November 30th, 2009
I never quote verbatim from an entire blog post, but how could I do this one from the WSJ blogs any better? By Andrew LaVallee Amazon.com said Monday that the Kindle is having its best month ever. As always, however, it didn’t say how many sales that amounts to. The online retailer said in a…
November 27th, 2009
For the last two days I’ve been reading a good old-fashioned paperback novel. Written by Steve Hely, published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc., it’s called “How I Became a Famous Novelist.” I don’t remember how I first heard about it, but I ordered in from the West Vancouver Public Library and picked it up yesterday. As was promised…
September 14th, 2009
Those in the business recognize a distinction between trade publishing (i.e. books of general interest sold through regular retail and online outlets) versus, for example, educational publishing (books for schools and higher education). We don’t hear much about the great bestsellers in educational publishing (although I can assure you than many earn both their publishers…
July 14th, 2009
There’s an interesting article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal called “Publisher Delays E-Book Amid Debate on Pricing.” Upon first read, or for those not immersed in the issues surrounding the retailing of eBooks on Amazon, it sounds like no big deal. The article starts with: A leading independent publisher is saying no to the e-book…
June 27th, 2009
The title of this blog is the title of a presentation to be made this weekend in Austin, Texas by Michael Murphy, a 27-year veteran of the book publishing business. I read about it on Ron Hogan’s fun blog on MediaBistro today titled, “Making the Future Up As We Go Along.” When I saw that…