‘Beware blanket dismissal.’ All endeavors need innovators in this changing environment. #BabyBathwater Ron Martinez’ cautionary comments arrived on the #FutureChat hashtag after our weekly live session had closed on Friday. But his point is a good one. To put together his tweets in sequence; Empathize a moment. Innovators are Promethean: may bring a benefit, but… Read More
From London Book Fair to an IndieReckoning
Where do we find authors this year, as London Book Fair closes? (This story was written originally as a walkup to the #FutureChat of Friday 17th April.) Authors have long attended book fairs, of course, primarily for reasons of publicity or to meet their international publishers—but now they come to do business and to be… Read More
At London Book Fair, 'Digital Minds' talk subscriptions
‘Busting the myths’ might have been more than we could expect. But in the subscriptions panel at the Publishing for Digital Minds conference Monday here at Olympia London, we had a reminder of last week’s #FutureChat on subscriptions. You can look back on the conversation in that #FutureChat in #FutureChat recap: All-you-can-guess about ebook subscriptions. Mofibo’s… Read More
All-you-can-guess about subscriptions
Publishing can be forgiven for its mixed response to the ebook-subscription issue. Not only does the all-you-can-read construct for selling books run contrary to traditions in bookselling — and reading — but even some of our sister media disciplines, much deeper into their experience with subscriptions, are still trying to parse the effects of similar models. Just… Read More
Are publishers getting the #authorsay message?
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
Isn’t It Time For Self-Publishers To Get Over Self-Publishing?
Let’s Say You Walk Into A Bookstore You’re taken with all the books on the front table. New releases. Beautiful covers. Fascinating titles. You leaf through a few. You settle on one you really like. You’re ready to head for the cash register when suddenly somebody jumps up from behind the table and nearly gives… Read More
As The World Gets Smaller, Authors’ Jobs Get Bigger
‘An Entire Chain Of Questions That You Have To Ask’ We have a very difficult debate about subscription models or flat rate models because some publishers are afraid that they rather ruin their traditional way of making money. So very quickly you end up in an entire chain of questions that you have to ask. That’s… Read More
London Book Fair’s ‘Digital Minds’ Keep Heading Offshore
After All, After All The idea of the industry! the industry! of publishing being a global one isn’t new. Our largest trade shows — London Book Fair, BookExpo America, Frankfurt Book Fair — have always been internationally, not least thanks to their rights and translation centers and special-guest-nation programs. It’s interesting now, though, to see conferences at… 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
#FutureChat Recap: #AuthorSay — but which #authors do?
Is self-publishing a matter of choice? Or of necessity? Or of do-it-yourself pride? In interviewing the Indian author of the Shiva Trilogy, Amish Tripathi, on Wednesday for the London Book Fair’s Publishing for Digital Minds Conference virtual stream, an interesting line came over the ether from Mumbai. I’d asked Tripathi about the tactic he and his agent… Read More