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A Correction!

Ian McGrath, of BN.com, writes in to correct a statement I made in The Big Picture about B&N's new social networking functionality:

There is as of yet no messaging functionality in my B&N. It's lists, customer reviews, favorite profiles.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , November 26, 08, 11:05 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

The Google Registry

Those of us who are identifier/metadata wonks are fascinated by the new registry being set up by Google Book Search. We're not hearing much yet as to how it will work, but at a recent BISAC General meeting, we were speculating that Google might have to make use of things like the ISTC and ISNI in order to keep the registry lean and accurate. Turns out Michael Cairns was having the same thoughts on Persona Non Data:

I believe the establishment of this 'registry' under the terms of the Google/AAP/AG settlement opens up a opportunity to tie an alphabet soup of identifiers, bibliographic (and multi-media product details), full content and transaction capability together in one form.

Michael continues brilliantly to discuss the potential structure of the registry; it's worth looking at.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , November 19, 08, 9:14 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Kassia Nails It

Great post by Kassia Krozser on social networking in publishing - and an awesome statement that could be applied to EVERY shift in the market right now:

Yes, social networking is hard work. Yes, it requires a lot of time. Yes, it means changing your way of thinking.

I love this woman.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , November 19, 08, 9:09 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

John Ingram to PubWest: It's Either/And

PubWest held its annual conference last week in Portland, OR - according to PW, the theme of the conference extended last year's "Digital World" set of presentations:

Touting the company’s print-on-demand and digital services, John Ingram emphasized that we live in an “Either/And” world, not an “Either/Or” world. Instead of choosing between printed books or e-books, publishers can and should focus on both, especially since, as Ingram pointed out, consumers’ expectations are rising. In this new “Either/And” world, Ingram urged the audience to make the most out of all the resources available, from traditional printed books to digitized files and print demand to downloadable e-books. He earned a round of applause when he promised the audience that in the new “Either/And” world they could be selling more.
It's gratifying to hear about these kinds of conferences. Even the independent publishers, the smaller and more agile guys, are getting concerned about digital sales channels. And there are a host of factors they'll now have to think about.

Can publishers use the same PDFs for ebooks as they do for print books? No, actually - reflowable text (scrolling and refreshing) requires a different format.

Will publishers have to get ISBNs for every single format of ebook? If they want to transact through third parties - sell in multiple sales channels - they will, or the sales channel will have to assign them.

Can publishers have "either/and" without also doubling costs? Yes, actually - an XML workflow implemented further up the chain (beginning in editorial) will save on conversion costs and printing costs, as well as helping to create new products and increasing discoverability of existing products.

These are just some of the questions publishers have to ask themselves...and the truth is, independent publishers are in a MUCH better position to take advantage of digital initiatives than the big guys are.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , November 19, 08, 8:33 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

John Hodgman on books and technology

The New Yorker has a brief interview with John Hodgman, where he notes about the rise of ebooks:

My book is modelled on and belongs to that great tradition of “Books Left Behind in Summer Houses for the Next People to Read.” And that tradition will die, for these are the titles that will be most successful as electronic editions. And while this may annoy some nostalgics, they are cranks and should not be listened to. For I believe that by releasing “passing interest/low keepsake-value literature” from the burden of physicality, you are actually releasing the words from their worst liability: the price and inconvenience of actual bookness.

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Posted by Laura Dawson , November 17, 08, 10:10 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Endeca gets in on the DAM game

Have a DAM, but can't find anything in it? Apparently Endeca, which is one of my favorite companies that knows what to do with taxonomies, has devised a tool that can help. The Digital Asset Navigator solution

...integrates related data from DAM and content management systems, as well as databases, file servers, enterprise applications and other source systems, providing a 360-view of information relevant to digital asset reuse.

Sounds delicious.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , November 17, 08, 9:59 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Ingram is iPod-ready

Apparently this weekend at the California Library Association show, Ingram demo'd its new iPod-compatible downloadable audio products - starting with 6,000 Penguin titles. This would be the logical result of Ingram's acquisition of Iofy earlier this year, and puts them in a VERY interesting place vis-a-vis Overdrive, which for years has not been iPod compatible and which recently broke that barrier (but with only 3,000 titles).

This is pretty huge. Overdrive's only real competition in the library space has been NetLibrary. Ingram has not had as strong a library presence as Baker & Taylor. The chessboard just got a little more exciting.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , November 17, 08, 9:47 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

LJND Blog for download on Kindle

Weird. I was playing around with downloads last night on my Kindle and went to the Blogs section. Under "Industry Focus" there was an actual category for "Publishing"! With six blogs in it! Thrilled, I clicked on it...to find my own blog there.
Now, that is pretty cool. But I'm a little perturbed that...I DID NOT ALREADY KNOW THIS. Amazon did not contact me, did not explain why they are SELLING access to a blog that is FREE - although, in truth, I know that the dollar-a-month cost is just to recoup the Whispernet access. But the only reason I know this is because I cover the industry. How many other bloggers would find the same thing and question why they're not getting a cut of that (miniscule) revenue?

I find the silence just odd in terms of content-distribution relationships - usually you get some sort of opt-in agreement with distributors of content, even if it's a mass-mailing to you and sixty thousand other bloggers.

Manners, people.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , November 12, 08, 10:11 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

Borders teetering

Galleycat reported yesterday that a "major distributor" for independent publishers has sent a note out to client pubs that Borders "now tell us that they will not be paying us for two months due to anticipated excessive returns."

Of course, there is only one appropriate response to this: Aaaaaaaaack!

Galleycat continues:

Therefore, the distributor is telling its clients they need to make a decision this weekend: "Publishers must either instruct [us] not to ship their titles to Borders [or] accept the provision that [we], for Borders business only, will guarantee payment only for the publishers' historical printing cost of books that are not paid for, rather than for the whole amount of any unpaid invoices." (As the memo explains, the printing cost of a $14.95 paperback is roughly $1.50, compared to the $7.48 the distributor bills Borders.) The new policy is contrasted to what the company says other distributors do, asserting that some of its competitors are refusing to take any credit risk at all on inventory sent to the struggling chain.

Of course, the question is, given that some are predicting an economic turnaround won't be upon us till 2010, does Borders have an ice-cube's chance in hell of surviving? Even when times were GOOD (relatively speaking) they couldn't find a buyer.
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Posted by Laura Dawson , November 11, 08, 11:35 AM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post

StartwithXML Forum - Early Bird ends soon!!

Go now, quickly, and register to attend the StartwithXML forum on January 13th at the McGraw-Hill auditorium in Manhattan. I will be there. Ted Hill will be there. Brian O'Leary will be there. Mike Shatzkin will be there. Ken Brooks will be there. David Young will be there. Gurus and experts and really cool people will be there. Make sure you are there too!

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Posted by Laura Dawson , November 10, 08, 12:53 PM , comments(0) , permalink , Email this post
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