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Be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it.

Consumer expectations will rise if prices do

Over the weekend, we rode a rollercoaster as Macmillan laid out its demands for ebook pricing to Amazon, and Amazon responded by pulling (nearly) all Macmillan titles from its store. Late Sunday, Amazon announced they would “capitulate” to Macmillan’s demands on pricing. It almost goes without saying that this will be the go-forward model for all major publishers, and maybe their independent brethren as well.

Publishers have gotten what they want.
Read more…

Today’s links of interest:

• E-Reads: Panic in Blogger Park! Google Pulls Plug on FTP Feed
  If you’re using Blogger.com *and* updating via FTP, this one’s for you.
• Interview: Ami Greko and Pablo Defendini from The New Sleekness
  JC Hutchins conducts the interview. Three cool people in the same room. Much fun.
• The Great E-book War
  Is publishing making the same mistakes as the music industry. Read on, dear friends, read on.

Read more…

Brian O’Leary on the major problems surrounding today’s discussions about piracy. More facts, less breathless assumptions.

At this point, there’s not much clarity in the debate. If this is an inflection point, we need data to establish trends. Declaring the answer limits discussion.

• Grounded in reality

• What Are Enhanced Ebooks?
  January 19th, 2010 · 38 Comments

  Short answer: nobody knows.
  Longer answer: the magic elixir publishers are injecting into ebooks in hopes they will entice people to pay higher prices.
  As you might guess, I am a bit of an “enhancement” skeptic. I have a few reasons. First, they feel like an attempt to skip the walking phase. Right now ebooks are crawling, [...]

• Tools of Change, or The Future of Publishing Isn’t What You Think It Is
  January 11th, 2010 · 5 Comments

  Today is the final day for early registration for the Tools of Change for Publishing conference, to be held in New York, February 22 – 24, 2010. Recently, there have been a lot of conferences dedicated to the magical world of digital publishing, but this is the only conference focused on looking forward.
  It may be [...]

• William Styron and Droit de Seigneur
  January 4th, 2010 · 20 Comments

  Over the New Year holiday, Jonathan Galassi, president of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, published an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times titled “There’s More to Publishing Than Meets the Screen”. I think he started with the intent of justifying the cost of ebooks — something publishing has handled abysmally — but he took a [...]

• The Most Wonderful Post of the Year 2010
  December 20th, 2009 · 2 Comments

  No matter where you stand on the various issues surrrounding the future of publishing, one thing is clear: without readers, what we do doesn’t matter very much. We sometimes take the privilege of our bookish lives for granted, forgetting how many people out there would give anything to be able to pick up a book [...]

• The Unicorn Will Not Save Publishing
  December 14th, 2009 · 32 Comments

  For your reading enjoyment, I have compiled a list of about a dozen things that will not save publishing. I have also created a brief list of things that will save publishing. As always, neither list is comprehensive, and I reserve the right to add items if I think of something while I’m in the [...]

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