The Future Of Publishing Blog by Thad McIlroy
September 20th, 2012
When I began researching The Metadata Handbook I believed that metadata was magic. I believed that if you could add rich and accurate metadata to a title listing you’d all but guarantee big sales. I’ve since learned that while metadata is enchanting, its powers are far more down to earth.
September 3rd, 2012
The ongoing scandal of phony book reviews on Amazon now has a name, Sock Puppets. Perfect!
September 3rd, 2012
We’ve seen a lot of righteous indignation following David Streitfeld’s recent New York Times article on the occasional practice of paying for positive book reviews on Amazon. I read the story and moved on without giving it much thought: I assumed that everyone knew that the review system on Amazon was rigged.
September 2nd, 2012
Finn Harvor, a Canadian writer and artist living in South Korea, publishes a blog called Conversations in the Book Trade. He’s interviewed Rolf Maurer, publisher of New Star Books, noted journalist Ian Brown, Richard Nash from his Soft Skull days, provocateur Edward Champion and numerous others. Harvor asks each interviewee mostly the same questions and so I found…
August 30th, 2012
Aside from being able to say “I told you so” I’m not quite sure why Barnes & Noble separated its UK reseller partner announcements by two days. The first announcement on August 28 rated low for impact: John Lewis has only 37 stores and already shills for Barnes & Noble’s competitors Amazon and Kobo.