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It isn’t wise to draw lines in the sand that ultimately can’t be defended

July 25, 2010 by Mike Shatzkin 23 Comments

Apologies in advance for a much-longer-than-usual post. It is not like the publishers haven’t seen the ebook royalty fight coming. On a panel he and I were on together in March of 2009, John Sargent, the Chairman and CEO of Macmillan, identified ebook margins as the critical issue for publishers going forward. Even though ebook […]

Filed Under: Authors, eBooks, General Trade Publishing, New Models, Publishing, Supply-Chain Tagged With: Amazon, Andrew Wylie, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Black Plastic Glasses, Bran Hambric, Dominique Raccah, Evan Schnittman, iPad, Jane Friedman, John Sargent, John Schline, Kindle, Knopf, Macmillan, Nook, Odyssey Books, Open Road, Penguin, Random House, Rosetta Books, Simon & Schuster, Sourcebooks, Stephen Covey, William Styron

The wild weekend of Amazon and Macmillan

January 31, 2010 by Mike Shatzkin 43 Comments

Now I swear all this is true. As everybody knows, a very serious food fight broke out between Amazon and Macmillan late Friday night. All weekend Michael Cader led the way in ferreting out additional useful information and I spent most of today (Sunday) trying to write an analytical blogpost. I got it just about […]

Filed Under: Digital Book World, eBooks, General Trade Publishing, New Models, Publishing, Supply-Chain Tagged With: Amazon, Brad Stone, Bran Hambric, Charles Stross, Content, Content Reserve, David Wilk, Going Rogue, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Ingram, John Sargent, John Scalzi, Macmillan, Michael Cader, Sourcebooks, True Compass, VentureBeat

Holding back the ebook

September 30, 2009 by Mike Shatzkin 16 Comments

The tactic of keeping the ebook off the market to “protect” hardcover sales, first executed by Sourcebooks this month on behalf of Bran Hambric, is becoming more widespread. At the same time that Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol was released simultaneously in cloth and digital, Ted Kennedy’s posthumous True Compass was released in print with the ebook withheld. […]

Filed Under: Community, Digital Book World, eBooks, General Trade Publishing, Industry Events, New Models, Print-On-Demand, Publishing, Supply-Chain Tagged With: Bran Hambric, Dan Brown, Ellora's Cave, Kassia Kroszer, Kindle, Lost Symbol, Raelene Gorlinsky, Sourcebooks, Ted Kennedy, True Compass

Debut pricing: my idea, great idea, unfortunately can’t work

August 28, 2009 by Mike Shatzkin 7 Comments

In the words of Emily Litella, the Saturday Night Live character of the 1970s invented by Gilda Radner, “never mind.” I’m referring to my post about “debut pricing” from earlier this week. It can’t be done; at least not easily and at least not immediately. The challenges we face require a continuing conversation and crowds […]

Filed Under: eBooks, General Trade Publishing, New Models, Publishing, Supply-Chain Tagged With: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bran Hambric, Content Reserve, Dominique Raccah, epub, Fictionwise, Google, Ingram Digital, Shortcovers

“Debut pricing” for ebooks: a better idea than withholding them

August 23, 2009 by Mike Shatzkin 10 Comments

Three weeks ago, the community had a big discussion about the timing of ebook releases which was triggered by Dominique Raccah’s announcement that Sourcebooks would hold back the ebook of Bran Hambric for some period after the hardcover release. The expressed concern was to insulate the $28.95 hardcover from the price competition currently taking place […]

Filed Under: eBooks, General Trade Publishing, New Models, Publishing, Supply-Chain Tagged With: Amazon, BN .com, Bran Hambric, debut pricing, Dominique Raccah

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Mike Shatzkin

Mike Shatzkin is the Founder & CEO of The Idea Logical Company and a widely-acknowledged thought leader about digital change in the book publishing industry. Read more.

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