The New York Public Library and the Authors Guild co-hosted a panel discussion as part of their “Who Owns the Word?” series on December 10, moderated by novelist and Authors Guild vp Richard Russo. Authors Kurt Andersen, Alexander Chee, and TJ Stiles, along with Madeline McIntosh, the CEO of Penguin Random House US, joined Russo onstage. Much of the conversation focused on the continuing importance of physical stores to book discovery, narrowing in on online buying as a major contributor to the challenging environment faced by emerging novelists today, and by fiction authors more broadly. McIntosh kicked off that part of […]
Events
A Leading Agent Takes Center Stage with Hello Sunshine + Together Live
William Morris Endeavor’s head of Worldwide Literary, Lectures, and Conferences, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, has another lesser-known, yet in some respects, higher-profile, role. She is the co-founder, along with client and author Glennon Doyle, of Together Live, an annual big-venue touring storytelling event/would-be movement that recently began its third year. Walsh is also its chief curator, moderator and MC, inaugural podcast host, and force majeure. “When we are brave enough to tell our own stories, and present enough to really listen to others as they share theirs,” Walsh wrote on Instagram on the eve of the first stop, in Boston, “real […]
HarperCollins Launches Anniversary Exhibit at Columbia
HarperCollins and the Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library have announced an exhibition celebrating the publisher’s 200th anniversary. Open now through July 21 in the library’s Kempner Gallery, “Harper & Brothers to HarperCollins Publishers: A Bicentennial Exhibition” highlights continuity and change in the publishing industry. The exhibit includes, among other things, the contract for Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Thomas Nast’s political cartoons for Harper’s Weekly, and correspondence with historical figures like John F. Kennedy and Richard Wright. As a part of the launch, they will hold a panel discussion on Wednesday, April 12, moderated by Columbia Publishing Course director Shaye Areheart […]
Tackling Digital Relevancy at BISG’s NEXT Conference
Yesterday, Brian O’Leary kicked off BISG’s NEXT conference–Developing the 2020 Publishing Program–with a reprise of his Context First presentation (previously delivered at Books in Browsers and Tools of Change). “The challenge is not just being digital,” O’Leary said, “It’s about being relevant.” His vision of “a digital-first, content-abundant universe”, where users define their content consumption experiences and publishers must develop flexible processes and workflows, appropriately set the stage for the day’s challenge of developing strategies for a fictional publisher in the year 2020. In small working groups, participants outlined mobile and content strategies, addressed discoverability, and defined the publisher’s customer-base and core […]
S&S CEO Reidy: Ebook Sales Between 15-20 Percent, But Apps and Enhanced Ebooks A Non-Starter
Yesterday’s PublishingPoint conversation Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy’s conversation with Google Book Rights Registry CEO Michael Healy could not have been timed any better, though the news that emerged had less to do with the Google Book Settlement — and the now unclear future of the Rights Registry — and more with the original intent of the event, on S&S’s plan for existing and future digital initiatives. Reidy did comment briefly about the GBS rejection, saying she was disappointed, but the news wasn’t too surprising” and that she hopes it is “another way station along the way to a […]
Briefs: National Festival Expands, Bristol Palin Writes, Kindle Gets Page Numbers, and More
The National Book Festival, held annually on Washington, DC’s National Mall, will expand to a two-day event this year, convening September 24 and 25. The Library of Congress says “the added day will let us plan for at least 90 authors over the entire weekend.” The media found a preliminary metadata posting on Amazon for a memoir by Bristol Palin, set for publication by William Morrow on June 21. It was listed as a $25 hardcover. Amazon removed the listing, but the cached version is still viewable (for now). In separate Amazon-related news, the famously customer-centric is finally giving in […]