The Daily Square – Slowly Typed Edition
Daily links from booksquare: booksquare
The Daily Square – Then She Remembers Edition
Daily links from booksquare: booksquare
HarperCollins Decides Thursday Is A Good Day For Radical Announcements
There are sacred cows in publishing. Lots and lots of sacred cows. You have the “smell of books” people. You have “the publishing business model ain’t broke” people. And you have the “advances are divine rights” people. Suggest that advances are not written-in-stone obligations on the part of publishers and you’re considered naive. Ill-informed. Nutso. HarperCollins has proposed a radical shift in the business. Yeah, well, I was accused of all that and more when I suggested that publishers, if they could, stop paying advances to authors. The genesis of my speculation came on the heels ofGuy Hands, the new
On The Eve of The London Book Fair
The London Book Fair is one of the most highly anticipated events in the calendar year for publishers, authors and anyone connected with language and the ability to write captivating prose. As the event draws near the industry faces many new challenges, one thing that can be certain is that the Internet and digital technology is going to claim a bigger share of our thoughts and occupation. Sales of cut-price fiction in supermarkets, Amazon’s dominance of the book selling world on the net, digital technology, emerging markets, POD, e-Books, The Kindle and Internet piracy are all going to claim a
BS, Lazy
It is rare that I hear something on the radio that makes me go “Yeah, tell it like it is, sister” (okay, brother), but there was a great story on the Marketplace Morning Report last Friday about social networks and mailing lists and who owns your list. If I were a better person (I’m not), I’d write a nice publishing specific post about this. Instead, I’m just going to be lazy and link to the larger rant I wrote at Medialoper. Basically, if you don’t own your fans, you don’t own Jack.
Amazon Changes POD Tactics, Removes Velvet Gloves
It is not surprising that Amazon has told publishers that it’s their POD (print-on-demand) service or no sales through Amazon. It is surprising that, well, anyone is surprised. Did y’all think Amazon was buying Booksurge for the fun of it? What other outcome did you expect? Readers don’t care if a book ships from a massive warehouse or is, quite literally, hot off the press. I am not joking. While the publishing industry worries about Google (and I am still convinced that working with search engines to optimize access to your content is in the best interest of everyone) and