Did You Hear The Book About…?

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Say what you will about the New York Times, but covering the obvious is something the publication never fears. Okay, possibly a bit on the harsh side, but today’s story about audiobooks and technology shift had us giggling. A little. The gist of the story is that as more people get iPods, they turn to digital downloads of books rather than countless CDs. This has naturally been a boon for services like Audible (still the home of a really lousy user experience). It has also been a great deal for books — people are able to enjoy fine reading in […]

Non-Traditional Publishing

On Making A Mark

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One might concede that Harry Potter is not great literature. But to witness the sheer pervasiveness of its appeal, which pays no attention to age, gender, language or cultural differences, and still to claim that it has little merit seems hugely wrong-headed. JK Rowling: The Mistress of All She Surveys

Quote of the Week

Looking At The Future: The Price Of Books

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We were sitting quietly, considering possibilities for the big stories of still-nascent 2007. What, we wondered, would people be talking about in the coming year? At first we thought to look back to 2006, but, well, this is a modern blog. It’s all about the future, baby! Where our crystal ball failed (we so want a refund), the headlines of the day came through. Pricing of books, we have decided, will absolutely be a hot topic in the near future. How could such an obvious answer escape the sharp mind of BS Last week, in our still-ongoing discussion about readers

The Business of Publishing

The Other Side of the Story

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In response to our recent rant about an author who decided that the best way to help independent bookstores was to pull his book from Amazon, we received several interesting comments — and one fascinating comment (not a bad return on investment). In this case, the author noted that the costs of doing business with Amazon were not necessarily worth the benefits. Our commenter, Janet Szabo, who writes about knitting (it’s like the gods are telling us to finish the !@#$ project we started last fall), and she did the math, realizing that selling through Amazon resulted in lower profit

Back To Basics

Nyet To Amazon, Says One Author

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We’re heading off to an undisclosed location for the holidays (okay, one holiday — we’ll be back next week), but couldn’t let this one pass without comment. A children’s book author in the UK, one who is apparently quite passionate about independent booksellers, has demanded that Amazon remove his book from their site. George Walker was “…horrified to find that his new title was featured on the site without his permission, following good sales in bookshops” (this makes one wonder if he believes that Amazon goes around, seeking permission from every author they publish, or if the author of the

Square Pegs

It’s The Most Wonderful Post Of The Year

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Year-end is approaching more rapidly than it has in previous years (we have done some scientific testing, and, yes, we all lost a week), so we’ll make our annual “give lots of money to literacy programs in time for the year-end tax deduction deadline” post short and sweet. Give lots of money to literacy programs. Our favorite group is ProLiteracy Worldwide. If you can’t give cash, please consider donating time. There are millions of people who need help learning to read. What seems so easy for many us is very difficult for many others. Reading is a skill that we

Square Pegs
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