ePublishing Week in Brief – November 18th to 22nd, 2013
ePublishing Week in Brief – November 18th to 22nd, 2013
Let’s Help the Industry by Publishing FEWER Books?
At yesterday’s Futurebook conference, one of the anticipated panels was once again the “big idea” panel in which industry professionals came together to propose ideas that will have an impact on publishing in the near future. Each of the eight panelists were given the chance to share and explain one key idea that could revolutionize or secure the book business.
But with great ideas proposed like a ranking system for self-published authors to help ensure best practices and a streamlined device system that makes buying ebooks ridiculously easy, one of the better ideas was the focus on greater adoption of bundling of ebooks with their print counterparts, proposed by BitLit’s Peter Hudson.
An exciting concept, proposed by Marcello Vena, general manager of RCS Libri, was that of “co-publishing,” a model that essentially lets traditional and small press publishers lend greater support to self-published authors through collaboration. Additionally, Rebecca Smart of Osprey proposed that the funeral march-pace of traditional publishing is practically artificial and needs to be sped up to keep up with the industry of ebooks.
http://goodereader.com/blog/e-book-news/lets-help-the-industry-by-publishing-fewer-books
Famous Writers Who Self-Published: Busting a Self-Publishing Myth
Book promotion guru John Kremer introduces his Self-Publishing Hall of Fame by writing, “You could stock a superb college library or an incredible bookstore just from the books written by the some of the authors who have chosen to self-publish [sic],” then proceeds to reel off the names of 52 famous writers who published their own works, including L. Frank Baum, Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe, William Strunk Jr. and Mark Twain. (Kremer misspells Poe’s middle name and omits “Jr.” from Strunk’s name.)
“This website features many other amazing authors who have chosen to self-publish at some time in their careers,” Kremer continues. “You would do well to be among this honored group.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-winkler/famous-writers-who-selfpu_b_4303994.html
3 New Content Publishing Technologies to Leverage in 2014
It all seems so logical: you attend industry trade shows, webinars, network and listen to water-cooler gossip about the newest technology and trends out there.
You do a great job creating business cases, corralling teams and getting blessing on budgets. Everything seems to be moving forward, and then… BOOM. The technology landscape changes and the latest and most effective way to connect with customers and drive revenue is old hat.
As frustrating as it can be to get caught in this circle of innovation, technology has become part of our lifestyle. Integrating technology into the way in which we publish content has become a part of our everyday business life.
French court fines publishing house for five anti-Semitic books
The court in Bobigny, near Paris, last week handed down a blanket ban on the publication and dissemination of one book, “The Anthology of Quotes against Jews, Judaism and Zionism” by Paul-Eric Blanrue.
The court said the book contained “incitement to racial hatred” and “denials of genocide,” which are illegal in France. Blanrue’s 321-page book contains “hundreds of anti-Semitic statements by well-known figures throughout the ages,” according to the news agency AFP.
http://www.jta.org/2013/11/22/news-opinion/world/french-court-censures-five-books-over-anti-semitism#ixzz2lXghwsbB
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Self-Publishing Skyrockets | PubCrawl
According to a new analysis released in October by ProQuest affiliate Bowker, the ISBN agency, self-publishing continued its growth spurt, up 59 percent in 2012 over 2011, from 246,912 titles to 391,768. The gains were even more startling over the longer period for which Bowker collected data: a 422 percent rise since 2007. Not surprisingly, “ebooks continued to gain on print, comprising 40 percent of the ISBNs that were self-published in 2012 [156,837 vs. 234,931 for print], up from just 11 percent in 2011.”
A handful of companies dominated the list of self-publishers. “More than 80 percent of self-published titles came to market with support from just eight companies,” Bowker reported. They included Smashwords, CreateSpace, Lulu, AuthorHouse, Xlibris, and iUniverse. The last three are divisions of Author Solutions, owned by Penguin (now Penguin Random House).
The growth has made self-publishing services a big business. “The most successful self-publishers…invest in their business, hiring experts to fill skill gaps [like marketing], and that’s building a thriving new service infrastructure in publishing,” said Beat Barblan, Bowker director of identifier services. Bowker recently launched its own self-publishing service, SelfPublishedAuthor.com.
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/11/publishing/pubcrawl/self-publishing-skyrockets-pubcrawl/
Time Warner Files Plan to Spin Off Magazine Publisher Next Year
Time Inc., publisher of more than 20 titles, will trade as a new company in 2014, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. The filing is preliminary and didn’t specify dates for the spin-off beyond next year.
Separating the magazine unit will shield Time Warner’s more lucrative cable networks and film studio from the publishing industry’s struggles with the transition to the Internet and lower advertising rates. Time Warner Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bewkes said in March he would spin off the unit, which analysts project has an enterprise value of about $3.9 billion.
As Time Warner’s worst-performing division, Time Inc.’s sales through the first nine months of this year fell 3 percent to $2.38 billion, while operating income climbed 5 percent to $230 million. For 2012, Time Inc.’s operating profit was $420 million.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-22/time-warner-files-plan-to-spin-off-magazine-publisher-next-year.html