The Week Ahead 08.10.12

Aug 10, 2012 | News

It’s been a grey summer for publishing: The runaway bestseller 50 Shades of Grey and related titles in the E.L. James trilogy from Vintage have reportedly sold over 10 million copies. That sensational figure suggests there’s a ready-to-ride bandwagon for other...

BTB #311: A New Job Description for Books

Aug 5, 2012 | Events, Podcasts

On the leafy campus of Yale University, the view from the summer session at the Yale Publishing Course was of lush chestnuts and towering ivy. Tranquil as it seemed, warned a lecturer, danger lurked for book publishing businesses. That startling call to attention came...

The Week Ahead 08.03.12

Aug 3, 2012 | News

What did the bookstore clerk say to the customer? What are YOU doing here? The painful truth is that bookstores, and bookselling more generally, have never faced more parlous times than our own. But the business doesn’t lack for diehard loyalists and the battlefronts...

The Week Ahead 07.27.12

Jul 27, 2012 | News

The world’s wealthiest woman is also the world’s most pirated author. And to protect her new adult market novel, J.K. Rowling is trying to put a spell on would-be pirates. “Rowling’s concerns over piracy have been very public,” Andrew Albanese, features editor at...

BTB #308: STM E-Books Forecast 2012

Jul 22, 2012 | Digital Transformation, News

Across all of book publishing, the journey from print to digital is about much more than form factor. In the professionally-focused STM sector, publishers of scientific, technical and medical texts face are reckoning with seismic shifts in the way their content is...

The Week Ahead 07.20.12

Jul 20, 2012 | News

A publishing giant finds one solution to the business challenge of self-publishing authors. Meanwhile, just in time for Olympics gymnastics, an industry tally of book sales in 2011 shows a business in the middle of a back-flip. In reviews, we learn about another...

BTB #307: Profit and Publishing

Jul 15, 2012 | Podcasts

Two words that have an increasingly antagonistic relationship – “profit” and “publishing.” But Red Hen Press, based in Pasadena, California, has made a virtue of being a not-for-profit. Founded in 1994 to publish and promote literary works often overlooked by the...

BTB #306: Copyright on the Continent Update for July 2012

Jul 13, 2012 | International, News

In Washington, the political stalemate continues – and with the November 2012 elections approaching fast, hopes dim of opening up the legislative logjam. Meanwhile in Europe, copyright law, at least, is seeing plenty of changes, with the prospects looming of a...

The Week Ahead 07.13.12

Jul 13, 2012 | News

Here’s a book publishing riddle for 2012: When is a book not good for a bookstore? “Earlier this year, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced a licensing agreement with Amazon to publish and distribute adult titles under the New Harvest imprint,” explains Andrew...

BTB #305: A Golden Age for Self-Publishing?

Jul 8, 2012 | News

The wild growth in e-books and self-publishing has spurred a fiery debate over the future direction of the industry. While some argue that the growing mountain of books makes it harder than ever for any single title to succeed, people like Keith Ogorek, author of 7...