Category Archives: Uncategorized

July 2010 Roundup

PEOPLE Jonathan Karp is now settled in as EVP and Publisher of the Simon & Schuster trade imprint. Karp, who succeeds David Rosenthal, came from Twelve, an imprint of the Hachette Book Group that he founded in 2005. A new Publisher for Twelve is actively being recruited. Isabel Swift, who was Editor Emeritus at Harlequin,…Continue Reading

Take a New Book Publishing Survey

If you’re a book publishing professional, you can take the Gilbane Group’s new survey: http://gilbane.com/blog/2010/04/now_live_the_gilbane_groups_web-based_blueprint_survey_for_book_publishing_professionals.html The survey “seeks to gain detailed information about what is really happening among the full spectrum of book publishers related to ebook and digital publishing efforts, and will identify the “pain points” and barriers encountered by book publishers when it…Continue Reading

People Roundup, May 2010

Crown Publishing Group President and Publisher Maya Mavjee announces big changes: Diane Salvatore, VP, Publisher of Broadway Books; Senior Editor Lorraine Glennon; and VP, Executive Director, Publicity Katie Wainright are leaving the company. Shaye Areheart steps down as Publisher of her eponymous imprint, Shaye Areheart Books (which will be discontinued), but will stay on as…Continue Reading

Who Owns Creativity?

At yesterday’s panel discussion, “Who Owns Creativity? Copyright and Our Culture in a Digital Age,” hosted by CUNY’s Macaulay Honors College, panelists were more united in their opinions than the audience of students, media professionals, and self-proclaimed copyright geeks. (Click here to download a podcast of the discussion.) Bill Goldstein, Book Reviewer for Weekend Today…Continue Reading

Making Search Convert: Search Engine Strategies 2010

Thanks to marketing consultant Rich Kelley for this piece. “Ever-evolving engines” was the theme of this year’s Search Engine Strategies conference in March in New York—but finding the tactic that gets the best results was much more on the minds of the 5,000 attendees. “Traditional direct mail generates conversions of two to three percent,” noted…Continue Reading

Free Speech? Not So Much

It’s often said that social media is no substitute for face-to-face interaction. But Twitter, Facebook, and other electronic modes of communication, along with the decline of bricks-and-mortar bookstores and the bad economy, have changed the ways authors communicate with readers, and have shaken up the roles of speakers’ bureaus since we last wrote about them…Continue Reading

Multimedia and E-Book Rights: Found Money or Legal Gamble?

As authors venture further into inking separate e-book or multimedia deals with publishers like Open Road, the threat of lawsuits from their print publishers looms. The legal tug-of-war has only just begun with the 2001 judgment in the Random House v. Rosetta Books case, said speakers at the “Rethinking Author Contracts for the Digital World” panel during last month’s Publishing Business Conference in New York.

Should Publishers Attend SXSW?

As the Interactive portion of SXSW winds down and the music crowd takes over just as the rain appears, it’s time to consider what SXSW accomplished this year for publishing types—and whether it’s worth attending going forward. As Richard Nash, a newbie this year, marveled, “If there’s a tech show that is friendly to culture,…Continue Reading

Lessons from O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing 2010

“If you don’t eat your own children, someone else will”: That’s how Michael Mace, Principal of the Silicon Valley–based Rubicon Consulting, began his presentation, “Check Out My Scars: Seven Lessons from the Failure of E-Books in 2000, and What They Mean to the Future of Electronic Publishing,” at the 2010 O’Reilly Tools of Change for…Continue Reading

March 2010 Roundup

PEOPLE Major changes at Random House under Madeline McIntosh, President Sales, Operations, and Digital. Joining her team are Nina von Moltke, VP, Digital Publishing Development; Amanda Close, VP, Digital Sales and Business Development; and Pete McCarthy, VP, Online and Digital Marketing. Andrea Sheehan, formerly VP & Director, Digital Strategy and Business Development at RHPG, will…Continue Reading