Following some of the earlier research findings from Verso Digital’s new consumer analytics business that we ran in Lunch prior to Digital Book World, Jack McKeown presented additional findings (and some suggestion conclusions and strategic inferences). Many of the slides were data-heavy–always hard to capture at a conference, but they are viewable now online. On the subject of piracy–addressed earlier in the day by Brian Napack–McKeown underscored their conclusion that approximately 80 percent of the population downloaded few or no titles illegally in the past year (just six percent of respondents were frequent downloaders). One interesting slide showed respondents favorite […]
DBW: Back-Loaded Book Deals and Other Business Models
This afternoon’s panel discussion sounded an optimistic note (one attendee called it “the most hopeful panel he’d heard in the last 2 years”) for publishing’s ability to be nimble on non-traditional book deal models, and moderator Lorraine Shanley took her panelists – HarperStudio’s Bob Miller, Mary Ann Naples of Creative Culture, Ira Silverberg of Sterling Lord Literistic and Vanguard’s Roger Cooper — through a series of questions addressing profit-sharing, increased author marketing, and how to make publisher, author, and agent happy with so many possible models in play – or potentially in the works. Caveat: these notes were more or […]
Napack at DBW: Piracy Stems from Pre-Pub Copies
Macmillan president Brian Napack addressed Digital Book World this morning on the “the cheery, happy pleasant topic of people stealing your stuff.” He noted, “Piracy is happening. The question is how bad is it in the trade publishing business?” Napack said that “anyone who says that piracy isn’t an issue doesn’t understand,” showing a list of numerous NYT bestsellers, all available on some torrent site for free. Among Macmillan’s own examples, a search of Vuze (“a slick little thing if you want something for free” that searches all the torrent sites) showed 29 places to get pirated Sherrilyn Kenyon books, […]
From Digital Book World, A New Social Metric to Worry About; Poetry Site Helps Sales
Razorfish executive and author Shiv Singh kicked off the presentations to a full room at the inaugural Digital Book World conference in New York this morning. It’s always interesting for people in the relatively inward-focused book publishing business to hear from outside experts, and yet usually, unless those experts bring some particular understanding of publishing or work hard to modify their pitch to publishers’ complex needs, the advice tends to fall flat. There’s no arguing with Singh’s basic thesis–that consumers now have all the control, and communicating brands to them isn’t as simple as it used be. But many of […]
Bookselling: Two More Store Closings
Greenville, SC’s The Open Book intends to close shortly after almost 40 years in business, with a closing sale starting this week. Owner Duff Bruce says, “It is emotional, I am emotional about the business, I am emotional about the customers, but you have to be a realist.”Local coverage Ohio’s The Mystery Company will also close shortly, after seven years in business. Jim Huang says in a blog post “business here has been rough for a while, especially since gas prices spiked in the summer of 2008.” Plus: “Independent booksellers need to find ways to participate in print on demand, […]
Today's Amazon Press Release: Exclusive Kindle Book by Paulson Speechwriter
Speechwriter for Henry Paulson when he was secretary of Treasury Stacy Carlson has written a book, YOU, ME, & THE US ECONOMY, that is being published as an ebook only through Rosetta Books, exclusive to Kindle for a year. “A plainspoken look inside the Treasury Department” that “explains the events and issues through a personal narrative,” with a foreword by Paulson.Release Their second release of the day notes that Amazon Encore will publish four entrants from last year’s version of their Breakthrough novel contest–which has yet to create a discernible breakthrough.Release