The Idea Logical Company

  • Blog
  • Speeches
  • Consulting
  • Clients
  • Media
  • About
  • Contact

Deep in the weeds of publishing economics

March 1, 2017 by Mike Shatzkin 31 Comments

This is a geeky post about publishing economics. Some people like that. If you don’t, you were warned before you invested any time. Two otherwise unrelated projects last week — a book I’m working on with a veteran fellow consultant named Robert Riger and a quick consulting call with a team from a major generalist […]

Filed Under: Authors, General Trade Publishing, Licensing and Rights, Marketing, New Models, Publishing History, Scale, Supply-Chain Tagged With: "The Mathematics of Bookselling", Amazon, Dolphin Books, Doubleday, In Cold Type, Len Shatzkin, Macmillan, Robert Riger, St. Martin's Press, Title P&Ls, Tom McCormack, Unit cost accounting

Market research used to be a silly idea for publishers but it is not anymore

June 2, 2015 by Mike Shatzkin 6 Comments

When my father, Leonard Shatzkin, was appointed Director of Research at Doubleday in the 1950s, it was a deliberate attempt to give him license to use analytical techniques to affect how business was done across the company. He had started out heading up manufacturing, with a real focus on streamlining the number of trim sizes […]

Filed Under: Direct response, eBooks, Global, Licensing and Rights, Marketing, New Models, rights, Scale, Self-Publishing, SEO, Supply-Chain, Technology Tagged With: Amazon, Anchor Books, Andrew Weber, Dolphin Books, Doubleday, Jason Epstein, Leonard Shatzkin, Logical Marketing, Pete McCarthy, Pinterest, Random House, YouTube

Ruth Cavin, great editor and world’s nicest person, gone at 92

January 10, 2011 by Mike Shatzkin 58 Comments

The title of “nicest person on the planet” is now open. The longtime incumbent, Ruth Cavin — also a veteran book editor who was known to many as the doyenne of mysteries — died early Sunday morning at the age of 92. She was still holding down a full time position as an editor with […]

Filed Under: Authors, Autobiographical, General Trade Publishing, Publishing History Tagged With: "Dinners for Beginners", "Trolleys", A.J. Shively, Al Silverman, Bram Cavin, Carnegie Tartan, Carnegie Tech, David Sobel, Dolphin Books, Doubleday, Eleanor Oshry, Eleanor Shatzkin, Emily Cavin, Harper, Joan Kahn, Leonard Shatzkin, Nora Cavin, Norman Thomas, Philip Turner, Ruth Brodie, Ruth Cavin, Sally Richardson, St. Martin's Press, Thomas Dunne Books, Tom McCormack, Tony Cavin, Two Continents, Walker and Company, World Publishing, YPSLs

Oil in the bookstore ecosystem marshlands; danger ahead

May 31, 2010 by Mike Shatzkin 11 Comments

I am finding an eerie similarity between the disastrous Gulf oil spill and the parlous state of America’s bookstores. In both cases, the forces are in place for a disaster that will play out over the coming months and years. And while the tragedy of what is happening in the Gulf is far more consequential to […]

Filed Under: Autobiographical, eBooks, Publishing, Publishing History, Supply-Chain Tagged With: Andy Ross, B. Dalton, Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Brentano's, Cody's, Collier Books, Dolphin Books, Doubleday, Ingram, Laredo, Len Shatzkin, Macmillan, Orange County, Waldenbooks, Walmart

A new perspective on some old family publishing history

May 10, 2009 by Mike Shatzkin 4 Comments

After Making Information Pay on Thursday, I had lunch with Michael Cader. One of our topics was some statistical research he is doing on the question “how many orphans”? This is his research to reveal, but I will only tell you “not nearly as many as I thought.” Part of what I learned from Michael […]

Filed Under: Autobiographical, General Trade Publishing, New Models, Publishing, Publishing History, Supply-Chain Tagged With: Anchor Books, Collier Books, Dolphin Books, Jason Epstein, Leonard Shatzkin, Louis Untermeyer, Robert Graves, St. Martin's, Tom McCormack

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.

Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeShatzkin.

Interview with Mike Shatzkin

Book Cover: The Book Business: What Everyone Needs to Know

The Book Business: What Everyone Needs to Know

Sign Up

Get The Shatzkin Files posts by email.

Search

Recent Posts

  • Doubts about the Department of Justice’s objection to the PRH acquisition of S&S
  • Every publishing strategy should start with Amazon and Ingram
  • Why books are different and why enterprises will be discovering they should be issuing them
  • “Enterprise self-publishing” is coming: the third great disruption of book publishing since the 1990s
  • “The Family Business” is Ingram: the global infrastructure for the book industry
  • Amazon has done so many smart things that some of the best ones get forgotten
  • Remembering Jim Haynes, the man with more friends than anybody else
  • Thoughts about what Covid and 2020 mean for book publishing
  • Introducing ClimateChangeResources.org, organizing and contextualizing the challenge we all face
  • The end of the general trade publishing concept

Archives

Categories

  • Atomization
  • Authors
  • Autobiographical
  • Baseball
  • Chuckles
  • Climate Change
  • Community
  • Conferences
  • Digital Book World
  • Direct response
  • eBooks
  • Enhanced ebook university
  • General Trade Publishing
  • Global
  • Industry Events
  • libraries
  • Licensing and Rights
  • Marketing
  • New Models
  • Politics
  • Print-On-Demand
  • Publishers Launch Conferences
  • Publishing
  • Publishing History
  • rights
  • Scale
  • Self-Publishing
  • SEO
  • Speeches
  • Subscriptions
  • Supply-Chain
  • Technology
  • Unbundling
  • Uncategorized
  • Vertical

Recent Posts

  • Doubts about the Department of Justice’s objection to the PRH acquisition of S&S
  • Every publishing strategy should start with Amazon and Ingram
  • Why books are different and why enterprises will be discovering they should be issuing them
  • “Enterprise self-publishing” is coming: the third great disruption of book publishing since the 1990s
  • “The Family Business” is Ingram: the global infrastructure for the book industry

Search

Archives

Categories

  • Atomization
  • Authors
  • Autobiographical
  • Baseball
  • Chuckles
  • Climate Change
  • Community
  • Conferences
  • Digital Book World
  • Direct response
  • eBooks
  • Enhanced ebook university
  • General Trade Publishing
  • Global
  • Industry Events
  • libraries
  • Licensing and Rights
  • Marketing
  • New Models
  • Politics
  • Print-On-Demand
  • Publishers Launch Conferences
  • Publishing
  • Publishing History
  • rights
  • Scale
  • Self-Publishing
  • SEO
  • Speeches
  • Subscriptions
  • Supply-Chain
  • Technology
  • Unbundling
  • Uncategorized
  • Vertical

Recent Posts

  • Doubts about the Department of Justice’s objection to the PRH acquisition of S&S
  • Every publishing strategy should start with Amazon and Ingram
  • Why books are different and why enterprises will be discovering they should be issuing them

Pages

  • Blog
  • Consulting
  • In the Media
  • Clients
  • About Us

Follow Mike

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Search

Copyright © 2022 · eleven40 Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in