Amid ‘a strong populist allergy to elitism’ in Brexit, we also learn of the directors of a dozen nations’ trade fairs working together. Publishing, like the best of humanity, remains internationally engaged. Read More
2016 #FutureChat: Make a wish
How do you like 2016 so far? Not that long ago, in a #FutureChat not that far away, we asked you what you considered to have been the high points of 2015 for publishing. Today, we’re looking for something a little more (or less) than a prediction: What would you like to see become a… Read More
Why That Ebook May Cost More Than The Hardcover
It’s Not Over ‘Til The Big Dog Barks Indie publishing is still growing and it seems that established publishing is at a standstill. Mike Shatzkin’s column of August 5 may be the one in which we someday remember hearing a new sermon, the beginning of the endgame. But Shatzkin is not delivering a benediction yet: This… Read More
1.1 Million Copies Later: Go Mock A Watchman
‘I Told You So’ In under a week, Harper Lee’s Go Set A Watchman has sold more than 1.1 million copies in the States, according to HarperCollins, as reported by Sarah Weinman at Publishers Lunch. Don’t worry, there are 2.2 million more copies for you to buy, we’re told. In the UK, my associates at The Bookseller… Read More
Can subscriptions take the heat?
‘A long day. Full of complete and utter nonsense.’ That’s the author Hugh Howey writing about Wednesday (1st July), when Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Select payout structure officially changed from its original per-borrow plan to a per-page-read plan. Howey, no stranger to post-apoc poesy, was less than impressed with the run-for-your-life! reactions of many of his… Read More
Amazon And Its New KDP Select Per-Page Payments: Everybody Has To Swim For It Now
‘What This Means For Authors Is Debatable’ Yesterday’s news (15th June) that Amazon is changing its payout structure for Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) lending scenarios — that’s Kindle Unlimited (KU) and the Kindle Owners Lending Library (KOLL) — has been met with somewhat muted reactions. And this is good to see. Some mature, prudent thinking is… Read More
Data-Dancing: How big is self-publishing?
‘Shock and awe.’ I’m here with the same question asked by my colleague, Bookseller editor Philip Jones in his companion piece to this one: How big is the market for self-published titles? “The question is a simple one for which there is no simple answer,” Jones writes. “In fact, there are lots of complicated answers.” We want your… Read More
Between a Blog and a Hard News Cycle
How Do You Know If You Can Say No to NaNo? The Internet has mutated reasonable people into wannabe writers…We are blind to the harsh truth-light-radiating facts such as ‘half of self-published authors earn less than $500’, facts written about in newspapers by professional writers. That’s Tom Mitchell (@tommycm on Twitter) writing an essay at… Read More
Book Prices: Have Authors Lowballed Themselves?
What if, in order to try to capture market share from traditional publishers, independent authors’ bargain-basement pricing has seriously damaged the public’s idea of what books are worth? Are book prices too low for what authors’ efforts and talents and skills actually are worth? Is it really possible that a full-length book is ever really worth only $2.99 or less? What signal does that send to readers about what writers think of their own work? Read More