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The departing CEO reminds us that Barnes and Noble is of interest and a source of concern for all publishers

July 9, 2018 by Mike Shatzkin Leave a Comment

When Barnes & Noble interrupted Holiday week day-dreaming to announce that recently elevated CEO Demos Parneros had been abruptly dismissed for a contract violation that also eliminated his severance, it not only ignited a minor industry of speculation about “what happened?” but it also called attention to the commercial situation at Barnes & Noble. And […]

Filed Under: Community, eBooks, General Trade Publishing, New Models, Supply-Chain Tagged With: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Big Five, Brentano's, Demos Parneros, Doubleday, Google, Indigo, Ingram, James Daunt, Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Waterstone's

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

In an indie-dominant world, what happens to the high-cost non-fiction?

April 6, 2016 by Mike Shatzkin 78 Comments

I first learned and wrote about Hugh Howey about four years ago. At the time, he was one of the first real breakthrough successes as an indie author, making tens of thousands of dollars a month exclusively through Amazon for his self-published futurist novel, “Wool”. As soon as I could track him down, I invited […]

Filed Under: Authors, Digital Book World, eBooks, General Trade Publishing, Licensing and Rights, Marketing, New Models, rights, Self-Publishing Tagged With: "Dark Money", "Wool", Amazon, AuthorEarnings, Barry Eisler, Borders, Daniel Berkowitz, Data Guy, Doubleday, Hugh Howey, Jane Mayer, Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, Kristin Nelson, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster

On Amazon stores and publishers accepting standardization; two unrelated commentaries

February 10, 2016 by Mike Shatzkin 28 Comments

When the “Amazon-opening-400-stores” rumor landed a week ago, many people were gobsmacked. It took me a minute to get past that, which also required getting past my firm conviction when they opened the Seattle store last year that it was an information-gathering exercise, not the opening move of a bigger retail play. But, when you […]

Filed Under: General Trade Publishing, Marketing, New Models, Scale, Supply-Chain, Unbundling Tagged With: Amazon, Amazon Publishing, Amazon Studios, Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Conde Nast Entertainment, Doubleday, Ingram, John Sherer, Leonard Shatzkin, Longleaf Distribution, Mellon Foundation, New Yorker, omni-channel, University of North Carolina Press, Warby Parker

An obituary last week reminded me of some family history we are proud of

December 29, 2015 by Mike Shatzkin 2 Comments

Normally what is written here is about publishing’s present with a look to its future. An obituary notice last week recalled some personal family history about publishing’s past and shed some light on how much has changed in the past six decades. It’s publishing history from a highly personal point of view, but it seems […]

Filed Under: Autobiographical, General Trade Publishing, Publishing History Tagged With: Amistad Press, Charles F. Harris, Doubleday, Ed Simmons, Eleanor Shatzkin, HarperCollins, Howard University Press, Karen Shatzkin, Leonard Shatzkin, Nance Shatzkin, Urban League

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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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