I had occasion during this past week to speak at the global strategic meeting of Harlequin. Often when I am asked to speak, even internally to publishers, I am explicit told “we want you to scare the hell out of them.” Since I think of myself as a pretty unthreatening guy, I’m always a bit […]
Archives for June 2010
Metadata is the new most important thing to know about
Several very recent conversations have come together for me. 1. Joe Esposito, the new CEO of GiantChair, says metadata is the key to publishing in the future; he describes metadata as the modern equivalent of Allen Lane’s discovery that cheaper paperback books sold in mass merchant locations could boost book sales. Of course, Giant Chair […]
Ever heard of Tata Consulting? Well, I hadn’t either…
The publishing industry faces some mammoth challenges that it will be very hard for any one publisher, even the biggest, to address. Costs have to be cut dramatically over the next few years. New technology is going to enable upstarts to compete in the marketplace with far less overhead and infrastructure than legacy publishers have […]
Agency seems (to me) to be working; I hope it’s legal
A year ago, before Agency was ever publicly discussed, I was grasping for what publishers could do to get control of ebook pricing and curtail, or at least manage, the degree to which ebooks undercut paper and, in turn, brick-and-mortar. At the time, people told me that it was possible for a manufacturer to control the pricing […]