By John Konczal, Global Industry Executive, Sterling Commerce, an IBM Company When the mere act of delivering content digitally isn’t enough, textbook publishers are coming up with new sales models for digital content. Thanks to the emergence of the Kindle and other electronic reading devices, today’s consumer can choose from a multitude of ways to consume content with multiple delivery …
Could E-book Rentals Ever Be Viable for Trade Publishers?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s feature story looks at some of the consumer driven e-book models being implemented by text book publishers. One of those is book rental, where a student can rent a textbook at the fraction of the cost of buying the book. In textbook publishing, where books can run to the hundreds of dollars for a single specialized …
Will Collaborative E-book Distribution Platforms Last?
Spain’s Libranda, Italy’s E-digita, France’s Eden Livres, Brazil’s DLD — they’ll all last only as long as publishers need them. By Edward Nawotka Several markets have seen collaborative e-book distribution platforms launch within the last year: Libranda launched Spain; in Italy Rizzoli, Feltrinelli and Gruppo Gems developed the E-digita platform; a French group comprised of Gallimard, Flammarion and others brought out …
Can You “Bring Back the Book” to a Country That Can’t Afford to Read?
Nigeria’s President launched a campaign to inspire reading that was part-election, part-Facebook festival and part-magical thinking. Editorial by Tolu Ogunlesi LAGOS: Nigeria has no national funding for the arts, no government-run grants-awarding body to support the production of books, and no National Book Policy. In place of a proper publishing industry, the country is awash with book printers, supporting a flourishing …
English E-books Are In Demand Worldwide, Though Primarily as a Stopgap
By Edward Nawotka “I believe there is significant potential for English language e-books on the international markets,” David Steinberger, president and publisher of Perseus Book Group, told us last month during an interview at the Digital Book World publishing conference. “What you have to understand is there has always been demand, even in non-English speaking countries. The publishers have tried …
Dirty Girls and Self Publishing: The Tricks of the Trade
By Alisa Valdes ALBUQUERQUE: Me? I hate flying. My therapist says I’m a control freak who thinks everything crashes unless I’m in charge. There’s some truth to this. It is probably why my marriage failed and why my kid is an overacheiver. It is probably also not a stretch to compare my fear of flying/need for control to my drooling …
What Advantages Can Traditional Publishing Still Offer to Established Authors?
Editorial and design services? Sales and marketing? Distribution? Prestige? None of the above? By Edward Nawotka In today’s lead story by Alisa Valdes the bestselling author describes her journey from working with a Big Six publishing house to self-publishing. In the piece, she notes that after she’d made the decision to self publish: “The next step in my evolution was …
Back to the Future: In Brazil, Door-to-door Book Sales are Booming
By Ricardo Costa and Maria Fernanda, PublishNews Imagine a single country spreading across 50% of South America. A country with 27 states where there are 190 million people living in different conditions. Some of them are very poor while others are far too rich. This is Brazil. And a nation with such enormous magnitude offers serious opportunities -– the book …
Could Door-to-door Book Sales Be Revived in the US?
By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead story looks at the success of door-to-door book sales in Brazil. It wasn’t that long ago when it wasn’t uncommon to see an encyclopedia salesperson walking the streets of your neighborhood going door-to-door with his or her sample case. Of course, that sales channel has disappeared in the US . . . whether whether this is …
Are Publishers Becoming Technology Companies?
By Hannah Johnson There’s no doubt that technology is now an integral part of creating and delivering content. Media companies are not only working with technology solutions providers and experts, but also building the necessary applications and hardware themselves in order to deliver their content to consumers. In today’s feature story, Publishing Perspectives reported on the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show …