A new route across the techno-terrain The news conjured from Fortress Rowling by our wizardly Bookseller editor Philip Jones is that “in the coming weeks” (nice hedge—you know how Web development goes), the Web site so powerful that it got Amazon to play quidditch is undergoing some deep change. If all is as Jones is being… Read More
Introducing The FutureBook's #AuthorDay 2015
The problems and the promise: Authority As The Bookseller’s c.e.o. and publisher Nigel Roby is saying this evening at our launch event in London, The FutureBook Conference is in its fifth anniversary. And, as Europe’s largest publishing industry conference, it addresses a broad audience. Roby: “So many dimensions to modern publishing, and so many groups who have… Read More
When the agent is the author: Andrew Lownie on Guy Burgess
‘A lot of new material’ “Being an author myself again has made me a better agent I believe,” Andrew Lownie tells me. Not nearly the sinister combo of student-and-spy, fortunately, the literary agent Lownie nevertheless is an accomplished chameleon whose colours can switch to those of an author as easily as putting on a red sportcoat. His… Read More
#WhatsABookWorth?
‘An integral part of our emotional lives’ What’s a Book Worth? is asking readers to film themselves talking about a book that means a lot to them and share those thoughts on 28th September, using the hashtag #WhatsABookWorth, the title of the book and its cover price. It is also encouraging readers to write a short… Read More
Can authors compete with 'non-competes'?
‘An unacceptable restriction on authors’ livelihoods’ No publisher would agree, at an author’s request, to forgo publishing another author’s book on a particular subject. So why should an author assume a similar obligation? But it happens all the time. Of all the contract-reform issues being discussed today around publishing and its contracts with authors, the non-compete… Read More
Booktrack's Paul Cameron: 'We want to immerse you, not interrupt, you'
‘Today, we have 2.5 million users’ Five years in — and with a new $5 million round of Series B financing in place — the New Zealand-based Booktrackis at that point at which a start-up begins to show staying power. Late last week, it was announced that the company has become a partner in the Google for… Read More
Do you fear reader analytics?
Just a day before we got the news this week that Authonomy was to be closed by HarperCollins UK, London-based entrepreneur Andrew Rhomberg had posted at Digital Book World his Fear of Data column. In that piece,Jellybooks’ Rhomberg writes: The availability of reading data is probably causing more angst than any other because it strikes at… Read More
When rights go wrong: A #FutureChat recap
Post-Chatterie Following our #FutureChat on Is ‘out of print’ running out of time?, a couple of additional communications arrived, each worth note. From an author, an interesting point in a private communication about a possible role — and possible mishandling of it — for agents in the question of reversions of rights and contract reform in publishing. This author writes… Read More
With booksellers' pressure: DRM is now soft in Germany
‘An Ever-Widening Industry Consensus’ Today, most of Germany’s main publishing forces are, or soon will be, hard-DRM-free. This morning, we had the first reports from Buchreport: Random House Germany has joined the other leading publishers there, citing “an ever-widening industry consensus.” At The Bookseller, we have Anja Sieg’s report here. As of 1st October, Verlagsgruppe Random House has announced… Read More
When the page is broken: Who writes the books?
‘New Kinds of Authors, New Kinds of Books’: Four of them While it’s hardly the norm to introduce a book to you at its end, that’s actually a good place to start in talking about the author, designer and developer Peter Meyers’ Breaking the Page: Transforming Books and the Reading Experience. Scheduled to chair a… Read More