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Top stories in publishing this week

From Publishers Weekly top news stories this week:

Amazon teams up with HP to increase print on demand services.

Christine Zika joins Bookspan's Madison Park Press as executive editor.

Fulcrum Publishing names Sam Scinta president and publisher, a move up from his previous position as associate publisher.

Read more of the industry's top news stories at Publishers Weekly, or here in our very own newsroom.

More on the Frankfurt Book Fair

This Week: Sony eReader Debuts

Harper Collins flexes some digital publishing muscle

Last year the Harper Collins publishing company began digitizing all of its titles, working its way through 10,000 thus far with plans to digitize a remaining 15,000 as well as any forthcoming titles.

Now, on the company website, visitors can read the first few pages of each chapter of 135 of the digitized books online - most by well-known authors.

The company is also working toward helping its authors implement the "Browse Inside" feature on their own websites.

Harper Collins has also released a new site feature, the ?Digital Media Cafe" where readers can download podcasts and audio book samples for a price.

From a recent New York Times article:
"'The younger generations are consuming information in a different way,' said Brian Murray, group president of HarperCollins. 'They may not necessarily be going into bookshops. They are spending time on Google, MySpace, Facebook, author Web sites, Yahoo and MSN.'

Upcoming: InfoCommerce 2006 Conference

The InfoCommerce 2006 conference, regarded as the "working conference for the thinking publisher" is scheduled to kick off October 10-12, 2006, in Philadelphia.

According to a recent for the event:
"Publishing insiders acknowledge that some of the most exciting and lucrative connections - among people, companies and ideas - are made at the conference. The theme this year is 'Becoming One With Your Market.'"

Find a scheule for the event, as well as a list of session topics here.

New Book Search Engine Launches

Springer Releases eBook LIne

According to a recent article in Publishers Weekly, publishing company Springer has launched "its newest initiative to deliver its content electronically. The Springer eBook Collection debuted June 24 with more than 10,000 e-books...Springer is offering its e-books without any digital rights management software."

Find the complete article here.

You will also find an interesting online conversation among industry experts, execs, and the like entitled "Is It e-Book Time?" - read others' comments, and post your own as Publishers Weekly asks the question: "Springer's announcement about a new e-book product is just the latest example of renewed interest in the format among certain sectors of publishing. With that being the case, do you believe e-books will evolve into a viable segment of the industry?"

Copyright Law vs. Intellectual Property

World eBook Fair in the Works

It's so new, the official website is still under construction, but that isn't stopping people from talking about the upcoming World eBook Fair, sponsored by Project Gutenberg (the volunteer-driven, free ebook library project).

The month-long ebook 'fair' which runs from Juy 4 to August 4 in 2006, is intended to be an annual event.

From an article on Boston.com:
"The catalog of available works will include fiction, nonfiction, and reference books, mostly those that are no longer protected by copyright. ``It will include the oldest books in the world, including every author you have heard of in your life, other than current ones," said Michael Hart, Project Gutenberg's founder. The fair also will offer classical music files, both scores and recordings, as well as films."

Read more about the event here.

Kevin Kelly of Wired Magazine on Book Scanning and the Digital Library

From The New York Times Magazine comes "Scan This Book! " a fascinating insider's analysis on the future of the digital book, the concept of a universal library, and the publishing industry's lawsuit against Google's book digitization project.

"The dream is an old one: to have in one place all knowledge, past and present. All books, all documents, all conceptual works, in all languages...

And in other news

BookTechExpo

Had the privilege of moderating a panel discussion at BookTechExpo this morning, on technology trends in publishing. Panelists were of McGraw-Hill, of MOMA, and of OUP.

In our conversations prior to the panel, it became clear to us that "book publishing" no longer consists of print-on-paper. Digital production and distribution of content has affected ALL publishers, whether it's through automated publishing software systems (Vista, Bookmaster, Quality Solutions), increased use of EDI in the distribution channel, or developments in graphic design.

And on the consumer end, of course, there's an ever-expanding market for information - Internet search engines, courseware such as Blackboard, and online subscription services have made it possible for consumers to have immediate access to content. And they like it. Consumer desires for immediate gratification, seamless integration, and easy access to relevent information are not going away.

We touched on a number of interesting topics - such as outsourcing (particularly to China), the fact that assistants are the folks who tend to know more about technological solutions, how online selling enables a publisher to market directly to consumers, the symbiosis between "online learning centers" and print material. Very thought-provoking, very fun discussion.

It must be February

Magical math from Amazon

announced today that its earnings for the 4th Q 2005 were down 43% from last year...which naturally made several jaws drop here at Fort Brooklyn - it's Christmas season...WTF???

Then one reads, a little further into reports, that last year Amazon took a $239 million tax benefit during the last quarter. A one-off.

Stock dropped a little bit...but it's the usual smoke-and-mirrors finances we have come to expect from a company that runs its accounting department like a game of 3-card monte. In other words...shrug.

Why we love CNN

The flirting, folks. It's all about the flirting. Erica Hill tweaking Coop, Zain Verjee turning Cafferty into a pile of mush....

But the big story continues to be Oprah's bitch-slap, for which B&N folks are grateful - why? Because for the bulk of its existence, B&N.com has listed Night as "Fiction". They just got around to fixing that and are hoping that in all the fracas over the LAST book, nobody will notice the switch....

Sales up!

The Book Standard reports that book sales are up 9.3% over last year, and that the Internet is playing a crucial role there. Data, folks, is the unsung hero here. Without accurate metadata about your products - be they books, toys, lawn chairs, what have you - you will not get those products in front of the customer very efficiently. The more trade we do electronically, the more of a priority your product data becomes. Get it right, people.

One way to do so is to use a system designed specifically for publishers. Bookmaster North America is one package; Quality Solutions is another (and QSI has just released a product geared to smaller houses). Bowker also offers data-cleansing and formatting services for small and large presses.

Data's not going to get any less important....

Long Tail Tale

I find it so amusing that the long tail concept is actually considered news.

It's like when CNN "discovered" blogs and appointed their Internet reporters. Or when, in 1997, executives began talking about "stickiness". (Talk sticky to me, baby.)

At Barnes & Noble.com, it is and was well known that the bestsellers got the most attention, but the bulk of income came from backlist sales - the "long tail". In the aggregate, these sales were what kept B&N in business - and they still do. The Harry Potters will soar out of the ballpark, but it's the Dummies books that keep the team in the game.

And of course the same is true for any browse, any search - whether physical or virtual (and the distinction between the two is blurring always). There's the obvious hits, and then everythingelse. That everythingelse is your long tail.

Whoever came up with this as a marketable concept is...driving me crazy.

Fair Use

I got an email the other day from a client who aggregates content for redistribution - this email was from a company called XB90.com. They are a company that goes around swiping bloggers' RSS feeds without approval/permission (and certainly no compensation), and then if you don't wish to participate in their distribution service (which is also free), you have to "opt out".

Kind of like Google Print's reading of copyright law- "we have the right to copy and distribute your stuff unless you tell us not to."

No, folks, that is not the way it works. XB90.com's site is down today, but there are plenty of others who step into the vacuum. Om Malik has a great piece on this - and as usual, all roads lead back to Google - in this case, the AdSense program.

At some point someone's going to realize that great content is not just a vehicle for advertising, but a product in and of itself.

November 28, 2005

New York magazine jumps into the Google party this week with a snappy summary of all that's been going on. But it's the London Times that adds a new argument. In an article by a small publisher, it's noted that if Google scans all scholarly books into its databases, even for search purposes, libraries won't need to buy so many books. A user can enter a search term, find the exact books that the search term appears in, and discover whether or not it's even worth cracking the covers of the books - or ordering them via interlibrary loan. The number of books in any given library will decrease - there will be more sharing of titles. And so publishers will find fewer buyers, will publish fewer books, etc. etc.

In other news, we're back on the GDSN train - trying to synch up book databases so they can be used by grocery stores, drugstores, other-than-bookstores. Why is this such an obsession: well, anybody who's been to my house has seen all my books. I am a far worse book fiend than shoe fiend - and I have an impressive shoe collection. Stores like Wal-Mart, Target, Wegman's, Publix - these are selling books now, as we all know. What some of us might not know is that they are selling a tremendous number of books. All using data that's insufficient, inaccurate, and in some cases barely even there. Still, they are managing to keep the book industry pockets pretty well lined in ways that traditional booksellers seem not to be able to do.

So why the push on data?

Because if the book industry cannot continue to make it easier for those stores to sell books - if the book industry cannot get its shit together and present non-traditional book outlets with good sales data, there's gonna be no incentive for them to continue to sell books. Books will be replaced by DVDs, music, video games, magazines, whatever stores find (when they finally wake up) is easiest to sell - and good data makes a thing easy to sell. And then, we'll find, we'll have made it harder for people to buy books. We're already competing for mind-share here, folks. Why make it more difficult on ourselves?

October17, 2005

Still haven't managed to figure out the Google-AOL-Yahoo business, and now Barry Diller goes on and acquires MySpace.com. While Murdoch puts in a bid for...no, wait, it's MURDOCH who bought MySpace.com, while Diller's...actually not done anything new, but is now explaining what the f* he was thinking about his AskJeeves.com acquisition.

Mad shuffle on the West Coast. Glad to be in NY, where life is all about 13-digit ISBNs and how to sell books in grocery stores.

The truth is, grocery stores are in some jeopardy themselves...from the big boxes like WalMart which are also selling food. And if the Times Select thing would work for me - it keeps sending me in circles, all of which involve taking my credit card information and none of which ultimately result in my actually GETTING the article - I'd have some nifty quotes for you on the subject of supermarkets in peril. Stupid Times. At any rate, trust me on this one - the Times is never wrong except when it comes to WMD, datelines and bylines, and...well, yeah, okay, don't deflate me before I've said anything.

The point is, more and more books are being sold in what the business calls "non-traditional outlets" - in other words, not in bookstores. Groceries are a significant chunk of that change. (Of course, books only represent less than 1% of that particular market - they mean far more to us than we do to them.) If that market dries up, and is taking over by price-bulldozing WalMarts and Costcos and what have you, where does that leave the book market?

(Of course, if supermarkets did item-level tracking - merchandising by SKU rather than by price - they'd be able to actually COMPETE with those big-box stores...but that's too haaaaaaaaaaard.)

Yes, this NY Times business has made me cranky. First rule of thumb for e-commerce: MAKE SURE YOUR FRIGGING FEATURES WORK BEFORE YOU LAUNCH THEM.

Once more around the Google bush

Been to AOL yet? Just checking....

Free or not, I still don't find a reason to go there. Have you made it YOUR homepage yet?

Folks, if you want to build a business model around content - whether it's advertising-based or subscription-based, you have to make sure it's compelling content you can't get elsewhere. And frankly, I don't see anything on AOL that I can't get anywhere else.

That's all.

Pain Points

Folks, dual-numbering on bar codes (ISBN-10 and ISBN-13) is okay.

The truth is, if you make your books easy to sell, people will sell them. No bookstore is going to turn down your book because your bar code is aesthetically unappealing. If they can scan it (easily), then that's all they need to know.

Do not pay attention to fussbudgets telling you they won't accept product if it has dual numbering on it. If they really don't accept it, those particular fussbudgets won't be working at that company anymore.

For heaven's sake.

Like I was saying....

Shelf Awareness reports this morning:

General retail sales figures for August show a tough retail climate--even before Hurricane Katrina hit. A sales decline of 2.1%, largely because of gasoline price rises that seem tame compared to early September's, was twice as high as forecasted.

Apparently retailers are leaping onto the blame-Katrina bandwagon pre-emptively.

MSNBC issued an interesting report yesterday. It seems that consumers are using their cars less - combining errands, looking to save gas - and so their shopping habits have changed.

The longer-term impact may well create even more business for one-stop-shop retailers like supercenters and warehouse club stores as we watch our expenses.

Additionally, this report implies, supermarkets will be increasing their offerings.

So, folks, if consumers are not getting in their cars and driving to the bookstore...why not increase the selection of books at the big-boxes and supermarkets? And if we're headed down that road, why not incorporate book industry data in the Global Data Synchronization Network?

Because at some point it's not going to be a lovely nice-to-have; it's going to be essential if you want to sell books in this country. And as gas prices go up, as consumers dial back their spending, as retail consolidates, it's going to be essential sooner rather than later.

Some questions

Il Ritmo

The Book Standard features an article on Ritmo Latino, the Spanish-language music chain that's expanded into the book market. One thing I found interesting - some of these stores have Internet cafes, where customers can "go online for 'see inside the book' features."

Big question: are these features in English or Spanish? The US book-content market has been looking for a Spanish-language solution - bibliographic data, reviews, summaries, author bios, tables of contents in Spanish rather than English - and if Ritmo Latino is getting this content from somewhere, plenty of people would like to know where. If Ritmo Latino is composing this themselves, there's a lot of money to be made here.

If neither, then once again this points to the underserved Latin market and someone really ought to be getting a jump on getting book information to the Spanish-speaking customer in their own language.

AOL follow-up

Via the goddessly Tess, this piece from Newsday revisits AOL a month or so after its content was unleashed for free. Their big claim to fame - offering full coverage of the Live 8 concerts.

"Offering niche content, such as online webcasts like Live 8, is key to AOL's ability to distinguish itself and compete, said Walton of Walton Holdings."

Truthfully, the Live 8 concerts were broadcast live on numerous websites, the BBC among them. So I don't know how "distinguishing" these kinds of content offerings are...when lots of other websites are offering them as well.

July 14, 2005

Summer's a slow time for news, as we know, and if it's not about Harry Potter it's just not news.

Nevertheless, the Times has a piece on the Junxion Box, a gadget that lets multiple mobile users connect to the web. Fabulous for commuters and those who travel lots. A consumer version is coming out shortly. Naturally Verizon's up in arms. One priceless quote:

"We're not surprised that people are building services like this and trying to attach them to our network," Mr. Nelson of Verizon said. "It verifies how cool and how important our network is. We're going to protect that investment."

Chances are, if you have to tell people how cool your product is, it ain't so cool. Chances are, if a development from a small company is legal, and it's a threat to your throttle on the market, it's time to figure out a new way to do business.

The Google Threat

10 years ago, Amazon was poised to take over the world...with a homepage that looked like . With content updated daily, an e-newsletter service, and a million titles for sale...everyone in the book world was wary. Who was this guy - the book industry is fairly incestuous and nobody had ever heard of this clown Bezos before. Where was he getting his money? And what was Amazon going to turn into?

That last question was the most disturbing of all. At B&N, trying not to outpace the competition but simply catch up, not knowing what Amazon would do next was unnerving, to say the least. But it wasn't simply about competition - what was Amazon selling, exactly? Books, yes. Information? Content? News? Was it a bookstore, or a magazine that sold books? What should B&N try to be?

Ultimately, the dust settled on these questions. Now Amazon is not the bogeyman it used to be. For that, we have Google.

Moby Live's guest essay this week is the garbled latest in "sky is falling - and it's all Google's fault" kvetching. As with the issue of outsourcing (Lou Dobbs, don't even get me started), the question is not whether gathering information about users and what they're searching on should happen. It is happening. The salient question is, how should that be handled?

Haven't seen too many essays about that. Anyone wants to send me one, you know where to reach . I'd be grateful to leave all the kvetching behind.