The biggest publishers today are regularly delivering improved profit performance on a flat or declining sales base. This masks a troubling truth about today's book business. The core asset base of a book publisher is "performing titles": the books … [Continue reading]
What is causing the uptick in independent bookstores?
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 … [Continue reading]
2020: Zero year thoughts about the changes in book publishing
Years that end in zeroes summon a natural tendency to look backwards and forwards. So as we enter this century's decade of The 20s, we'll do just that. The ideas in this piece analyze what is mostly anecdata: "facts" that are real, that I've vetted … [Continue reading]
Should Barnes & Noble rethink its supply chain?
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 … [Continue reading]
7 ways book publishing will change over the next few years
A prior post described the new structure of the book publishing ecosystem. In the past three decades, we have migrated away from a world where a publisher needed to own a substantial infrastructure to deliver printed books to thousands of retail … [Continue reading]