Laura Dawson

Laura Dawson is a 20-year veteran of the book industry, having worked in e-commerce (Barnes & Noble.com), libraries (SirsiDynix), and publishing (Doubleday and Bantam). She is now an independent consultant offering expertise on the digital transition, and she writes a bi-weekly newsletter about issues in that transition called The Big Picture". Her clients have included McGraw-Hill, Alibris, Ingram Library Services, Bowker, and Muze.

Chunks and Verticals and Niches — Oh, My!

Despite the bell tolling on the publishing industry lately, the publishers who are doing well these days are those who have focus. Publishers who have a consistent message, who create content about specific things, seem not to be paddling the lifeboat with broad, generalized trade publishers. Niches, areas of concentration – call them what you will, but this is where the future of publishing lies.

Further Thoughts on Amazon/BookSurge

I keep turning the Amazon/BookSurge story over in my mind, and decided today that it was worth a deep look at the stakeholders, and their stakes.

Amazon Pushes Print-On-Demand Exclusivity

The intertubes have been flapping today about Amazon's latest move to get its POD publishers and self-published authors to exclusively use BookSurge for printing their titles.