The real irony here, it turns out, is that it wasn’t the publishers calling the questions: 75 percent of responding authors said they have never been asked for feedback from their publisher 7 percent said that publishers pay writers well 32 percent said that the prestige of having a deal with a traditional publisher was important to them… Read More
Self-publishing Jasinda Wilder in 7-figure deal with PRH's Berkley
Jasinda Wilder is the latest of the “indie bestsellers” to achieve a major traditional publishing deal, in this case for three books. The announcement is being made this morning (6th April) by Penguin Random House’s Berkley Books in New York. In a prepared statement, Berkley vice-president and executive editor Cindy Hwang, said: “Jasinda Wilder has been one of… Read More
IfBookThen in Milan: Soaring past 'book' to 'then'
“It was easy to wonder where was the book in IfBookThen,” as Lucio Braganolo writes at ApogeOnline. And that was precisely the point, the purpose, and the pride of this “post-publishing” conference in springtime Milan. Unique in an already-busy season of international conferences, BookRepublic’s IfBookThen 2015 was devised by c.e.o. Marco Ferrario to get right past what… Read More
Do you subscribe to subscriptions?
Many young, digitally oriented companies enjoy taking a specific kind of staff photo these days, I’m sure you’ve seen it. In such a photo, everyone is happily gregarious but individualised. Several staffers laugh together. Two or three peer at some paperwork as if it were intensely interesting. Another small knot of employees watches something on a screen.… Read More
Ebooks to and from China: Trajectory, Tencent, technology
At first glance, you may think that Trajectory is on a different trajectory. Today’s news — released first by The Bookseller this morning — is, if nothing else, about a lot of titles. And those titles, first and foremost, are part of a distribution deal. The Boston-based Trajectory, Inc., has inked a partnership with China’s big… Read More
How widely does Kindle's garden really grow?
We know what Kindle can do for a single title. It was the Kindle Daily Deal for [Gail Carriger’s] Etiquette & Espionage that happened last week. Thousands and thousands of ebook copies sold during a short period of time. As we can now see from yesterday’s news, it was enough to propel the whole “Finishing School”… Read More
Women in publishing — achievements and challenges
Here is an important and sensitive subject, one that can become emotionalised — for perfectly understandable reasons. As is made clear in The Bookseller’s 13th February edition, the UK publishing industry can be proud of a distinction many other businesses can’t claim: its women are in the forefront. In their lead story, Felicity Wood (pictured right) and Sarah… Read More
#FutureChat recap: Agents of change
Illuminating the landscape Getting a piece of the action has not, historically, been the way literary agents portrayed their services. Maybe at the breakfast table. Or over a quiet Campari. Rarely for the record. And despite several years of rapid digital-driven experimentation and a growing number of “agent-assisted” approaches to publication, the idea that the… Read More
'Are there too many literary agencies?'
The question with which I’ve headlined this post comes from literary agent Jonny Geller. More: I believe that the lack of changes in our industry will leave many authors exposed. I would say this, wouldn’t I? Well, I’m not actually criticising any one agent, or the notion of small agencies—but my industry as a whole.… Read More
A New Architecture Of Algorithms: Could Trajectory Make Books ‘Discoverable’ At Last?
‘To Read More Books In A Similar Vein’ As the book publishing industry heads into its first major conference of the year this week — Digital Book World (hash it #DBW15 with us) in New York City — we learn now that we won’t be seeing one late-breaking major development on the program. And that’s not the… Read More