ENTRIES TAGGED "publishing WIR"

Publishing News: Pushing ebooks beyond skeuomorph boundaries

Jeff Gomez on ebook innovation, data journalism projects progress, and Amazon may be losing the ereading revolution.

Screens should be portals, not skeuomorphic containers

Jeff Gomez, VP of online consumer sales and marketing at Penguin Group, took a look this week at the issue of ebooks in the publishing ecosystem and argued that “we’re focusing in all the wrong places.”

Too much attention is being paid to pricing, format, business models and gadgetry, Gomez says, and notes the more important aspects that are being sidelined: “Namely, how can we use digital devices to change the way we tell stories? How will the ebook change the novel? And how will writers respond to a world where they can think beyond the boundaries of text, print, and covers?” He argues that instead of innovating, “we’re just creating another skeuomorph,” where readers are experiencing books on screens the same way they did on print.

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Publishing News: The piracy debate may well be irrelevant in the future of publishing

"Artisan authors" move beyond the piracy "problem," libraries of books become libraries of knowledge, and newspapers have space for rent.

Here are a few stories from the publishing space that caught my attention this week.

Authors may leave publishers behind to wallow in piracy concerns

The publishing industry’s issues with piracy may become a problem of the past, Damien Walter observed at The Guardian this week. Walter looks at a newly emerging “artisan author,” an author for whom “self-publishing is a preference and file-sharing is an opportunity.”

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Publishing News: Amazon AutoRip — where’s the book version?

No AutoRip for books, for now; McGraw-Hill launches SmartBook; and Hilary Mason brings the fun of randomness to book discovery.

Here are a few stories from the publishing space that caught my attention this week.

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Publishing News: Trailblazing experiments in publishing

Experiments in serial writing, crowdsourcing and subscriptions. Also, the Internet's effect on copy culture and a bookmarklet for smart tweets.

Here are a few stories from the publishing space that caught my attention recently.

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Publishing News: Penguin settles, Macmillan holds its ground

Apple and Macmillan stand alone against the DOJ's ebook lawsuit, PressBooks opens up, and Amazon may be inviting disruption.

Here are a few stories from the publishing space that caught my attention this week.

And then there were two

In headline news this week, the Penguin Group announced it had reached a settlement agreement with the Department of Justice. Jim Milliot reports at Publisher’s Weekly that the “[t]erms are nearly identical to agreements reached with Simon & Schuster, Hachette and HarperCollins, but according to the government, if the Random House-Penguin merger is approved the newly formed company must abide by the agreement.” Milliot notes that as Random House is not involved in the DOJ lawsuit, it can continue conducting its ebook business under the agency agreement in the meantime.

Laura Hazard Owen reports at PaidContent that “Penguin is discussing a similar settlement with the European Commission and that the DOJ’s case will continue against remaining defendants Apple and Macmillan.

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Publishing News: It’s time to embrace mobile

Reader behavior is becoming more mobile, ereaders may be facing extinction, and Google ends copyright dispute with Belgian newspapers.

Here are a few stories from the publishing space that caught my attention this week.

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Publishing News: Tech industry history could inform bookstores’ road to recovery

Co-opetition and the future of bookstores, Amazon gets kid-friendly, and the EFF's 2012 e-reader privacy report is out.

Here are a few stories from the publishing space that caught my attention this week.

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Publishing News: Traditional publisher tests self-publishing waters

Simon & Schuster launches Archway Publishing, BitTorrent wants to reinvent itself, and publishers can't win playing against Amazon's wallet.

Here are a few stories from the publishing space that caught my attention this week.

Simon & Schuster ventures into self-publishing

The headline news this week was Simon & Schuster’s deal with self-publishing company Author Solutions to launch Archway Publishing, a new self-publishing house. Leslie Kaufman reports at the New York Times that the company is looking to distinguish itself by offering premium services that go beyond what other self-publishing options offer — such as access to a speaker’s bureau that will assist with speaking engagements, and video production and distribution services for book trailers — in addition to editorial, design and distribution services.

The premium services come at a premium price as well — Kaufman reports that packages range “from $1,599 for the least expensive children’s package, to $24,999 for the most expensive business book package.” She also points out that Simon & Schuster personnel will not be involved in the new company, nor will Simon & Schuster attach their name to any of the final products. They will, however, mine the self-publishing author pool for talent. Kaufmann writes: “Adam Rothberg, vice president of corporate communication for Simon & Schuster, said that another attraction of Archway was that Simon & Schuster would be carefully monitoring sales of books completed through the new venture and would use it as a way to spot authors it might want to sign to a contract.”

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Publishing News: Publishing’s worst-case fate, Amazon as US Steel

Possible fates of the publishing industry, Google appeals court ruling, an open source book scanner, and your textbook may be looking at you.

Here are a few stories from the publishing space that caught my attention this week.

Applying an historical perspective to the fate of the publishing industry

NPR’s Adam Davidson looked this week at the Penguin-Random House merger from an industrial historical perspective. In a piece at the New York Times, Davidson looked at the effect of mergers in other industries, such as U.S. Steel — instead of competing by innovating new and cheaper ways to make steel, owner J. P. Morgan opted to merge three companies and buy most of the iron ore range from which most steel companies purchased materials. The consequences were dire all around. Davidson writes:

“As a result, the company hardly worried about competition; it had little need to innovate or compete on price, which made everything from cars to soda cans more expensive. Worse, it left a massive industry unprepared for the growth of innovative Asian companies during the 1970s and 1980s. By then, U.S. Steel all but collapsed, and a chunk of the U.S. economy went down with it.”

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Publishing News: Hacking DRM is now illegal in Canada

New Canadian copyright legislation takes effect, an author helps pirate his book, and studies show computers topping preferred ereading platforms.

Here are a few stories from the publishing space that caught my attention this week.

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