Somebody - I really wish I could remember who so I could credit him or her -sometime in the last year gave me a perspective of how a lot of change happens. G r a d u a l l y , then SUDDENLY. For the past five years in these VISTA conferences, … [Continue reading]
Why books are different and why enterprises will be discovering they should be issuing them
My most recent post noted the rise of what I called "enterprise self-publishing". It increasingly looks to me like enterprise-driven book publishing will become the dominant provider of books over the next decade. What distinguishes it is book … [Continue reading]
Amazon could become our leading physical retailer before very long
More than five years ago in this space we contemplated the likelihood that Amazon would just keep growing and growing its share of the book business without any end. Of course, a book business-centric view of Amazon these days doesn't really do … [Continue reading]
The “Big Change” era in trade book publishing ended about four years ago
Book publishing is still very much in a time of changing conditions and circumstances. There are a host of unknowables about the next several years that affect the shape of the industry and the strategies of all the players in it. But as publishers, … [Continue reading]
The disruption of the disruption is temporary
There's little doubt that the digital (r)evolution, to the degree it is measured by the shift by consumers from reading on paper to reading on a screen, has plateaued, at least temporarily. The most recent article in PW on the subject spells out that … [Continue reading]