May 20th, 2009
How’s that for a headline! Pulled directly from Publishers Weekly, the word is that “The number of new and revised titles produced by traditional production methods fell 3% in 2008, to 275,232, but the number of on-demand and short run titles soared 132%, to 285,394….Taken together, total output rose 38%, to 560,626 titles….Since 2002, production…
May 15th, 2009
As I’ve pointed out elsewhere, there are no shortage of pundits on the future of publishing, in all its forms. It is a cluttered field, and unless you can devote all day, every day, to their utterances, you’re going to miss some great blogs entries, and a ton of dross. Most focus on more limited…
April 10th, 2009
The International Digital Publishing Forum, the key trade group promoting eBooks and the standards required to support their growth, recently reported that in Q4 2008 eBook sales reached $16.8 million, just over double the volume in Q4 ’07. Full year sales exceeded $50 million. As always, the chart looks great, and 100+% sales increases sound…
April 9th, 2009
Received this email April 4th: Britannica Online Subscription Dear Thad McIlroy, Encyclopaedia Britannica Online has just introduced a new program that makes it possible for you as a reader and subscriber to contribute edits, revisions, and suggestions to the encyclopedia. It also gives you credit, by name, for any contribution you submit that’s accepted by…
March 26th, 2009
“If any industry deserves to go under, it’s the publishing industry.” So writeth Andrew Sullivan in his popular blog, “The Daily Dish.” I found the quote on another blog, a blog far more well-rounded than Mr. Sullivan’s, that of Nathan Bransford, a literary agent with the venerable Curtis Brown (my father’s literary agency many years…