One thing we try to do at Digital Book World is to present our audiences with useful, relevant, and, when we can, original data. It is a familiar complaint in our industry that we drive blind. Part of that is due to the sheer diversity and granularity of the “book business”. And another part is […]
Can big publishers actually do tech and make books at the same time?
Something caught my eye this week that has been very little commented upon elsewhere: the news that Hachette Book Group developed an app-making capability that they are now licensing out. Their first customer was Round Table Companies, a book packager. I found this striking because big book publishers are not generally known for developing technology; […]
Children’s books: the new value chain is a work-in-progress
It occurred to us about a year ago that the children’s book business was wide open for disruption from new players outside the publishing business. Already, two of the companies we mentioned in a post back then about the new entrants that might be the actual instruments of disruption have linked up with established publishers. That […]
Supply chain analysis could get even more important as store sales diminish
http://mikeshatzkin.wpengine.com/a-coming-new-obsession-how-to-handle-a-smaller-print-book-business
One thing that has changed considerably in the last 20 years is the amount of information publishers have about what is going on in the supply chain: that is, they can track the books between their own warehouse and the end consumer purchase. The Big Kahuna of information, of course, is provided by BookScan, based on cash register capture of data as books are sold at outlets all over the country. BookScan not only lets its