News of the 7-figure Tim Ferriss deal with Amazon that hit the news this (Wednesday) morning must have leaked out to the press yesterday (Tuesday) because I got a call from a reporter asking for comment on Amazon’s “big new hardcover” book deal. The question confused me yesterday, but seeing the announcement about Ferriss today […]
From some perspectives, we are tipping right now and publishers’ metrics will show it
Sometimes, and it would seem quite often these days, the future comes faster than you expected it. Followers of this blog, and of my speeches before there was a blog (this one’s from 2001!), know I’ve long been expecting ebook reading to supplant print book reading for many people. I’ve been wrong about the timing. […]
Upstream and downstream developments crowd publishers’ space
I had breakfast last summer with one of the titans of 20th century publishing who is now in his senior years running his own smaller operation. He’s a notorious non-techie. When we talked, he was trying to come to grips with what the problem for publishers was with this digital transition. From his perspective, publishing […]
The unit of appreciation and the unit of sale
My professional background — indeed, most of my life that isn’t family, friends, baseball, and politics — is trade publishing: the publishing that is intended for consumers and which got its name becaiuse it has been transacted primarily through “the trade”: bookstores. But this past week I spent two full days with the Publisher Advisory […]
What I Would Have Said in London, Part 2
This is the 2nd of a 4-part post spelling out what I would have said if I had appeared at the Annual General Meeting of the UK Publishers Association on Wednesday, April 28, and not been cancelled by a volcano. Part 1 set the stage, spelling out how much change can take place in 20 years. […]