Book Publishers and Patron-Driven Acquisition: Announcing a Research Project
Announcing a Mellon Foundation-funded study of patron-driven acquisition (PDA) and its implications for academic book publishers.
The Kindle Changes Books Again — With Kindle X-Ray
“Historians may look back on September 28, 2011, as the day the book lost its bookishness.” – Nicholas Carr. When you throw in a smaller feature on the more disruptive basic Kindle — X-Ray — Carr is probably right.
When Publishers Are Their Own Worst Enemy
When publishers don’t employ foresight, they find themselves with challenges to their businesses, often from unexpected directions. Innovation is an imperative.
Back to School: Rethinking the Textbook
There are many new companies seeking to disrupt the college textbook model. Here is a taxonomy of the strategies, with some comments on the likelihood of their being adopted.
Kurt Vonnegut on the Shapes of Stories — A Charming, Logical, and Whimsical Lesson
Ever seen your favorites stories in line-graph form?
Graphical Displays, Statistics, and Thinking Straight — "Picturing the Uncertain World"
Simplifying the complex isn’t a simple task. A new book by a practiced hand and statistician proves entertaining and enlightening.
The Amazon Boycott — Power, Taxation, Big Companies, and Intertwined Economies
A boycott is being organized in California against Amazon to oppose Amazon’s resistance to collecting state sales tax. But Amazon may be too interwoven in the world today to be effectively opposed.
The New Face of Social Media
Social media continue to evolve, with Google Plus being the most recent conspicuous entry. Scholarly publishers may find these new platforms can be useful in evolving new forms of communications.
The Good, the Bad, and the Sexy: Our Espresso Book Machine Experience
Being an early adopter of an Espresso Book Machine has its price and rewards.
Post-Mortem of a Book Empire — Borders, and the Mismanagement of the Future
The demise of Borders is a lesson in management pitfalls. Are STM publishers up to the challenges they’ll be facing soon?
Treat a Book Like a Start-Up? Only By Confusing Process With Form
An experiment in agile book publishing reveals some interesting divisions between process and form.
Does "The Price of Typos" Justify the Price of Remaining Focused on Print?
The price of typos exists, but the price of not seeing solutions that are right in front of you could be higher.
The Ticklish Problem of Pricing E-books for Libraries
As publications move to digital form, libraries are taking on a greater share of the total volume of publishers’ income. This inevitably leads to conflicts.
Letter from Eastern Europe: Some Reflections on the Evolution of Publishing
The growing economies in Eastern Europe are giving rise to a new set of publishing opportunities and also to increased competition on the global stage.
What We Can Learn From Harry Potter
The Harry Potter series will now be available as e-books. Among the lessons for publishers is the desirability of direct-marketing.