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When an author should self-publish and how that might change

April 17, 2014 by Mike Shatzkin 50 Comments

There is a question that every agent and publisher is dealing with, because authors surely are. And that’s this: when should an author self- (or indie-) publish? The answer is certainly not “never”, and if there is anybody left in a publishing house who thinks it is, they should think a little harder. For a […]

Filed Under: Atomization, Authors, eBooks, General Trade Publishing, Global, Licensing and Rights, New Models, Scale, Supply-Chain, Technology Tagged With: Arthur Klebanoff, Curtis Brown, Diversion, Ereads, Joe Konrath, Open Road, Richard Curtis, Rosetta Books, Trident, Waxman-Leavell Agency, Writer's House

No, Mike Shatzkin did NOT say that publishing is spiraling down the drain

November 21, 2013 by Mike Shatzkin 18 Comments

As part of the promotion of the Digital Book World conference, I do some interviewing with the very capable Jeremy Greenfield, the editor of their blog. And Jeremy takes our conversations and chops them up into short pieces around the themes of our show. Since the focus of Digital Book World is “how digital is […]

Filed Under: Atomization, Authors, Digital Book World, eBooks, General Trade Publishing, Marketing, New Models, Scale, Self-Publishing, Supply-Chain, Unbundling, Vertical Tagged With: Amazon, Arthur Klebanoff, Barnes & Noble, Bendict Evans, Bowker, Brad Stone, E-Reads, Jane Friedman, Jeremy Greenfield, Joan Didion, Joe Esposito, John Gregory Dunne, KDP Select, Open Road Media, Phil Sexton, Professor Dana Beth Weinberg, Richard Curtis, Rosetta Books, Writer's Digest

More on atomization: why the new publishers are coming

March 26, 2013 by Jess 38 Comments

The most recent post here laid out a future for trade publishing that will be less and less about traditional publishers and more and more about non-traditional publishers delivering books into the marketplace without the financing or “approval” of a profit-seeking publisher. That’s a radical change from the industry we’ve seen grow over the past […]

Filed Under: Atomization, Digital Book World, eBooks, General Trade Publishing, Licensing and Rights, New Models, Publishers Launch Conferences, Self-Publishing, Supply-Chain, Vertical Tagged With: American Express Publishing, Atavist, Barry Diller, Brightline, Byliner, Chronicle of Higher Education, Conde Nast, Constellation, Cosmopolitan, Daily Beast, Diversion, Esquire, Frederator, Harlequin, Hearst, Ingram, INscribe, Jeremy Greenfield, Kindle, NBC News, New York Times, Newsweek, Open Road, Perseus, Playboy, Provincetown Public LIbrary, Rosetta Books, Saturday Evening Post, Scientific American, TED, The Atlantic, Toronto Star, US Army, USA Today, USA Tomorrow, Vook, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Wharton Business School, Xiamen Blackbird Cartoon Company

Explaining my skepticism about the likelihood of success for a general subscription model for ebooks

July 22, 2012 by Jess 4 Comments

In a prior post, I observed that the apparently-successful subscription offerings for books were in niches. And I said I believed that a more general subscription model wouldn’t work for ebooks the way it has seemed to work for music (Spotify), movies and TV shows (Netflix), and audiobooks (Audible). By that I meant two things. […]

Filed Under: Authors, Direct response, eBooks, General Trade Publishing, Licensing and Rights, Supply-Chain Tagged With: Amazon, Amazon Prime, Audible, Bloomsbury, Books24x7, F+W Media, Grove/Atlantic, Kindle, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle Owners Lending Library, Leonard Shatzkin, Lonely Planet, Neteflix, Norton, Rosetta Books, Scholastic, Simon Lipskar, Spotify, Workman/Algonquin, Writer's House

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

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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.

Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeShatzkin.

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Recent Posts

  • Running a big publishing house is not as much fun as it used to be
  • 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?”

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Recent Posts

  • Running a big publishing house is not as much fun as it used to be
  • 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

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