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Why we love CNN

Category: Publishing , E-commerce
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....
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Posted by Laura Dawson , January 27, 06, 7:15 PM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Oprah Smackdown

Category: Publishing
Yeah, yeah, yeah - ohhh, but it was too delicious. Gawker, as always, sums it up perfectly. It was so luscious to see that kind of maternal rage - "I'm disappointed and embarrassed" - and to see Oprah assert her position as The One Who's Really In Charge Of Publishing, People.

Towards the end, she offered Frey some redemption. In other words, she gave the "I hope you learned your lesson" speech, and he meekly said he did, and now he's allowed to write more books.

Well, if anything was going to turn me from The Situation Room, it was going to be this. Sorry, Wolf, I promise I won't cheat on you ever again.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , January 26, 06, 7:06 PM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Well, maybe I don't want to play your stupid game anyway!

Ezra Klein is guesting on Wonkette today, with a fabulous story about Ford. (I'd link you directly to his own blog, but it seems to be down at the moment.) The closer: Welcome to the “new” economy. It’s new because you’re not in it.

Indeed. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart will be opening up to 280 stores this year alone. (Where are they going to PUT them all?) Practically speaking, does this mean assembly-line workers will now become "greeters"? For a lot less money, no benefits, so that ultimately the only place where they can afford to buy anything is...Wal-Mart? - oooooh, they don't call it the dismal science for nothing.

I know Thomas Friedman can see what's at the end of this rainbow, and I think he's right, but meanwhile, the Yellow Brick Road has got some potholes in it. Wish we could take a long nap and wake up when it's over.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , January 24, 06, 12:22 PM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Sales up!

Category: Metadata , E-commerce
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....
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Posted by Laura Dawson , January 23, 06, 4:19 PM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Mea culpa

Category: Publishing
Michael Cairns breaks out the remonstrations and reminds me that he has been president of Bowker for 5 straight years. Given that Bowker has a tendency to go through presidents like Spinal Tap does drummers, this is indeed quite an achievement. At least he did not spontaneously combust.

However, he might if he reads this.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , January 21, 06, 6:38 PM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Long Tail Tale

Category: Publishing , E-commerce
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.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , January 18, 06, 6:34 PM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Predicting the future

Category: Copyright Law
Says the Guardian: "This article, like others in the paper, will be blogged and circulated across the web tomorrow." Happy to oblige....The article is actually an interview with Lawrence Lessig, discussing the Creative Commons license - how this differs from regular copyright continues to elude me. I suppose, like so much, we have to wait until there's a court case.

In other news, the Free Range Librarian will be speaking at the upcoming ALA - a preview of her brilliant ranting can be found here.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , January 17, 06, 12:08 PM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Diamonds are a girl's best...search engine....

Category: Metadata
Speaking as a typical femme who adores jewels - ADORES THEM, do you HEAR???? - ahem...David Weinberger writes about faceted classification. It is utterly fascinating, and he does a far better job explaining it than I ever could...He doesn't have permalinks, so keep scrolling till you get a headline called "Faceted classification at work".

In other news, everybody but me was off work today. I, however, worked like a dog.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , January 17, 06, 12:54 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Triskaidekaphobia is Fear of the Number 13 - ISBN-13 by 2007

Category: Publishing , Company News , Bookselling
Have you ever wondered what those numbers in the barcode of the novel you're reading are? Probably not - but in the book publishing and retail industries the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is critical.

A standardized way to identify books on a global scale, ISBN has helped publishers, distributors, and merchants manage the book business since its original incarnation as Britain's SBN (Standard Book Numbering) in 1966.

But, as everything in the business world, it is susceptible to progress; in 1970 the numbering system was adopted internationally.
In 2007 the ISBN system will undergo yet another growth spurt as it attempts to account for the hundreds of thousands of new book titles being produced annually.

Adoption of ISBN-13 is a necessary process for all aspects of the book industry; as Laura Dawson of LJNDawson.com states "by January 1, 2007, most trading in the book industry will be done in ISBN-13. Therefore if a company isn't ready to trade in 13 digits, that company might find itself without trading partners."

Dawson, a consultant to the publishing sector who has worked with the Book Industry Study Group to bring attention to the approaching deadline is cited in an article from industry-standard 'Publisher's Weekly" about a peripheral lassitude toward the change.
"The issue of the 13-digit ISBN is not just for the IT department..." (Full text article located here) Dawson directs those with questions or concerns on the move from 10 to 13 digits to the BISG website, where numerous resources have been provided for reference and download.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , January 16, 06, 10:16 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Heard it through the grapevine

Category: Publishing
Lord, oh lord, what a riotous Friday. It began Thursday night with my phone ringing off the hook. This one heard it from that one who heard it from this other one - Michael Cairns has resigned from Bowker and will, in the grand tradition of Bowker presidents, be staying on in a consultant capacity.

This was, of course, confirmed by Bowker at the BISAC meeting on Friday morning. I was going to give this scoop to Shelf Awareness, but John's taking Monday off. Thanks, John!

In other news...Stanley Greenfield's been busy. He's significantly expanding his business in China, which is positively thrilling, particularly in the STM market, as you might imagine. McGraw, Wiley, get in touch with . Waste no time.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , January 15, 06, 5:01 PM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

ESBN, WTF?

Category: Publishing , Metadata
Today's Joho the Blog - the blog by David Weinberger - contains a letter from Chris Matthieu, apparently the creator of the ESBN, an identifier for e-books. Matthieu's site is minimal, but in his letter to David he claims to be solving problems with his identifier that an ISBN cannot.

However, the ESBN is not an ISO standard, so its existence makes me wary.

Meanwhile, the goddessly  informs me that all the news is Paris Hilton and Angelina Jolie. Personally, I've been following the JT Leroy story, and the James Frey story. Fake Writer Day, as Gawker declared it. The JT Leroy story is far more interesting - although looking at the pictures, anyone who had doubts as to whether or not that person was a girl is...probably still wondering whether Boy George was gay.

ISBN-13 made last week's Publishers Weekly cover, as well as a more substantial article inside. And yet...there are those still scratching their heads and wondering if this is important. Ducking and covering works, too.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , January 12, 06, 3:04 PM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Eyes on China

Category: Copyright Law
The AP (via MSNBC) reports today that China's economy grew 9.8% last year, largely in the service industry (which had gone under- or unreported in previous years).

 MSNBC also reports, interestingly, that a Chinese court has upheld Starbucks' copyright claim to its own name and logo. "It will ... hearten the many other foreign companies in China that face competition from local companies imitating their brands, trademarks, logos or packaging."

It's the service industry precisely that has more copyright issues than manufacturing or mining. Keep your eyes peeled, mateys. Piracy's going down with the ship.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , January 3, 06, 11:07 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Fair Use

Category: Copyright Law , Google , Metadata , E-commerce
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.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , January 2, 06, 2:30 PM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post
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