BookExpo America is the nation’s largest exposition devoted to the publishing business. As the weather in New York City clears and warms, it’s all the better to see the changes brought by the digital revolution.
Above all, the buzz at BEA is a story at the heart of the industry’s transformation from print and page to pixel and screen. As widely covered in the news, Amazon and Hachette are dueling over business terms for sales of the latter’s titles by the online retail giant. Both parties made unusually revealilng statements this week about the clash, reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer.
“What I found pretty eye-opening was that Amazon lumped in publishers with their other 70,000 suppliers. Publishers have been notoriously sensitive to this idea,” Albanese tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally. “Hachette stresses that books are not like any other consumer good. But Hachette needs to open its eyes – Amazon is not just a retailer, it is a platform.”
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Every Friday, CCC’s “Beyond the Book” speaks with the editors and reporters of “Publishers Weekly” for an early look at the news that publishers, editors, authors, agents and librarians will be talking about when they return to work on Monday.