Somebody somewhere reported last month that the United States is the home country to the second largest number of Spanish-speakers in the world, after Mexico. Since I am speaking in Madrid to Spanish publishers at the end of May, that seemed like … [Continue reading]
What we are seeing today is actually the second renaissance of indie bookselling, not the first
Publishing and digital change consultant Bill Rosenblatt -- always worth paying attention to -- pointed his contacts last week to a podcast from NPR celebrating the current renaissance of independent bookstores. The history reported as part of what … [Continue reading]
The written word is losing its power and will continue to
If there were a futures market in literacy, it would be dropping. It is a sad fact that the value of written words, in relation to spoken words and still and moving pictures, is sinking like a stone. Changes like this happen for structural … [Continue reading]
Special People and Book Publishing
It is a safe contention that few people whose primary career motivation is "to get rich" go into book publishing. What attracts folks to our business are other life objectives. Over the six decades I've been interacting with publishing professionals, … [Continue reading]
A changing book business: it all seems to be flowing downhill to Amazon
Amazon's introduction of the Kindle in 2007 was followed rapidly by other ebook systems -- Kobo, Google, B&N's Nook, and Apple's iBook -- and widely-available print-on-demand capabilities for printed books offered by Ingram (Lightning Print was … [Continue reading]