ENTRIES TAGGED "authors"
"None of this is good or bad; it just is"
Lev Grossman takes a pragmatic look at the changing state of authors, readers, and the definition of publishing: Self-publishing has gone from being the last resort of the desperate and talentless to something more like out-of-town tryouts for theater or the farm system in baseball. It's the last ripple of the Web 2.0 vibe finally washing up on publishing's…
Point-Counterpoint: Digital Book DRM, the Least Worst Solution
In the second part of a point-counterpoint exchange, Bill McCoy examines two scenarios: a publishing industry that doesn't embrace interoperable DRM, and one that does.
Publishers Need to Get In on the Conversation
Kassia Krozser has a Cluetrain-like manifesto for publishers. From Booksquare: It's time to get your hands dirty, to dig into the real-world conversation. It's a weird thing, and sometimes awkward and uncomfortable, especially if you're accustomed to public relations-speak and the cheerleader behavior that accompanies marketing messages. When you talk directly to real people who read and buy books,…
Change Always Leaves Someone Behind
Seth Godin discusses the realities of digital change and free distribution in an interview with HarperStudio's The 26th Story: … the market and the internet don't care if you make money. That's important to say. You have no right to make money from every development in media, and the humility that comes from approaching the market that way matters. It's…
Report: Random House Shifts Ebook Royalties to Net Receipts
Richard Curtis says Random House has announced a shift in its ebook royalties in a letter recently sent to literary agents. From E-Reads: Commencing December 1, 2008, the new royalty rate for sales of ebooks will be 25% of the amount received for all sales, Random's letter goes on to state. What does Random House actually receive? Most e-book retailers…
Reaction to Google Book Search Settlement
Updated 10/30, 7:53 AM — Publishing experts, bloggers and interested parties are weighing in on the Google Book Search settlement. I'll be updating this post as new material comes in. If you see something that deserves notice please post a comment: Posts Added October 30 On the Google Book Search agreement(Larry Lessig, Lessig Blog) The hard question for the…
Google Reaches Book Search Settlement
Google has announced a settlement plan for the suits filed by the Association of American Publishers and the Authors' Guild. From the Google Book Search site: Today we're delighted to announce that we've settled that lawsuit and will be working closely with these industry partners to bring even more of the world's books online.Together we'll accomplish far more than any…
Where's the IMDb for Books?
Over on the TOC Community, David Henley expands on recent discussions around publisher and author brand building by drawing an interesting connection to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb): Not everyone chooses a film because of who directs it or who the screenwriter was, but some of us do, and now with databases like IMDB we can easily find lists…
How Should Authors Promote Themselves Online?
As the director of an organisation for writers I was curious about the announcement of Random House's new Web toolkit to assist RH authors to set up and maintain their own Web pages. booktrade.info reports: … the toolkit allows authors to customise their pages with a choice of backgrounds, fonts and colours. Authors can then select different types of content…
Web Publicity Grows Up, Learns the Value of Conversation
Web publicity works best when the audience is spoken with, not at.