I think this is going to turn out to be the month a lot of people realize that industry statistics–long an imperfect set of measures–are struggling mightily in mapping the complex and booming body of content that has some relationship to “books.” Earlier this week Bowker released preliminary statistics on new titles published during 2008, making a distinction between “traditional book publishing” and “on-demand/short-run” books. (The split was actually introduced last year, but drew more attention this year as title growth in the latter category more than doubled to 285,000 titles, making it larger than the “traditional” segment’s 275,000 titles.) […]
Archives for May 2009
Elisabeth Sifton at FGS's Long View: "Wariness Is In Order"
Sifton has a long piece in The Nation with a wide sweep of publishing history to try and make sense of the present: “When I first got a publishing job almost half a century ago, my elders and betters in the trade regularly worried about The Future of Books, even though manuscripts continued to pour onto our desks. They worried, too, when firms changed ownership….” “What now? Publishers are battening down, and chain stores are struggling, having staked so much on nationally merchandised dreck, having committed themselves to imitating the look of the big indies but never quite matching their […]
Comp Sales Fall 5.7% at BN, Which Raises Guidance After Smaller-than-Expected Loss
Barnes & Noble is good at beating the expectations of stock analysts and their own investor “guidance,” and they did it again for their first quarter, even as overall sales fell 4 percent to $1.105 billion. Same-store sales fell 5.7 percent for the quarter, a little better than their previous guidance, with overall store sales falling only 3.5 percent to $989 million. BN.com sales fell more, by 7 percent, at $93 million. The net loss from continuing operations of $2.1 million (or 4 cents a share) was better than the predicted loss of 10 cents to 20 cents a share. […]
Day in the Life Co-Creator Rick Smolan Pushes Boundaries of Customizable Book with "Obama Time Capsule"
Rick Smolan’s latest collection of themed photographs, THE OBAMA TIME CAPSULE, takes his previous experiments with customizable jackets further, now offering each customer an individualized book. It’s on sale exclusively through Amazon. Buyers can add their names to the authors on the front cover, and include personal photos on the back cover, and “celebrity supporters” page. You can add your child’s art work to the Kids for Obama page and insert your own name on a fascimile inaugural invitation. Books are promised to arrive two to three weeks after ordering. Hewlett-Packard is printing the on-demand books and executive Andrew Bolwell […]
Michigan Expands Agreement On Google Books–Without Consulting Other Libraries
Presuming the Google Book Search legal settlement is approved, the University of Michigan announced that they had renegotiated an “expanded agreement” with the search company. Addressing some libraries’ concerns about the as-yet-undetermined institutional pricing of the database of full-text books, the parties agreed on a system that will let partner/contributing libraries review the pricing and challenge it through arbitration if they believe it’s too high, in which case “Google will be required to work with the Registry to adjust the pricing accordingly.” Price will be less of an issue for Michigan itself, which will receive free access to the full […]
People
Harper UK managing director Amanda Ridout is leaving the company at the end of next month after seven years to pursue “confidential” ventures, the Bookseller reports. “All will be revealed in the fullness of time,” Ridout adds. Frank McCourt‘s publishers and agent have confirmed that he has been undergoing chemotherapy for melanoma. The 78-year-old author is back home now and “doing pretty well” according to Molly Friedrich.AP Morty Mint and his Mint Publishers Group has taken on the sales operation for Joy Berry Enterprises. Acting as brand consultant, he will be the primary sales executive for the company, working with […]