The Business of Publishing

Only The Dinosaurs Are Extinct

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Regular readers will recall that “death of the novel” stories appear in traditional print media (also, non-traditional non-print media) with comforting regularity. Sort of like Spring cleaning without the Windex. Somehow, there is an editorial guideline out there that equates “reading elsewhere” with the “death of reading”. We dispute this assertion. Those who declare that the novel is dead are living in caves. Sort of. Based on our careful, exhaustive research — some of which took us to the furthest corners of the globe, places hot and cold — we have determined that the story is as much a part […]

The Future of Publishing

Simon & Schuster Changes The Rules: Goodbye Reversion of Rights!

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It is a general rule of life that the party who drafts a contract is the party who benefits the most. Sure, it’s not a law or anything. Think of it as more of a guideline. Thus, when Simon & Schuster announced (in a quiet, not designed to stir the waters way) that it was changing its standard contractual language to retain rights to a book for the entire length of a copyright (expanded fairly regularly by our own Congressperson, Adam Schiff), nobody thought, “Hey, wow, that’s great for me!” Shouldn’t the author at least retain choice and decision-making authority

Our Continuing Fascination With Copyright, The Business of Publishing

The Story Of Your Life

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We were doing some casual research over the weekend — nothing strenuous, early summer has hit SoCal and when the choice comes down to blogging or sleeping in a hammock, well, what would you do — and realized something a bit distressing. There is nothing worse in this world than the bio pages on author websites. Hmm, possibly that is an exaggeration, but we don’t think so. As a general rule, biographies, as written for publications (and as opposed to those thick tomes that serve as handy doorstops), are horrible things. If you do not believe us, we insist you

Back To Basics

Tell Us About The Future Of Publishing

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We spend quite a bit of time at Booksquare headquarters talking about what’s wrong with the publishing industry. These discussions usually focus on the industry’s seeming fear of new technology and the fact that, some days, it seems like the future of publishing will never happen. We suspect that it’s not so much a fear of the future as it is an overly cautious nature. That and the fact that the existing business model and marketing methods seem to work just fine — for now, at least. It’s that sort of comfort with the status quo that drives us to

The Future of Publishing

You, Over There In The Choir! We’re Preaching

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From what we can tell, attending the Book Industry Study Group’s recent “Making Information Pay 2007” conference was like reading BS every day. Except there was probably less snark. And less wine. Reading the wrap-ups is like reading our posts. Is that going to stop us from highlighting a few key points? Of course not. Repetition is good for the soul. This is not a case of if you build it, they will come. As you will recall from previous conversations, while the publishing industry was snoozing, a large portion of the world moved online. Not the entire world, but

The Future of Publishing

Save The Book Review, Save The World

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As we have seen over the past weeks, there has been much hand-wringing and navel-gazing on the topic of saving newspaper book review sections. To read some pundits, we need to save the world via book reviews (or, at the very least, literacy). We have been ranting about this topic for years now, and, frankly, someone’s gotta say it: just as declining circulation numbers and classified ad sales haven’t been a surprise, neither is the decline of book coverage, specifically reviews. Saving book coverage in major newspapers as it is today will not solve the problem. While it’s fun to

Reviewing Reviewing

It’s Not The Book, It’s The Front

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Books are funny things. You’d think, after centuries of printing and selling them, industry professionals would understand how the business works. They would get that buzz doesn’t necessarily translate to sales — especially when that buzz is inherently incestuous in nature — and that the buying public is completely overwhelmed by choice. Publishers need to remember that trying to recreate the successes of 1963 means building time machines. You would also think that publishers would realize that niches are different than trends. The latter leads to glutting the market when just one or two would do; the former simmers along

Non-Traditional Publishing

Moving Beyond the Book: Character Blogs, As We See Them

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As you might have noticed, we have been thinking more than a little about how publishers can transition from the old model to the new model without sacrificing the old model. For those who haven’t been paying attention, the old model can be neatly summed up as “good stuff to read”. In many ways, a good character blog is a story unto itself. In the past, this meant good stuff to read in book format. Without a doubt, this is the format that readers seem to prefer…and why not? Books remain highly portable — in more than one sense of

Marketing For Introverts

Essay Question: Thinking About Mobile Media

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During this incredibly busy week, we have come to rely on the magical powers of our cell phone more than ever. So much so that we had a panicky dream where the cute little thing was broken and required major surgery. Not a happy time sleeping. We’ve also been talking to friends about the wonders that is cellular technology. We are turning to you to help us understand the allure of the cellular phone. Because leaving well enough alone has never been our strong suit, naturally we’ve nudged the conversation toward cell phones and new media. Over and over, we

Non-Traditional Publishing

Looking Inside HarperCollins’ Online Marketing Initiatives

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Though we are often (very) harsh on the publishing industry, we secretly understand the trials, tribulations, and, yes, challenges they face. When we rage about the industry’s inability to move into the late 20th century, it is with love that we rant, not anger. Okay, sometimes anger. It’s 2007. There are many topics that we should be discussing in the past tense. Allowing authors to speak their own thoughts in their voices humanizes the person on the other end of the book. So when we had a chance to talk to Carolyn Pittis, Senior Vice-President of Global Marketing Strategy and

Marketing For Introverts
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