The Idea Logical Company

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

Amazon has done so many smart things that some of the best ones get forgotten

March 9, 2021 by Mike Shatzkin Leave a Comment

There’s quite a bit of publishing about publishing going on in the next few weeks. British academic John B. Thompson has written a solid scholarly history of book publishing in the past quarter century or so called “Book Wars” that will publish next month, focused on the arrival of ebooks and how publishers and the […]

Filed Under: eBooks, General Trade Publishing, Marketing, New Models, Publishing History, Supply-Chain Tagged With: "Behemoth, "Book Wars", "The Book Business: What Everyone Needs to Know", "The Family Business", Amazon Rising", Baker & Taylor, I2S2, Ingram, Ingram Internet Support Services, iPad, Jeff Bezos, John B. Thompson, Keel Hunt, Kindle, Nook, Robert Paris Riger, Robin Gaster, Rocket Book, Softbook, Sony Reader, West Margin Books

What is causing the uptick in independent bookstores?

January 27, 2020 by Mike Shatzkin Leave a Comment

My first real job was in a bookstore, on the sales floor of the brand new paperback department in Brentano’s on 5th Avenue in the summer of 1962. I loved that place; I loved that job; and I’ve always had a soft spot for bookstores. But, romanticism aside, the truth is that books are just […]

Filed Under: Community, General Trade Publishing, Publishing History, Scale, Supply-Chain Tagged With: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Brentano's, Jeff Bezos

Should Barnes & Noble rethink its supply chain?

November 25, 2019 by Mike Shatzkin Leave a Comment

About 25 years ago, Ingram was benefiting from a big buildout of America’s bookstore network. Borders and Barnes & Noble were both opening new stores — big stores — at a rapid rate. Ingram hit a mother lode delivering “store opening assortments” and then, at least in some cases, doing the stock replenishment for the […]

Filed Under: General Trade Publishing, Supply-Chain Tagged With: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Ingram, James Daunt, Jeff Bezos

Transformation of companies and the book industry itself are not just 21st century phenomena

January 27, 2016 by Mike Shatzkin 5 Comments

Company transformation is a major theme at this year’s Digital Book World conference. By “transformation” we mean substantial changes in a company’s business model or core competencies or revenue streams. We found eight worthy companies to speak on this subject. Six of them — Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Ingram, Quarto, Rodale, Sourcebooks, and Wiley — are […]

Filed Under: Digital Book World, General Trade Publishing, Industry Events, Marketing, New Models, Print-On-Demand, Publishers Launch Conferences, Publishing History, Scale, Supply-Chain, Technology Tagged With: ABA Convention, Amazon, American Booksellers Association, Baker & Taylor, BEA, Bell & Howell, BookPage, Daniel Berkowitz, DBW blog, Diversion Books, Harry Hoffman, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Ingram, Jeff Bezos, Joe Esposito, John Ingram, Lightning Print, Michael Zibart, microfiche reader, Nashville Tennessean, NetGalley, Quarto, Reed Exhibitions, Rodale, Sourcebooks, Wiley

Book publishing lives in an environment shaped by larger forces and always has

January 10, 2016 by Mike Shatzkin 15 Comments

(Note to my readers. This longer-than-usual post is really two. The first half is a recital of what I believe is very relevant history. The second half is about how things are now. Although I am personally fascinated by the historical context, if you get bored with the history, the bolded text below marks the […]

Filed Under: Digital Book World, General Trade Publishing, Global, Industry Events, Marketing, New Models, Publishing History, SEO, Supply-Chain, Technology Tagged With: "Four Horsemen", Aer.io, Amazon, Andrew Carnegie, AOL, Apple, B. Dalton, Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, Bing, Borders, Copyright Clearance Center, David Young, Facebook, Fred Argir, Google, Google Plus, Hachette UK, Hachette US, Jeff Bezos, John Ingram, Jon Taplin, Jonathan Kanter, Microsoft, Moz, Putnam, Rand Fishkin, Roy Kaufman, Scott Galloway, Simon & Schuster, Virginia Heffernan, Waldenbooks, Yahoo

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Search

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.

Recent Posts

  • Google knocked us out for a couple of days, but we’re back!
  • When a publisher might not do as good a job as a self-publishing author
  • What the ruling against the PRH-S&S merger means for the publishing business
  • “Automated ebook marketing by Open Road; can anybody else do it?”
  • How book publishing has changed in recent decades and the puzzling question of what comes next

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

  • Google knocked us out for a couple of days, but we’re back!
  • When a publisher might not do as good a job as a self-publishing author
  • What the ruling against the PRH-S&S merger means for the publishing business

Pages

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

Follow Mike

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Search

Copyright © 2023 · eleven40 Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in