Author Archives: Lorraine Shanley

For What It’s Worth: Fixed Book Price in Foreign Book Markets

Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on Publishing Trendsetter. Earlier this year, France made publishing news headlines when its court ruled ebook subscription services like Kindle Unlimited illegal. The law cited was the Lang Law, which gives publishers the exclusive right to set the price of a book. Retailers are not allowed to discount more than…Continue Reading

International Bestsellers, April 2015

Every month, Publishing Trends runs fiction international bestsellers lists from four territories–France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. This month, our four regular territories are joined by two more: Argentina and Greece. Those books that have been published in English are listed with their official English-language title. All others are translated as literally as possible from the…Continue Reading

International Bestsellers, March 2015

Every month, Publishing Trends runs fiction international bestsellers lists from four territories–France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. This month, our four regular territories are joined by two more: Austria and Israel. Those books that have been published in English are listed with their official English-language title. All others are translated as literally as possible from the original….Continue Reading

A DRM Primer for a VAT World

The ongoing and increasingly heated debate over the use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) in digital publishing has recently received more press attention because of the EU ruling to charge VAT (value-added tax) on ebooks. For those in need of a reminder, Digital Rights Management refers to the protections  that are in place on many…Continue Reading

International Bestsellers, February 2015

Every month, Publishing Trends runs fiction international bestsellers lists from four territories–France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. This month, our four regular territories are joined by two more: Holland and South Africa. Those books that have been published in English are listed with their official English-language title. All others are translated as literally as possible from…Continue Reading

Our Ebooks, Ourselves: What’s Happening with Our Ereader Data?

In October of last year, news broke on The Digital Reader that Adobe Digital Editions was taking a significant amount of user data and sending it back to their servers. Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) is a program that allows readers to put ebooks onto their reading devices from retailers and libraries alike. The program’s terms…Continue Reading

International Bestsellers, January 2015

Every month, Publishing Trends runs fiction international bestsellers lists from four territories–France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. This month, our four regular territories are joined by two more: Canada and Poland. Those books that have been published in English are listed with their official English-language title. All others are translated as literally as possible from the…Continue Reading

DBW 2015: Data and Direct-to-Consumer Engagement

During the second day of the Digital Book World Conference, we attended two events about the future of publishing: Building the Trade Publishers of the Future: Trade Publishers Remaking Themselves and Gaming the Page: Book Publishing Meets Games.  Both of these sessions noted how traditional publishing is using trend information discovered through data collection and…Continue Reading

Launch Kids 2015 Recap: Data, Communities, Storytelling

Launch Kids celebrated its 4th year on the first day of Digital Book World on January 13th, 2015 at the Midtown Hilton. The morning sessions were data-rich and the rest of the afternoon showed attendees how digital for kids grows through community and storytelling. Data One of the most shocking pieces of data came from…Continue Reading

Listen Up! The Audiobook Revolution

With audiobook sales numbers on the rise over the past two years, retailers have been searching for new ways to appeal to wider audiences. So far, the most common trends have been straight-to-audio publications, library digital downloads, abridged audiobooks, and an increase in subscription services.  However, speculation has begun to spread as to whether publishers…Continue Reading