Category Archives: Uncategorized

Toy Fair 08: Inspiring Growth, Dangerous Book for Boys Spinoffs

On Tuesday, Publishing Trends visited Toy Fair 2008, held from February 17-28 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York. Though Toy Fair reported a 30% increase in buyers since last year and three times as many reporters on opening day, we thought the halls seemed pretty empty. Not surprisingly, most of the…Continue Reading

On Kindle: A Non-Publishing Perspective

Since its release last November, the Kindle has kicked up debates about everything from the future of reading to Jeff Bezos’ quest for world dominance. More than anything, though, it seems that people just can’t get over how darned clunky-ugly-retro the thing was. Core-77, a networking site frequented by industrial designers, responded to the Kindle…Continue Reading

Manga Matures

With three words—“Japan is over”—Al Kahn, CEO of 4Kids Entertainment (responsible for bringing Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Cabbage Patch Kids to the mainstream in the U.S.), sparked a bit of controversy at ICv2’s pre-Anime Festival Conference on Anime and Manga: Inside the Otaku* Generation last week. “Nothing new has come from Japan in ten years. Kids…Continue Reading

ad:tech – Content Gets Respect, But Users Rule

Whether the topic was social networking, user-generated videos, blogging or podcasting, publishers among the record-breaking 10,276 marketers attending November’s ad:tech conference heard renewed respect for content from the panelists reporting on the latest developments in online marketing. Pam Horan, President of the Online Pubishers Association, kicked off her panel on “Publishing in the Digital Age”…Continue Reading

How They Do It: The B&N Publishing Empire De-Mystified

Barnes & Noble’s first forays into the publishing business back in the ’40s (when it put out a series of college study guides) and in 1991 (when Len Riggio started publishing under the B&N name) came to pass with little outcry from the industry. As publishers expanded their markets to include non-traditional outlets, Riggio’s response…Continue Reading

Content Gets Respect

Whether the topic was social networking, user-generated videos, blogging or podcasting, publishers among the record-breaking 10,276 marketers attending November’s ad:tech conference heard renewed respect for content from the panelists reporting on the latest developments in online marketing. Pam Horan, President of the Online Pubishers Association, kicked off her panel on “Publishing in the Digital Age”…Continue Reading

Someone's Using the Sony Reader

While eagerly awaiting Kindle, netGalley, and all the other cool launches in 2008, some publishers are working with what we have in the here-and-now: the Sony Reader. Simon & Schuster started giving it (officially, The Reader Digital Book) to sales reps, so that they could download manuscripts at will, and carry the Reader on their…Continue Reading

To Bee or Not to Bee

This year the fourth annual Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) Spelling Bee kicked off to an earlier start, further downtown and in a more corporate locale (the Riverhouse Sales & Discovery center – purveyor of eco condos – rather than Exit Art – purveyor of contemporary art), but the beloved hosts, remained the…Continue Reading

We Won! Publishers Learn That Everyone Loves (to Talk About) a Free Book

Just as a hunter sends a spray of buckshot into the forest, the book publicist can never be sure an ARC hits the right reviewer at the right time. As professional book reviews dwindle and higher-ups put pressure on publicists to “do something online,” a serendipitous moment has arrived when publisher, web, consumer, and reviewer…Continue Reading

Wunderwidgets

Aggregation is so 2006. The new web is all about distributed media, and widgets are the new web’s wunderkind. With widgets, users can easily remix, repost, and share chunked content, making them a popular (and rapidly growing) marketing tool. According to ComScore, more than 48% of all US internet users – over 87 million people…Continue Reading