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Subscription services for ebooks progress to becoming a real experiment

May 27, 2014 by Mike Shatzkin 16 Comments

My long-held conviction that broad-based subscriptions for ebooks were not likely to work is partly based on facts that are now changing. It is still by no means a slam dunk that ebooks must go where Spotify has taken digital music and Netflix has taken the digital distribution of TV and movies, but it looks […]

Filed Under: Authors, eBooks, General Trade Publishing, Licensing and Rights, New Models, Scale, Supply-Chain Tagged With: 24Symbols, Amazon, Amazon Prime, Big Five, Book-of-the-Month Club, Carolyn Reidy, Evan Schnittman, Hachette, HarperCollins, Kindle Owners Lending Library, Macmillan, Netflix, Oyster, Penguin Random House, PRH, S&S, Safari, Scribd, Simon & Schuster, Spotify

Examining the relationship between start-ups and publishers

November 12, 2013 by Mike Shatzkin 12 Comments

We are in another high-funding era for digital start-ups. The book business has always looked ripe for disruption, but never any more so than now. With bookstore shelf space shrinking, ebooks growing in very uneven ways across the types of books that are published, and everything about technology getting cheaper, everything is up for grabs. […]

Filed Under: Digital Book World, New Models, Technology Tagged With: 24 Symbols, Aerbook, Amazon.com, Andrew Rhomberg, eReatah, HarperCollins, Harvard Common Press, Ingram, Jellybooks, Kindle, Leslie Hulse, Macmillan, Netflix, Oyster, Perseus, Rick Joyce, Ron Martinez, Scribd, Skoobe, Spotify

The three forces that are shaping 21st century book publishing: scale, verticalization, and atomization

April 15, 2013 by Mike Shatzkin 15 Comments

There are three overarching realities that are determining the future course of book publishing. They are clear and they are inexorable: Scale, and its close cousin “critical mass”, is the ability to use size as a competitive advantage in any endeavor; Verticalization, or being in sync with the inherent capability of the Internet to deliver […]

Filed Under: Atomization, New Models, Scale, Supply-Chain, Vertical Tagged With: Amazon, Apple, Author Solutions, Barnes & Noble, Borders, CreateSpace, F+W Media, Google Random House, Kobo, Penguin, Spotify

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

Subscription models seem to me to be for ebook niches, not a general offer

July 16, 2012 by Jess 32 Comments

Another fledgling ebook retailing venture came through our office this month touting a subscription proposition. I told the entrepeneur “I’m skeptical of the subscription model for ebooks,” and he said, “I know”. We had a great chat, but I’m still skeptical. When I say that, I mean I’m skeptical that a general offering subscription model […]

Filed Under: Direct response, eBooks, General Trade Publishing, New Models, Publishing History, Supply-Chain, Vertical Tagged With: Angry Robot, Audible, Baen Books, Book-of-the-Month Club, continuity series, Discover a New Love, Disney Digital Books, Dzanc, F+W Media, Harlequin, iTunes, Literary Guild, Netflix, O'Reilly, Osprey, Pearson, Recorded Books, Safari, Sesame Street eBooks, Sourcebooks, Spotify, TED conferences, The Atavist, Time-Life Books

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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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Recent Posts

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