The Business of Publishing

Like so many others, I am bemused by some of the coverage of the Tools of Change Frankfurt conference (bemused=not sure people interviewed were at same conference I attended)*. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but when your industry is undergoing what can generously be described as upheaval, it is imperative that you listen to other viewpoints. You do not have to agree, but if you’re not hearing what the other side is saying, you are making a huge mistake. DRM — Digital Rights Management — has effective and useful applications. I heard representatives from major European publishers say (and […]

Welcome back from whatever you did this summer. Me, I spent my time building a digital publishing company. It went mostly okay, though, in the end, there was no company to show for it. That has nothing to do with the work and talent of the people involved. Talk about amazing, smart, and creative. Four terrifying words: high-resolution Word file. When we started Quartet Press, one of the guiding principles was openness. It’s an uncomfortable thing. Publishing people like to pretend that the business different and secret. Not so. It’s good to talk about stuff. I believed then, and I

If you are a regular reader of Shelf Awareness (and if you’re not, you should be!), you know about the steady drumbeat of bookstores closing. You also know about the rising chorus from booksellers who are changing, adapting, growing, and understanding their place in the larger community. I am really lucky: I have two branches of an independent bookstore within comfortable distance of my house (the venerable Vromans). Sprinkled throughout my neighborhood are specialist bookstores. One is devoted to theology, one is devoted to cookbooks. Once upon a time, we had two stores focused on mystery and crime fiction, they

I am honored to bring you the following post from Dominique Raccah, Publisher and CEO of Sourcebooks. The other day, I wrote an article in response to Sourcebooks’ decision to delay the ebook release of their upcoming title Bran Hambric. Behind the scenes, there was much debate on this topic, and Dominique offered her thoughts behind this decision. I am so pleased that she chose to make them public here. In this time of change, there is nothing more important than open dialogue between stakeholders: publishers, agents, authors, readers, booksellers, distributors. It’s easy to think one side is right, the

We’ve got a time: 8:30 AM And a date: July 16 And a Room: The Harding Room Digital issues — from ebooks to territorial rights — are the hottest topics in publishing today. Throughout the publishing industry, changes to business-as-usual have a direct impact on authors. Traditional publishers are experimenting with formats, business models, clever ways to connect books and readers. Digital publishers, in the meantime, are leading the market with modern thinking and smart business models. And new businesses, new ideas, and new approaches to storytelling are being developed. Are you ready to take advantage of these changes? To