BTB #329: What Students Can Teach Textbook Authors

Nov 18, 2012 | Digital Transformation, Events

Today’s readers – students especially – have high expectations of e-books and other digital media. Ever-evolving technology for tablets and e-readers makes the race to keep up a daunting one for publishers and authors. The leap from printed page to pixel-ed screen...

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...

BTB #328: Miami Book Fair Preview 2012

Nov 11, 2012 | Events

As the nation’s largest public book fair opens in downtown Miami, Lissette Mendez, a principal organizer of the Miami Book Fair, produced by The Center for Literature and Theatre at Miami Dade College, gives CCC’s Chris Kenneally an insider’s preview. Authors...

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...

BTB #327: Charleston Conference Preview

Nov 4, 2012 | Events

Hundreds of librarians, publishers, consultants, and technologists will soon trek to the American southeast coast. The destination for their pilgrimage is the annual Charleston Conference. Since 1980, the Charleston Conference, in South Carolina, has made it possible...

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...

BTB #326: The New Frontier of Bookselling

Oct 28, 2012 | Events

At the Keystone Resort in the Colorado Rockies (elevation: 9300 feet), PubWest – the Publishers Association of the West –held its annual conference this weekend. In his opening keynote, Oren Teicher, CEO of American Booksellers Association, called for a closer...

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...