By Siobhan O’Leary Swedish crime novelist Liza Marklund recently found herself in the midst of a controversy in the German publishing world when she spoke out against Germany’s fixed book price law and questioned the significance of small booksellers in an interview in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. German booksellers (particularly the smaller ones, who were most directly [...]
By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead story by Erin Cox urges publishers to pour effort and resources into branding themselves, essentially making their colophons and imprints into part of the sales pitch they make to customers with each and every book. As discussed in the article, there are a variety of reasons to do this, not the [...]
![[INSERT PUBLISHER HERE]: Why Branding to Readers Should Matter to Publishers](http://publishingperspectives.com/wp-content/themes/puremagazine/puremagazine/thumb.php?src=http://publishingperspectives.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/ec-tny-150x150.jpg&h=90&w=90&zc=1&q=90)
On March 18th, in response to the Publishing Perspectives story “Digital Case Study: Publishers’ Online Marketing in Spain,” Editor-in-Chief Ed Nawotka posed a discussion question asking if readers cared about publisher branding. This sparked a flurry of debate among readers on the Publishing Perspectives site and off-line between Publishing Perspectives Business Development Director Erin L. Cox [...]
Reviewed by Gwendolyn Dawson Solar, Ian McEwan’s eleventh novel, follows the troubled career and love life of 53-year-old physicist Michael Beard. Beard won the Nobel Prize in physics for work he completed as a young man but, after five failed marriages, is now trapped in a decades-long slump of “no new ideas.” Living the life of an aimless [...]
By Edward Nawotka In today’s lead story, digital first publisher Eoin Purcell argues that e-books are, essentially, a cul-de-sac — a dead end. He writes: …the industry, despite notable and impressive exceptions, is still avoiding the inevitable accommodation and embrace of the internet AS THE PLATFORM. As a body, we are ignoring the implications of digital change [...]
By Eoin Purcell DUBLIN: It is a mark of the publishing industry’s poor strategic abilities that e-books have become an all consuming obsession. I believe that, ultimately, e-books are merely a cul-de-sac. Given that sales of e-books tripled in 2009 — and continue to boom — this may seem ever so slightly irrational, but hear me [...]
By Ed Nawotka According to Irish Publishing News, Penguin Ireland — the country’s largest trade publisher — sold just 100 e-books total in 2009. But things are looking up. Penguin Ireland MD, Michael McLoughlin, speaking at the Irish Branch Conference of the Booksellers Association in the Hilton Hotel, Dublin this past weekend, said that the company sold [...]
By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead story recounts three stores from publishing professionals who were fired during the ongoing economic recession. All three have subsequently found jobs, but only two of them in publishing. Judging by the number of names and jobs titles that have been changed in my own contact list/address book, I would guess the number [...]
Interviews by Daniel Kalder The 2008 financial meltdown cut a swath of destruction through many industries, and publishing was no exception. Today, Publishing Perspectives talks to three publishing professionals who were victims of the crash to find out how they coped, what they’re doing now, and how their experience changed their attitude to the world of [...]
By Edward Nawotka Here’s something I don’t get to write that often: Stephen King agrees with me (sort of). It the April 2 issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine, King devotes his pop culture column — this week’s title is “Inspector of Gadgets” — to the forthcoming iPad. As you might remember, King was himself a pitchman [...]
