Tag Archives: Amazon

International Bestsellers: Eastern European Update

When Lithuania, Poland, and the Czech Republic broke free of totalitarian rule in the late 80’s and early 90’s, poetic manifestoes blossomed and independent publishers proliferated. Hundreds of small presses sold almost 25 million books after Lithuanian Independence in 1991, up from a fraction of that put out by the six state-owned publishers previously. A…Continue Reading

The Shape Shifters

Countless are the questions and few are the solutions publishers encounter when approaching “the digital problem” confronting the industry. But several publishers seem to be cracking the code, albeit from different ends of the spectrum. Travel publishers are capitalizing on its category’s unique potential to be nuggetized and monetized digitally, at times even rendering a…Continue Reading

Bookview, December 2006

PEOPLE Will Kiester is returning to the US after 18-months in Australia at Murdoch Books, to become Publisher of Fairwinds Press, an imprint of Rockport Publications. Previously, He had been at Quarto. Kaylee Davis’ position at Bookspan’s Children’s BOMC/KBP was eliminated in a reorganization. The company has decided to focus the club in a more…Continue Reading

Libre Digital: Friendly, But Not Too Friendly

NewsStand thinks it just might have come up with the peace pipe that Google and book publishers want to smoke. It’s LibreDigital, a new digital warehouse system that applies to books the digital content delivery technology NewsStand employs for periodicals. HarperCollins is already using the program as its main digitizer. As Craig Miller, General Manager…Continue Reading

A (More) Perfect Union

Publishers Brandish New Models to Support Authors: Joint-, Co-, & Assisted Self-Publishing When Arthur Klebanoff began shopping around longtime BBDO CEO Allen Rosenshine’s book Funny Business a few years ago, nobody bit. Rather than a straight how-to-succeed-in-business type of book, Rosenshine had written an anecdotal memoir about his experiences in the ad industry. “Here was…Continue Reading

Getting Searched

The throngs of marketers attending the five program tracks at Search Engine Strategies 2006 last month clearly demonstrated that every industry – including book publishing – is going after this burgeoning branch of online marketing. Geoff Ramsey of eMarketer mapped the terrain: $15.6 billion will be spent on online advertising in 2006 – more than…Continue Reading

Watch Your Backlist

Publishers and Booksellers Re-Assess Their Backlists, Stocking Deeper, While Printing Less, Plus: Looking Beyond the Shelf Backlist has always been a cash cow for those willing to milk it. Publishers have long tried enticing booksellers with annual promotions, Buy-Now-Pay-Later deals, Just In Time Inventory and the like – all with the hope of boosting their…Continue Reading

Aural Fixation

Audible Braces as MediaBay and Amazon Enter, Growth Continues Across the Board Talking to audio publishers is like walking into a small town where everyone knows everyone else and all of the competition is friendly — at this point everybody is so excited by the potential growth of the industry that they seem willing to…Continue Reading

RBTE: The Traditionalists

RBTE: The Traditionalists FROM PUBLISHING TRENDS (MAY 2005) New York isn’t the only city getting a little expo action this June. In Chicago, the Religious Book Trade Exhibit (RBTE) is hitting the floor the same weekend as BEA, running from May 31 to June 3. Bob Byrns, who coordinates the event (which has sold out…Continue Reading

Bewildering BISAC

Publishers Pressured to Use Coding System Despite its many Flaws Not too long ago, an editor at a major househeard from a disgruntled author. He was fretting over the fact that his Thanksgiving-themed book was being categorized under the BISAC subject area “Social Science/Customs & Traditions.” He was concerned that the potential buyer for his…Continue Reading