it effectively in the book industry?

If you are a retailer, do you go online to get information about upcoming releases? Where do you go? Where do you go for advice about your business or industry news?

If you are a publisher, would you participate in an online trade show? What creative online events, products, or schwag do you offer now or would want to offer at a virtual trade show?

Would it change how you use your Web site?

Opportunities for Publishers in the eBook Discussion

2009-07-19T21:15:00.006-05:00

The following post comes to us courtesy of Douglas Johnson, owner of Live Model Books, a company that produces reference material for figurative artists. It originally appeared as part of an ongoing LinkedIn discussion. If you are on LinkedIn and interested in this topic, I strongly suggest you join the group: Ebooks, Ebook Readers, Digital Books and Digital Content Publishing and get in on the discussion. Things are really heating up now with Barnes & Noble's new eBook push.

E-book price resistance comes from people outside the publishing industry—which, of course, is 99.99% of our customers—who don't understand that there are costs in developing books, marketing them, and maintaining a business to support them. They think e-books somehow cost nothing to publish. I've repeatedly seen people write "Publishers are greedy, there is no cost in publishing an e-book and yet publishers want to charge full price." At the same time, they frequently argue that the book should be available in their preferred format; e.g. "I spent $250 for a Kindle, I darn well want all books to be available for it as soon as they are published." In other words, customers want us to make it convenient for them while also making it cheap. Our response should be "we'll give you the format you want, but it has to be at a reasonably high price."

There are several opportunities here for publishers.

1) People have made an investment in their reading device and they need content to make that investment worthwhile. Therefore, there is a demand for e-books and we as publishers control the supply. That suggests we should set reasonably high prices for e-books, before the $9.99 expectation sets in permanently (if it hasn't already). In my own business, we've been selling e-books from our websites for years at $19.95, the softcover version is $24.95, and rarely get a complaint about price.

2) Publishers do not get any of the $250 or more initially paid for the e-reader and yet customers are factoring that in to what they are willing to pay for the books. As a result, they demand a lower price. The result is, publishers are subsidizing Amazon.com and other e-reader retailers by accepting the idea that we need to price our books lower. Furthermore, we're making it possible for them to develop and grow new businesses while we are forced to radically adapt ours and to accept a lower cover price. That's one reason Amazon.com is pushing hard for a $9.99 price point. At the same time, we are lowering their warehouse and handling costs.

Why should all of the cost savings go to the retailer? Yes, publishers have no print costs for the e-book, but that's a huge oversimplification. We still need to do large print runs to supply the print books. If those runs get smaller, the cost per book goes up. If we print the same amount and sales go down, then we have more waste and again the cost per book goes up. And, there is all the development costs of getting the book prepared plus all of the fixed costs associated with running a business.

Retailers of e-readers are making more money while publishers continually make less. I think we should strenuously resist the $9.99 or less price point by setting much higher suggested retail prices (in non-fiction, at least). After all, without us supplying e-books, where would the e-reader device be? In an ideal world, higher e-book list prices would force e-reader retailers to lower the price for their devices. If e-readers were nearly free, publishers could maintain higher prices for their books. The retailers would make more money on each book sold but more money would also go to the authors, who spend years developing the books. That would be fair. Another option would be a much, much lower discount so that publishers keep, say, 80% of list price. What discount does Amazon.com get for e-books?

Perhaps some publishers should develop a Kindle-like device that they give away at or below cost. If that sounds far-fetched, consider Audible.com which now dominates online audio books. Early on, a low cost subscription to their site included a refund for a listening device. Once people had the free device, they were willing to pay relatively high prices for the content. That's a much closer model for us than the usual comparison to the movie and music industries. And, it is a model in which publishers can thrive!

3) Customers seem to think all of the cost of a book is in the printing and shipping. Unfortunately, I rarely, if ever, see a publisher step in to one of these "publishers are greedy" discussions and explain that finding and developing authors and books is expensive. Publishers should all make a point of explaining the true cost of publishing every time we can. Perhaps we can chip away at the perception of e-books costing nothing to develop.

4) There is greater value in e-books than print books in some respects. One device can hold hundreds or even thousands of books, which makes the books incredibly portable for reading anytime and anywhere. An e-book will never wear out, it will never get lost (if the reading device is lost, it can be replaced and all the books downloaded again). An e-book is available instantly anywhere in the world that has an internet connection. That's an incredible advantage. There's no shipping cost to the customer for an e-book. Unlike print books, a customer can buy one book now and another one ten minutes later, without worrying about aggregating their order to save on shipping.

As publishers, we should be talking about these benefits, and the reality of who is really making money on e-books, every chance we get.

Dominique Raccah responds to WSJ piece

2009-07-19T20:48:00.004-05:00

Dominique Raccah, Publisher and CEO of Sourcebooks, wrote the following post in response to last week's Wall Street Journal piece. This post originally appeared at BookSquare, and is being published here with Dominique's permission.

What are words worth, I wonder?
by Dominique Raccah, Publisher and CEO of Sourcebooks

Given responses to the Wall Street Journal article on Monday, I thought it might be useful to explain some of the thinking that went into the decision to delay the ebook release of our very hot upcoming children’s book, Bran Hambric.

And that includes this background: We need a sustainable author/publisher model, and it’s probably not the model of old. But the new music model of low-priced content and sales of concerts and ancillaries is probably not a viable model for book publishing. Authors, unlike musicians, don’t typically have paid live performances (and t-shirt sales are usually few). They have words. And we need to have a real conversation about what those words are worth (and that’s what the pricing issue is actually about) and how do we keep them worth enough to support authors, authorship and publishers. And yes, we can (and I suspect will) have a conversation about whether that last piece is worth supporting and at what level.

But here’s the thinking:

I agree wholeheartedly that digital formats should be readily available, immediately (you can see from other decisions we’ve made how important digital is to us).
We are being told (repeatedly) that ebooks are inherently less valuable—they are not physical; they are not easily ported; they can disappear at any time; etc. The value issues of ebooks are not issues that can be solved by a single publisher.
Eretailers are suggesting that the “right” price point for an ebook is maximally $9.99. And they are proselytizing the price $9.99.
We can’t control what retailers charge for books or ebooks. The choices book publishers have are:
- To make the product available, and when
- To have a relationship with that retailer
So that’s the fundamental decision we get to make. It’s not, what’s the right price for this author…or for a book that he’s worked 10 years on (yes, Michael Malone’s new hardcover The Four Corners of the Sky is also not available as an ebook)…it’s just do we make it available and when?
Formats have windows. We know when we (book publishers) put out different formats in the lifecycle of a book. So we shouldn’t be releasing ebooks at the same time that we release a hardcover book. We should be releasing ebooks when we release the trade paper or mass market of the hardcover and can then price appropriately to that. To me the decision is analogous to a new release in movie theatres; we don’t expect that movie to be immediately available on DVD.
There are some who say, digital and print don’t cannibalize and you’re going to miss sales. But isn’t this the same as people (myself included) who say I’ll wait until it comes out in paperback or I’ll wait to see the DVD? And don’t those people sometimes forget and not buy or rent? So yes, there’s a risk that sales will be missed, but isn’t that a risk that has always existed in format choices?
If you continue with the lifecycle concept, the vast majority of the books we (Sourcebooks) publish will release in e-formats at the same time as p-formats because we are primarily a trade and mass paperback publisher. And in fact our xml workflow structures towards simultaneous release in multiple ebook/ereader formats.

I would also argue that music is absolutely not the right model to compare books and book publishing to. And newspapers are even less appropriate. However, that’s a really long conversation, and I’m a publisher not a pundit. We should make the choices that are right for our authors and their readers.

We are at the beginning of model building. If hot frontlist titles are to be available in e-formats, they need to be priced by the publisher, at a reasonable discount from the hardcover retail price (to take into account the devaluation of eformats). I am totally open to that. But that’s not an option currently available. I think people may be willing to pay the premium to have the new new thing, or they may want to wait until the price falls with the trade paper edition, at which point the e-book price should be adjusted and $9.99 may make perfect sense.

I agree with Kassia that it’s dangerous to expect consumers to play by the rules of last year’s business model. I’ve taken action in this one situation and I certainly wonder if there are other options that are neither mine nor the $9.99 option. And I also agree that we need to experiment, and I see our industry beginning to do that. But this pricing and release-date situation doesn’t feel like an experiment. This actually seems more like a dictate that could have enormous ramifications, perhaps not today, perhaps not tomorrow, but certainly long-term on the future of authors and books. And I think all I’m saying is, let’s think about this. It’s too important. As a publisher, we have to be strategic, book by book (and it’s important to remember that we’re talking about 1 book; Sourcebooks has 850 ebooks available). These are big decisions for our authors and ourselves. So in situations where the e-format release could hurt the author’s launch, what if we were to wait?

The New York Times enters the ebook strategy discussion

2009-07-14T21:27:00.009-05:00

Dominique Raccah took a very brave and unpopular stand to launch a very necessary and important conversation for the publishing industry. It is interesting that none of the "big guys" seem willing to take a stand, and a shame that the WSJ and NYT zeroed in on the "cannibalization" issue instead of the pricing issue. The real story here is what Amazon has done to establish customer expectations and cement their dominant market share position, not to mention how publishers have just played along. Until now.

Amazon pays publishers a percent of the digital LIST price for ebook sales, often sale pricing books at a loss. Amazon even encouraged publishers to set their digital list prices to match highest available print edition to help reinforce the value position for the consumer getting a $25 book for just $9.99, for example. Publishers gladly went along, realizing greater revenue as a percent of the higher list price. Amazon also cornered the pricing game by insisting that publishers’ digital list prices be the same across all channels. Sony, for example, sells most ebooks at 10% off the digital list price. So, an ebook with a $25 digital list price might be on sale for $9.99 at Amazon and $22.50 at Sony, and generally $25 (no sale pricing) at ebooks.com, booksonboard.com, deiselebooks.com, etc. If the publisher lowers the digital list price so the other retailers can be more competitive, Amazon reserves the right to match the lowest digital list price in the market. Publishers don’t dare lower digital list prices on the risk of losing revenue with the one retailer who is selling the most books.

Amazon’s willingness to take a loss on ebook sales these first few years has established a consumer expectation to buy ebooks for $9.99 or less and cemented their dominant market share position. Now Barnes & Noble says it will follow a similar pricing strategy but they won’t be paying publishers according to the digital list price, and so starts the slippery slope. $9.99 is not a sustainable price for retailers or publishers but the customer expectation is already established. And, as a consumer, I get it. I'm not paying more than $9.99 for an ebook. I've wanted to buy What Would Google Do? for at least three months and it still hasn't gone on sale for less than $14.99, so I wait.

Raccah is the first of the publisher sheep marching toward the ebook slaughterhouse to stand up and suggest that we don’t have to keep going the direction we’re heading. In fact, to survive we have to establish a different value paradigm. Her suggestion to preserve the value of content is to put it on a time line the same way books are released in hardcover before paperback—the content is available to everyone but only in a certain format for a certain price at a certain time. In other words, if you want it in paperback you wait. If you want it in ebook, you wait.

Dominique Raccah is smart enough to know the market will determine the value of an ebook and recognizes that asking someone to pay $25 for something they only value at $10 won’t work. So the next most valued currency is time. You can have it for $10 but you have to wait. Will it hold up? I don’t think so, but I don’t have a better idea. And the value of this public discussion in the WSJ, NYT, and countless industry blogs instead of blindly following the sheep in front of us is priceless.

Read more here:
Wall Street Journal
New York Times
Galley Cat
The Business Insider

Thoughts on eBook Pricing, Release Strategies, and FuturePublishing

2009-07-14T09:08:00.011-05:00

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that leading independent publisher (and my former employer), Sourcebooks, is pushing back against the devaluation of ebooks typically sold on Amazon and B&N for $9.99 by delaying the ebook release of one of its major Fall books for at least six months after the hardcover release. The plan, as I understand it, is a kind of staged release, similar to that of a book going from hardcover to trade paperback to mass market paperback, inserting the ebook release somewhere in between.

"It doesn't make sense for a new book to be valued at $9.99," said Dominique Raccah, CEO of Sourcebooks, which issues 250 to 300 new titles annually. "The argument is that the cheaper the book is, the more people will buy it. But hardcover books have an audience, and we shouldn't cannibalize it."

Dominique is a smart publisher, a great advocate and defender of authors and readers, and she has just ripped the lid off this can of worms. Check out the comments on the WSJ article and you will see that people generally don't have a high regard for publishers who are being demonized like the greedy music industry for destroying the old model. I would contend, though, that there is no bad guy in this story. Publishing is just changing.

Aside: The biggest misconception about ebooks is that there is no or little cost to sell them. It's simply not true. Think about development. Think about distribution and everyone who touches a file in the process and their piece of action. Think about storage fees and transaction fees. As soon as I hear or read a comment that ebooks are free or even cheap to produce and sell, I immediately tune it out because it is clearly an uneducated comment.

Releasing a book in stages may be as a good an approach as any today, especially for high profile books. As one comment on the WSJ article said, "The blockbusters will make a fortune, while the also-rans will be read by friends and family. Hmmm...sounds a tad like the film and music industries, doesn't it?"

It is an interesting and exciting time in publishing. There is a lot of criticism and comparison to the failure of the music industry, but I don't think the music industry failed. The music business just changed. I guess if I had been employed by a record label I might think differently, but the independence fostered by technology we see today is a cleaner business model for artists (and authors) to develop their material and their audience, and market and sell their own products.

In my vision of the future, surviving publishers will become like successful music producers adding value to the content by truly making a better reading experience than the average author can do on their own, and doing it consistently. No longer can we publishers survive on packaging, blowing in air to bulk out a spine width for shelf presence, and adding seven or eight chapters around one or two central ideas. Content must deliver and do so in the way the reader wants, which is going to be very different from most books today, especially for nonfiction.

Reading on devices will be Web-based. Kindles and other e-readers will be replaced with color touch-screen tablets with full Internet access, always-on high speed wireless connectivity, and will be marketed by the wireless service providers. Ebooks will auto sync between a user's mobile phone, tablet, laptop, desktop/TV, but reading will be just one of many info/entertainment features along with video phone, gaming, TV, movies, and more.

Online retailers will become like broadcasters, posting most content for free on ad-supported platforms merging author-generated content with user-generated content, sharing ad revenue by page view with authors and publishers, and offering pay-per-view options for special events, and print-on-demand paperback editions.

Brick and mortar stores will sell mostly used books, as well as collectible first run publisher paperbacks. Only select titles will ever be released in high-priced hardcover editions tricked out with bonus content and the very best in design and print production quality. Think CD box set.

That is not so much a futurist vision as it is already happening in degrees today. While the market is determining the value of ebooks (I for one won't pay more than $10 for an ebook, and now that I own a Kindle don't intend to purchase any more print books), we will see a lot of experimentation and discovery with pricing strategies and release strategies.

Delaying an ebook release will certainly produce some backlash from the early adopters who spent $400+ on a device and cannot get the book for their device when it releases, and for that reason, I don't think this approach will stick. It could work though, if the consumer could get an "advanced copy" of the ebook with the purchase of the hardcover. It feeds the early adopter's need to have something before everyone else, and the author, retailer, and publisher still get the hardcover sale. Even a $25 hardcover might be on sale for $15, which is $5 more than the ebook will be in six months, but the consumer gets the ebook now, before everyone else, and a print edition they can resell or gift, providing a kind of pass-along/word-of-mouth marketing benefit to the publisher. Barnes & Noble and Amazon could launch a program with the Public Library Association and give consumers the option to donate the print edition to a struggling public library.

The Love Dare exceeds 3 million in print, launches iPhone apps

2009-07-07T21:30:00.005-05:00

New iPhone Apps based on best-selling book climb the iTunes charts

NASHVILLE, TN (July 7, 2009) – Check today’s most popular books in the iTunes App Store and, amidst teen favorites like Twilight and Transformers, you’ll find a surprising pick. The Love Dare: 40 Dares, an App based on the New York Times #1 best selling book The Love Dare, has climbed steadily on iTunes charts since its release earlier this month.

But then, The Love Dare has shattered expectations in every medium it has touched.

The movie Fireproof surprised Hollywood by becoming the top-grossing independent film of 2008. It tells the story of a firefighter struggling to save his crumbling marriage who is given a book called The Love Dare. The book offers "dares" that become pivotal in rebuilding his marriage. Touched by the story of transformation, Fireproof’s early audiences asked where they could find this life-changing book.

The Love Dare, a book that presents the same 40-day challenge for husbands and wives who want to strengthen their marriage, was released by B&H Publishing Group to coincide with Fireproof’s national theater premiere. The book became a best seller on the New York Times advice list, and has spent 39 weeks to date in the list’s top ten with more than 3 million copies in print.

Now, the same message is brought to an even wider audience with the release of three Love Dare-based "Apps" (software applications) on Apple’s online store, iTunes, that markets specifically to iPhone users. Powered by BibleReader, a mobile Bible study program created by Olive Tree Bible Software, these Apps aim to transfer the complete Love Dare experience to the iPhone for mobile users.

This digital release broadens the unconventional outreach strategy that has brought the faith-based message of The Love Dare to a wide audience using channels, like movie theaters, music stores, online communities, and electronic distribution, that have traditionally been dominated by secular media.

There are three Love Dare Apps available on iTunes. "The Love Dare: eBook + HCSB BibleReader" presents the full text of The Love Dare book, along with live links for each scripture reference and complete access to the full Holman Christian Standard Bible translation. "The Love Dare: 40 Dares" features each of the book’s 40 dares with scripture reference pop-ups, and a place to check off completed dares, along with the complete text of the King James Version Bible. "The Love Dare: Reminders" includes 365 inspiring quotations from the book that users can mark as favorites and email to friends, adding personal notes.

###

B&H Sales Conference Reaction to the New Love Dare Apps

2009-06-18T17:40:00.001-05:00

4 out 5 PW Daily stories are digital news

2009-06-18T10:51:00.006-05:00

Any day now it will be every story. GalleyCat offers three more stories (so far) today with digital implications for the publishing biz.

Hachette Signs with Attributor to Fight Online Piracy PW 6/18/09

Ingram Content Group Gets New Structure PW 6/18/09

Tor Launches Online Bookstore PW 6/18/09

Simon & Schuster Launches Teen Networking Site PW 6/18/09

Audibooks App Nabs Top Spot in Apple App Store GC 6/18/09

Macmillan Digital in the House at #140Conf GC 6/18/09

Publishing Perspectives @ Twitter Boot Camp GC 6/18/09

Click here for a list of all Headlines in Digital Publishing from PW, GalleyCat, and a few from Publisher's Lunch since October 2008.

Love Dare iPhone Apps Launched

2009-06-16T15:59:00.011-05:00

B&H Publishing Group has released our first three apps for the iPhone based on the #1 New York Times best seller, The Love Dare (more than 2 million copies sold) from the popular major motion picture, Fireproof. Two of the three have gone live.

As I type this post one of the apps is already ranked #20 of all book apps in the App Store!

The Love Dare: eBook+ contains the full text of the book and the full text of the Holman Christian Standard Bible. All Scripture references in the book have pop-up links to read the verse, and if you click on the pop-up it flips over to that verse in context in the BibleReader. It is an amazing value at $9.99 for the complete book and a complete Bible with a lot of really cool features.
Click here to see a video demo.
Click here to open the iTunes App Store.

The Love Dare: 40 Dares features each of the 40 dares from the book with Scripture reference pop-ups, and a place to check off each completed dare. The app includes the complete text of the King James Version BibleReader; another amazing value for $.99.
Click here to see a video demo.
Click here to open the iTunes App Store.

The Love Dare: Reminders features 365 quotations from the book and Scripture. Each day that you open the app it takes you to the next reminder, or you can scroll through them, or navigate through a table of contents by topic. Users can mark their favorite quotes and/or email any quote, and add their own notes.
Click here to see a video demo.
Click here to open the iTunes App Store.

All three apps have a catalog with links to sites to purchase the books, Bible study, audio book, movie, and links to the Web site, newsletter sign ups, and more.

Special shout out to our development partners, Olive Tree (eBook+ and 40 Dares) and LifeWay Digital (Reminders). Next steps will be launching the Blackberry and Windows Mobile versions.

This accessory is not made to work with iPhone

2009-06-13T22:43:00.004-05:00

This message started popping up on my iPhone tonight. Anybody know why or how to turn it off?

I'm not sure what accessory is causing the pop-up. It doesn't seem tied to any particular app.

I've powered off and back on. Didn't matter.

facebook.com/paulmikos

2009-06-13T16:01:00.002-05:00

Any thoughts on what enhancements will come with user names or why user names are important to Facebook or to users (besides squatting on names that may be valuable to people or companies later)?

Facebook user names went live at 11:01 Central time last night. 200,000 names claimed in the first three minutes, 500,000 in the first fifteen minutes. Last count I saw is now up to 3 million.

Digital News from PW, Publishers Lunch & GalleyCat:

2009-06-11T17:04:00.005-05:00

Google, iPhone, Palm Pre--a good month for ebooks. 28 new stories since June 1.

HC Children's Does Mobile Promotion for Lauren Conrad Novel PW 6/11/09

Author Reveals Personal Kindle Sales GC 6/11/09

Shortcovers Builds Digital Reader for Palm Pre GC 6/11/09

Twitter Boot Camp Discount GC 6/11/09

Susan Orlean's Tempest in the Twitter Teapot GC 6/11/09

Dzanc Books Launches [Online] Literary Journal GC 6/10/09

Bret Easton Ellis' Twitter Review Career GC 6/10/09

Swiss Army Knife of Dictionaries GC 6/10/09

Conan the Digitalist GC 6/10/09

COOL-ER eBook Reader: the Future of Book Publishing? GC 6/10/09

ScrollMotion Bringing One Million Books to iPhone GC 6/10/09

$99 iPhone Rocks E-Book World GC 6/9/09

The New Gatekeepers GC 6/9/09

Book Stock Watch: Google Gains GC 6/5/09

Textnovel Lets Writers Publish Via Cellphone PW 6/5/09

Dave Eggers Sends Soothing Mass Email GC 6/5/09

Worldwide Seizures of Pirated Books GC 6/5/09

OUP Dictionary Team Dissects Twitter GC 6/5/09

How to Build a Literary iPhone App GC 6/3/09

eNews: Indigo to Launch Their Own Device PL 6/3/09

100 Strangers Co-Write and Publish Book GC 6/2/09

How 25 Million Chinese Readers Read Online GC 6/2/09

Showtime Network Develops Digital Tie-In for Amazon Kindle GC 6/2/09

Blogging Evangelist on the Future of Publishing GC 6/2/09

RAND Lowers e-Book Prices PW 6/2/09

Amazon’s Kindle DX Available June 10 PW 6/2/09

HMH Creates Digital Team PL 6/2/09

Google to Sell Digital Books GC 6/1/09

I am so excited about ebooks!

2009-06-03T21:51:00.003-05:00

Ever play the game Don't Tip the Waiter or Don't Spill the Beans? Each player adds another piece in turn until the waiter or the bean pot finally reaches a tipping point and all the pieces come raining down. It feels to me like that is the game we are playing with ebooks and this week another big bean got dropped on the waiter's plate when Google announced plans to sell ebooks. This is some of the most exciting news I've heard all year, and another tipping point toward ebooks becoming a larger part of mainstream culture.

As a related aside: Last weekend at the playground with my girls, I saw a mom sitting comfortably under a shade tree in a lawn chair reading with a Kindle. We talked for a minute and I learned she's an avid reader who never thought about buying a Kindle but received it as a gift from her husband and loves it.

Great Video

2009-05-29T16:13:00.002-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2a8TRSgzZY

Makes me want to apologize to all my vendor friends, especially the free lance independents. Especially because free lance independent is the future economy for most work (including yours and mine).

Last 150 Days in eBooks

2009-05-28T11:46:00.005-05:00

I am enjoying real-time online BookExpo updates and following Tweets (#BEA09, #BEA2009) from people attending the talks I wish I was attending this year, including the talk on piracy by Tim O'Reilly and Neelan Choksi's presentation at Random House yesterday. This is the first year in a long time that I've missed BookExpo (maybe one other in 15 years). Even in the down years I drew a lot of energy and ideas from being among my industry colleagues. Alas, this is my first year to follow on Twitter.

Ten new trade stories added to Headlines in Digital Publishing:

Stanza COO Neelan Choksi on the Last 150 Days in E-Books GC 5/28/09

Baker & Taylor, Donnelley in Print-on-Demand Pact PW 5/28/09

Ingram Survey Finds Half of Respondents Will Use E-Catalogues PW 5/28/09

Piracy Study Results Released GC 5/28/09

Comparing Apples and Kindles GC 5/27/09

Ingram Adds Ingram Digital to Newly Formed Ingram Content Group PW 5/26/09

B&T, OverDrive Ink Digital Distribution Deal PW 5/26/09

FiledBy Expands Online Author Directory PW 5/26/09

Audible Launches BlackBerry E-Book Application GC 5/26/09

New Yorker Cover Drawn on iPhone (Gizmodo) MediaBistro 5/26/09

Interesting tech articles in BusinessWeek

2009-05-26T12:29:00.004-05:00

The average Facebook user with 500 friends actively follows the news on only 40 (8%) of them, communicates with 20 (4%), and keeps in close touch with about 10 (2%). Those with smaller networks follow even fewer," according to the June 1, 2009 BusinessWeek cover story, What's a Friend Worth?

Do those stats hold true for you? My monitor rate is much higher, I'd guess closer to 20% of my FB friends' updates I follow, but the communication and keeping in close touch rate is about right for me.

Another fascinating dynamic for managing corporate communications in the Web 2.0 world: Managing the Tweets: Companies are scrambling to silence errant messages while exploiting social networks.

Pandora: Unleashing Mobile Phone Ads

AT&T and Verizon Wireless Bet on Netbooks

Seven new stories at "Headlines in Digital Publishing"

2009-05-22T12:16:00.004-05:00

Seven new stories added today at "Headlines in Digital Publishing"

eMusic Adds Audiobooks from Recorded Books and HighBridge 5/22/09 PW

Hachette's Bestselling Promotional iPhone App 5/21/09 GC

U of Mich Signs Expanded Agreement With Google 5/21/09 PW

Viz Media Launches IKKI, New Online Magazine Venture 5/21/09 PW

Amazon Upgrades its Kindle for Iphone App 5/20/09 PW

HarperOne's Little Black Book Now Online 5/20/09 PW

Lit Bloggers Debate Kindle Blog Program 5/20/09 GC

560,626 new titles published in 2008, up 38%

2009-05-19T21:52:00.006-05:00

Take just a minute to comprehend that statement. Over half a million new books published just last year by more than 75,000 publishers. That is more than 1500 new books released every day, or 64 books every hour, 24 hours a day. I remember being outraged that the number was approaching 300,000 three years ago. Is it any wonder there's so much discussion about the "long tail" in the publishing business? Yet, the big news for the day is not the volume of titles being produced. It is that for the first time ever on-demand publishing output exceeded that of traditional publishing.

Publishers Lunch: "On Demand Books Overtake Traditional Titles for the First Time"

Publishers Weekly: "Number of On-demand Titles Topped Traditional Books in 2008"

Galley Cat: "On Demand" Books Up 132 Percent"

Bowker press release: "Bowker Reports U.S. Book Production Declines 3% in 2008, but 'On Demand' Publishing More Than Doubles: Traditional Publishing Faces Pivotal Year of Retrenching, While Emergence of New Technologies Leads to Soaring Growth in Short-Run Book Publishing"

Without a doubt, we are going to see the number of titles produced by traditional publishers shrink significantly in 2009, and on-demand and self-published titles grow significantly--again.

Good.

All of this is further evidence that the book is not dead, just changed. What we read, how we read, where we read, when we read are all changing and becoming more digital and convenient in nature. Our culture is placing increased value on user-generated content and technology provides the means to publish instantly (heck, I just published this essay), as well as the ability to take content to print and sell it on demand. I don't believe these shifts and changes eliminate the need for books. I believe it increases a print book's value.

Publisher content needs to be higher quality than user-generated content, and physical product needs to have impeccable production quality. I've quoted Clay Shirky before in a post similar to this one because I think he hits the nail on the head about the value a publishing house must bring to the development of content: "A book isn't just a collection of 80,000 words on paper. A blogger can build that up in a few months. A book is a collection of words that have been obsessed over by people other than the writer. That's what a publisher does, and that process helps a book become a focal point for a conversation or an argument."

More Digital Publishing News

2009-05-19T15:49:00.004-05:00

Seven stories added today at "Headlines in Digital Publishing"

On Demand Books Overtake Traditional Titles for the First Time 5/19/09 PL

Mobifusion, Encyclopaedia Britannica Release iPhone Apps 5/19/09 PW

Hyperion to Unveil Kernl 5/19/09 PW

PublicAffairs Founder Defends E-Book Bundling 5/19/09 GC

Literary Blogs on Kindle 5/19/09 GC

Scribd Launches Online Store 5/18/09 PW

OverDrive in Deal with ChineseAll 5/18/09 PW

Headlines in Digital Publishing

2009-05-17T16:30:00.036-05:00

Last October I declared Oprah naming the Kindle her favorite gadget as a tipping point for ebooks reaching into mainstream popular culture. Electronic publishing initiatives have been in the news almost every day since. I started collecting the headlines and thankfully Publishers Weekly keeps an active backlog of their daily stories. I wish I could say the same for GalleyCat (which only goes back a couple weeks), Publishers Lunch (which requires a subscription to see more than a handful of stories), or ECPA's Rush to Press (which only show's the current week's headlines). Set against the backdrop of the recession's impact on the publishing industry (those were some dark days in December), the emphasis on digital publishing seems especially poignant. Separately, I also collected the recession stories.

IndieBound Updates Literary iPhone App GC 7/23/09
Amazon.com, Inc. to Acquire Zappos GC 7/23/09
Is This the Bookstore of Tomorrow? GC 7/23/09
USA Today Bestseller List Includes Kindle Sales Data PL 7/23/09
Vonnegut Stories to Be Sold Individually As e-Exclusives Before Print Edition PL 7/23/09
Digital Book Buyer's e-Morse: WSJ On the Limited Rights Readers Get PL 7/23/09
Plastic Logic Strikes AT&T 3G Deal GC 7/22/09
B&N Tops Amazon in App Store GC 7/22/09
BookSurge to Sell 400,000 U of M Library Titles GC 7/22/09
University of Michigan Expands Print on Demand Effort with Amazon's BookSurge PW 7/22/09
IndieBound Updates iPhone App PW 7/22/09
Barnes & Noble Launches e-Book Store PW 7/21/09
Copyright Industries Warn Against Piracy Threat PW 7/21/09
It's Ready: Barnes & Noble Launches eBookstore, Partners with Plastic Logic PL 7/21/09
Class Action Specialists Want to Sue Amazon Over Orwell Removals; Plastic Logic "Fully Funded" PL 7/21/09
Barnes & Noble Launches Vast E-Book Store GC 7/20/09
University Presses Stepping Up e-Book Efforts PW 7/20/09
Industry Begins Debate Over Removal of Kindle Titles PW 7/20/09
Google Book Settlement Webinar Set for July 29 PW 7/20/09
Amazon.com, Inc. and "1984" GC 7/20/09
What We Talk About When We Talk About Amazon PL 7/20/09
Maker of Readius Folding eReader Polymer Vision Is Liquidated PL 7/20/09
Harry Potter and the iPhone Apps GC 7/17/09
Journalists Debate E-Book Pricing GC 7/17/09
Harvard UP to Sell 1,000 Books on Scribd GC 7/17/09
Harvard University Press Selling 1,000 Books on Scribd PL 7/17/09
On-Demand Flash Fiction GC 7/16/09
E-Readers Featured in App Awards GC 7/16/09
Slate Critic Calls for Lower E-Book Prices GC 7/16/09
Sourcebooks CEO Dominique Raccah on Delaying Ebook Releases PL 7/16/09
Amazon Offers Free Replacement for Cracked Kindles PL 7/16/09
Closing In on UK-indle? PL 7/16/09
Dems Want to Give Students 400k Kindles PL 7/16/09
WSJ Survey Student Doubts on eTextbooks PL 7/16/09
Morgan James Selling E-Books on Scribd PW 7/15/09
Amazon.com, Inc. Sued by Kindle Customers GC 7/15/09
Kindle Owner Files Suit Against Amazon Saying Cover Cracks Kindles; Seeks Class Action Status PL 7/15/09
Taiwan Companies Pair for eBook Launch PL 7/15/09
Library of Congress Explores New Rules for Depost of Electronic Works PL 7/15/09
The NYT Follows On eBook Release Timing PL 7/15/09
Taiwan Vendors Appear to Confirm Orders from Apple for October Tablet/Netbook PL 7/15/09 Robert Olen Butler Tweets as The Devil for His New Book 'Hell' PL 7/15/09
Content Explosion: FastPencil.com Joins Online Self-Publishing Crowd PL 7/15/09
Pan Macmillan's View: DRM Is Not Evil PL 7/15/09
It Was the Best of Tweets, It Was the Worst of Tweets GC 7/14/09
Sourcebooks Bucks $9.99 E-Book Price Point GC 7/14/09
Author Is Tweeting His Entire Novel PL 7/14/09
Blackwell, Ingram Ink Pact to Supply e-Books PW 7/14/09
Chinese Show Off Kindle-like e-Reader PW 7/14/09
Stanza Reader Turns One-Year-Old GC 7/13/09
Book Deal for Self-Published Kindle Author GC 7/13/09
Spain's Three Biggest Publishers Form eBook Distribution Company PL 7/13/09
Sourcebooks to Delay Release of eBook Version of Hot New YA Novel PL 7/13/09
Free-For-All: Anderson, "Free" Book, Sparks a Backlash Online and Among Battered Media Industry PW 7/10/09
Sourcebooks Experimenting with DRM-Free e-Books PW 7/10/09
Google Renegotiates Terms with Two More Libraries PL 7/10/09
Pixel Qi Introduces LCD-Based Color/Video Screens for E-Readers PL 7/10/09
Richard Nash on Kindle, Twitter, and E-Books GC 7/10/09
Sourcebooks Sells Digital Titles on Smashwords GC 7/10/09
QR Codes and Publishing GC 7/9/09
Amazon Drops Kindle 2 Price GC 7/9/09
Sourcebooks Tests DRM-Free eBooks with Smashwords 7/9/09
SharedBook Demos On-Demand Customized Book via Espresso at ALA 7/9/09
Amazon Drops Kindle Price to $299 PL 7/9/09
Sony Reader Promises Mac Compatibility By "the end of Summer 2009" PL 7/8/09
Enhanced Editions: A New iPhone Reader PL 7/8/09
Barnes & Noble Tops Amazon in App Store Books Category PW 7/7/09
Ditto Book Digital Reading Device Hits the Market PW 7/7/09
New Hachettte Program Gives Complete Access to Titles PW 7/7/09
Amazon Applies for E-Book Ad Patent GC 7/6/09
What's Apple Building in There? GC 7/2/09
Random Houses Teams with BookGlutton for Promotion PW 7/1/09
Using Social Media to Create Product Evangelists ECPA 7/1/09
Barnes & Noble Follows Amazon's E-Book Pricing Model GC 7/1/09
ScrollMotion Publishes Digital Stephenie Meyer Titles in U.K. GC 6/30/09
Barnes & Noble.com Launches Bookstore iPhone App PW 6/29/09
B&N Faces Amazon in App Store GC 6/29/09
Wattpad Launches Google Android Application GC 6/29/09
Read Your "Texts From Last Night" in a Book GC 6/29/06
Allen Letter Urges Industry to Support Google Deal PW 6/26/09
Alexander Street and Arcadia Publishing Launch Online Local History Collection PW 6/26/09
Quartet Press Launches PL 6/26/09
Transformers Rule iPhone Paid Book Apps GC 6/26/09
Quartet Press Seeks Its First Submissions GC 6/26/09
Espresso Book Machine Coming to McNally Jackson This Fall PL 6/26/09
Barnes & Noble Appoints New Digital Executive PW 6/24/09
Zinio Launches "Digital Bookstore" Section PL 6/24/09
O'Reilly Media Heads to Frankfurt Book Fair GC 6/23/09
Video: Book Talk at #140Conf GC 6/23/09
ScrollMotion Seals LibreDigital iPhone Content Deal GC 6/23/09
ScrollMotion in Deal with LibreDigital PW 6/23/09
LibreDigital Delivers 100k Titles for ScrollMotion's App PL 6/22/09
Stephen King Text Message Promo May Be Horror Story for S&S PW 6/22/09
Springer Lets Library Patrons Buy Paperback Versions of E-books PW 6/22/09
Hippocrene Launches Arabic Dictionary iPhone App PW 6/22/09
Kindle DX: Looks Good, Works Fine, Costs Too Much PW 6/22/09
Book Deal for College Kids' "Twitterature" GC 6/22/09
University Presses Cope with Digital Students GC 6/22/09
New Features on Google Book Search PW 6/19/09
140 Character Confab: Listening To and Learning About Twitter PW 6/19/09
Pearson Answers Schwarzenegger’s Call for E-Textbooks PW 6/19/09
Penguin Group Launches Multimedia Site GC 6/19/09
Amazon.com, Inc. May End Affiliate Program in North Carolina GC 6/19/09
Pearson Promises California Schools Digital Content GC 6/19/09
Hachette Signs with Attributor to Fight Online Piracy PW 6/18/09
Ingram Content Group Gets New Structure PW 6/18/09
Tor Launches Online Bookstore PW 6/18/09
Simon & Schuster Launches Teen Networking Site PW 6/18/09
Audibooks App Nabs Top Spot in Apple App Store GC 6/18/09
Macmillan Digital in the House at #140Conf GC 6/18/09
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/web_tech/publishing_perspectives_twitter_boot_camp_119256.asp GC 6/18/09
Penguin Launches Online Network PW 6/17/09
Google Mapping the Bible GC 6/17/09
Tor Launches Publisher Agnostic Online Store GC 6/17/09
McGraw-Hill Education Announces Digital Initiative PW 6/16/09
Amazon CEO Knocks Google Books Settlement GC 6/16/09
How to Write a Fictional Twitter Feed GC 6/15/09
Cliffs Notes on Your Telephone GC 6/15/09
Simon & Schuster in Deal with Scribd to Sell e-Books PW 6/12/09
A Tweet Treat? PW 6/12/09
Simon & Schuster to Sell Books on Scribd GC 6/12/09
HC Children's Does Mobile Promotion for Lauren Conrad Novel PW 6/11/09
Author Reveals Personal Kindle Sales GC 6/11/09
Shortcovers Builds Digital Reader for Palm Pre GC 6/11/09
Twitter Boot Camp Discount GC 6/11/09
Susan Orlean's Tempest in the Twitter Teapot GC 6/11/09
Dzanc Books Launches [Online] Literary Journal GC 6/10/09
Bret Easton Ellis' Twitter Review Career GC 6/10/09
Swiss Army Knife of Dictionaries GC 6/10/09
Conan the Digitalist GC 6/10/09
COOL-ER eBook Reader: the Future of Book Publishing? GC 6/10/09
ScrollMotion Bringing One Million Books to iPhone GC 6/10/09
$99 iPhone Rocks E-Book World GC 6/9/09
The New Gatekeepers GC 6/9/09
Book Stock Watch: Google Gains GC 6/5/09
Textnovel Lets Writers Publish Via Cellphone PW 6/5/09
Dave Eggers Sends Soothing Mass Email GC 6/5/09
Worldwide Seizures of Pirated Books GC 6/5/09
OUP Dictionary Team Dissects Twitter GC 6/5/09
How to Build a Literary iPhone App GC 6/3/09
eNews: Indigo to Launch Their Own Device PL 6/3/09
100 Strangers Co-Write and Publish Book GC 6/2/09
How 25 Million Chinese Readers Read Online GC 6/2/09
Showtime Network Develops Digital Tie-In for Amazon Kindle GC 6/2/09
Blogging Evangelist on the Future of Publishing GC 6/2/09
RAND Lowers e-Book Prices PW 6/2/09
Amazon’s Kindle DX Available June 10 PW 6/2/09
HMH Creates Digital Team PL 6/2/09
Google to Sell Digital Books GC 6/1/09
Amazon.com, Inc. Rumors GC 5/29/09
Tina Brown Bashes $9.99 Digital Books GC 5/29/09
GalleyCat Exclusive: $199 EBook Reader GC 5/29/09
How to Catch a Book Pirate GC 5/29/09
BookExpo America 2009: HarperCollins Featuring e-Galleys at BEA PW 5/29/09
Baker & Taylor, Donnelley in Print-on-Demand Pact PW 5/28/09
Ingram Survey Finds Half of Respondents Will Use E-Catalogues PW 5/28/09
Piracy Study Results Released GC 5/28/09
Stanza COO Neelan Choksi on the Last 150 Days in E-Books GC 5/28/09
Comparing Apples and Kindles GC 5/27/09
Ingram Adds Ingram Digital to Newly Formed Ingram Content Group PW 5/26/09
B&T, OverDrive Ink Digital Distribution Deal PW 5/26/09
FiledBy Expands Online Author Directory PW 5/26/09
Audible Launches BlackBerry E-Book Application GC 5/26/09
New Yorker Cover Drawn on iPhone (Gizmodo) MediaBistro 5/26/09
eMusic Adds Audiobooks from Recorded Books and HighBridge 5/22/09 PW
Hachette's Bestselling Promotional iPhone App 5/21/09 GC
U of Mich Signs Expanded Agreement With Google 5/21/09 PW
Viz Media Launches IKKI, New Online Magazine Venture 5/21/09 PW
Amazon Upgrades its Kindle for Iphone App 5/20/09 PW
HarperOne's Little Black Book Now Online 5/20/09 PW
Lit Bloggers Debate Kindle Blog Program 5/20/09 GC
On Demand Books Overtake Traditional Titles for the First Time 5/19/09 PL
Mobifusion, Encyclopaedia Britannica Release iPhone Apps 5/19/09 PW
Hyperion to Unveil Kernl 5/19/09 PW
Scribd Launches Online Store 5/18/09 PW
OverDrive in Deal with ChineseAll 5/18/09 PW
BEA Blogger Signing Schedule 5/17/09 GC
Amazon Opens Kindle to Bloggers 5/14/09 GC
Romance, DRM and the Future of Reading at Digital Book 2009 5/13/09 PW
Amazon and indieBound Top iPhone App Store 5/11/09 GC
The Expensive Art of Digitization 5/11/09 GC
Webcomics, Storytelling and Books from 'Smith' Online Magazine 5/11/09 PW
Amazon Optimizes Kindle Store for Safari on iPhones 5/11/09 PW
Mobifusion Releases New Cellphone Content Viewer 5/11/09 PW
Book Stock Watch: Amazon Unveils Kindle DX 5/8/09 GC
Sterling's Leaver Down on Trade Shows, High on Digital Catalogues 5/7/09 PW
Alloy to Adapt "Private" for Web TV Series 5/7/09 PW
Amazon Launches Kindle DX 5/6/09 PW
IDW Hires Webber to Oversee E-publishing 5/4/09 PW
Michelin Unveils iPhone Apps for New York, San Francisco and More European Cities 5/4/09 PW
Amazon Press Conference Set Amid Rumors of Bigger Screen Kindle 5/4/09 PW
L.A. Times Panel Debates Gatekeepers, Supply Chain and e-Books 4/30/09 PW
SharedBook Partners with Nelson 4/29/09 PW
Google Deadline Delayed Four Months as Steinbeck Motion Granted 4/28/09 PW
Delay Looming for Google Settlement Deadline? 4/27/09 PW
Amazon Acquires Stanza iPhone e-Book App 4/27/09 PW
More Than 100,000 Users in 160 Countries Try Shortcovers 4/27/09 PW
Barnes & Noble Launches Audiobook Store 4/27/09 PW
Judge Rejects Internet Archive Motion to Intervene in Google Settlement 4/24/09 PW
Amazon Sales Jump, Though Media Growth Slower 4/23/09 PW
Scholastic Web Game Show to Test Kids’ Knowledge 4/23/09 PW
Gompertz Named to New Digital Role at Simon & Schuster 4/22/09 PW
In U.K., Sony E-Reader Says Bring It On, Kindle 4/21/09 PW
British Publishers Try to Find the Money in E-books 4/21/09 PW
Big Rollout for DNL Laptop-format e-Books 4/21/09 PW
Using SKYPE, Wiley Holds Virtual Bookstore Talk 4/21/09 PW
S&S, GoSpoken to Offer E-titles for Mobile Phones 4/17/09 PW
Internet Archive Latest to Object to Google Settlement 4/17/09 PW
Lightning Source Launches Espresso Book Machine Pilot 4/16/09 PW
Children’s Book Week Goes Digital 4/16/09 PW
Lulu.com Launches Lulu Poetry, Introduces Contest 4/14/09 PW
Baker & Taylor Signs with LibreDigital for E-Books, Starts Digital Media Services Group 4/10/09 PW
Digital Recipe Reader Demy Hits the Market 4/10/09 PW
Twittergirls: Laurie Halse Anderson on Tour 4/9/09 PW
Amazon Launches App for Blackberry 4/8/09 PW
Disabled Group Protests Removal of Kindle's Text-to-Speech 4/7/09 PW
Consumer Group Protests Google Settlement 4/6/09 PW
Houghton Rolls Out Curious George App 4/6/09 PW
Yen Press Launches Toxic Planet Comic Online 4/6/09 PW
B&N Gives Booksellers Blogs 4/6/09 PW
Fujitsu Launches Color e-Book Reader in Japan 3/26/09 PW
Kiyosaki Site Drawing Lots of Interest to Free Book 3/26/09 PW
Chronicle Finds a Hit Online 3/26/09 PW
New Site Hosts 1.8 Million Author Web Pages 3/25/09 PW
Fictionwise Launches Free eReader E-book App for Blackberry 3/24/09 PW
Workman Gives Away Kindles, Lands Book in Amazon's Top Spot 3/24/09 PW
University of Michigan Switching to Digital Format for Scholarly Monographs 3/24/09 PW
HC Goes Digital With Catalogues 3/23/09 PW
B&N Digital Initiatives Coming, Riggio Promises 3/19/09 PW
Sony Partners with Google for More e-Books 3/19/09 PW
Scribd Signs Deals with Major Houses 3/18/09 PW
Bringing Comics to the Amazon Kindle 3/16/09 PW
ABPA’s Book Building 2.0 Seminar Addresses E-Books, iPhones and More 3/11/09 PW
Drummond Talks Google Settlement at AAP Meeting 3/10/09 PW
Stanza Has 'Read an eBook Week' Freebies; Hunted Pubs in Print, on iPhone 3/10/09 PW
The Kindle for iPhone: Good App with Flaws 3/9/09 PW
Amazon.com Stock Gets Upgrade 3/9/09 PW
B&N Buys Fictionwise; Will Start e-Bookstore 3/5/09 PW Note: Same day Borders cuts 742 jobs.
A Million Kindles by Thanksgiving? 3/4/09 PW
ScrollMotion Offers Graphical ‘Daniel X’ for iPhone 3/4/09 PW
Amazon Joins the iPhone App Market 3/3/09 PW
F+W Offering Free e-Books 3/3/09 PW
Nelson Makes Books Available in All Formats for One Price 3/3/09 PW
Amazon Reverses Stance on Text-to-Speech Feature 3/2/09 PW
Simon & Schuster Launches Crossword iPhone App 2/23/09 PW
Walden Media Moves into Future 2/19/09 PW
Read Will Eisner On Your iPhone 2/17/09 PW
Lexcycle, Plastic Logic, iRex and Others to Integrate New Adobe eBook Technology 2/16/09 PW
Authors Guild and Amazon Disagree Over Kindle's Text-to-Speech Software 2/12/09 PW
TOC: The Digital Future Is Confusing and Inspirational 2/12/09 PW
TOC Conference: Using Social Media to Build Book Audiences 2/11/09 PW
ReadHowYouWant Has Big Ambitions 2/11/09 PW
Plastic Logic Annouces Partnerships for Forthcoming eReader 2/10/09 PW
Kindle2 to Launch February 24 2/9/09 PW
Google Optimizes Book Search for iPhone, Android 2/6/09 PW
Tor.com Offers New Sci-fi and Fantasy Webcomics 2/2/09 PW
HarperCollins’s New Format: Video Books 2/3/09 PW
ReadHowYouWant Launches Online Braille Store 1/30/09 PW
Amazon Has Big Year, Though Media Growth Slowed 1/29/09 PW
Robert Kiyosaki, Business Plus Team-Up for Free, Online Book 1/29/09 PW
Tantor Distributing Playaway 1/28/09 PW
New Kindle Coming? 1/27/09 PW
Amazon To Drop Microsoft, Adobe e-Book Formats 1/26/09 PW
Perseus Partners with Incelligence to Create Mobile Phone Editions 1/21/09 PW
BookSwim.com Partners with BookRenter.com for Textbook Rentals 1/21/09 PW
Wiley Signs with YBP Library Services for Online Book Distribution 1/21/09 PW
iPhone Recipe Apps Surge 1/20/09 PW
Avalon Travel and For Dummies Launch New Web Sites 1/16/09 PW
Simon & Schuster Launches New Web Site 1/14/09 PW
Hachette's Young Touts Benefits of XML 1/13/09 PW
A Cautionary e-Book Tale 1/13/09 PW
Dorchester Signs with LibreDigital for e-Book Distribution 1/12/09 PW
New B&N.com President 1/9/09 PW
OverDrive Digital "Checkouts" Jumped 76% in 2008 1/6/09 PW
Orbit Offers Dollar E-Books 1/5/09 PW
Amazon Launches Author Stores 12/30/08 PW
Melville House Doing "Live Book" on Goose Island 12/11/08 PW
BISG Unveils BookDROP Standard for Digital Book Repositories 12/10/08 PW
uclick Hopes to Roll Out Hundreds of Comics for iPhone 12/9/08 PW
John Wiley and Directory M Enter Internet Content Syndication Partnership 12/9/08 PW
Penguin Launches Penguin 2.0, iPhone App; Stanza Deal with Random House 12/8/08 PW
Joint Venture Takes Control of NetGalley 12/8/08 PW
Fictionwise Partners with Stanza on iPhone 12/4/08 PW
New E-Book Publisher Launches 12/2/08 PW
Amazon Complete AbeBooks Buy 12/2/08 PW
NBN to Offer Digital Services 12/1/08 PW
Pan Macmillan Signs with Lexcycle’s Stanza 11/25/08 PW
Random House Expands E-book Offerings 11/24/08 PW
Tyndale Signs with Global Reader 11/18/09 PW
Google Settlement Gets Initial Approval 11/18/09 PW
Borders.com Goes Live with Google Preview 11/12/08 PW
U.K. Booksellers Say Google Deal Creates Monopoly 11/12/08 PW
SharedBook Teams with Tattered Cover and Capitol Books 11/10/08 PW
DailyLit Launches Book Samplers 11/6/08 PW
Authors, Publishers, Google Embrace Settlement 10/28/08 PW
Google Settles with AAP, Authors Guild 10/28/08 PW
B&N Launches Social Networking Site 10/27/08 PW
Kindle is Oprah’s New “Favorite Gadget” 10/24/08 PW

Bad News in the Book Biz

2009-05-17T12:23:00.002-05:00

Perhaps it seems a bit morbid or sadistic, but I've collected stories about these dark days in the book business to show the stark contrast in electronic publishing--the one industry growth area.

CBA Survey Finds Down Market 5/20/09 PW
Writing the Future Depression 5/20/09 GC
Books Flat at Hastings 5/18/09 PW
Quebecor Has Loss, Moves Ahead with Reorg 5/18/09 PW
Bookstore Sales Dipped 4.2 Percent in Q1 of 2009 5/14/09 GC
CBA Industry Report Reveals Volatile 2008 for Christian Stores 5/14/09 ECPA
Donnelley Makes Offer for Quebecor 5/13/09 PW
Bookstore Sales Down 1.3% in March; Off 4.2% for Quarter 5/13/09 PW
First Quarter Loss at Bertelsmann 5/12/09 PW
Episcopal Publisher Halts Trade Acquisitions 5/12/09 PW
Making Information Pay Conference Charts Changes Brought by Recession 5/8/09 PW
Revenue Dips Nearly 20 Percent at Simon & Schuster 5/8/09 GC
Budget Cuts Threaten LSU Press 5/8/09 GC
Simon & Schuster Has Rough First Quarter 5/7/09 PW
Charges Result in $38 Million Loss at HarperCollins 5/6/09 PW
Marvel Publishing Dips in Quarter; Expects Better Second Half 5/5/09 PW
First-Quarter Slip for Quarto 4/29/09 PW
Source Interlink Files Pre-Packaged Bankruptcy 4/28/09 PW
Plug Pulled on Christian Consumer Book Show 4/28/09 PW
Sales Fall at McGraw-Hill Education, but Loss Cut 4/28/09 PW
New Report Sees Dip in 2009 Book Sales 4/27/09 PW
Aperture Cuts Staff, Publishing List 4/24/09 PW
Borders to Overhaul Board, Enhance Book Clubs 4/16/09 PW
Results Down at Courier, Expects Better over the Next Six Months 4/15/09 PW
February Bookstore Sales Plunge 4/14/09 PW
Quebecor Reaches Agreement with Creditors 4/9/09 PW
NavPress Cuts Nine Positions 4/7/09 PW
Amid Changes, Globe Pequot Reducing BEA Presence 4/3/09 PW
Despite Big Loss, Marshall Confident of Borders's Future 3/31/09 PW
Babylon Falling Closing 3/31/09 PW
U of New Mexico Press Downsizes 3/31/09 PW
Book Sales Off 2.8% in 2008, AAP Says 3/31/09 PW
Pershing Extends Borders 3/31/09 PW
Recession Impacts BEA’s Black Professionals Confab 3/31/09 PW
Kensington to Sit Out Smaller BookExpo America 3/30/09 PW
Quebecor Cuts Loss in 2008 3/30/09 PW
Schoenwald Up, Heim Out at Nelson 3/27/09 PW
Books Etc. Closing Old Port Outlet 3/26/09 PW
Pay Freeze for Barnes & Noble Execs 3/24/09 PW
Random Has Down Year; Sees More Challenges 3/23/09 PW
Books-A-Million Results Fall 3/19/09 PW
B&N Confirms Down Year; Bleak Sales Forecast 3/19/09 PW
Baker & Taylor Moving California Warehouse to Indianapolis 3/17/09 PW
Community Acts to Save Shaman Drum 3/17/09 PW
Borders Sets Annual Meeting; Considers Reverse Stock Split 3/12/09 PW
Bookstore Sales Flat in January 3/12/09 PW
Anderson Sues Magazine Publishers & Wholesalers 3/11/09 PW
Currency Issues, U.S. Economy Result in Down Quarter at Wiley 3/9/09 PW
Anderson's Debt May Top $200 Million 3/6/09 PW
Borders Cuts 742 Store Positions 3/5/09 PW
Anderson’s Troubles Mount 3/4/09 PW
HCI Eliminates 35 Positions 3/3/09 PW
Random House Acquires Ten Speed Press 3/2/09 PW
Book Results Flat at Donnelley 3/2/09 PW
Borders Cuts Corporate Workforce 12% 2/19/09 PW
Simon & Schuster Reports 3% Decline in 2008 2/19/09 PW
Anderson Lays Off Employees; Source Sues 2/18/09 PW
Turner Publishing Buys Cumberland Titles 2/13/09 PW
Borders Gets Another Extension 2/13/09 PW
ABA to Reduce Staff, Institutes Salary Freeze 2/13/09 PW
December Store Sales Down; Year Off 0.5% 2/12/09 PW
HarperCollins Closes Bowen Press 2/12/09 PW
S&P Gets More Negative on HMH Parent 2/11/09 PW
HC Closes Bowen Press, Downsizes Rayo; Makes U.K. Cuts 2/10/09 PW
Harper Closing Collins; Other Layoffs Planned 2/10/09 PW
Anderson News Suspends “Normal Business Activity” 2/9/09 PW
Another Bad Quarter at HarperCollins 2/5/09 PW
Rodale Trims Four in Book Group 2/5/09 PW
Armstrong, Harwood Among Those Leaving in Borders Consolidation 2/3/09 PW
Reed Drops Canadian Publishing Events 2/2/09 PW
Simon & Schuster Unites Marketing 2/2/09 PW
Borders Execs Hit New York 2/2/09 PW
Reader’s Digest Cuts 280 Positions 1/29/09 PW
Random Out of BEC Consumer Show 1/29/09 PW
Harper Offers Voluntary Retirement 1/27/09 PW
Weak School Sales Drop Results at McGraw-Hill Education 1/27/09 PW
Amid Changes, Kenney to Lead 'PW' 1/26/09 PW Note: Sara Nelson out. Boo!
Layoffs at Diamond, DC Comics, Top Cow 1/23/09 PW
OUP Cuts 60 Positions 1/21/09 PW
Random Revamps Adult Sales 1/21/09 PW
BookStream to Flow No More 1/19/09 PW
Schwartz Bookshops to Close; Two Will Have New Owners 1/19/09 PW
The NeverEnding Story Reaches an End 1/16/09 PW
O’Reilly Media Eliminates 30 Jobs 1/16/09 PW
Random House Publishing Group Restructured 1/15/09 PW
B&N Cuts 4% at Corporate HQ 1/14/09 PW
Publishing Sales Sink at Courier; Closes Print Plant 1/14/09 PW
Crown Restructuring Completed 1/14/09 PW
November Bookstore Sales Plunge 1/14/09 PW
Knopf Doubleday Reorg Done 1/14/09 PW
Borders Names McGuire Head of the Board 1/13/09 PW
Books-A-Million Has Small Decline 1/9/09 PW
Small Press Sues Borders, B&T Over Returns 1/9/09 PW
B&N Holiday Sales Drop at Stores, Online 1/6/09 PW
More Cuts at McGraw-Hill Education 1/7/09 PW
Kaplan Buys Cleveland Clinic Press Assets 1/5/09 PW
As Sales Fall, Borders Gets New Leadership 1/5/09 PW
Borders Gets More Time 12/23/08 PW
Dohle Urges Random to Rethink, Reformulate Ways of Doing Business 12/18/08 PW
One-Time Charges, Currency Fluctuations Dent Scholastic Results 12/18/08 PW
Macmillan Scales Back BEA Presence 12/16/08 PW
Macmillan Eliminates 64 Positions; Forms Children’s Group 12/15/08 PW
Sourcebooks Buys Cumberland House 12/15/08 PW
October Bookstore Sales Dropped 5.6% 12/12/08 PW
Unit Sales Fall in Early December 12/11/08 PW
Perseus Suspends Raises 12/10/08 PW
Belt-Tightening in Canada 12/10/08 PW
Chronicle Books Makes Cuts 12/10/08 PW
Ten Speed Press Sale Close 12/10/08 PW
Pay Freeze at Macmillan 12/10/08 PW
Penguin Freezes Raises for Those Above $50,000 12/4/08 PW
HMH Lays Off More Staff 12/4/08 PW
Random Waits for Pending Integration 12/4/08 PW
S&S Cuts 35 Jobs 12/3/08 PW
Richter, Pfeffer to Leave S&S Kids 12/3/08 PW
Rubin, Irwyn Applebaum Step Down in RH Reorg 12/3/08 PW
Thomas Nelson Cuts 54 Positions 12/3/08 PW
Becky Saletan Quits HMH 12/2/08 PW
Borders Results Decline; Company Sale Off 11/25/08 PW
Broccoli Books Folds; Publishers Struggle in Tough Economy 11/25/08 PW
Levy Cancels 2009 Sales Conference 11/25/08 PW
HMH Places "Temporary" Halt on Acquisitions 11/24/08 PW
BAM Comps Drop Nearly 10% 11/24/08 PW
Random House Walks from BEC 2009 11/21/08 PW
Broccoli Books to Shut Down 11/21/08 PW
B&N Sales Sink; Sees Gloomy Holiday 11/21/08 PW
Layoffs at B&T 11/19/09 PW
Linda Jones Stepping Down at Borders 11/17/08 PW
September Bookstore Sales Drop 4.5% 11/14/08 PW
BookStream Slows As It Waits for Funding 11/14/08 PW
Reidy: Worse Publishing Environment May Be On the Way 11/11/08 PW
Economic Downturn Shutters Dallas-area Indie 11/7/08 PW
Profits Tumble at HarperCollins 11/5/08 PW
With Big Exception, Trade Sales Slowed in September 11/5/08 PW
Marvel Publishing Sales Slip 11/3/08 PW
Rodale to Cut 10% of its Workforce 11/3/08 PW
B&N Prepares for Terrible Holiday 11/3/08 PW
Indigo Second Quarter Results Down 10/30/08 PW
Doubleday Cuts 16 10/28/08 PW
Results Off at McGraw-Hill Education; Slashes Forecast 10/28/08 PW

Amazon beats "MediaPad" to Market with DX

2009-05-06T22:06:00.009-05:00

Wow. For all my recent trash talk about the Kindle, I want a DX. Sure, I still want touch screen navigation, full Web access, color, and a back lighting option, but I really, really want a DX too.

Here's today's official press release from Amazon.com.

Introducing Kindle DX--Amazon's Large Screen Addition to the Kindle Family of Wireless Reading Devices

Large Kindle DX Display and New Features Provide Enhanced Experience for Reading a Wide Range of Professional and Personal Documents

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May. 6, 2009-- Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today introduced Amazon Kindle DX, the new purpose-built reading device that offers Kindle’s revolutionary wireless delivery and massive selection of content with a large 9.7-inch electronic paper display, built-in PDF reader, auto-rotate capability, and storage for up to 3,500 books. More than 275,000 books are now available in the Kindle Store, including 107 of 112 current New York Times Best Sellers. New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases are $9.99 unless marked otherwise. Top U.S. and international magazines and newspapers plus more than 1,500 blogs are also available. Kindle DX is available for pre-order starting today for $489 at http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2FkindleDX&esheet=5957674&lan=en_US&anchor=http%3A%2F%2Famazon.com%2FkindleDX&index=1and will ship this summer.

“Personal and professional documents look so good on the big Kindle DX display that you’ll find yourself changing ink-toner cartridges less often,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “Cookbooks, computer books, and textbooks – anything highly formatted – also shine on the Kindle DX. Carry all your documents and your whole library in one slender package.”

New Large Display
Kindle DX’s display has 2.5 times the surface area of Kindle’s 6-inch display. The larger electronic paper display with 16 shades of gray has more area for graphic-rich content such as professional and personal documents, newspapers and magazines, and textbooks. Kindle reads like printed words on paper because the screen works using real ink and doesn’t use a backlight, eliminating the eyestrain and glare associated with other electronic displays.

The New York Times Company and Washington Post Company are launching pilots with Kindle DX this summer. The New York Times , The Boston Globe , and The Washington Post will offer the Kindle DX at a reduced price to readers who live in areas where home-delivery is not available and who sign up for a long-term subscription to the Kindle edition of the newspapers.

“At The New York Times Company we are always seeking new ways for our millions of readers to have full and continuing access to our high-quality news and information,” said Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., chairman, The New York Times Company and publisher, The New York Times. "The wireless delivery and new value-added features of the Kindle DX will provide our large, loyal audience, no matter where they live, with an exciting new way to interact with The New York Times and The Boston Globe . Additionally, by offering a subscription through the Kindle DX to readers who live outside of our delivery areas, we will extend our reach to our loyal readers who will be able to more readily enjoy their favorite newspapers. Meanwhile, we are continuing to work with Amazon to make The New York Times and The Boston Globe experiences on Kindle better than ever."

Kindle DX’s large display offers an enhanced reading experience with another category of graphic-rich content—textbooks. With complex images, tables, charts, graphs, and equations, textbooks look best on a large display. Leading textbook publishers Cengage Learning, Pearson, and Wiley, together representing more than 60 percent of the U.S. higher education textbook market, will begin offering textbooks through the Kindle Store beginning this summer. Textbooks under the following brands will be available: Addison-Wesley, Allyn & Bacon, Benjamin Cummings, Longman & Prentice Hall (Pearson); Wadsworth, Brooks/Cole, Course Technology, Delmar, Heinle, Schirmer, South-Western (Cengage); and Wiley Higher Education.

Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Princeton University, Reed College, and Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia will launch trial programs to make Kindle DX devices available to students this fall. The schools will distribute hundreds of Kindle DX devices to students spread across a broad range of academic disciplines. In addition to reading on a considerably larger screen, students will be able to take advantage of popular Kindle features such as the ability to take notes and highlight, search across their library, look up words in a built-in dictionary, and carry all of their books in a lightweight device.

“The Kindle DX holds enormous potential to influence the way students learn,” said Barbara R. Snyder, president of Case Western Reserve University. “We look forward to seeing how the device affects the participation of both students and faculty in the educational experience.”

New Built-In PDF Reader
Kindle DX features a built-in PDF reader using Adobe Reader Mobile technology for reading professional and personal documents. Like other types of documents on Kindle, customers simply email their PDF format documents to their Kindle email address or move them over using a USB connection. With a larger display and built-in PDF reader, Kindle DX customers can read professional and personal documents with more complex layouts without scrolling, panning, or zooming, and without re-flowing, which destroys the original structure of the document. Everything from annual reports with graphs to flight manuals with maps to musical scores can be viewed on a single, crisp screen with Kindle DX.

New Auto-Rotation
Kindle DX’s display content auto-rotates so users can read in portrait or landscape mode, or flip the device to read with either hand. Simply turn Kindle DX and immediately see full-width landscape views of maps, graphs, tables, images, and Web pages.

New 3.3 GB Memory Holds Up To 3,500 Books
With 3.3 GB of available memory, Kindle DX can hold up to 3,500 books, compared with 1,500 with Kindle. And because Amazon automatically backs up a copy of every Kindle book purchased, customers can wirelessly re-download titles from their library at any time.

Incredibly Thin
Kindle DX is just over a third of an inch thin, which is thinner than most magazines.

3G Wireless, No PC, No Hunting for Wi-Fi Hot Spots
Just like Kindle, Kindle DX customers automatically take advantage of Amazon Whispernet to wirelessly shop the Kindle Store, download or receive new content in less than 60 seconds, and read from their library—all without a PC, Wi-Fi hot spot, or syncing. Amazon still pays for the wireless connectivity on Kindle DX so books can be downloaded in less than 60 seconds—with no monthly fees, data plans, or service contracts.

Syncs With Kindle for iPhone and other Kindle Compatible Devices
Just like Kindle, Kindle DX uses Amazon Whispersync technology to automatically sync content across Kindle, Kindle DX, Kindle for iPhone, and other devices in the future. With Whispersync, customers can easily move from device to device and never lose their place in their reading.

Massive Selection of Books—Plus Newspapers, Magazines, and Blogs
The Kindle Store currently offers more than 275,000 books, including popular books like New York Times Bestsellers, New Releases, and fiction and nonfiction released in the past several years. Dozens of newspapers and magazines are also available for subscription or single-edition purchase. BusinessWeek and The New England Journal of Medicine are available in the Kindle Store starting today, and The Economist will be available soon. Subscriptions are auto-delivered wirelessly to Kindle overnight so that the latest edition is waiting for customers when they wake up. Over 1,500 blogs are available on Kindle and updated and downloaded wirelessly throughout the day.

Kindle DX includes all the other features Kindle customers enjoy every day, including:

- Wirelessly send, receive, and read personal documents in a variety of formats such as Microsoft Word and PDF
- Look up words instantly using the built-in 250,000 word New Oxford American Dictionary
- Choose from six text sizes
- Add bookmarks, notes, and highlights
- Text-to-speech technology that converts words on a page to spoken word
- Search Web, Wikipedia.org, Kindle Store, and your library of purchased content
- No setup required—Kindle comes ready to use—no software to load or set up Amazon Kindle is sold through Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
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About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel; Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial.
Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Examples of the services offered by Amazon Web Services are Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon SimpleDB, Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), Amazon Flexible Payments Service (Amazon FPS), Amazon Mechanical Turk and Amazon CloudFront.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com , www.amazon.co.uk , www.amazon.de , www.amazon.co.jp , www.amazon.fr , www.amazon.ca , and www.amazon.cn .
As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
Source: Amazon.com, Inc.

Another Tipping Point for eBooks?

2009-05-02T14:19:00.007-05:00

Earlier this week, BusinessWeek reported that Apple and Verizon are in talks for the release of a new MediaPad that is described to be about the size of an Amazon Kindle, but with a full surface, color touch screen and all the functionality of an iPhone or iPod Touch. I CAN'T WAIT! Sign me up.

PC World has already declared the MediaPad could be the Kindle Killer. Personally, I have held out on purchasing an ebook reading device, mostly because I didn't want to pay all that money for another device only to read books. Granted, the Kindle allows one to do more than read books, but the little black & white screen with all those little buttons at the bottom: It looks like the offspring of a 1940s television and a Blackberry. There's no back lighting. Weak graphics. And, while I appreciate what Amazon and the Kindle have done for advancing the industry of electronic books, I'm not paying $400 for that experience.

I did pay $400 for my iPhone and I LOVE it. I read on it every day, several times a day. Mostly I read the blogs I follow, but I also read articles, my email, my calendar, Facebook posts, Twitter posts, etc. I love that I can read in the dark before bed without a light and it doesn't disturb my wife. I love the touch screen navigation and zoom. I love the auto portrait-landscape feature. I love being connected to the Internet with (almost) full Web experience (Apple: for Jumping-Jack's sake, please give me Flash, Flash, Flash) and links out to other points of interest while I am reading. And I love that I can jump from my email, to watching a YouTube video, to my favorite blog sites, to Facebook, to my photos, to my voicemail, all while listening to my music.

While the iPhone creates an enjoyable reading experience for "information snacking" (thank you Jeff Bezos), to me it is not a comfortable reading experience for much more than 30 minutes and I have not yet purchased or read an ebook on my iPhone. But, give me the iPhone reading/media/communication experience on a device the size of a trade paperback, and allow me to read my ebook files on my MediaPad, iPhone, and laptop, and I may never buy another print book again. Make it easy for me to post what I am reading to Facebook and comment on it, see what my friends and others have said about it, make new friends, email a passage, join a fan group, watch related video clips...

I'm all atwitter just thinking about it.

eBook Tipping Point?

A Return to Blogging

2009-04-10T22:44:00.006-05:00

You may notice I've given the blog site a makeover and shifted the focus to digital book publishing.

It's been an interesting few months. In December, Cumberland House was acquired by Sourcebooks. The conversations between the companies really heated up around the time my blog went dark. It proved to be a good transition. I learned a ton walking through the acquisition and helping transition the acquired titles over to Sourcebooks systems.

Today, I'm working for B&H Publishing Group, spearheading digital publishing initiatives, as well as developing backlist and custom books.

The digital arena is a wide-open playing field and I am having a blast.

I'm back! Happy Easter.

How Good is Your Spelling?

2008-12-04T15:00:00.005-06:00

Long-time friend of Cumberland House and author, Martin Manser, is a reference-book editor and language trainer & consultant in the UK where he offers courses to writers, companies, and university students. For full details of his open public courses held in London and also details of tailor-made courses, see his Language Trainer and Consultant page: http://www.martinmanser.com/MMTraining.aspx.

Here's a fun little spelling quiz from his December newsletter. I scored a "very good," which was generous.

1 a stupefying/stupifying effect
2 the forword/forward/foreword to the book
3 a forgone/foregone conclusion
4 the troubled period of adolesence/adolescence
5 a stand-up arguement/argument
6 and other miscellaneous/misellanious/miscellanious items
7 I am very loath/loathe to say no
8 the South African system of apartheid/aparthied/apartheit
9 the yoke/yolk of slavery
10 an insurance waver/waiver
11 the rudimentary principles/principals of physics
12 lackered/laquered/laqueured/lacquered wood
13 What impeccible/impeccable behaviour!
14 Yours truly/truely, Freda
15 They’re just good friends/freinds
16 a hypersensitive/hyposensitive personality
17 to canvass/canvas/cannvass public opinion
18 He suffers from agoraphobia/agraphobia
19 the national curriculum/curiculum in education
20 to seek professional/profesional/proffessional advice
21 The economy is not very boyant/buoyant at the moment
22 She complemented/complimented him on his fine appearance
23 Clostrophobia/Claustrophobia is the fear of being in enclosed places
24 He was severely censored/censured/censered for the brutality of the attack
25 in ecstacy/ecstasy/exstacy at the thought.

Answers to spelling quiz (above)
1 stupefying
2 foreword
3 foregone
4 adolescence
5 argument
6 miscellaneous
7 loath
8 apartheid
9 yoke
10 waiver
11 principles
12 lacquered
13 impeccable
14 truly
15 friends
16 hypersensitive
17 canvass
18 agoraphobia
19 curriculum
20 professional
21 buoyant
22 complimented
23 claustrophobia
24 censured
25 ecstasy

25 out of 25: well done! 20-24 very good. 15-20 fair. Below 15: you are relying too much on your spellchecker!

Despite all the advanced points of writing that I am often asked about on courses, I often find participants on my courses need help in basic points of grammar. So, remember, whether you’re looking for a refresher course on the basics or you simply want to increase your confidence in more advanced aspects of writing, email me and I’m be glad to help. mailto:help.mhmanser@aol.com

As ever, don’t forget that if you regularly write for more than an hour a day, you could benefit from brushing up on your skills in writing and editing.

Great Gift Idea for Book People

2008-11-30T23:07:00.007-06:00

Opening Lines: The First Sentences from Classic Plays, Poems, and Books is a wonderful gift for book lovers available exclusively at Barnes & Noble. It is a mini book designed to hold a gift card. Gift cards are sold separately so you can include a gift card from B&N or the retailer of your choice. Or, the book alone makes a great client gift with your business card inside instead of a gift card.

If you are in publishing or a book person looking for something special for your staff, clients, family and friends, consider a gift card delivered in a copy of Opening Lines.

Or, if you are a pet person, consider Pet Therapy: Thoughts on Why We Love Our Pets. The two other books in the series, Happy Birthday and The Gift of Friendship are sold out at BN.com but still available in some stores.

Happy Holidays

2008-11-24T14:28:00.003-06:00

I'll be taking a brief hiatus from the Publishing Associates blog going into the holidays to spend more time with my family. I may pop in from time to time with a random thought. Otherwise, I'll see you in 2009.

Big Hit for The Military Wives Cookbook!

2008-11-21T09:33:00.007-06:00

Cumberland House marketeer Paige Lakin received samples yesterday of a major hit she secured for The Military Wives Cookbook in the December 2008 issue of The American Legion Magazine--circulation: over 2.5 million!

It is a full color, two page spread with a large image of the book cover, sample recipes, and a photo and interview with author Carolyn Quick Tillery. The December 2008 issue isn't posted on their Web site yet but click here, or on the image to read the feature.

Way to go Paige and CQ!

I LOVE Last.fm

2008-11-18T20:15:00.002-06:00

Have you heard of Last.fm? I learned about it last week. Joe Wikert wrote a post about his new found admiration for the iPhone. Someone commented on his post that using Last.fm on the G3 network is better than satellite radio. I've had satellite radio-envy for a long time. I've had rental cars with Sirius and I LOVED it. I'm not a talk radio person, it is the targeted, commercial free music I love.

Anyway, last week I downloaded the Last.fm player on my computer and my iPhone. It automatically imported my music list from my iTunes library. I clicked on "recommended" and listened all day long. The program selected songs it thought I would enjoy based on music already in my library. There was no interruption. It did not play any songs from my library. Over the course of about seven hours there was one song I skipped because I didn't like it. And there were dozens of songs and artists I'd never heard before that I want to hear again. As each song plays, the CD cover is displayed with information about it and the opportunity to click to purchase--really brilliant marketing. There are also channels by genre and probably more options to discover. I haven't explored all the features.

The sound quality was great. Again, over the course of about seven hours there were a couple of hiccups, but they were just flickers. I have a first generation iPhone so I have to have high speed wireless access (no G3 for me, yet), but when I have a wi-fi connection, it works great.

Maximize Your Investment in Book Promotion - Every Author Should Read This Post

2008-11-15T21:27:00.010-06:00

My friend Rusty Shelton at Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists gave me a heads-up on this post written by one of their authors, Wendy Kays, who recently appeared on Dr. Phil to promote her book, Game Widow.

The post is about book publicity and her approach is right on! I am amazed at how many authors treat their publicist exactly opposite of what Kays suggests, that is, like the publicist is the author's assistant. I can tell you, that doesn't work. Kays approach is guaranteed to be much more effective. "You can maximize your investment in book promotion by being a valuable assistant to your publicist," Kays writes. You need to read her entire post, but here are the five points.

1. First, gather local press contact information for your publicist.

2. Next, if you haven’t already done this, create alliances with other people who speak on your topic.

3. Third, create events for your publicist to promote.

4. Fourth, try to do everything your publicist recommends.

5. Fifth and finally, put the onus for your success on yourself…not your publicist. As someone once said, when it comes to breakfast, the chicken was involved, but the pig was committed.

One of my favorite quotes from the piece is, "Helping your publicist in small ways not only builds incredible good will, it also protects you from feeling like an ignoramus three months from now when you learn firsthand how hard it is to push into the news & entertainment cycle… and how good at it your publicist really was."

Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words

2008-11-06T20:56:00.006-06:00

On the drive home tonight I heard this story on All Things Considered and it cracked me up. It is about a show running at the Triad Theater in New York called Celebrity Autobiography. Every Monday a different cast of comic actors like SNL stars Fred Armison, Will Forte, and SNL alumni Rachel Dratch, Molly Shannon and other stars read passages from celebrity autobiographies. Books read during the radio story included Mr. T: The Man With the Gold: An Autobiography by Mister T, the Motley Crue memoir The Dirt, and Good Morning, I'm Joan Lunden.

Reading the story on the NPR site doesn't do it justice. You've got to listen to it. I have to get my next trip to New York scheduled for a Monday stay over. It sounds like a lot of fun.

In the mean time, maybe we could come up with a list of celebrity autobiographies from the used bookstore, remainder bins (or our own bookshelves) to suggest for the show. Any ideas?

How authors can stay positive through the publishing process

2008-11-05T21:07:00.001-06:00

Richard O'Connor, author of Happy at Last: The Thinking Person's Guide to Finding Joy (St. Martin's) wrote the Soapbox feature for the 10/27/2008 issue of Publishers Weekly. It is a nice piece on the search for happiness.

"Humans are wired to be able to feel good when good things happen," he writes, "but the feeling never lasts."

Here are some tips from O'Connor:

Focus on what you can control. Write well, and be proud of that, no matter what.

Chances are your book won't sell as much as you want it to, but don't let that ruin your life.

Behavioral economists have shown that when we get what we want, we'll just want something else. . . You need to find more substantial goals, like getting to work on the next book.

Here's my favorite tip: When you go to bed at night, think of three good things that happened during the day. Little things, like a good grilled cheese sandwich, or bigger things, like how you love someone. Maybe you wrote a great paragraph or learned an interesting fact. Research shows that if you do this, not only will you be in a better mood the next day, but the more often you do this, the happier you'll be.

I really need to get better at doing this--taking stock of the good things every day. Here are my three good things from today:

The autumn colors and mist rising off the river in the sun this morning.
Overhearing my daughter tell my wife that she loves her, completely out of the blue.
Flipping through a photography book called Old Dogs.

What good things happened during your day today? Share them here. Maybe what you share will be someone else's good thing.

Do you blog?

2008-11-04T22:24:00.002-06:00

Are you actively writing or posting other content for a community of people who tune in regularly to see what you have to say? If so, please post a comment on this post with your blog address.

Since the beginning of the Publishing Associates blog, I've kept a list of other publishing-related blogs I read. In fact, I've recently added a couple new ones: The Endsheet by graphic designer and long time friend of Cumberland House, Bruce Gore, and The Book Design Review authored by Joseph Sullivan. Thanks to Cumberland House editor and frequent commenter, Mary Sanford, for the heads-up on BDR.

You will see on the right side of the page that I am starting a new blog roll of Cumberland House authors. I'd love to add you to the list. Post a comment here.

Election Day Freebies

2008-11-03T11:28:00.004-06:00

Well, it's almost over. I must say, as disillusioned and cynical as I am about politics, I've enjoyed the focus in the news the last few days on the final campaign strategies heading into the election. At least I've enjoyed it more than the dismal news of the fallout from the economy that is all we've been hearing the last couple of weeks--closed doors, lost jobs, lost homes. With the Dow up around 1000 points from the low of the last few weeks, maybe we'll get some relief on that front too.

Rallying enthusiasm for election day turnout I've heard of at least three companies making special offers for voters and I am already planning my route from the polling place. Actually I early voted, but I am still going to make good on some of these offers.

Starbucks is offering a free tall cup of brewed coffee all day, November 4.

Krispy Kreme is offering a free star shaped donut with patriotic sprinkles to all retail customers wearing an "I Voted" sticker on November 4. I early voted and my sticker is long gone but I may try for the free donut anyway.

Ben & Jerry's is offering a free scoop of ice cream from 5-8pm, November 4.

Are you aware of any other offers? Post a comment here to share with others.

How do you make a bestseller?

2008-11-02T20:22:00.004-06:00

Sara Nelson's editorial in the October 27 issue of Publisher's Weekly reminded me again about why I love this business. Of course she makes the point that we don't know what makes a bestseller. I often point out that no one knows exactly how to make a book a bestseller or they would do it every time. Nelson writes about some of the rules publishers create to help make a bestseller, and then goes on to point out how the rules don't hold up, with examples from the current bestseller lists. Fact is, we don't know, and as Nelson puts it, "Still, most book people, if they're honest, will tell you that it's that unknowability that gets them out of bed in the morning and makes them want, even in hard times, to keep publishing."

I put a lot of emphasis on research and finding out everything we can about the market, the competition, and other factors to minimize our risk and maximize our success in the name of "smart business," but deep down there is always the belief, the hope, that any one of our books could break out. And that is part of the thrill of publishing. I've likened it to gambling. We calculate our risks and place our bets. Nelson puts a bit more romantic spin on it, "Discovering a book that works is like finding true love. You take your risks, you make mistakes, and you start with your heart."

October Wrap-Up

2008-10-31T11:34:00.002-05:00

October has been a tough and interesting (to say the least) month. I think there was only one day in October where the change in the Dow was not in triple digits. We had to tighten our belt and make some difficult and painful decisions to help get us in better shape for 2009. It was a watershed month (at least according to me) for e-books and electronic publishing. And, I got to make my first trip to Germany for the Frankfurt Book Fair. The trip and the fair gave me a world of new insight into the important international dimension of the publishing business. Read all about it here. Following are the posts from October. Thanks for reading.

Average Book Sales?

Have you ever sold a million of anything?
We're Selling E-Books!

The Book of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered
More on Returns and Remainders

Going to Frankfurt (2 comments)
Guten Tag, Ya’ll
What a Messe - The Frankfurt Buchmesse (1 comment)
Holiday Inn Neu-Isenburg

Note to self: learn how to order a sandwich without pictures. (6 comments)
Achtung Baby!
Don't Know Much About Geography
Note to self: stop asking for water in restaurants (2 comments)

It's a flat world after all (1 comment)
“By means of beauty, beautiful things become beautiful" -- Phaedo
I Love Public Transit (2 comments)
Frankfort Book Fair Day 3
We're Number One!
Frankfort Book Fair Day 4
Adventures in Deutschland - A Couple More Stories

The Fine Art of the Hand-Sell (4 comments)
eBook Tipping Point?
Gourmet Shoppers: Cooking up retail opportunities

More on Electronic Publishing

2008-10-30T22:12:00.004-05:00

Earlier this week it was announced that Google, the Author’s Guild, and the Association of American Publishers, reached what Publisher’s Weekly called a "groundbreaking settlement."

“The agreement promises to benefit readers and researchers, and enhance the ability of authors and publishers to distribute their content in digital form, by significantly expanding online access to works through Google Book Search, an ambitious effort to make millions of books searchable via the Web.” PW reports.

With Google now free from nearly three years of litigation, I anticipate an avalanche of progress in the electronic distribution of books. I think this is very exciting. Last week, Oprah declared the Amazon Kindle to be her new favorite gadget, dedicating a show to promoting the electronic reading device. Given Oprah’s influence in the world of publishing, and now the Google settlement, I think it is safe to declare this a watershed week for electronic publishing.

Click here to read the full terms of the settlement.

The O'Reily Tools of Change for Publishing blog is keeping a good list of industry reactions to this news. Read it here.

Gourmet Shoppers: Cooking up retail opportunities

2008-10-30T10:50:00.007-05:00

This story was recently featured in the Nielsen's Consumer Insight, November 2008 newsletter. "What does it have to do with publishing?" you ask. Well, everything, if you write or publish cookbooks, which we do. Click here to see the wonderful cookbooks of Cumberland House.

Some interesting stats about the growing home-gourmet market from the article:

Nielsen reports that the Food Network viewing audience has tripled in size since 2000, carving out an average per minute primetime audience of 878,000 people.

One-third of U.S. households consume a gourmet meal frequently or occasionally, with 83% of those meals eaten in restaurants, 37% at home and 22% at the homes of friends or relatives.

In one of every five households you’ll find a budding gourmet.

Forty percent of amateur gourmands starved for information and ideas consult cook books, tune-in to TV cooking shows or surf the Internet for inspiration.

Nielsen's top five cookbook titles of 2007 included:

Rachel Ray: Just In Time!

Everyday Pasta by Giada De Laurentiis

Everyday Food: Great Food Fast by Martha Stewart

Christmas with Paula Deen: Recipes and Stories from My Favorite Holiday

The Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition

Casual connoisseurs shop specialty kitchen stores (16%), use professional cookware and subscribe to a cooking or gourmet magazine (15%), own professional grade appliances (11%) and patronize gourmet stores (10%).

Gourmet cook households log five more shopping trips across all outlets each year than other U.S. households and outspend them by 11%, spending 20% more at club stores, 17% more at grocery, 15% more at drug and 11% more at dollar stores compared to all other households. Conversely, foodies are not big spenders at mass merchandisers, under-spending the average household by 11%, or at mass supercenters, where they spent 5% less.

Gourmets spend 66% more at liquor stores than other households and 66% more on alcoholic beverages as a major department, and spend 105% more than non-gourmet cook households on wine, 51% more on liquor, 46% more on spices, seasonings and extracts, and 31% more on fresh produce.

Gourmet cooks have devised their own recipe for surviving belt-tightening times, and it includes shopping club stores (31% more likely than other households) and buying online (26% more likely).

Read the complete article here.

eBook Tipping Point?

2008-10-27T21:07:00.007-05:00

Have you heard that Oprah picked the Amazon Kindle as her new favorite gadget? I saw it promoted on Amazon.com this weekend, and it was written up in Publishers Lunch and the PW Daily email. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but this strikes me as a BIG DEAL. This could be a significant tipping point for e-books. Oprah is a kingmaker when it comes to publishing. Her book club picks set up authors and publishers for life. While Amazon has been somewhat tight-lipped about the total number of Kindles in circulation, I will be very interested to hear reports of what Oprah's endorsement does for Kindle sales.

Oprah says the Kindle changed her life. "It's absolutely my new favorite favorite thing in the world," she says. "I know it's expensive in these times, but it's not frivolous because it will pay for itself," she says. "The books are much cheaper, and you're saving paper." All that, and green too.

There's still the price hurdle to overcome. $359 is no paperback book club pick, but Amazon is giving $50 off the price of Kindle between now and November 1, 2008. Enter the code OPRAHWINFREY to get the discount.

Amazon is also offering an extra 10% off the price of the current Oprah book club pick, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

As of the writing of this post, Cumberland House is now up to 166 titles available on Amazon in the Kindle format.

The Fine Art of the Hand-Sell

2008-10-22T21:22:00.006-05:00

The October 6 issue of Publishers Weekly closed with an editorial by journalist, Emily Grosvenor called, "The Gospel According to Paul." Grosvenor writes about Paul Ingram of Prairie Lights in Iowa City, one of the country's last great independent booksellers.

Ingram selects what he believes to be the "Best Book of the Year" in some twenty categories, packs up dozens of copies of each, and hauls them to a local church for his "Ministry of Books" event. Ingram has created a new context for book lovers to congregate and for him to make suggestions, and sales. He sells several books at top dollar at the event, that go on to sell hundreds of copies of titles based on word-of-mouth recommendations coming out of the event. Brilliant.

The small town where I grew up is dying. As Wal-Mart and other big box stores moved in, there was this outcry from local business owners that residents should feel an obligation to shop at their Main Street stores. It is an ignorant point of view to expect people to ignore higher prices, lack of parking, and other inconveniences to support local business. Inflicting a sense of guilt doesn't work. People want value. Value doesn't have to mean discount prices. It can mean service. Hand selling. Community. Independent retailers need to find ways to make themselves valuable to their customers. Prairie Light's "Ministry of Books" is a perfect example.

Adventures in Deutschland - A Couple More Stories

2008-10-19T05:37:00.005-05:00

I'm sitting on the airplane, about five miles above Scotland with nine hours to go to Dallas and I remembered a couple more stories from the trip I had forgotten to blog.

My first day, after finally arriving in the hotel, awake for 26 some hours and in a bit of a stupor, I took a shower. It was a nice shower too. The water pressure was strong, the temperature was hot and easy to adjust, but best of all, the shower head was mounted high enough that I didn't have to stoop.

Shortly after my shower there was a quick knock at the door and it opened before I could say, "Hallo." A very German looking man in coveralls was holding a shower head and looked as surprised to see me as I was to see him. After a couple failed attempts to exchange greetings he held up the shower head and said, "To fix."

"It's not broken," I said. "I just took a shower and it was fine."

The German furrowed his brow, "No?"

"No," I said, "It's fine."

"It's okay," he said raising his lower lip, eye brows, and shoulders and backed out the door.

The next morning as I showered I did notice the water was trickling out around the nozzle. That must have been what needed repair. I stepped out to get the shampoo I'd brought with me. With my head fully lathered and suds running toward my eyes, I squinted and groped for a ledge to set the shampoo bottle, to no avail. When I stood up after squatting to set the shampoo on the floor the water stopped flowing.

"Oh great," I thought, "it really is broken." I twisted and fumbled with the nozzle for a good thirty seconds, which is longer than it sounds when you're naked, wet, and squinting to keep soap out of your eyes. I gave the faucet handle a tug and the water came streaming back on. I must have inadvertently bumped the faucet when I set down the shampoo. I never reached panic mode but my tired little brain struggled to work through possible solutions in that very long thirty seconds. Fortunately it sort of worked itself out.

The other story I remembered was from my last day in Frankfurt. The man who sold me the slippers for the girls gaved me a little shopping bag to carry them. There was some nondescript logo on the bag and I really didn't think much of it. I carried the bag with me on the train, through the shopping district, into the market. I noticed more than once that people's eyes lingered on my shopping bag longer than usual. I felt pretty conspicuous the entire trip anyway--the obvious American tourist, but when the fifth or sixth person's eyes fixed on my shopping bag at the bus stop on my final leg back to the hotel, I finally gave the bag a second look myself, and there, running down the side of the black bag was printed in red letters: http://www.feelmax.com/. I looked up the site and (to my relief) feelmax is some kind of shoe.

Sent from my iPhone

Frankfort Book Fair Day 4

2008-10-18T17:56:00.006-05:00

Wow. What a day. Today the book fair was opened to the public and they came out in droves. Train load and bus load after load poured into the fair grounds from every entrance. I literally could not get off the train because there was no room on the platform as people made their way to the entrance. Young and old, kids in costumes, adults in costumes, young families, Goths, every walk of life pressed in to be part of the book fair. The German exhibit halls were so packed I don’t know how anyone could see or enjoy anything but it did my heart good to see such enthusiasm for books. This picture doesn't do it justice.

The American hall was very slow. I had a good chance to visit with some of the other publishers. I did a bit more brainstorming on book ideas and development and thinking about plans for future shows.

On the grounds in a courtyard between the halls there were food vendors and craft vendors. The Germans don’t seem to like the bright colored, sassy, girly things my girls appreciate. There were a lot of leather goods and incense. I did find some very cute little slippers that look like elf shoes for the girls’ “trip gift.” I also found a wood carving artist named Gunter Mauch who does amazing carvings of everyday articles in wood. Take a look at his gallery. Again, the photos are not nearly as impressive online as the art is in person. I got a miniature book carving as a keepsake for the trip. It is smaller than the one pictured here but it is wrapped up for the trip home and I don't want to unwrap it to take a picture.

Earlier this week someone told me there was a shopping district between the Hauptwache and Konstablerwache stops on the train so I stopped on the way back from the fair. It was a very typical urban shopping area with department stores and fast food. The streets were closed to traffic and filled with people. I did take a couple detours to see Geothe’s house and the cathedral. The best part of the day, though, was the market at Konstablerwache. There were fruit and vegetable stands and butchers. There were stands cooking every kind of sausage you can imagine. There were guys frying schnitzel and serving it on sandwiches. There was wine, but no beer that I could find. The hit of the market, though, was Rauscher—a hard apple cider. It was more like beer than wine, but not really either. It was fermented cider and it was great! The entire market was packed full of people standing shoulder to shoulder drinking and eating. It was very festive. Long rows of tables with people sitting together, eating and drinking and laughing. The wine and cider was served in glasses—real glasses—red wine glasses, white wine glasses, champagne glasses. The cider was served in small beer glasses. I sat down at a table of strangers, all of whom spoke enough broken English that we could say hello, where we are from, and cheers. I ate my bratwurst with a pierced German and two couples from Venezuela. I had a glass of cider with a group from Canada, and a waffle and coffee (served in a porcelain cup) with a couple from Brazil. It was a really delightful experience.

I forgot how many German words were familiar before I got here. Guten tag, guten morgan, dankeschon, javolt, gunter gleebin glocken globen, auf wiedersehen, etc. The one I didn't hear, however, was "gesundheit." I fake-sneezed several times at the fair, on the train, in the hotel but never heard it. Not even once.

I took the train back to Neu Isenburg and waited about 30 minutes for the bus that was to come at 39 minutes after the hour. The bus never showed. I had misread the schedule. The last bus ran at 4 o’clock on Saturday. I crossed to the other side of the tracks and found another bus line that would get me fairly close to the hotel. It was a new route through a very residential area of Neu Isenburg. I think I took a different transit or a different route back to the hotel every night. While I was tired, the walk back to the hotel was nice. There were huge orange and yellow and brown maple and oak leaves on the sidewalk that sound and smell so good.

One last comment on the tourism ads. . .

You know that guy who does the voiceovers for movie ads? Slovakia hired him to do their tourism ad. It actually begins, “In a world…” Go ahead. Say it in that deep, sweeping, dramatic voice. That is how the ad starts. Pretty funny, but not supposed to be funny. Tonight I’ve seen tourism ads for Bahrain, Armenia, Greece, Croatia, India, Monte Negro, Korea, and Malaysia. Amazing.

This concludes my trip to the 2008 Frankfurter Buchmesse. It’s been a great experience. I miss my family and I'm looking forward to getting home.

Auf wiedersehen!

We're Number One!

2008-10-17T18:41:00.000-05:00

There must have been a football game or something last night. When the train from the Messe pulled into the main station it was full of people in jerseys. They were mostly young people drinking beer. They were singing and chanting and pounding on the train. A few of them had banners with drawings of a hand extending its middle finger. (I think that means, "We're #1" in Germany.) Some kid came charging up shaking the banner at the window by my seat. I never felt personally threatened but the whole experience was a bit disconcerting. The hooligans started a cheer chant and began hopping in unison. Some boarded the train making it bounce. I did start to wonder if maybe it was some kind of student protest rather than a sporting crowd. They seemed to hold up the train. At least we sat in the station for a good five minutes when the usual stop is about 30 seconds. Finally, the train pulled away. (This is not my photo. I found it online, but I wish I had taken it.)

Frankfort Book Fair Day 3

2008-10-17T17:33:00.004-05:00

It was another great day at the fair. I had a meeting with a wonderful French publisher, three UK publishers, and two Aussie publishers. I picked up catalogs from each of them earlier in the week and made appointments for today. I went through the catalogs and dog eared the pages for books that caught my interest. Many were already sold but some are still in consideration. I also had meetings with publishers from Russia, Italy, Spain, and India who are interested in licensing some of our books. The health titles seem to carry the most interest.

I will be much better prepared next time with a list of contacts to set meeting ahead of time. If I have the privilege of going to the London Book Fair in the spring or back to Frankfurt next year, I will reach out to the UK, Aussie, Kiwi, Irish, Scottish, and any other English-speaking publishers registered to attend the show who publish the same categories we do and schedule appointments to pitch our upcoming list for potential co-publishing editions. While we get distribution into those countries now, it is my belief that co-publishing with a house in those territories would increase the marketing attention given to the book. Of course, I’m still learning the ropes so there may be a down side to that strategy I’ve not seen yet.

One thing that struck me as I walked the floor today was that whatever new idea I have, someone has already done it. I am new in this game. That does not discourage me. It challenges me to try to think beyond what everybody is already doing or already done.

Today I also walked two more halls of International publisher exhibits. I took pictures of the signs that listed all the countries in each hall but the names are probably too small to read. It was another “small world” experience for me. It was so strange to walk the halls and see the books and people from every country. The Spanish and South American countries have a very high regard for design and production quality, as do the Danes, Swiss, Italians, and French. I know China, Korea, and Japan all understand high production value. They print most of the books for the US, but they don’t seem to have the same regard for production value for their own books. Perhaps they are more concerned with content than packaging. Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Eurasian countries still have a ways to go in understanding or appreciating production quality.

I Love Public Transit

2008-10-17T17:09:00.010-05:00

I got my hands on a restaurant guide and found a traditional German place on the train route between the fair and the hotel. The Frankfurter Haus is right here in Neu Isenburg. The guide directed me to get off the train at the stop before the one I’ve been taking for Neu Isenburg, and to get on a street car. I didn’t know there was a street car. I have now used the commuter train, the surface train, the underground train, the street car, and the bus system in Frankfurt. And it is all free with my show badge.

The street car went through a heavily forested municipal park. It was beautiful with all the trees in their fall colors. The street car stopped at the old Neu Isenburg train station in a quaint brick paved circle. Directly across from the station was the restaurant. The restaurant was in a huge, historic, charming old house. There was a larger hall-style dining room that I imagine is used for parties or greater seating capacity in the busier tourist seasons. There was a large beer garden but no one was sitting outside. Too cold. My waiter was a Brit. He’s the first waiter I’ve had who spoke English and he steered me right. I had a fillet of beef that was perhaps the best steak I’ve ever eaten, at least the best in recent memory. It was served with a vegetable au gratin and some kind of fries. I also got a side of sour kraut. I finished it off with some apple strudel and a cup of coffee.

While I was waiting for my food, I Google mapped the restaurant address on my iPhone. Turns out, I was just about three block further down the road from where I had dinner last night. After dinner I walked back to the hotel. It was a little long but the cool air and the exercise felt good. I also passed a storefront that gave me an idea for a new name for the blog.

“By means of beauty, beautiful things become beautiful.” --Phaedo

2008-10-16T18:22:00.012-05:00

Frankfurter Buchmesse Day 2

It was a great day today. Traffic was up at the show. There was a lot of interest in our books from passers-by. Our fiction and health/cooking titles seem to draw the most attention. We had several requests for review copies.

I did not have as many appointments today which gave me a lot of quality time to think—time not often found in the office or at home. I brainstormed some acquisition strategies and backlist development ideas. I thought about our identity, our core categories, and our distinctives. I made some observations about our competitors, large and small, as well as our International counterparts, particularly from the UK (because I can read their titles). I am more encouraged than ever about our place at the world publishing table and the opportunities to strengthen our position as a leading American independent publisher.

I find myself drawn to publishers who carry a sense of style and identity through every aspect of their presence—their titles, their design, their packaging, their catalog, their exhibit, their people, their dress code, etc. Are you familiar with Phaidon Press? I had not heard of them before they show. They are "the world’s leading publisher of books on the visual arts, with offices in London, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, Milan, New York and Tokyo, and distributors worldwide." Their books are distributed in the U.S. through Hachette but they are privately owned by Richard Schlagman.

I first noticed them because of the smart display of their books. Their books were displayed on tables with elevated easels that provide great face out placement at eye level, with waist high table tops perfect for flipping through and experiencing the books—a perfect combination of exhibition and function. The next thing I noticed was that their booth was packed full of browsers at every table. Every one of their books had great artistic design and production value. I also noticed that they brand their name on the lower left corner of the front cover of all their books—some books are more subtle than others, but it is there in every case, and somehow it doesn't violate the composition or artistic integrity of the design. They are clearly establishing a brand. The catalog is the size of a standard 200-page paperback book with a minimalist cover printed on recycled cover stock. The inside is printed in four color with 3-D photos of every book. Their booth has a funky meeting space in the center with artsy, bookish looking, busy people coming and going.

The next thing I noticed was how big the exhibit was, the number of books on display, the girth of the catalog, and the number of employees. It is one thing carry a sense of style to a book, a series, even an imprint or boutique publisher, but the scale of it all, perfectly executed on every level was truly inspiring. I attribute it to a clear vision to be "the world's leading publisher of books on the visual arts" and and focused mission "to publish fine art books with high production and design standards." The company is named after Socrates’ pupil Phaed who spoke on the immortality of the soul and is credited with saying, “By means of beauty, beautiful things become beautiful.”

It's a flat world after all

2008-10-16T18:11:00.004-05:00

I love perspective-changing experiences. This trip is certainly doing that for me. My personal awareness and knowledge of the world has expanded and it just got a bit smaller for me. I am also currently reading Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat. It’s about globalization. In the first chapter he describes the first period of globalization from 1492 and the discovery of the New World until 1800 when countries were colonizing. Phase two Friedman puts from 1800-2000, a period when companies went multi-national. Phase three is the period we are in now where technology has leveled the playing field allowing individuals to collaborate and compete globally.

I mentioned the tourism ads on CNN previously. Today I noticed more ads for Croatia, Kazakhstan, India, and South Africa. Most of the tourism ads I see at home are for Alabama and Kentucky.

Note to self: stop asking for water in restaurants

2008-10-16T17:58:00.006-05:00

With my first meal here, the hamburger in the hotel restaurant, I ordered water and they brought me a huge bottle of mineral water. Tonight I went to Restaurant Kartoffelstubb. It is in a great old building with a heavy wood door, wood bar, paneled ceiling and walls, complete with a cuckoo clock. It was cold and rainy outside and warm and cozy inside. It smelled like my grandma’s house on Sunday afternoons. I ordered a beer and a glass of water. I repeated it as “ice water, tap water” complete with hand gestures for turning on a faucet. The waitress nodded each time I said it, “Ya. Vasser. Ya.” and brought me a glass of sparkling mineral water with lime for just 3 euros.

For dinner I ordered the weiner schnitzel that was served with frites unt salat. I was expecting sausages, what with “weiner” in the name and all, but it was actually a couple pieces of pork pressed thin, breaded, and fried. I’m guessing “schnitzel” refers to the breading and/or preparation technique because there were a number of “schnitzels” on the menu.

On the way back to the hotel I stopped off for some Italian ice cream. Rasperry and chocolate. It was great. (Mine is the dark one on the far right.)

Don't Know Much About Geography

2008-10-15T16:12:00.004-05:00

If I've left any doubt, allow me to confirm--geography has never been a strong suit of mine. I know the basic layout of Europe—the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy. I realize that these countries are together in a region about 1/3 the size of the U.S. This became even more real today watching the local weather forecast from Edinburgh to Lisbon, about the equivalent of New York to Miami. What’s been a bigger eye-opener to me is the proximity to Africa and the Eastern Block countries. I just didn’t realize how close they are. It’s not like I couldn’t find them on a map, but I just didn’t have the perspective of proximity. The CNN channel is loaded with tourism ads for Slovakia, Warsaw, even Dubai and China. Frankfurt to Warsaw or Slovakia is about the same distance as Nashville to DC.

Achtung Baby!

2008-10-15T15:08:00.006-05:00

Frankfurt Book Fair 2008 - Day 1

I’m feeling great after some sleep. It is a privilege to be here. Attending the Frankfurt Book Fair is something I’ve wanted to do since I got into publishing.

The hall looked great when I walked in this morning. I am always amazed at the transformation that happens the night before a show. We had a good steady flow of traffic and several requests for sample copies. I saw a couple proposals for co-publishing that look promising. One was with a French publisher who assumed I spoke French and I assumed he spoke English. Fortunately he came up with enough English words for us to have a productive meeting, I think. I took the last hour of the show to walk the floor. I look forward to walking the other halls.

I had sausages for lunch today, Frankfurt style. Gosh, I was asleep at the wheel on this one: Frankfurt--home of the frankfurter.

Duh.

I love hot dogs but only indulge at the ballpark, in Chicago, or a New York street vendor. Now I can add, "visiting Germany" to the list. The Frankfurt sausages were great. They were served as a pair, twisted together, steamed, with a sliced Kaiser roll. I had to get a translator to find mustard. I’ll have to find a place that serves them with sauerkraut before I leave. They were some great dogs but I'm still inclined toward the Chicago toppings. Give me a Gold Coast charred red hot with pickle spear, peppers, tomatoes, onions, and florescent green relish any day.