Self-Publishing Gets Respect

Dec 9, 2012 | News

As the success of 50 Shades of Grey makes clear, the book business has made piece with the self-published author. Now one of the best-selling authors in history, E.L. James first made her work available to readers via non-traditional, self-publishing routes. James is...

Not Everyone Is An E.L. James Fan

Dec 7, 2012 | News

If you think 40 million readers can’t be wrong, think again. On Monday, Publishers Weekly named 50 Shades of Grey author E.L. James as the magazine’s “Person of the Year.” That award was not an award for the book, though it surely sounded like that to many critics who...

Roger Rabbit Returns

Dec 2, 2012 | News

A year from now, America will serve Tom Turkey for Thanksgiving, with Roger Rabbit on the menu for the next day, Black Friday 2013. In an exclusive Beyond the Book interview, Celina Summers, editorial director at digital start-up Musa Publishing, announces the...

Librarians To Confront E-Book Mess: The Week Ahead

Nov 30, 2012 | News

As 2012 draws to its end, magazines and media proclaim the year’s winners and losers. Publishers Weekly gets the party started early next week with its announcement of book publishing’s “Person of the Year” for 2012. In the same issue, PW previews the upcoming...

The Week Ahead 11.16.12

Nov 16, 2012 | News

A newspaper man takes home a book award. At a time when both the news business and the book business face crisis, a celebration provides welcome diversion. This week’s ceremony for the National Book Awards included honoring New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger...

The Week Ahead 11.09.12

Nov 9, 2012 | News

Self-publishing, like politics, makes for unusual bedfellows. Not only authors, but also now publishers are turning to platforms like Smashwords that publish and sell e-books, and taking advantage of digitally-devoted distribution services. Publishers Weekly’s Calvin...

The Week Ahead 11.02.12

Nov 2, 2012 | News

Hurricane Sandy, the superstorm of 2012, will go down as one for the record books in numerous categories – for flooding, for amount of rainfall, and for its terrible impact on human lives and livelihoods. In Manhattan, the epicenter of American trade book publishing...

The Week Ahead 10.26.12

Oct 26, 2012 | News

The countdown begins: Confirmation from Pearson that it is talking to Random House about a merger with Penguin, its trade book publishing division, could see the Big Six drop a notch. “This would be massive stroke of consolidation for an industry that has been...

BTB #325: Copyright-Friendly Textbooks

Oct 22, 2012 | Copyright, News

Copyright frequently has a way of outpacing technology. The two forces of innovation all too rarely intersect, at least for many authors and publishers. But a month-old startup with ambitions to revolutionize textbook publishing has made copyright permissions an...

The Week Ahead 10.19.12

Oct 19, 2012 | News

Like the book business itself, the Frankfurt Book Fair is undergoing a metamorphosis. Yet while publishers continue their own transformations, the Fair organizers have already emerged from a chrysalis with a new kind of show. “The Frankfurt Book Fair has succeeded in...