Last chance! ISBN-13 initiates January 1, 2007

January 1, 2007, the due date for complete ISBN-13 implementation fast approaches - with just days left to complete the switch from 10 to 13 digit book identification numbers publishers, retailers, wholesalers, libraries, and distributors who have not yet addressed the necessary changes must scramble to keep up with the rest of the industry worldwide.

What we're reading:

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.

BISG reminds industry of upcoming ISBN-13 switch

The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) reported recently on the state of preparedness within the the publishing industry toward the upcoming worldwide switch from 10-digit ISBNs to 13 digits:

"With less than two months to go until January 1, 2007 - the sunset date for ISBN-10...most of the ISBN agencies reported having had success reaching larger publishers, distributors, wholesalers and booksellers with their ISBN-13 education programs. Less positively, no country...expressed much confidence that the long tail of smaller companies had made sufficient preparation for the transition."

To receive the bulletin in full, prepared in response to this year?s meeting of national ISBN agencies; held in Paris on November 5-6 and hosted jointly by UNESCO and AFNIL (the French ISBN Agency), contact Angela Bole at .
Other, recent BISG bulletins are available online here.

For general information about the switch to ISBN-13 including quick facts, answers to FAQ's, guidelines on book ordering and labeling, and the ISBN-13 Readiness Directory (A list of results from publishers, book manufacturers, POS vendors, and retailers participating in the 'ISBN-13 Readiness Survey') click here.

Harry Potter volume voted 'best book ever'

According to a recent article: More than 5,000 teenagers polled by the American Library Association have voted J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" as the best book - ever.
Another survey revealed that Rowling, the author of the entire Potter series, has a bigger fan-base in the UK than even superstar-band U2. Rowling was fourth only to football team Manchester United, rock star Robbie Williams, and Liverpool's football club.

The Harry Potter series of books has broken sales records in both the United States and the United Kingdom: last summer (July 2005) "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" sold nearly nine million copies - receiving a 'Platinum Award' for having sold over a million copies all in the course of a single day.

Ironically (or perhaps not at all), the entire series of Harry Potter books was also the most challenged of all those on the list of challenged titles for 2005-2006 as reported by the American Library Association.

More on the Frankfurt Book Fair

Home again, home again

The reports from Frankfurt are zooming as quickly as molasses uphill in wintertime. In other words...it was a fine fair, a good fair, a solid fair...but an unremarkable fair.

The most intriguing part of it, of course, was the International Supply Chain Specialists meeting. Hosted by BIC/EDItEUR, it involved a series of presentations about such things as Smart Shelves that could read RFID tags and thus essentially do your inventory for you, Ingram Digital Venture's new initiatives around its acquisition of VitalSource, and Pearson Education's task of trying to get all its disparate global systems to all talk to one another. Presentations are posted on the EDItEUR website.

Then...there was the trudging...and the hauling of catalogs and brochures home in the suitcase....

Hire this woman!

Banned Books Week Report: Potter Most Challenged

Opening the 25th annual Banned Books Week comes this report from the HPANA and the ALA posting the entire Harry Potter series of titles at the top of the list of the books most challenged over the past five years.

According to an American Library Association press release:
 
"The 10 most challenged books of the 21st Century (2000-2005) are:

Number of challenged books drops

Since the start of Banned Books Week in the early 1980's the number of books challenged for removal from libraries has dropped.
The ALA defines a challenge against a title as a "formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness."

According to an article from Ohio's Beacon Journal:
"The number of works actually pulled has also decreased over the past quarter century, from more than 200 in 1982, to at least 44 last year, including Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, the Nobel laureate's debut novel."

Banned Books Week kicks off this Saturday, with libraries, booksellers, and the publishing industry highlighting titles that have been removed or faced removal.

Upcoming: Banned Books Week 2006

From the ALA website comes the announcement for Banned Books Week 2006 - to be held from September 23-30th.

"Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is observed during the last week of September each year. Observed since 1982, the annual event reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted.

• ?It's Perfectly Normal? for homosexuality, nudity, sex education, religious viewpoint, abortion and being unsuited to age group;
• ?Forever? by Judy Blume for sexual content and offensive language;
• ?The Catcher in the Rye? by J.D. Salinger for sexual content, offensive language and being unsuited to age group;
• ?The Chocolate War? by Robert Cormier for sexual content and offensive language;
• ?Whale Talk? by Chris Crutcher for racism and offensive language;
• ?Detour for Emmy? by Marilyn Reynolds for sexual content;
• ?What My Mother Doesn't Know? by Sonya Sones for sexual content and being unsuited to age group;
• Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey for anti-family content, being unsuited to age group and violence;
• ?Crazy Lady!? by Jane Leslie Conly for offensive language; and
• ?It's So Amazing! A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families? by Robie H. Harris for sex education and sexual content.
• 
  Also according to the website:
  "Off the list this year, but on for several years past, are the Alice series of books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, ?Of Mice and Men? by John Steinbeck and ?The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? by Mark Twain."
  
  
  
  More information about the event, it's history, why and how books are challenged and banned, and a list of the most challenged books in 2005, can be found at the American Library Association webpage dedicated to Banned Books Week.
  
  

BISG's Annual Meeting of Members

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.

Introducing: ABA Members Forums

Thanks to Bookselling This Week for introducing us to the Bookweb Member Forums.

According to the website:
"Topics under discussion this week in the Bookseller-to-Bookseller Forum include:

• Magazine distributors
• Book signings by self-published authors
• Sources for French-language literature
• Romances featuring Native Americans
• Buy-back programs, and
• Fun titles for back-to-school displays

New Book Search Engine Launches

IDPF Revisited

Just recently we mentioned the press release from the International Digital Publishing Forum in which they announce the new emerging standards for eBooks.

There's a counter-perspective (of sorts) located here - ironically, it was penned by Jon Noring one of the contributors to the IDPF project itself. Noring calls the press "cotton-candy" as opposed to a genuine effort at standardization.

From article:
"Just as it has been the last few years, I don?t see IDPF truly interested in promoting a single, open, universal, consumer-level digital publication format standard, along with a single, industry-managed, consumer-friendly DRM standard. IDPF must believe by focusing on this ?open? Container standard, which can contain a bunch of proprietary formats, and slip in OEBPS through the ?back door,? that they can convince the world they are promoting a single universal open standard, but I simply see it as smoke and mirrors."

Read the entire piece here.

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?"

British Publishers VS. U.S. Publishers

In an article from the Deutsche Welle News network details of a re-emergence of the long standing tensions between U.S. and British publishers are brought to light.

From the article:
"A long-standing trade battle over the right to sell English-language books in Europe has reignited between British and American publishers, with the UK feeling the threat of cheaper US editions at its front door."

Read the entire article here.

Office Suite Teams Up With Creative Commons

According to a press release issued by Microsoft, the mega-company is teaming up with the non-profit Creative Commons to offer copyright licenses directly in the MS Office suite of products for application to Powerpoint, Word, and Excel projects.

From the article:
"The goal of Creative Commons is to provide authors and artists with simple tools to mark their creative work with the freedom they intend it to carry,? said Lawrence Lessig, professor of law at Stanford Law School and founder of Creative Commons. ?We?re incredibly excited to work with Microsoft to make that ability easily available to the hundreds of millions of users of Microsoft Office.?

The Creative Commons copyright tool addition is already available for free download at the MS Office site, here.

Read the entire release here.

Two New and Notable Book Industry News Sites

Google Book Search Under Brit Fire

British publishers have now joined the argument against Google's Book Search.

From article:
"Lynne Brindley, chief executive of The British Library, didn't appear surprised that Google has found itself at odds with the established print industry.

Is 'Fair Use' Getting a Fair Trial?

This article, in response to upcoming legislation regarding copyright, music download issues, and in particular the definition of 'fair use' is on many a publishing executive's desk today as the industry watches with keen interest what's going on on the other side of the neighbor's fence.

From the article:
"The new Section 115 Reform Act (SIRA) of 2006 is scheduled for markup tomorrow, and the EFF is sounding the alarm. "Why the rush?" they ask. "Because otherwise someone might notice that the bill represents an unholy alliance between the major music service providers (AOL, Yahoo, Apple, Real Networks, etc.) and [the] music publishing industry. If the bill passes, they win, but fair use loses..."

"The EFF says, 'This is dangerous language that creates a dangerous precedent. When courts look at how copyright should apply to new digital technologies, they often have few judicial precedents for guidance and thus they turn to the Copyright Act itself for clues about how Congress views similar issues. Incidental copies made in the course of otherwise lawful activities should be treated either as outside the scope of a copyright holder's rights or as a fair use (even the Copyright Office agrees on the fair use point). But you can be sure that the copyright industries will use SIRA as a precedent to the contrary in future fights.'"

Read the full text of 'Will "fair use" be fundamentally redefined this week?'

Upcoming Event: BookExpo Canada

Anticipating yet another BookExpo, this time in Toronto, Canada, being held June 9th - 12th:
"From high profile author breakfasts to a dynamic Conference program, BookExpo Canada features non-stop action that mixes business with pleasure as Canada's book industry comes to life."

Find the complete listing of events, guests, and topics at the official event website.

For a current, brief article on Canada's industry stats click here.

To find more publishing industry happenings both national and international, click here for a current industry events calendar.

The Floodgates are Open

It seems the 'digital issue' is dominating the publishing world these days, and why not - it's changed the face of publishing, printing, and even reading and writing.

In today's New York Times, an article "Digital Publishing Is Scrambling the Industry's Rules" references just this very issue and the ways in which it is now engaging both readers and writers, while making the publishing industry very nervous.

In a recent 'experiment' one author posted his manuscript online for review and commenting in-process, by site visitors. Another author drafted, edited, and made available for free his entire book online. 
In the second case, the need for a traditional publisher was eliminated completely, which is why "...hovering above the discussion of all these technologies is the fear that the publishing industry could be subject to the same upheaval that has plagued the music industry...

Leading the way, or at least trudging along with everyone else, into the next generation of books is The Institute for Future of the Book where development of fresh new reader/writer-software, online collaboration and editing of in-process books, and speculation on how to bring the book with us into the future has been going on for quite some time. 
Rather than fight against the inevitable process of progress, this group seeks to redefine the role of each key player in the publishing industry - and in particular they are including the reader.

If it is this trend of consumer interaction and participation that so worries the industry, perhaps a reevaluation of just who authors are penning for in the first place, is in order.

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.

Publishers Attempting to Head Off Google

From Information World Review comes this article detailing how the "Major publishers are racing ahead with their alternative offerings to Google Book Search" with Harper Collins Publishing heading up a major effort in a deal with Newsstand, an online media distributor.

Macmillan Publishing is also reportedly working to develop its own online variation "BookStore" beyond the working-prototype stage.

Richard Charkin, chief executive of Macmillan is quoted as saying, "Publishers have to get their act together with the entry of Yahoo and Microsoft into the arena alongside Amazon and Google.?
 
Find the entire article, with links to more info about Macmillan's effort, here.

Upcoming: Educational Publishing Summit

June 7-9, 2006 in Washington D.C. the Association of Educational Publishers hosts the 2006 Educational Publishing Summit.

Events and activities for industry professionals, listed in the summit schedule include:
-Learn about the most current educational trends
-Network among industry executives
-Review cutting edge educational technologies
-Uncover new markets and distribution channels
-Get an education policy and government relations update
-Receive professional development for educational professionals in Sales & Marketing, Editorial & Product Development, and Management
-Participate in the 2nd Annual Action Auction

View the official event website here.

John Updike at BEA Podcast Released

The much talked about speech by John Updike from the Book and Author Breakfast at BookExpo America has just been released as a podcast on the BEA's BookExpoCast website.
From the site: "Mr. Updike abandoned a speech about his new book, Terrorist, in favor of a passionate discussion of books and booksellers ? whom he called 'the citadels of light'."

Listen to the 20 minute podcast here.

The Green Press Initiative

With the recent announcement of Random House's commitment to using more recycled paper in its Stateside printing presses, we got curious about just who else in the industry is involved in the Green Press Initiative and found a short but healthy list of participants including:Lantern Books, Harvard University Press, Houghton Mifflin, Scholastic, Square One Publishing, and the Association of American Publishers.

According to the GPI website: