Self-Publishing and the 'Curatorial Mark': Jon Fine

The high view of self-publishing, in Jon Fine’s words, is peopled with ‘increasingly sophisticated authors’ supported by ‘increasingly sophisticated consultants’—a movement growing into its own alongside the ‘curatorial mark’ of trade publishing. Read More

Los Angeles Public Library and SELF-e ‘Foster a Community of Local Authorship’

By Porter Anderson / @Porter_Anderson ‘Connecting Our Local Authors With Readers’ A leader in creative-community relations, Los Angeles Public Library’s (LAPL) adoption of SELF-e’s capabilities is being watched by other library systems as a model. And who better to ask what it means to finally be able to acquire and promote local authors than the… Read More

At PubSense In Charleston: Checking Out Indies’ Ebooks With SELF-e

More Than 17,000 Library Buildings  You’d think — who wouldn’t? — that libraries were the place to find everything bookish. The assumption gains new interest with the news that the Cleveland-based OverDrive, leading distributor of ebooks to libraries, has been bought by Tokyo’s Rakuten, which also owns the Canadian ebook retailer Kobo and its self-publishing platform, Kobo… Read More

#AuthorSay: 'Do You Love Your Publisher?'

Exclusive to The Bookseller’s The FutureBook: At noon London time today (2nd March) — 7 a.m. New York time — a new international survey has opened to traditionally published authors.  The survey is co-produced by Jane Friedman in the States and Harry Bingham in the UK. It will be available to traditionally published authors for four weeks. The hashtag… Read More

AuthorEarnings: ISBN On Ice!

Everything’s Coming Up Indie. Right?  As slippery as the business of publishing-industry statistics is, the author Hugh Howey and his unnamed associate referred to as Data Guy have now given us a year of AuthorEarnings.com reports. This is a good thing. Despite Howey’s detractors and some of their misgivings, the AuthorEarnings series of interpretive essays have… Read More

'Grace notes for ebooks': A new Trajectory for discoverability

When the machines read your book The Bookseller on the stands in London this morning reports that Bowker — the ProQuest-owned US ISBN agency and publishing research firm — is in final talks for a partnership with a company called Trajectory. The aim at Bowker is to offer authors and small publishers a new way to generate… Read More

‘Murder, She Read!’ Taking A Deep Dive Into Mystery With Nielsen

Do We Have A Clue What’s Happening In Mystery/Crime Reading? Their safe and secure lives rocked by a shocking revelation! Their routines turned upside down! Their world wracked by fear of the unknown now stalking them all! No, not the characters in a Dorothy Sayers mystery. I’m talking about the publishers. As I wrote in… Read More

Who Has Time For Publishing’s 'Long Tail'?

‘Sales Are Down For Most Authors’ Sales are down for most authors. You don’t see blog posts about it or tweets, but it’s a reality. And the reason is simple: there’s more content out there than ever before. That’s the self-publishing  author-turned-publisher Bob Mayer in a blog post at Digital Book World (DBW), The Content… Read More

The One Most-Kissed: You, The Reader

This Article Is Not About What You Think It’s About You. The readers. Without you there wouldn’t be a book industry. I can understand what motivates authors to write such lines. Everybody can understand this. Gratitude. And that’s one fine emotion. We could use more of it in the world. It’s great stuff. It’s completely logical –… Read More