By Erin L. Cox At BEA, “The Report of My Death Was Exaggerated — Book Edition” panel did just what the Mark Twain quote did years ago: chastise the media for being too quick to decree the death of print publishing. Though it’s difficult to ignore the e-books are selling like hotcakes, three publishers and one bookseller proved that, for …
“What we have loved, others will love…”: Lisa Tucker on an Author’s Career Arc
Editorial by Lisa Tucker The publication date of my first novel, The Song Reader, was still nine months away when my agent suggested that I attend a trade show. I ended up going to two trade shows: one in Denver, which wasn’t far from my home in Santa Fe, and one in Philadelphia, where I’d lived for most of my adult …
Week in Review: S&S Opens in India, 3 Million Titles Pubbed in US in 2010
By Edward Nawotka Simon and Schuster Opens Subsidiary in India It is the last of the “Big Six” US publishing groups to enter the Indian book market. The staff of six will focus on sales and marketing of S&S’s existing list of English-language titles. Three Million New Editions in the U.S. in 2010 If you thought the 1.3 million titles …
What is the Future of “Social Bookselling”?
Do you only buy the books your friends suggest? Perhaps not. By Edward Nawotka It has long been a maxim in book marketing that “word-of-mouth” is the best. The same can be said for “handselling” in bookstores. So what happens when both move online? Book oriented social networking, nee bookselling, sites are proliferating. Copia and Bookish, in the US, and …
#PubNewsCheat: AMZN Gets Romantic, RH Acquires Smashing Ideas
A brief round-up of some of the week’s most notable publishing trade news: In the US Amazon announced the launch of a new romance books digital imprint — Montlake — which is part of their continued expansion into publishing. They are aggressively hiring in both Seattle and New York and appear to be focusing largely on genre titles. Agents are …
Are Author Blurbs a Waste of Space?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s feature editorial by Nico Vreeland considers the downside of deceptive jacket flap copy. Blurbing — that practice of soliciting favorable quotations from fellow authors — is an accepted practice in the book business, but one that is often less-than-forthright. As many have noted before, blurbs all-too-frequently overpraise a work in terms the author of the blurb …
Why Bogus Flap Copy Erodes Readers’ Trust
Using platitudes like “remarkable” and “dazzling” in flap copy is forgivable, but calling a book “funny” when it is anything but is a much worse crime. Editorial by Nico Vreeland Flap copy always lies. It’s sickly understandable, considering the competitive marketplace for books. But, as a reader, it’s intensely frustrating to wade through book descriptions where the truth is more …
Germans are Hot: Hangman’s Daughter Sells 100,000 on Amazon
by Siobhan O’Leary For years, those who move and shake in the international publishing scene have bemoaned the fact that only three percent of the books published in the US are books published in translation. There are signs, however, that German authors — from Jenny Erpenbeck to Daniel Kehlmann — are gaining in popularity worldwide. Ullstein’s foreign rights director Pia …
Bertelsmann Boosted By Sarrazin’s Million-copy Bestseller
By Siobhan O’Leary Random House parent Bertelsmann has announced its final results for 2010, the year of its 175th anniversary, showing signs nearly across the board that cost-saving measures and digital expansion are having a positive impact. Revenues for the Bertelsmann Group as a whole increased by 4.5% to €15.8 billion in 2010 and profits jumped from €35 million to …
With UK Print Book Sales Falling, Can E-books Close the Gap?
E-book sales accounted for just 1% of the UK book market in 2010, but are expected to boom in 2011 — growth that might be offset by cheaper prices. By Roger Tagholm British consumers bought fewer books in 2010 than 2008 -– down from 344m to 339m -– and the amount spent fell from £2,341m to £2,183m. E-books accounted for …