Library Free For All?

Oct 17, 2014 | News

“Built by the People and Dedicated to the Advancement of Learning.” So reads an inscription on the Boston Public Library façade that summarizes the aspirations of the American public library. The 19th-century BPL is as nearly a palatial edifice as any in Boston, yet...

Frankfurt Book Fair Same But Different

Oct 10, 2014 | News

Reliably as ever, the Frankfurt Book Fair for 2014 is overstuffed with new titles from promising and established authors alike. Yet the hopeful, even sometimes buoyant mood belies a fear of the figure lurking around every corner of the business, no matter where you...

Publishing Pink Slips Go Green

Oct 3, 2014 | News

When the pink slip comes, often the green follows. Certainly, severance packages are a very welcome way to soften the sting of a layoff. But stockholders of some of the industry’s top publishing houses might want to ask exactly what all the generosity is buying for...

Antitrust For Amazon?

Sep 26, 2014 | News, Podcasts

The federal government has long been in the printing business – think of all those regulations – but until recently, it’s stayed out of the book business. That all changed, of course, when the Dept. of Justice sued Apple and publishers over e-book price-fixing The...

Publishing Jobs Survey for 2014

Sep 19, 2014 | News

If you’ve got a job in publishing in 2014, you’re working longer hours than last year, and your paycheck isn’t growing very fast. But according to a recent industry survey, you’re probably smiling, all the same. “The average number of hours worked per week rose...

Throwing Elbows in Book World

Sep 12, 2014 | News

Over the last several years, the book world has seen its real estate contract, as much a result of the loss of bookstore chains and the rise of e-retailers as consolidation moves among publishers. In such a world grown small, any move by one player impacts many...

Changes Hit Penguin Random House Leadership

Sep 5, 2014 | News

Penguin and Random House began sharing a single corporate roof in July 2013, and while it’s taken a bit of time, housecleaning has started. “The transformation of editorial operations at Penguin Random House has begun in earnest with creation of the new Penguin...

Looking on Bright Side of Book Business

Aug 22, 2014 | News

If winter is for pessimists – all grey and cold and bleak – then summer certainly is season for sunny dispositions. In August, though, the publishing business has seemed frozen as if in mid-January. The source of the polar vortex, of course, is the ongoing slugfest...

The Book Fight of the Century

Aug 15, 2014 | News

In one corner: the scrappy contender whose strongest punch is a blow to his opponent’s appetite for power and profit. And in the other corner: the towering heavyweight champion who wants to pound the contender’s prices to the mat. “I think these fighters are dancing...

Escape from Amazon

Aug 8, 2014 | News

It sounds like the title of a summer blockbuster movie. Trapped in the e-commerce jungle, the denizens of the book world dream of liberation, even as they while away the time weaving fantasies of an alternate universe: a place where Amazon plays nice; a place where...