Publishing

Publisher's Weekly Latest News
BookExpo America Cancels Plans for Tuesday Exhibit Hours

6 Nov 2009 | 7:57 am

BookExpo America officials have decided to limit the number of days the exhibit floor will be opened to Wednesday and Thursday when the annual convention convenes in New York City next spring. Originally, BEA had planned to open the floor from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
Tomorrow Is National Bookstore Day

6 Nov 2009 | 6:20 am

More than 140 independent bookstores around the country have signed up to participate in National Bookstore Day, a PW-sponsored initiative to get customers into bookstores tomorrow.
The PW Morning Report: Friday, November 6, 2009

6 Nov 2009 | 4:55 am

Book and publishing news from across the Web: Publishing as Economic Bright Spot; A Self-Pub How-To; PW’s Top Ten Controversy; A New Indie Press Blog; ‘Going Rouge’.
Results Rise at Simon & Schuster

5 Nov 2009 | 2:58 pm

Third-quarter sales rose 2.4% at Simon & Schuster and earnings increased 13.6%. Though heartened by the improved performance, CEO Carolyn Reidy said she is disappointed that sales for the entire market have not shown more of an increase so far this fall.
Borders to Close 200 Walden Outlets in January

5 Nov 2009 | 2:01 pm

Borders has announced that it will close approximately 200 stores in its Waldenbooks Specialty Retail group in January. The store closings will leave Borders with about 130 mall-based outlets. About 1,500 positions will be eliminated in the downsizing, most of which are part-time jobs.

Pantheon Graphic Novels News
Free Pizza at B&N Greenwich Village

22 Oct 2009 | 8:55 am

Free Pizza at B&N Greenwich Village Marisa Acocella Marchetto will be reading from Cancer Vixen, now on sale from Pantheon Books, on Friday, October 23 at 7:30 pm at Barnes & Noble Greenwich Village. Featuring a PowerPoint presentation, book signing, and free pizza from Greenwich Village's Scuderia, this event is not to be missed. "Marchetto is an inspiration, and her story is one that is definitely worth reading" (Sacramento Book Review).
Marisa Acocella Marchetto on Cancer Vixen

13 Oct 2009 | 3:41 pm

THE CANCER VIXEN HERSELF! Listen to author Marisa Acocella Marchetto on Conversations LIVE! Radio as she discusses her graphic novel Cancer Vixen, now on sale in paperback from Pantheon Books. On National Mammogram Day (Friday, October 16), Marisa will be at St. Vincent's Hospital in NYC handing out free signed copies of Cancer Vixen to the first 10 women in line for their free mammograms. Also, be sure not to miss Marisa's appearance at B&N Greenwich Village on Friday, October 23. Buy a copy here!
pen american event - Art Spiegelman

1 Oct 2009 | 4:09 pm

Reckoning with Torture: Memos and Testimonies from the "War on Terror" When: Tuesday, October 13 Where: The Great Hall at Cooper Union, 7 East 7th St., NYC What time: 7 p.m. With Matthew Alexander, Jonathan Ames, K. Anthony Appiah, Paul Auster, Ishmael Beah, Don DeLillo, Eve Ensler, Jenny Holzer, A.M. Homes, Jameel Jaffer, Susanna Moore, Jack Rice, Amrit Singh, and Art Spiegelman Tickets: $15/$10 for PEN/ACLU Members and students with valid ID at www.smarttix.com. Tickets may also be purchased at the door. PEN and the ACLU will join forces to address the acts of torture and abuse carried out…
Rare video of David Mazzucchelli

30 Sep 2009 | 2:35 pm

Watch a rare video of David Mazzucchelli, author of the "haunting and beautiful" (Los Angeles Times) Asterios Polyp, as he discusses his writing process and inspiration for the graphic novel that has the world buzzing.
JOSH NEUFELD EVENT TONIGHT

24 Sep 2009 | 10:38 am

REMINDER! Thursday, September 24th at 7:00 p.m. Josh Neufeld event happening tonight in Brooklyn! Be sure to stop by Bergen Street Comics (470 Bergen Street, Brooklyn NY 11217) for your chance to chat with Josh and buy a copy. Josh will be signing books and refreshments will be served. Donations to benefit Common Ground Relief would be appreciated, but are not mandatory. Limited-edition giclee prints will be for sale, with all proceeds going to Common Ground. Hope to see you all there! For more info on Bergen Street Comics, click here

Publishers Newswire
Namtra Corp. acquires eTaxPortal – a Web based tax process automation solution for today’s tax department

Angela Polchat-Ferris

6 Nov 2009 | 8:32 am

RESTON, Va. /Publishers Newswire/ — Namtra Business Solutions, a 2009 Deloitte 500 fastest growing company, today announced that its software division has completed the acquisition of eTaxPortal, a Web based tax process automation solution for today’s tax department. It provides a single gateway to commonly used tax tools. The key components of eTaxPortal includes eTax Fileroom – Embedded Tax Document Repository; eTaxWorkflow – Embedded Tax Project Management; eTaxCalendar – Tax and non-tax obligation management for unlimited entities; eTaxDataCollector –…
CAVTEC launches CAV, Competitive Advantage Valuation software for maximizing returns on intellectual property

Angela Polchat-Ferris

6 Nov 2009 | 8:17 am

SYRACUSE, N.Y. /Publishers Newswire/ — CAVTEC announces the formal launch of CAV, Competitive Advantage Valuation software for maximizing returns on intellectual property (IP). Field tested in over 100 projects since 1997, CAV has helped universities, businesses, and entrepreneurs develop effective IP strategies and negotiate successful agreements. As a result, in 2009 Technology Transfer Tactics (TTT) chose the CAV solution for its specialized valuation catalog (www.technologytransfertactics.com) and showcased CAV at the recent Licensing Executives Society (LES) annual meeting. TTT is…
Semen Cookbook Challenges ‘Good Taste’ in Defense of Free Speech and International Rights

Angela Polchat-Ferris

5 Nov 2009 | 5:43 pm

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. /Publishers Newswire/ — If you have never heard of “Natural Harvest,” the only semen-based cookbook currently on the market, you are not alone. Despite international media attention, “Natural Harvest” (ISBN: 9781424314614) has managed to stay under the mainstream radar – but just barely. That may be about to change with a nomination for the Gourmand World Cookbook Award, a prestigious international recognition of exceptional and groundbreaking culinary literature. What started as a dinner party discussion among friends was eventually…
TextSafe® for Apple iPhone and iTouch launched by Ellis Vigeo LLC

Angela Polchat-Ferris

29 Oct 2009 | 12:42 pm

RALEIGH, N.C. /Publishers Newswire/ — Ever needed to send something to a friend that you didn’t want someone snooping through your phone to be able to read? TextSafe by Ellis Vigeo allows the user to create messages by selecting one of 10 different encoding “ciphers” and send an encrypted message via email or by using the text message “copy and paste” feature. The receiver, with the right password, is able to decrypt the message and send messages back in the same or different code. TextSafe also allows the user to hear a Morse Code or Tap Code message as…
Del Mar DataTrac Lending Software Implemented by Brand Mortgage

Angela Polchat-Ferris

29 Oct 2009 | 12:30 pm

SAN DIEGO, Calif. /Publishers Newswire/ — Brand Mortgage, the residential lending unit of metro Atlanta, Georgia-based community bank Brand Bank, has implemented a mortgage lending platform by Del Mar DataTrac (DMD), the leading provider of affordable loan automation solutions for mortgage lenders, banks and credit unions. Founded in Gwinnett County in 1905, Brand Bank launched Brand Mortgage in 2006 to meet home financing demand in its growing region, and today is a licensed lender in 17 states. According to Brand Mortgage senior vice president for capital markets and secondary…

Yahoo! Finance: Publishing - Books Industry News
AVIATION WEEK Program Excellence Awards Honor Top Aerospace and Defense Programs and Leadership (PR Newswire)

6 Nov 2009 | 2:22 pm

AVIATION WEEK has named the winners and finalists of its sixth annual 2009 Program Excellence Awards, identifying 14 aerospace and defense programs at BAE Systems, Boecore, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Rockwell Collins, and SpaceX as the leaders in their fields.
S&P: Past Performance Really Isn't Indicative of Future Results (PR Newswire)

5 Nov 2009 | 1:02 pm

The old adage "past performance is not indicative of future results" rings true loud and clear in today's market. This premise, which appears in much mutual fund marketing, is why Standard & Poor's Equity Research uses a quantitative holdings-based, holistic ranking approach in ranking mutual funds.
McGraw-Hill Construction Announces National Best of the Best Awards (PR Newswire)

5 Nov 2009 | 12:13 pm

McGraw-Hill Construction today announced the winners of its second annual Best of the Best Awards, a national competition that recognizes design and construction excellence based on the winners of McGraw-Hill Construction's 10 regional publications' Best of 2009 Awards.
BusinessWeek's Sibley Stays As Publisher Under Bloomberg; BW.com's Neal Is Out (paidContent.org)

5 Nov 2009 | 10:58 am
McGraw-Hill Education Program Consultant To Take The Stage At National Middle School Association (PR Newswire)

5 Nov 2009 | 8:00 am

A top literature program consultant with McGraw-Hill School Education Group, the leading provider of print and digital educational materials for Grades PreK-12, will present a thought-provoking session today at the National Middle School Association's Annual Conference in Indianapolis.

Book Publishing News
Adobe and Barnes & Noble Join Forces to Standardize eBook Technology

2 Nov 2009 | 5:56 am

Adobe Systems Incorporated and Barnes & Noble, Inc.., the world's largest bookseller, today announced advancements for eBook distribution by joining forces to standardize the open EPUB and PDF eBook formats and collaborating on a content protection standard based on Adobe and Barnes & Noble technology. The collaboration makes Barnes & Noble the most portable and compatible eBookstore, and provides customers of nook, the new Barnes & Noble eBook reader and other compatible devices, as well as users of Barnes & Noble eReader software for iPhone, PCs, BlackBerry and…
Stop Thinking About Your Book, and Start Writing

2 Nov 2009 | 5:51 am

Many people procrastinate starting projects, even though they know it's good for them. Everyone knows the benefits of writing and publishing a book. For speakers, consultants, coaches, and self-employed professionals, a book is the ultimate business card. Being an author establishes expertise, attracts a following of ideal clients, and opens up new opportunities for making more money.But if books are so great, why doesn't every expert have one? In reality, many people just don't know where to start. To help more would-be authors get their books done, The Writer's Sherpa, LLC, is now offering…
BookRabbit launches publisher events calendar through social media

26 Oct 2009 | 5:50 am

Social networking site BookRabbit.com (http://www.bookrabbit.com/) has launched a new events calendar which enables publishers to promote book launches, author signings and all manner of literary events to literary aficionados. Publishers will also benefit from BookRabbit's social media service, including Twitter and Facebook, which will promote key events on the calendar to its online community.The calendar, which includes other features of interest to its members such as author birthdays, enables publishers to upload details of forthcoming events as much as twelve months in advance.
Horror Stories Have Long Been Part of American Culture

26 Oct 2009 | 5:48 am

The horror story has long been a part of Americana, according to Kansas State University's Roger Adams, an associate professor and rare books librarian at K-State's Hale Library."'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,' published in 1820, is generally recognized as the first American horror story," Adams said. "However, 'Wieland,' written in 1798 by Charles Brockden Brown, is most certainly the first American Gothic novel in a genre that was invented by English author Horace Walpole with the publication of 'The Castle of Otranto' in 1764. 'Wieland' is largely forgotten in popular culture, but the…
Independent Author Tweets His Way to a Publishing Contract

19 Oct 2009 | 5:36 am

Independent author Michael J. Gyulai received a two-year publishing contract for a reprint of his 2008 memoir Midnight in Rome after he used social media to drive a spike in online sales. The memoir, based on Gyulai's real-life experience working behind the bar of a top nightclub in the Italian capital, was re-released in August.Gyulai based his sales model on the direct-to-fan marketing tactics currently sprouting in the music industry, which is still searching for footing after digital distribution via mp3 sent the entire music sales model into disarray at the turn of the millennium. With…

Editor And Publisher - Breaking News
Visit 'E&P' Blogs Today for News, Video, Comments, and Analysis!

5 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

Do it now.
GateHouse Media Improves Margins in Q3; Revenue Declines Moderate

5 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

GateHouse Media reported total revenue on a same-store basis fell 14.9% to $144.9 million in Q3 year-over -- a sequential improvement over previous quarters. In Q2, the Fairport, N.Y. chain reported that total revenue was down 15.2% and in Q1 it fell 16.3%.
Media Report for Hours That Fort Hood Suspect Dead -- Turns Out He's Alive!

5 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

Black eye for press? Authorities said immediately after the shootings that they had killed the suspected shooter, but later in the evening they recanted and said that he was alive and in stable condition at a hospital, watched by a guard.
Multi-Platform 'Content Room' Puts Journos in New Roles

5 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

In Iowa, Gazette Communications is experimenting with a central "content room" of reporters and editors who provide content for print, TV and online. "There is a pull and push, and I think that is probably healthy," says Becky Lutgen Gardner, senior director of information content. "When it comes to breaking news, spot news, it's easy to translate across all of the mediums."
Spanish-language Weekly Launches in Boston

5 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

A group of Latino journalists in Massachusetts has launched a new Spanish-language weekly newspaper.

Publishing printing editorial trade News
Keeping newspaper numbers in perspective - Mid Columbia Tri City Herald

7 Nov 2009 | 1:03 am

Keeping newspaper numbers in perspective Mid Columbia Tri City Herald As a case in point, I'll cite the latest round of reports on falling newspaper circulation numbers. Yes, it's true that the average weekday circulation at Newspapers bounce back, more good news beckonsThe Age
Bloomberg considers high paywall for online news feeds, announces expansive ... - editorsweblog.org (blog)

7 Nov 2009 | 1:03 am

Bloomberg considers high paywall for online news feeds, announces expansive editorsweblog.org (blog) In order to rival The Economist, which Pearlstine openly admires for its high subscription rate, strong circulation and advertiser appeal, BusinessWeek will and more » ...
Gourmet magazine's editor considers the next course - MiamiHerald.com

7 Nov 2009 | 1:03 am

Gourmet magazine's editor considers the next course MiamiHerald.com Reichl says that though Gourmet's circulation was at an all-time high with more than a million subscribers, advertising revenue had fallen off considerably and more » ...
Times Co. reports loss, but beats expectations - Boston Globe

7 Nov 2009 | 1:03 am

Straits Times Times Co. reports loss, but beats expectations Boston Globe Circulation revenue in the unit rose 18.4 percent to $45.9 million, after a sharp increase in subscription and newsstand prices for the Globe. New York Times Earnings Exceed Analysts' EstimatesBloomberg Denise Warren - ...
circulation subscription - Google News - 38477

6 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

Google News ...

Publishing News
Murdoch voices his concerns about Rudd

7 Nov 2009 | 1:34 am

Kevin Rudd is kidding himself if he thinks Australia can act as a bridge between the US and China, Rupert Murdoch says / File Rudd kidding himself with G20 - Murdoch Made too much of China during election China expects too much from PM KEVIN Rudd is delusional if he thinks Australia can lead the world or act as a bridge between the US and China, ...
GOP Learns From Costly Infighting

6 Nov 2009 | 9:25 pm

In the end, New York's 23rd district, ground zero in the battle between the conservative base and the Republican Party establishment, ended up sending one more Democrat to the House of Representatives.
AOL Names Susan Lyne to Its New Board of Directors

6 Nov 2009 | 5:23 pm

AOL today named Susan Lyne, Chief Executive Officer of the online luxury retailer Gilt Groupe, Inc., to serve on its Board of Directors.
Augusten Burroughs shares his holiday stories

6 Nov 2009 | 1:14 pm

This undated file photo released by St. Martins Press shows Augusten Burroughs. NEW YORK - It's not uncommon for people to say that their holidays don't live up to a Norman Rockwell painting, but Augusten Burroughs says his holidays have been "hideous." The best-selling author of books like "Running with Scissors" and "Dry" has compiled a book of ...
First Lady to Mix It up on Iron Chef

6 Nov 2009 | 9:03 am

The First Lady has scored a cameo on " Iron Chef America," along with White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford .

Commercial Printing News
Police: SC baby sitter hit slain child with belt

6 Nov 2009 | 6:49 pm

Authorities say a baby sitter in South Carolina watching a 3-year-old girl who died in her care beat the girl with a belt after she used the bathroom on the floor.
Arandell Corp. Adopts BCC Software

6 Nov 2009 | 10:39 am

BCC Software, a BA-WE BELL + HOWELL company and a leading developer of high-performance mailing technology solutions, announces that Arandell Corporation, one of North America's largest privately held web offset printing companies, has joined the BCC family thanks to the comprehensive capabilities of Mail Manager Full Servicea , BCC's top-tier ...
Worldcolor, Macmillan strike deal

6 Nov 2009 | 1:06 am

November 05, 2009, 7:24 AM / Worldcolor has signed a multiyear agreement with Macmillan to print an estimated 800 million books over the life of the deal.
Deputies seize $60K in pot

5 Nov 2009 | 12:52 am

Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely, center, shows a stash of some 48 pounds of marijuana, two handguns and $3,500 in cash confiscated from an east Athens home Wednesday.
Consolidated Graphics Reports Q3 Sales Down 15%

4 Nov 2009 | 2:32 pm

Consolidated Graphics, Inc. today announced financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2009.

Packt Book Feed
Joomla! with Flash: Flashy Templates, Headers, Banners, and Tickers: Part 1

6 Nov 2009 | 5:16 am

Joomla! with Flash: Flashy Templates, Headers, Banners, and Tickers: Part 1 Friday, November 6, 2009 | Joomla! In this two-part article by Suhreed Sarkar, we are going to use Flash for decorating our Joomla! site. On completion of this article you will be able to use: Flash-based templates for your Joomla! websiteFlash logosFlash headersFlash banners See More
Exclusive Discount Offer: Blogger: Beyond the Basics - Up to 50% Off

6 Nov 2009 | 4:28 am

Exclusive Discount Offer: Blogger: Beyond the Basics - Up to 50% Off Friday, November 6, 2009 | Open Source Packt has come up with a special offer on one of its titles - Blogger: Beyond the Basics If you want to create powerful, fully-featured blogs in no time, this book is for you. This book will focus on transforming a typical blog into something fresh and professional that stands out from the crowd. It starts with an introduction to an example blog, discussing what it is lacking, and then adding all the features of Blogger to make it successful. This book will tell you how to transform a…
Exclusive Discount Offer: PHP and script.aculo.us Web 2.0 Application Interfaces- Up to 50% Off

6 Nov 2009 | 3:50 am

Exclusive Discount Offer: PHP and script.aculo.us Web 2.0 Application Interfaces- Up to 50% Off Friday, November 6, 2009 | PHP/MySQL Packt has come up with a special offer on one of its titles -PHP and script.aculo.us Web 2.0 Application Interfaces This book has been written keeping in view every basic step as well as covering the most complex aspects while writing our applications — from simple effects, to the AJAX way of communicating through systems in applications. It gives you a completely new way of adding interactivity to your web applications. You will learn how sript.aculo.us…
Most Wanted Trinidad Tags and Tag Attributes

6 Nov 2009 | 3:05 am

Most Wanted Trinidad Tags and Tag Attributes Friday, November 6, 2009 | Web Development This article by David Thomas discusses the Trinidad tags and their attributes in a structured manner. The reader will gain an insight into the design of Trinidad allowing them to draw an efficient mental map of the library and an effective selection and application of tags. More concretely, the following topics are covered: An overview of the XHTML-focused Trinidad namespace trh An overview of the central Trinidad namespace tr An orientation and classification on the attributes supported by Trinidad See…
Exclusive Discount Offer: LWUIT 1.1 for Java ME Developers- Up to 50% Off

5 Nov 2009 | 4:06 am

Exclusive Discount Offer: LWUIT 1.1 for Java ME Developers- Up to 50% Off Thursday, November 5, 2009 | Java Packt has come up with a special offer on -LWUIT 1.1 for Java ME Developers This book takes Java ME developers through the library, with examples showing how to use the main components and functionalities. It also goes beyond a description of what is available by showing how to extend the library by plugging in custom-built classes. Grab your copy NOW! See More

PUBLISHING - Google Blog Search
Peter Scott's Library Blog: New Publishing Models: Developing a ...

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Scott)

7 Nov 2009 | 3:02 am

New Publishing Models: Developing a common platform for university press e-book distribution - A SPARC Web cast - November 20, 2009 - 10:00am Pacific; 1:00PM Eastern. Older Post Home ...
TEFLtastic » More ELT publishing bad news?

Alex Case

6 Nov 2009 | 11:39 pm

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 7th, 2009 at 7:39 amand is filed under ELT publishing, TEFL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. ...
Indie Publishing: Two Questions, Many More Answers : Barbara Jane ...

Barbara Jane Reyes

6 Nov 2009 | 3:23 pm

Many thanks to Brent E. Beltrán and Consuelo Manríquez de Beltrán of Calaca Press, Patrick Durgin of Kenning Editions, and Willie Perdomo of Cypher Books for their responses to my indie publishing questions. ...
Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent: This Week in Publishing

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford)

6 Nov 2009 | 12:29 pm

Yaaaay, all those literary types who continue to hold literature and honest debate to a high standard even in today's market. I love Holly Root's statement, "It's publishing—not nuclear disarmament. I am an agent, not Emperor Palpatine. ...
More on Indie Publishing and Poetry Community « poeta y diwata ...

Barbara Jane Reyes

6 Nov 2009 | 12:05 pm

I am currently working on my next Poetry Foundation post, which I think will conclude my series of posts on independent publishing. I am pretty much done with what I mean to write, and am just waiting now, on one or two independent ...

Penguin Blog (USA) - Penguin Group (USA) -
Julie Kenner, author of Tainted - our blogger for the week of 11/9:

Penguin Group USA

6 Nov 2009 | 1:13 pm

(View entire post here) Julie Kenner is our guest blogger during the week of November 9th. If you have any questions for Julie Kenner, add a comment to any of her posts.Here is more information on Tainted:Lily Carlyle has lied, cheated, and stolen her way through life. But in death, she'll really get to be bad... When her little sister is brutalized, a vengeful Lily determines to exact her own justice. She succeeds at the cost of her own life, but as she lies dying, she is given a second chance. Lily can earn her way into Paradise by becoming an assassin for the forces of good. It's…
Katherine Kerr, author of The Silver Mage - our blogger for the week of 11/9

Penguin Group USA

6 Nov 2009 | 1:04 pm

(View entire post here) Katherine Kerr is our guest blogger during the week of November 9th. If you have any questions for Katherine Kerr, add a comment to any of her posts.Here is more information on The Silver Mage:"Prepare to get lost in the magic" (VOYA) of Katharine Kerr's newest Deverry fantasy. The Horsekin are assembling along Prince Dar's northern border, and the Deverry alliance simply does not have the men and resources to prevent their enemies from moving into the wilderness areas known as the Ghostlands. But suddenly, the Dwrgi folk and the dragons come to…
A Fresh Take on Tradition, by Christina Perozzi & Hallie Beaune

Penguin Group USA

6 Nov 2009 | 11:14 am

(View entire post here)Getting together with friends and family over the holidays can be full of conflicting feelings: You love your relatives, you want them to go home immediately. You appreciate the wisdom of your parents, you want them to stop telling you where you went wrong. You're happy to blow off steam at the annual office Christmas party, you don't want to see Suzy from accounting get drunk and remove her top. Holiday gatherings often fill one with the desire to find another strong drink or the door, or both. And if you are giving in to ritual, you may want to host…
Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Chutzpah?, by Amy Epstein Feldman and Robin Epstein

Penguin Group USA

5 Nov 2009 | 2:04 pm

(View entire post here) Before Barack Obama came along with his "Audacity of Hope," the Jews had another way to describe crazily gutsy, brazen behavior. We called it chutzpah. (Let that word roll through the back of your throat and you'll get a very good sense of its meaning.) Well, Scott T. Zielinski, a 23-year-old Michigan man serving an 8-year sentence for robbing a party store, is a man with chutzpah coming out of his prison jumpsuit. Mr. Zielinski has decided to sue the owners and three workers at Nick's Party Stop, the place he robbed in November 2007, for using…
Author Steven Boyett launches Elegy Beach, the sequel to Ariel, after 26 years, by Rosanne Romanello

Penguin Group USA

5 Nov 2009 | 11:00 am

(View entire post here) Author-turned-DJ Steven R. Boyett had a fantastic launch party event at Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in San Diego this week on Tuesday, November 3, where he signed copies of both Arieland Elegy Beach. Fans lined up to have their favorite post-apocalyptic novel signed, along with the sequel fans have waited 26 years to read. Some even brought their original copies of Ariel, first published by Ace in 1983! Boyett was thrilled to be in such good company--he'll be seeing some familiar faces at the LoJolla Writers Conference this weekend, where Mysterious Galaxy is…

Publishing printing editorial trade News
Keeping newspaper numbers in perspective - Mid Columbia Tri City Herald

7 Nov 2009 | 1:03 am

Keeping newspaper numbers in perspective Mid Columbia Tri City Herald As a case in point, I'll cite the latest round of reports on falling newspaper circulation numbers. Yes, it's true that the average weekday circulation at Newspapers bounce back, more good news beckonsThe Age
Bloomberg considers high paywall for online news feeds, announces expansive ... - editorsweblog.org (blog)

7 Nov 2009 | 1:03 am

Bloomberg considers high paywall for online news feeds, announces expansive editorsweblog.org (blog) In order to rival The Economist, which Pearlstine openly admires for its high subscription rate, strong circulation and advertiser appeal, BusinessWeek will and more » ...
Gourmet magazine's editor considers the next course - MiamiHerald.com

7 Nov 2009 | 1:03 am

Gourmet magazine's editor considers the next course MiamiHerald.com Reichl says that though Gourmet's circulation was at an all-time high with more than a million subscribers, advertising revenue had fallen off considerably and more » ...
Times Co. reports loss, but beats expectations - Boston Globe

7 Nov 2009 | 1:03 am

Straits Times Times Co. reports loss, but beats expectations Boston Globe Circulation revenue in the unit rose 18.4 percent to $45.9 million, after a sharp increase in subscription and newsstand prices for the Globe. New York Times Earnings Exceed Analysts' EstimatesBloomberg Denise Warren - ...
circulation subscription - Google News - 38477

6 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pm

Google News ...

Yahoo! Finance: Publishing - Newspapers Industry News
Food Network, HGTV Drive Scripps Networks' Upside Surprise (at CNBC)

6 Nov 2009 | 3:21 pm
Jared Kushner Tried to Poach Sorkin For 'Observer' (Silicon Alley Insider)

6 Nov 2009 | 11:15 am
New York Mag Spills The Beans On Sorkin Profile (Silicon Alley Insider)

6 Nov 2009 | 7:45 am
USA TODAY Publishes Commemorative 2009 World Series Publication Celebrating the New York Yankees (PR Newswire)

6 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

USA TODAY, the nation's top-selling print newspaper, announces the availability of USA TODAY 2009 World Series, a 100-page glossy publication celebrating the New York Yankees and their 27th World Series win.
Top 10 Print Media Websites: October 2009 (at Seeking Alpha)

6 Nov 2009 | 3:10 am

mediabistro.com: GalleyCat
Writing In Between Alaska and NYC

6 Nov 2009 | 2:23 pm

Since she spent years living in between New York City and Alaska, Joan Kane's poetry crisscrosses two vastly different worlds. In this video interview, she described how these two places influenced her new book, "The Cormorant Hunter's Wife." Kane was one of the ten writers honored at the 25th annual Whiting Writers' Awards last week. GalleyCat prowled the aisles of the 2009 Whiting Awards, interviewing a number of the winners about their writing lives, the recession, and the future of literature. The ten recipients each took home a $50,000 award for their literary efforts. Here's more about…
Wal-Mart Pricing Not Predatory?

6 Nov 2009 | 1:23 pm

In a New Yorker blog post this week, James Surowiecki questioned the American Booksellers Association's "dubious" claims about "illegal predatory pricing" by Wal-Mart (WMT) in its Book Price War with Amazon.com (AMZN). Here's more: "[T]here's just no reason to believe that Wal-Mart is cutting prices now in order to raise them later: the company's entire history has been one of perpetual cost-cutting, even after it's become the country's dominant retailer." GalleyCat has been tracking the stock performance of the major companies that influence the bookselling business. We created this chart…
Triumph Rushes 63,000 Copies of Yankee Book

6 Nov 2009 | 12:23 pm

The as the ticker-tape parade for the Yankees winds down in New York City, Triumph Books is running off a 63,000-copy first print run of "The Best! Yankees Bring the World Series Title Back Home"--a rushed 128-page book about the team's 2009 World Series-winning season. According to Publishers Weekly, Triumph will spend a considerable amount of money sending the short book to New York City bookstores via messenger service on Saturday morning. The publisher is a Random House imprint with offices in Chicago. Here's more from the article: "Mitch Rogatz, Triumph Books publisher, explained that…
The $100,000 Comic Book

6 Nov 2009 | 11:23 am

The very first issue of X-Men #1--sold for $101,000 at a Missouri rare comic book auction--apparently setting a world record for comic book pricing. The 1963 comic was penned by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby. According to Digital Spy, the auction sold 3,000 comics for more than one million dollars, auctioning off an epic collection of comics inherited by an anonymous relative of a deceased comic book collector. Here's more from the article: "According to Tina Weiman of Mound City Auctions, it is unknown whether the original owner knew how much the comics are worth. 'I don't think he…
Novelist Jackson Taylor on PEN's Prison Writing Program

6 Nov 2009 | 9:23 am

With over 2.3 million Americans currently incarcerated, prison outreach is a vital vocation. Today's guest on the Morning Media Menu was Jackson Taylor, the novelist and Mediabistro teacher who has directed PEN's Prison Writing Program for the last 20 years. Taylor shared his experiences working with hundreds of imprisoned authors and creative writing mentors. The writing program will be celebrated on Monday at Breakout: Voices from Inside--a fundraising event with appearances by Mary Gaitskill, Eric Bogosian, and John Turturro. Here's an excerpt from the interview: "[Some inmates] can't get…

Pub Rants
Why I Don’t Like Net Amounts Received

Agent Kristin

5 Nov 2009 | 11:03 am

STATUS: Phone conference in 10 so I’m trying to dash this entry out before it begins.What’s playing on the iPod right now? NESSUN DORMA by Paul PottsIf you read my Agenting 101 entries on royalty statements (see right side bar), you should know why Kristin wouldn’t like net amounts received.But if you haven’t, then I happy to just rant about it and tell you. There are two main reasons why I don’t like royalties to be based on net amounts received.1. It’s archaic and currently doesn’t serve much of a purpose as audio and eBooks have a retail price and there are high discount…
A Little Tutorial On The Google Partners Program

Agent Kristin

4 Nov 2009 | 9:46 pm

STATUS: Time for sleep.What’s playing on the iPod right now? SELF-ESTEEM by The OffspringI want to talk about the Google Partners Program as this is not even remotely related to the Google Settlement issue but a lot of people are just plain clueless about it.So let’s start with defining it. The Google Partners Program is an agreement that Google makes with Publishers to allow book content to be available, previewed, and searched on Google Books.Since I’m assuming you know nothing, here’s the link to the Google Books Site.Everyone following along? Great. Then let’s move on. Not every…
Dirty Word: Comment Moderation

Agent Kristin

3 Nov 2009 | 9:56 am

STATUS: I have a lot that needs to get done today. Doing a phone conference in 5 minutes and I’m in the middle of negotiating a deal.What’s playing on the iPod right now? ROAD by George WinstonThis morning I have to say that I’m a little annoyed. I’ve been blogging since 2006. I certainly wasn’t the first agent to start this process (waves to Jennifer Jackson and Miss Snark) but I certainly was early into this game.And for the most part, I love it. I love being able to rant when I want to and I love how sometimes my blog topics spark an interesting discussion in the comments…
Happy Monday Indeed!

Agent Kristin

2 Nov 2009 | 10:03 am

STATUS: Holy cow what a morning!What’s playing on the iPod right now? EVERYTHING SHE WANTS by Wham!I’m getting no work done because all I’m doing is sitting around and grinning like mad.Remember back in July when I let y’all in on a little secret about how wonderful my colleague Sara Megibow is?Well, I’m giddy to report that the baby boy arrived yesterday at 3:25 p.m. on Sunday, November 1, 2009.Baby Trey is healthy. Sara is doing great. And the new parents are ecstatic and exhausted.Everything is as it should be!And if that weren’t news enough, this morning I read about…
Publishers, You Want An Edge On the Competition?

Agent Kristin

30 Oct 2009 | 12:19 pm

STATUS: TGIF and blogging early as I actually want to leave the office before 7 pm tonight.What’s playing on the iPod right now? OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY by Led ZeppelinThen let me throw this idea out there before all of you jump on the 25% of net band wagon so as to be like every other publisher out there offering substandard e-royalties.Three years ago when I had a hot project (as in I’m getting pre-empts, potentially going to auction, going to have my choice of publishers), if Random House was in the mix, I’d lean their way. Why? Because RH had decent royalties for eBooks (at 25%…

From the Balcony, A Publisher's Blog
I plumped for Presidents' Club

Máirtín Ó Muilleoir

7 Nov 2009 | 4:08 am

Click Here for PollOnline Survey | Website Polls | Email Marketing | Crowdsourcing SoftwareView MicroPollThis is a geg. This link brings you to a chart and map of the US to see where the votes are coming from. The Presidents' Club is polling strong in California — all those Silicon Valley fans — while St Malachy's Church is riding high in....Colarado!.Website Polls Powered By MicroPoll
Níos mó ná bealach amháin amach as an tsainn ina bhfuilimid

Máirtín Ó Muilleoir

7 Nov 2009 | 3:54 am

"If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion."George Bernard Shaw.Bhí mé ag meabhrú ar chomhairle an drámadóra agus muid faoi léigear ag eacnamaithe ar RTÉ atá ag sárú a chéile lena mbagairtí maidir le gearradh seirbhísí agus teannadh ár gcrios.Ach tá níos mó ná scoil amháin eacnamaíochta ann. Cad chuige nach dtugar seans d'eacnamaithe nach n-aontaíonn le polasaithe an rialtais labhairt amach?Tá gá ach go háirithe le scrúdú a dhéanamh ar an pholasaí maidir le tithíocht agus maidir leis na bainc. Tá praghas na dtithe in Éirinn…
Blast from the past

Máirtín Ó Muilleoir

6 Nov 2009 | 3:01 pm

Our pal in Nua Eabharc Daithí Mac Lochlainn spotted the TUV u-turn on this one first: the party branded Irish a leprechaun language and then recanted with a simple bashing of Irish language.The party has now apologised.This BBC report notes that the term "leprechaun language" was first famously used by Sammy Wilson in the 1980s during a City Hall debate. It was actually used as part of a motion to throw me out of the council at my first meeting in November 1987 when I had spoken Irish.
Tale of two cities

Máirtín Ó Muilleoir

6 Nov 2009 | 9:39 am

And this is the editorial from this week's Andersonstown News which reflects on the fact that while East Belfast this week got £43.5m from the Executive for the Titanic Quarter signature project (good for them) and £10m from Belfast City Council for the same £93m project, West Belfast got....an architectural design competition for a building which has not yet been greenlighted for construction.You can read the whole editorial, with a virtual appendix listing the Titanic Quarter projects, here in pdf form.
Large boxes which don't connect

Máirtín Ó Muilleoir

6 Nov 2009 | 7:23 am

So that's how the world works: last Friday I was apoplectic about the high-rise flats towering over the beautiful St Joseph's Church and this Friday I'm looking at a story in the North Belfast News castigating the development.Though Mark Hackett of the Forum for an Alternative Belfast (i.e. one which people want to live in and which cherishes its people and neighbourhoods) isn't as scathing about the height of the empty apartment block, he thinks it's disgraceful that it has no ground floor activity. Where there should be shops or a creche or a restaurant or an office even, there is car…

Book trade news from Book2book
Eason Counts €26.3m Cost Of Property Decline

6 Nov 2009 | 2:12 am
Fury After Women Writers Excluded From 'Books Of The Year'

6 Nov 2009 | 2:11 am
Twitter Becomes Money Making Tool For Amazon

6 Nov 2009 | 12:33 am
Hachette Book Group Drives Gains At Lagard�re

6 Nov 2009 | 12:13 am
Results Rise At Simon & Schuster

5 Nov 2009 | 11:53 pm

Booksquare
A (Probably Naive) Attempt to Move the DRM Conversation Forward

Kassia Krozser

2 Nov 2009 | 8:43 am

If there are two truths we hold to be self-evident, they are these: 1) DRM does nothing to stop piracy, and 2) DRM, as used by many publishers today, frustrates legitimate purchasers of books. This leads many to conclude that DRM does not work, and that DRM is evil. How do we get past “it’s good” or “it’s evil”? Not true. And not true. Consumers will happily accept the shackles of DRM if the trade-off is worth it to them. For example, while some Kindle users grumble about loss of rights, they express joy at the ease of purchase created by the Kindle system.
On Listening and Learning

Kassia Krozser

30 Oct 2009 | 11:51 am

Author Mur Lafferty offers her thoughts about the changes in publishing. What really surprises me is when you hear publishing people say that they don’t know what to do, or that they refuse listen to Internet professionals. They seem to believe if they do what has worked in the past, eventually the storm will pass and the anchor of tradition will have kept them steady and safe. They look at the people who are succeeding by merging their digital plans with their traditional print plans and call them anomalies at best, or insane at worst. What they need to be doing is learning from them. I Am…
The Week That Was

Kassia Krozser

23 Oct 2009 | 11:58 am

A lot happened in publishing this week — so much that just as I wrapped my head around one thing, something new popped up to either make me re-evaluate my previous thinking…or to send me down a different rabbit hole. Let’s just put it out there: once you’ve gone subterranean, things start to make a lot of sense. Which probably accounts for my mood today. Here in the dark and dangerous world of the publishing underground, spirits are sapped and minds are bent. Sometimes you travel toward the bright light, only to find a seemingly insurmountable pile of…
On Reality Based Business

Kassia Krozser

20 Oct 2009 | 10:31 am

In his Frankfurt wrap-up, Richard Nash distills a lot of thoughts and questions into some very big ideas. Picking a single quote was hard, so go read and consider the whole thing. There will be an essay test later. What this means is that we (publishers, authors, agents) are going to need to make decisions based on the world that is (people will make unauthorized copies, people will undercut your price), rather than the world we will wish for. Until recently, it was not clear that the publishing industry accepted this, but these statements by Richard Charkin, Victoria Barnsley and other…
Moving Beyond Catch Phrases

Kassia Krozser

19 Oct 2009 | 11:18 am

Like so many others, I am bemused by some of the coverage of the Tools of Change Frankfurt conference (bemused=not sure people interviewed were at same conference I attended)*. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but when your industry is undergoing what can generously be described as upheaval, it is imperative that you listen to other viewpoints. You do not have to agree, but if you’re not hearing what the other side is saying, you are making a huge mistake. DRM — Digital Rights Management — has effective and useful applications. I heard representatives from major European…

Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog
B&N's Nook...and Beyond

Joe Wikert

26 Oct 2009 | 6:06 am

The big news in e-readers last week was B&N's announcement of their upcoming Nook device. My first reaction was "meh", but the more I think about it, the more potential I see...not necessarily for the Nook, but rather for the e-reader space. Let's start with the Nook features I find interesting:3G Wireless and Wifi -- I blogged about this long ago and have often wondered why Amazon didn't bother offering wifi with the Kindle. Some said it would be redundant with Whispernet. I say nonsense, particularly since I use wifi every day with my iPhone 3GS.Exclusive…
Google Editions Should be a Game-Changer

Joe Wikert

19 Oct 2009 | 4:45 pm

I spent last week in Frankfurt at the book fair and our inaugural Tools of Change (TOC) conference there. TOC was terrific, but one session in particular grabbed my attention. Amanda Edmonds, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Google gave a presentation on the much-anticipated Google Editions program. Google Editions is ebooks, done right. When it launches you'll be able to buy ebooks in (almost) every format for (almost) every device. Why "almost"? According to Amanda, the Kindle will be excluded.So how can a new service be successful when it ignores the market…
How the Kindle Prevents eContent from Evolving

Joe Wikert

12 Oct 2009 | 1:09 am

Perhaps I shouldn't single out the Kindle on this one. What I'm about to say is true for the entire current generation of dedicated e-reader devices, not just the Kindle. But the Kindle leads the way, so it gets the headline. The problem with these devices is that they encourage quick print-to-e content conversion and nothing more. In fact, they even discourage some of the simplest ways of enhancing print-to-e conversions. Embedded links are a great example. If you're a Kindle owner how often do you click on those links? More specifically, how often do you groan as…
Have You Registered for this Week's Online TOC Conference?

Joe Wikert

5 Oct 2009 | 11:01 am

This is just a friendly reminder that it's not too late to register for the first online extension of O'Reilly's popular Tools of Change conference. The event takes place this Thursday from 12-3:30 ET and features 3 sessions of panel discussion. I'm moderating the ebook pricing panel which consists of Hugh McGuire (from LibriVox.org/BookOven.com), Neelan Choksi (from Lexcycle), Trip Adler (from Scribd) and Michael Tamblyn (from Shortcovers). The panel and I have been working on the right set of questions for the session and we're just about finished. If you…
"The New How": My Letter to Reviewers

Joe Wikert

29 Sep 2009 | 4:22 am

We recently sent the following letter to reviewers of a remarkable book that's due to be published later this year. The book is called The New How and the author is Nilofer Merchant. If you're curious and would like to start reading the book now, visit this link to the Rough Cuts version of it at Safari Books Online. You can also follow Nilofer on Twitter; she's @nilofer there, or just follow this link. Here's what I said to reviewers -- I hope you'll consider how this applies to your own organization: Dear Reader,As a publisher I’m almost ashamed to admit…

SlushPile.net
Reading Round Up

scott

2 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

It’s been a hectic summer and fall for me, full of travel for book research and other adventures here and there. But I recently got a bit of a break where I could catch up on my reading. And I’m pleased to say that I’ve been on a run of really good books lately. First up, I finally read Dexter Filkins’s The Forever War. I’m awfully late to the party on this one since it was released almost a year ago and racked up a ton of awards, including being named a best book of 2008 by the New York Times. And after finishing this amazing book, I’m sorry that it took…
Intensely Focused Practice

scott

28 Oct 2009 | 12:11 pm

When we observe someone who has truly mastered their craft, whether it’s a writer, athlete, musician, or business person, we tend to assume they achieved that level of mastery through a combination of two ways: 1. They worked really, really hard. 2. They were born with some level of natural talent. However, in Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else by Geoff Colvin, the argument is made that neither of those two routes is the most effective way to achieve mastery of a subject. Instead, Colvin argues, deliberate practice is what separates the…
Writers on the Scale of Fame

scott

27 Oct 2009 | 3:17 am

To us, the bookish sorts, writers of a certain stature can definitely seem famous. But every once in a while, there’s a comment or an article that shows you just how far down the rung of celebrity writers are. Here’s an interesting article about Jon Ronson, author of the novel, The Men Who Stare at Goats upon which the recent George Clooney film is based. Ronson describes going to the premiere and being overwhelmed by the crowd. And then realizing his place in the whole event. “There is something oddly sobering about walking up a red carpet surrounded by thousands of people…
Why AC/DC Matters, Matters

scott

16 Oct 2009 | 6:40 am

In bestselling author Anthony Bozza’s new book, Why AC/DC Matters we get the kind of impassioned art criticism that is normally relegated to websites, fanzines, and independent publishers. Now, in the sake of full disclosure, Bozza is a friend and business colleague of mine. So take these comments with a grain of salt if you are so inclined. And if you’re the FTC goons, then yeah, I got a free book in the process. But in Why AC/DC Matters, Bozza makes the argument that the Aussie band has been unfairly ignored and misunderstood by the critics for decades. This isn’t a…
Calendar to a Book Deal

scott

21 Sep 2009 | 6:02 am

Aspiring authors often get enraged at the lack of true, specific information about publishing. We’re constantly told, “There’s no standard timetable for a publisher to respond.” You can substitute timetable for dollar amount or print runs or book tours or literary groupies or type of wine served at booksignings or anything else you can imagine. All these blogs and interviews and magazines dedicated to publishing and yet it’s damn near impossible to get a clear answer to anything. Well, I must admit, that unfortunately all those vague are general responses are…

Thingology (LibraryThing's ideas blog)
Speaking at Charleston Conference

Sonya

4 Nov 2009 | 12:41 pm

Abby was slated to give a talk about LibraryThing at the Charleston Conference, tomorrow. Then, she came down with the flu. So, I'm heading to Charleston, SC as I blog now. I'll be speaking at 12:30.Anyone who happens to be there, and can lend me an Apple video dongle gets a free teeshirt.
Simultaneous flash-mob cataloging

Sonya

26 Oct 2009 | 7:16 pm

On the weekend of October 3-4, we had two simultaneous, two-day, flash-mob cataloging events. Here's the wrap-up:Central Park School for Children – a small public charter elementary school in Durham, NC(centralparkschoolforchildren.org, centralparkschool on LT, blog post announcing event)1,391 books cataloged, barcoded, assigned Dewey numbers, physically labeled the volumes for shelving, uploaded cover images, and shelved. All this was done by 22 catalogers on Saturday and 10 on Sunday.It's easy to underestimate how many books are in a library, and children's books are particularly…
Ebook economics: Are libraries screwed?

Tim

6 Oct 2009 | 11:09 pm

"Kindling" by Flickr user oskayThe advance of ebooks will no doubt bring much good. As often with technological change, we probably can't even predict what wonderful new things will emerge! But we can see some serious dangers ahead, and try to deal with them. I see three major areas of concern: to libraries, to physical bookstores and to the freedom to read in unfree countries.This post explores the first of these—the danger to libraries. There are, of course, arguments to be made about the viability of physical libraries in a digital age—that while libraries aren't just buildings, the…
1,512 libraries in LibraryThing for Libraries

Sonya

29 Sep 2009 | 7:18 am

LibraryThing for Libraries, our enhancements to public and academic library catalogs, continues to advance. The official list shows some 159 "libraries" getting our tags, recommendations and reviews in their catalogs. But many of those 159 "libraries" are really much larger systems. So, we thought we'd figure out how many individual libraries were using LibraryThing for Libraries, and add them all to LibraryThing Local. It wasn't until we started searching out every member library of every consortium and adding every branch to LibraryThing Local that we realized we had WAY more libraries than…
LTFL: now available for Evergreen

Sonya

8 Sep 2009 | 12:40 pm

We've been working on adding the LibraryThing for Libraries enhancements to the open-source catalog Evergreen. We've worked out the kinks, and it's ready to roll.We've integrated both the Catalog Enhancements (tags, tag browser, recommendations, other editions and translations) and the Reviews Enhancement (300,000 LibraryThing reviews, patron reviewing, Facebook app, blog widgets).If you'd like to see how LTFL looks, check out the catalog of Kent County, Maryland. We owe them a thousand thanks for working with us on making this work.

Beyond the Book
Special Episode: Protecting Images With Copyright

rob@burstmarketing.com (BurstMarketing)

4 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

For DC Fotoweek on Monday, November 9, at the US Navy Memorial-Heritage Center, the American Society of Picture Professionals DC/South Chapter presents Copyright: Protecting Your Images and Creative Work and Why it’s so Important featuring John Harrington, President of the White House News Photographers Association, and Brad R. Newberg, senior counsel, Holland & Knight, with extensive experience in all areas of intellectual property litigation with a particular focus on copyright. If you are in the Washington metro area, take advantage of this great opportunity. You must register…
BTB #129: Tom Allen On Leading A ‘Born Again’ Industry

rob@burstmarketing.com (BurstMarketing)

1 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am

This spring, Tom Allen – a former Maine Congressman, lawyer, and Rhodes Scholar – became CEO and President of the Association of American Publishers, following the retirement of Patricia Schroeder, who had served since 1997. A week ago, Chris Kenneally caught up with Allen in Oslo where both attended the annual IFRRO meeting that also marked the organization’s 25th anniversary. Allen provided the latest news on developments in the Google Book Settlement and admitted he finds himself “spokesman for an industry that used to be mature, but is no longer. Digital transforms everything and…
BTB #128: Will the ‘Real’ Andrew Kent Please Stand Up?

rob@burstmarketing.com (BurstMarketing)

26 Oct 2009 | 1:44 pm

Beyond the Book has cracked the case: Kent Anderson –a senior executive for a world-leading science journal – and Andrew Kent – author of the well-received Johnny DeNovo detective novel series – are one and the same man. “There is a yin and yang between my creative and professional sides,” Anderson admits. “I’m always dabbling with both areas of pursuit.” The emotional and imaginative act of writing the novels, he says, has reminded the usually-factually-based Anderson of a sometimes overlooked aspect to his day job. “Business is about relationships as much as it’s about…
BTB #127: This Way to Hollywood

rob@burstmarketing.com (BurstMarketing)

18 Oct 2009 | 11:00 am

It’s a century-old pursuit: Book authors hoping to make it big in the movie business. The explosion of video on the Web now lets authors introduce books and concepts to agents, producers and directors more quickly and easily than ever before. Newly-formed Bookstofilm.tv knows what Hollywood wants because it lives there. As company founder Rocky Lang explains, “in today’s post-MTV generation, people are looking for immediate gratification, [something] that stimulates their fantasies of the characters and the development of the project.”
BTB #126: San Antontio: Great Plains and Texas Crossroad

rob@burstmarketing.com (BurstMarketing)

11 Oct 2009 | 11:00 am

It’s a TAA tradition: Geographer Robert W. Christopherson opens each annual TAA conference with a “geo-primer,” a one-hour crash course on geography and “place.” For this year’s visit to San Antonio, the award-winning geography textbook author explored the city as a point of convergence in geography and history, from the physical setting in the southern Great Plains to the challenges to settlement posed by dryness and vast distances. Professor Emeritus of Geography, American River College, Christopherson is the author of the leading physical geography texts in the US and Canada,…

MediumAtLarge.net
Caturday! Lionmaru Edition!

Peter Tatara

7 Nov 2009 | 4:09 am
The Heiz Play NYC on Saturday!

Peter Tatara

6 Nov 2009 | 7:24 am

Have you made your weekend plans? If not, our friends at SuperGlorious are taking over Santos Party House on Saturday for a night of music featuring...The Heiz, Dinowalrus, and Exit Clov.The show is Saturday, November 7. Doors open at 7 PM, the show starts at 7:30, and tickets run $8. Santos Party House is at 96 Lafayette Street in NYC. For more, visit superglorious.com.The Heiz come all the way from Japan, and this is their first US tour, so let's give them a big welcome!
Important LEGO News!

Peter Tatara

5 Nov 2009 | 11:36 am

So, Lance is the Chief LEGO Builder at NYCC/NYAF/C2E2 HQ, but he's been strangely silent about two important LEGO posts made by the good guys at Kotaku.First, behold a Mario made out of 40,000 LEGO bricks. It sold for over $5,000 earlier this year.Second, November is Vic Viper Month. Start building Vic Vipers and posting 'em on Flickr. Really. Start building them. Now.
Dir En Grey comes to Kinokuniya!

Peter Tatara

5 Nov 2009 | 5:32 am

Some exciting news for you all. In celebration of their scheduled three-night performance at New York City's Blender Theater at Gramercy and upcoming DVD release -- Average Blasphemy -- Dir En Grey will be making a special public appearance at Kinokuniya Bookstore on Tuesday, November 10th.Hosted by The Lady Miz Diva Velez of TheDivaReview.com, Dir En Grey will take part in a live interview discussing the band's history and their All Visible Things Tour as well as play clips from their Average Blasphemy DVD. An autograph signing will follow. Doors open to The Diva Review's Dir En Grey…
Spidey and Larry

Lance Fensterman

5 Nov 2009 | 5:24 am

Someone dropped by the office late last night and was waiting for Larry this morning...... -L Lance Fensterman Reed Vice President BookExpo America New York ComicCon C2E2 New York Anime Fest Blog: www.mediumatlarge.net 203.840.5507 (o) 203.417.3607 (m) -------------------------- Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld - Please excuse any typos!

TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home
Crash-prone Firefox gets another update

David Rothman

7 Nov 2009 | 4:25 am

Firefix 3.5.5 is out from the Mozilla people—the response to yet another “annoying” buy. What do you think, gang? Is nirvana at hand or close? I have it going right now, and at least the startup was smooth. The suspense builds. Downloads are here; release notes, here; Techmeme roundup here. Technorati Tags: Mozilla,Firefox 3.5,Firefox 3.5.5 Digg us. Slashdot us. Facebook us. Twitter us. Share the news.
Quick Note: Google Book Settlement Status Conference Report

Paul Biba

6 Nov 2009 | 3:01 pm

Kenneth Crew of the Columbia University Copyright Advisory Office has a first-hand report of the status conference which he attended today. You can read the full report here. No great news, except that the Judge set November 9 as the date for the parties to submit the revised settlement agreement. Digg us. Slashdot us. Facebook us. Twitter us. Share the news.
Amazon stops using Sprint for the Kindle

Paul Biba

6 Nov 2009 | 11:38 am

This, of course, makes perfect sense. Sprint is a CDMA carrier and the new Kindle international reader is GSM – which is what most of the world uses. According to FierceWierless, Amazon announced this at a conference in San Francisco today. They said that it would be too confusing to sell two versions of the Kindle, one for the US and one for international use, and so they decided to go completely GSM and use AT&T as their new carrier. They will continue to use Sprint for the Kindle DX and will also continue to support the Sprint devices already in use. Thanks to the Kindle…
Quick Note: Self-Publishing Book Expo Tomorrow

Paul Biba

6 Nov 2009 | 11:21 am

Just a reminder that the Expo is tomorrow In New York City. You can find the details here. I’ll be there and will report back on Sunday with any items of interest. Digg us. Slashdot us. Facebook us. Twitter us. Share the news.
Bookless libraries?

Steve Jordan

6 Nov 2009 | 8:22 am

When does a library cease to be a library? This was the central point of a debate about the fate of educational institutions’ brick-and-mortar libraries at the 2009 Educause Conference in Denver, as reported by Inside Higher Ed. Despite the objections of “a minority of very loud faculty members,” (Suzanne E. Thorin, dean of libraries at Syracuse University) said, the days of wandering through the stacks are over. “People,” she told the audience, of whom many were librarians, “the world has changed, and so have your students, and so have your faculty!” Though some centered on…

Medialoper
The Daily Loper – Nov 6, 2009

Lopy

6 Nov 2009 | 5:59 pm

Today’s links of interest: Disney Bets $180M on ‘Christmas’Apparently Disney thinks it’s a bright idea to spend $180 million on a remake of A Christmas Carol starring Jim Carrey. That’s before prints and ads, apparently. You gotta wonder. Deja vu: Wal-Mart, Amazon, Target in DVD price warBecause it’s all about ego, right?
The Daily Loper – Nov 5, 2009

Lopy

5 Nov 2009 | 5:59 pm

Today’s links of interest: Music Industry Changes Tune of New Program to Fight File SharingInteresting. Video: The bike tree – the 21st-century cycle shedThis is pretty cool.
The Daily Loper – Nov 4, 2009

Lopy

4 Nov 2009 | 5:59 pm

Today’s links of interest: SU – Drunk Frenchman Opens Bottle Of Wine With Shoe (VIDEO)This is the kind of important news we live to bring the world. EMI sues US music website over Beatles tunesWell, of course they’re suing. It’s really the only possible solution, right? The Boss’ book bonanzaBruce Springsteen’s autobiography is expected to receive a $10 million advance.
The Daily Loper – Nov 3, 2009

Lopy

3 Nov 2009 | 5:59 pm

Today’s links of interest: Collecting Headlines Funnier Than ThisThe staff of The Onion devotes two days a week to creating headlines (then writing/assigning the associated stories). Would that major media put that much thought into the process! Exclusive: How I Unmasked @FakeAPStylebook (an Only-on-Twitter Story)Oddly, this wasn’t an unmasking we wanted, though it’s interesting. We love @fakeapstylebook. Weezer Snuggie InfomercialSo many things wrong with this, it has to be right (YouTube). Gershwin Heirs Fight Over Copyright RoyaltiesBecause it really is about the money.
The Daily Loper – Nov 2, 2009

Lopy

2 Nov 2009 | 5:59 pm

Today’s links of interest: Quietube: A surprise proxy for the Middle EastIn which something unexpected is born. Love this. Latest Signs of a Dying IndustryAn interesting take on the Death of Newspapers: The World Series offers a startling barometer of how critical the health of the newspaper industry is in this country. It’s not yet on life support, but it’s getting there. The latest bleak picture is exhibited in the number of newspapers that are not covering the World Series.

thedigitalist.net
links for 2009-10-28

delicious

28 Oct 2009 | 3:30 am

jetBook-Lite announced as cheapest eBook reader Nobody seems to be content with Amazon owning most of the eBook reader space with the Kindle. Sure, there are other alternatives both equally priced (Nook) and a bit cheaper (Sony Reader Pocket Edition). None seem to have ability to completely own the market as they’re all fairly expensive for most consumers. Enter ECTACO with its new jetBook-Lite. (tags: device price) MobileRead Wiki - E-book Reader Matrix Fantastic wiki comparison of available ereader devices (tags: ereader device comparison)
Room on the Broom Interactive ebook

Michael Bhaskar

26 Oct 2009 | 5:30 am

Macmillan Children’s Books has recently launched a new kind of picture book. From the legendary Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler duo, Room on the Broom is a picture book in the old fashioned sense but also a fully interactive experience. Bundled with the book is a cd that includes an animated version of the story, games, activities and extras. The idea is to find new ways of getting kids involved with the content and to start expanding traditional content in ways that will amaze and delight both adults and offspring; it is about recognizing that when parents have iPhones, computers…
Revisiting a publishing manifesto - what does the future look like for publishers?

Sara Lloyd

19 Oct 2009 | 9:38 am

I’ve had many requests for a transcript of my presentation to the TOC Frankfurt crowd last week, so here it is. Scroll to the bottom for a download of the transcript and a view of the slides: Revisiting a publishing Manifesto – What does the future look like for publishers? In May 2008 I posted a 6,000 word article on my team blog, http://thedigitalist.net, entitled ‘A book publisher’s manifesto for the 21st century’. The sub title was ‘How traditional publishers can position themselves in the changing media flows of a networked era.’ If you’ve read it you’ll already…
links for 2009-10-14

delicious

14 Oct 2009 | 3:30 am

Google plans 'buy anywhere, read anywhere' offer Google is poised to launch its "buy anywhere, read anywhere" digital books programme Google Editions simultaneously in the US, UK and Europe within the first half of next year. (tags: ebooks subscription google googleeditions)
links for 2009-10-13

delicious

13 Oct 2009 | 3:30 am

TOC Frankfurt—Sara Lloyd: digital world is 'the present' | theBookseller.com Publishers must establish good trading relationships with digital distributors such as Apple and Google if they are to successfully "navigate" the changing digital landscape, Pan Macmillan’s digital director has told the Tools of Change (TOC) conference being held in Frankfurt today (13th October). (tags: saralloyd) LG unveils solar-powered e-reader | theBookseller.com Electronic company LG has unveiled a solar-powered e-book reader, which can work for a day on a five-hour charge. (tags:…

BuzzMachine
Gadget of the Month Club

Jeff Jarvis

6 Nov 2009 | 2:29 pm

Hey, Verizon (& Google & Apple & Dell & BestBuy….). I want to try the Droid but I am already in indentured servitude to AT&T for my iPhone (and have no particular desire to lose it). As much of a gadget geek as I am (I’m no Leo Laporte – my wife would’t let me be – but I do love the darned things), it’s still just not worth the $2,600 commitment to get another phone, even if Michael Arrington is having orgasms over it. I’ve been arguing on This Week in Google that what I want is a Gadget (or Phone) of the Month Club. Let me…
Tough love for media

Jeff Jarvis

6 Nov 2009 | 1:46 pm

Here in a bit more friendly video format is the keynote I gave to the Munich Media Days (in English) a week ago, which I linked to earlier. I decided to be blunt and tough and tell them I was worried about the protectionist talk I’ve been hearing from Germany and that they need to have hard discussions about the change that will waft over there from here. Carta also put up a transcript. Jeff Jarvis: “Google is not an enemy, Google is a model” from Carta on Vimeo.
The temporary web

Jeff Jarvis

4 Nov 2009 | 8:03 am

I’m fretting about forgetting things, not just because I’m getting older (on top of middle-aged surgery and its inconveniences and a dicky ticker I now have sciatica; I am a parody of age). I’m fretting about us all forgetting things because we’re using Twitter. Twitter is temporary. Streams are fleeting. If the future of the web after the page and the site and SEO is streams – and I believe at least part of it will be – then we risk losing information, ideas, and the permanent points – the permalinks – around which we used to coalesce. In this…
Podcast mania

Jeff Jarvis

3 Nov 2009 | 6:41 am

Podcasts, podcasts, everywhere….. This month’s MediaTalkUSA for the Guardian is up with guests Jay Rosen of NYU and Michael Tomasky of the Guardian. We talk about Politico’s rear-guard action against the Washington Post with its new local service; the election; the White House and Fox; and government support of journalism. Subscribe via iTunes Download mp3 Podcast feed URL Here’s the latest This Week in Google with Leo Laporte and Gina Trapani (in which she announces her new book about Wave) But that’s not all… I was also privileged to be a guest on last…
The future of news is entrepreneurial

Jeff Jarvis

1 Nov 2009 | 9:24 am

The future of news is entrepreneurial. There’s a lot in that statement. It says: The future of news is not institutional… The news of tomorrow has yet to be built…. The structure – the ecosystem – of news will not be dominated by a few corporations but likely will be made up of networks of many startups performing specialized functions based on the opportunities they see in the market…. Who does journalism, why and how will change…. The skills of journalists will change (to include business)…. We don’t yet know what the market will demand…

Publishing Insider
books make great gifts

publishinginsider

5 Nov 2009 | 5:05 am

This has been a theme I've worked on off and on for twenty years. Even had great ads done up for a nat'l campaign that never got funded. Still, some good news courtesy of "the Shelf": Spirit of the season: a group of book bloggers has founded "buy books for the holidays," a nonprofit project whose name says it all. The group will post essays "about why and how to buy books for the people on your gift list, shopping suggestion lists, information about reading charities and spotlights of independent bookstores." Indies can sign up through the site.
Remembering a bookman

publishinginsider

4 Nov 2009 | 5:03 am

From Shelf Awareness today: More on Robert Dike Blair, founder and longtime owner of the Vermont Book Shop, Middlebury, Vt., who died on Saturday. Steve Fischer, executive director of the New England Independent Booksellers Association, remembers: Dike hired me at the Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury, right out of college. I was hired to work down in the stock room while the regular guy worked through the holidays at a Christmas tree farm--making far more money than he would in a bookstore. Just as my stint was up, someone from the "shop floor" left and Dike asked me if I'd like…
Provence Plus

publishinginsider

31 Oct 2009 | 9:01 am

There's an office alongside Harper's that touts Sud de France, the forgotten neighbor of Provence. It sure looks pretty and they have lots of wine tastings! Color me intrigued!! (I've always been proud of being one of the first to talk up Peter Mayle's Year in Provence.)
Gary V. rules

publishinginsider

30 Oct 2009 | 5:15 am

I got to see Gary Vaynerchuk at Book Expo last year, at the launch of Crush It, and I totally love this guy's passion and energy. I don't think he sleeps! Check out his latest rants and raves!
brilliant Masterpiece Theater

publishinginsider

29 Oct 2009 | 4:49 am

As if William Hurt needed another tour de force, but his portrayal of Prof. Willie Esterhuyse in Endgame is just brilliant. The entire production is brilliant and not to be missed.

Eco-Libris blog
4 days left to the Green Books campaign: update on some cool prizes for the participating blogs!

6 Nov 2009 | 7:53 am

4 days left to our Green Books campaign and we're getting very excited as the clock is ticking towards next Tuesday, November 10.What will happen then? well, exactly on 1pm EST over 100 bloggers will take a stand to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of more than 100 such books! You can see the full list of participating books on the Green Books campaign's pageWe have great blogs participating in the campaign (list of the blogs is available on the campaign's page as well). As a small token of appreciation to their work on the campaign we will…
Green printing tip no. 22: What does I-Tone mean?

5 Nov 2009 | 12:23 pm

We have another tip for you on our weekly series of green printing tips, where we bring you information on green printing in collaboration with Greg Barber, an experienced eco-friendly printer.Today Greg is continuing a 4-part series that will focus on paper and paper companies. What does I-Tone meanTip #22This is the second part of a 4-part series I run on paper. Last week I featured two of the major mills and the variety of "green" options they offer. Today, I will talk about I-Tone.So what is I-Tone? The I-Tone finish is a clear finish, added to the paper, that allows for better print…
6 days left to the Green Books campaign: who are the publishers that take part in it?

4 Nov 2009 | 10:46 am

The countdown continues with 6 days left to our green books campaign: 1 Day, 100 bloggers, 100 green books, 100 reviews.If you didn't hear about it yet, here's a reminder: On Tuesday, November 10, 2009, at 1:00 PM Eastern Time over 100 bloggers will take a stand to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of more than 100 such books. Organized by Eco-Libris, this campaign is aiming to promote “green” books by reviewing more than 100 books printed on recycled paper or FSC-certified paper. A full list of the books that will be reviewed on the…
Al Gore's new Audiobook, OUR CHOICE, read by John Slattery and Cynthia Nixon is released today!

3 Nov 2009 | 11:19 am

Almost 3.5 years after "An Inconvenient Truth" was published, Al Gore is back with a new book - "OUR CHOICE: A Plan To Solve the Climate Crisis", which is being released today. A book by Al Gore is always exciting news, but it's get even better - it is also available as an audiobook, read by no other than John Slattery and Cynthia NixonThe audiobook is released today by Simon & Schuster Audio who provided us an excerpt of the book, just to give you a taste what it all about:Our Choice Audio Trailer - Al GoreHere's more about "OUR CHOICE" from Al Gore's introduction to the book:It is now…
You can still win a copy of "Green Earth Guide: Traveling Naturally in France"

2 Nov 2009 | 8:25 am

We remind you that we have an ongoing giveaway of a great book - Green Earth Guide: Traveling Naturally in France.This book is a great guide for those who wish to travel to France and want to have fun and enjoy the trip while keeping their footprint as low as possible. We announced on a giveaway of one copy following our review of the book last week and it's ending tomorrow.So how you can win? Please add a comment on the book's review post and share with us a green experience you had in one of your last trips to another country.Submissions are accepted until Tuesday, November 3, 12PM EST. The…

Tate Publishing
Book design in a self-published world

14 Oct 2009 | 3:31 pm

There has been a lot of talk in the news lately about big-name publishers opening up self-publishing opportunities under their same company. When a writer decides to self-publish, it's usually because he 1) can't get an agent, or get "discovered" by a big name publisher, or 2) he just wants to get a few books here and there for his close friends and family. No big deal. What about a third group? The die-hard writer who has true talent, and has the drive to get out there and market his book like nobodies business? That's where Tate comes in. We're not a self-publisher, (we don't accept every…
Tate Illustrator takes 3rd in Digital Artist 2009

17 Sep 2009 | 12:33 pm

Congratulations to Tate Illustrator, Kurt Jones, for his recent 3rd place win! Sharon Copeland recently stated regarding Kurt's piece, "Your work was hand-picked from the thousands of entries from all over the world, so congratulations!"Here is the link to view the other top winners for this category. Judge Gregory Staples commented about Kurt's piece: "Expertly rendered and executed, you can almost hear the silence in this piece." Well done Kurt!
Tate Design Department-

24 Aug 2009 | 6:16 pm

http://okc.biz/industry/bestofbusiness.aspxHelp get Tate's Design Department recognized in the next OKC Biz magazine!You can vote online starting now, through September 9.In the first field that says " Advertising Agency and Graphic Design Firm", simply type " Tate Publishing Design Department".Fill in your email address at the bottom, and you're done!! Winners get an article in the next magazine. It would be a great honor for our designers to be recognized here in our home state.
Tate Designer is in Semi-Finals for HP Video

18 Aug 2009 | 6:37 am

Tate Publishing designer, Chris Castor, is currently a semi-finalist for the HP 'You On You' video competition. The competition is to create a video for HP, but the creator cannot show his or her face. You can check out Chris' submission here.To vote for Chris, give him a "thumbs up"! The more votes Chris gets, the better his chances of moving on to the next round!Here is a link to the HP contest homepage.
Tate Publishing Illustration Department Paints Mural for local school-

16 Jun 2009 | 10:02 am

Tate Publishing's illustration department employees designed and painted a mural at Bishop John Carroll School in Oklahoma City. The mural shows the school mascot, an eagle, when entering the gym. The illustration department employees decided the mural fit within their talents. The design was created by Brandon Wood and Kurt Jones of Tate Publishing. The company donated materials and workers volunteered their time.“The school was really happy to have us out to give the gym a much needed update. The illustrators did an amazing job,” said Brandon Wood, associate director of…

Peachpit
Blog :: Raindrops on Runners

2 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm

Question: How would you show the rain a little better than in this photo and still show the runners well? What settings would you use for this photo?
Blog :: Safari Books Online 6.0 rocks!

27 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pm

It was really bugging me this morning: I was on the phone with one of my favorite Photoshop instructors, and somehow we got to talking about monitor profiles and printer profiles and he casually dropped the phrase "black point compensation." I stopped him for some remedial training on the term.
Blog :: Shooting in the Water

26 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pm

Question: On the Coast Guard swimmer shoot, how did you protect your camera and SB's from the spray? How about cleanup afterwards?
Blog :: What Makes You a Good Photographer?

19 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pm

Question: I want to know what inspires you and what makes you a good photographer?
Blog :: How to find your creative voice

12 Oct 2009 | 5:00 pm

When author, teacher, and creative photographer Chris Orwig told me the story of his Brooks' students complaining about not having a shooting subject that grabbed them, I wanted to be transported to his classroom on the spot.

Tools of Change for Publishing
Agree with this summary of why Posterous makes posting dead simple

5 Nov 2009 | 1:45 pm

via broadcast.oreilly.com Mark Sigal's spot on in his assessment of micro-blogging service Posterous. It bridges the gap between Tweeting and Blogging and makes posting effortless. Posted via web from TOC Posterous
Qwitter: Accessible Twitter client (uses TTS) (via @doctorow)

5 Nov 2009 | 11:19 am

Just make sure not to follow anyone who's a member of the Author's Guild ... "The Qwitter client enables blind individuals to interface with the Twitter service globally, regardless of application focus. Based off of revolutionary concepts pioneered in The Jawter Jaws Scripts, Qwitter, with full support for the three major comercial screen readers and sapi speech, provides you instant access to all aspects of the twitter microblogging service, giving you the ability to post a tweet from anywhere, read tweets, perform searches, and far, far more." http://www.qwitter-client.net/ Posted via…
"Web-based ePub validator adds Preflight and API" (via @liza)

4 Nov 2009 | 8:26 am

From @liza at Threepress:"EpubCheck’s lesser-known companion checks for additional issues like content documents that exceed 300K, which can’t be loaded on the Sony Reader.http://blog.threepress.org/2009/11/04/epub-validator-updates/(ps -- thanks to @liza for making my day with the pointer to http://twitter.com/big_ben_clock) Posted via email from TOC Posterous
Despite recent gains for books, Games still dominate in the App Store (via @dliman)

3 Nov 2009 | 10:30 am

O'Reilly's Ben Lorica slices and dices current app trends for iPhone and Android (nice data points on price stabilization too): "While it might be true that the number of Book apps is growing at a faster rate, Games continue to dominate the list of popular U.S. iTunes Apps. Games accounted for about a fifth of all iTunes apps over the past week†, but the category continued to have a disproportionate share of the Top 100 charts, accounting for 52% of the Top Grossing, 56% of the Top Paid, and 50% of the Top Free apps."…
Despite recent gains for books, Games still dominate in the App Store (via @dliman)

3 Nov 2009 | 10:25 am

O'Reilly's Ben Lorica slices and dices current app trends for iPhone and Android (nice data points on price stabilization too): "While it might be true that the number of Book apps is growing at a faster rate, Games continue to dominate the list of popular U.S. iTunes Apps. Games accounted for about a fifth of all iTunes apps over the past week†, but the category continued to have a disproportionate share of the Top 100 charts, accounting for 52% of the Top Grossing, 56% of the Top Paid, and 50% of the Top Free apps."…

Michael Hyatt
Friends, Critics, and Trolls

Michael Hyatt

6 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

If you are a leader, you are going to attract critics. It is inevitable. In fact, if you aren’t attracting critics, you should be wondering why. Criticism is normal. Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/LiseGagne Why? Because real leaders upset the status quo and make people uncomfortable. As Finley Peter Dunne once said about journalists, “Our job is to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” The same is true of leaders. Unfortunately, this almost always meets with resistance. But let’s be honest: criticism hurts. At least it does for me. I’ve been in the public…
Five Ways Your Company Can Benefit from Twitter

Michael Hyatt

4 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

Yesterday morning, I presented my company’s experience with social media at an event sponsored by Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Business. I presented three social media examples: (1) blogging, (2) twitter, and (3) user-generated product reviews. You can click on the slide show above to see the slide deck I used. This is essentially an excerpt from my Social Media 101 half-day seminar. Please note that my slides are a complement to my talk and were not intended to be a stand-alone presentation. In preparation for my talk, last week I asked my Twitter followers to tell me how my use…
October’s Top Ten Posts

Michael Hyatt

1 Nov 2009 | 4:59 am

This morning, I was reviewing my traffic statistics for the month of October. Based on the data from my Google Analytics account, here were my top, most-read posts. It is interesting that only half of these were new posts written during the month. The remainder came from my archives. These are arranged in descending order, based on number of page views: Should You Consider Self-Publishing? This is the controversial announcement about WestBow Press, Thomas Nelson’s new self-publishing or subsidy publishing initiative. Literary Agents Who Represent Christian Authors This is the Web’s only…
12 Strategies for Leadership Success

Michael Hyatt

30 Oct 2009 | 5:04 am

This is a guest post by Margaret McSweeney. She is the author of Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace (Moody Publishers, July 2009) and A Mother’s Heart Knows (Thomas Nelson, 2005). She is also active on Twitter and Facebook. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here. My father, the late Dr. Claude H. Rhea, Jr., executed and exemplified lessons on leadership throughout his short life of sixty-two years. He was a strategic visionary, a 32-year colon cancer survivor, a member of the prestigious Royal Society of the Arts, an accomplished international…
Five Characteristics of Weak Leaders

Michael Hyatt

28 Oct 2009 | 4:00 am

Sometimes you learn from positive role models. Often you learn from negative ones. This is one of the reasons I love to read history—you inevitably get both. For the last week or so, I have been reading Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It is a page-turning account of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and his political genius. At the beginning of Lincoln’s first term, he appointed each of his former Republican rivals—those who had run against him for his party’s nomination—to cabinet posts. The narrative demonstrates his amazing ability to tap into a broad array of perspectives…

Mequoda Daily
New FREE 46-Page White Paper on Sales Letter Landing Page Templates

Amanda MacArthur

6 Nov 2009 | 9:45 am

Creating Landing Pages that Sell goes FREE and is now available as an instantly downloadable white paper of landing page template guidelines Today we’re launching a new FREE white paper called Creating Sales Letter Landing Page Templates that Sell. This 43-page book is a condensed and fully updated version of our Creating Landing Pages that Sell book that we used to sell in the Mequoda bookstore for $197. Do you know how to write, design and create sales letter landing page templates that convert visitors into buyers? Among other factors, the art of creating landing page templates that…
Save the Dates – Mequoda Summit Napa Valley April 6-9th

Amanda MacArthur

5 Nov 2009 | 9:38 am

Mark your calendars and plan your budget for 2010 with the Mequoda Summit Napa Valley on April 6-9th 2010 We all have varying training needs when it comes to the success of our online publishing and marketing programs. Because of that, we are presenting the Mequoda Summit in an entirely new format for 2010. Attendees will now have the option of training with us for 4 days, where they can attend their choice of an in-depth pre-conference workshop on Tuesday, their choice of an in-depth post-conference workshop on Friday and the main two-day conference. A 3-day pass will also be available for…
Do You Want A Few Thousand New Email Subscribers This Month Too?

Amanda MacArthur

4 Nov 2009 | 10:32 am

To Free or Not to Free? Ask Mrs. Fields What She Thinks About Freemiums Your website is your chance at delivering a powerful first impression. If you’ve been playing your cards right, you have landing pages set up that are driving traffic into your website that offer something for free. The reason why we stand so strongly behind “the power of free” is because simply… it works. Entrepreneur.com agrees: If you think it won’t work with your product, consider Debbie Fields. When nobody came into her first store in Palo Alto, Calif., she put her product on a tray and…
Content Discovery: The Hidden Value of Social Networking Sites for Referrals

Michelle L. Rodriguez

3 Nov 2009 | 9:18 am

Are you and your employees harnessing the power of social media? Over 50% of employers prohibit the use of social networking sites by employees while on the clock. Are they missing the boat on a valuable source of referrals? Maybe, but for online publishers and marketers it is another important way for users to find and share your content. The majority of content discovery, as much as 70% according to Nielsen, are referrals from search engines and portals like Google, Yahoo and MSN. With social networking sites like Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook and blogs making up almost 20% of users…
The Truth About Using Product Shots in Your Email Newsletter Marketing

Amanda MacArthur

2 Nov 2009 | 10:22 am

Using the right product shot in your email newsletter can increase response rates by 20-30% As humans, we are drawn to shiny things. You can have a 200-page book, but when you add pictures, examples and visual case studies to a page, you’re keeping the readers’ attention for longer, while they examine the image. The same goes when you are selling a product. Someone recently asked us in our members-only Mequoda Pro Q&A forum: “How important is it to have a product picture in your marketing emails?” Let’s start by answering a question with a question. What if you went to…

Book Covers blog
Meet John Foe

5 Nov 2009 | 11:25 am

As part of the National Novel Writing Month I will be posting quickly-designed covers for participating authors - a new one every day. This cover is a job for... Congress-Man? Action Comics, I thank you.
The Beauty of a Grid

3 Nov 2009 | 2:58 pm

As part of the National NovelWriting Month I will be posting quickly-designed covers for participating authors - a new one every day. This will likely end in tears. Click here for the synopsis of this book. I wanted to create something that would represent – and agitate – the OCD-stricken protagonist. I really really really hope the book is not semi-autobiographical, heh.
Traffic Lights

3 Nov 2009 | 10:34 am

As part of the National Novel Writing Month I will be posting quickly-designed covers for participating authors - a new one every day. This will likely end in tears. Click here for the synopsis of this book.
The Business

1 Nov 2009 | 12:02 pm

For the month of November I am going to be participating in National Novel Writing Month by attempting to design one cover for participating authors every day - 30 covers in 30 days. The authors are randomly selected by the propietors of the NaNoWriMo project to have their synopsis/title designed around by yours truly. The point here is volume/output and not necessarily quality, but I'll do my best. This is probably a very foolish stunt on my part, and even more foolish to be turning it over to you dogs of war to critique! I won't pretend that these are going to be mindbogglingly good, as…
The Interrogative Mood: A Novel?

30 Oct 2009 | 8:22 am

Another one of the few, the proud, the brave: a title-less cover, this one actually making a lot of sense. Considering the contents – a string of surreal questions about the necessary (or not) things in our filled-to-the-brim lives – the minimalist treatment also makes perfect sense. Of course, it is a bit easy to toss a question mark about in order for someone to pick it up, but even the question mark itself is weighty and ponderous.

There Are No Rules
Marketing in a Digital Age

Jane

3 Nov 2009 | 4:24 pm

More than a year ago, I left a comment on the Booksquare blog by Kassia Krozser, on a post titled "Why Publishers Should Blog." Kassia argued that publishers needed to be more vocal about supporting the titles they publish. I responded: Definitely agree, but I have to wonder if the lack of enthusiastic comments direct from publishers is primarily due to lack of time (and energy, sadly). If an editor (or whomever) is juggling dozens of projects in a given year, accomplishing just the basics can be enormously demanding. (Lean staffs!) The “friendly” online marketing or buzz building has…
Every Writer Needs a Little Salesperson Inside

Jane

2 Nov 2009 | 3:16 pm

It's not a natural thing for most creative people to sell their work, but when it comes time to publish, you have to know something about how to sell. You have to put in the effort, make the calls, not get beat down by rejection. (It's why I love this Alec Baldwin video, and my advice based on it.) I'm definitely not a salesperson by nature. But it didn't take long to learn some basic skills, since my first editorial job depended on convincing salespeople my ideas were worthwhile. Most writers need a little help in understanding how to pitch their work effectively, and I love being the one to…
Writer's Digest Hits Top 10 Amazon List

Jane

2 Nov 2009 | 2:55 pm

Just got word that our recent release, And Here's the Kicker: Conversations With 21 Top Humor Writers on Their Craft by Mike Sacks, hit Amazon's Top 10 List of Best Entertainment Books in 2009. Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review, and said, "Veteran journalist Sacks conducted dozens of interviews with the top humor writers of the last century, and the result is a whiz-bang collection of Q&As that will school readers just as often as it provokes laughter." Read an excerpt: an interview with Stephen Merchant, co-creator of The Office. (And go buy in our shop at Amazon-like pricing.
Looking for Your Feedback: What Do Established Writers Need?

Jane

1 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm

One of the biggest criticisms or complaints about Writer's Digest (usually the magazine) is that it's for wannabes, and that after a few years, the advice/information either becomes repetitive or irrelevant, especially for someone who works at the professional level. I've been daydreaming about how to develop a new periodical that would offer information and insights for advanced, established, or professional writers/authors, and remain relevant even after achieving publication. (Just to be sure, such a periodical would not serve to replace the current magazine.) But I need your help to get…
Best Tweets for Writers (week ending 10/30/09)

Jane

1 Nov 2009 | 2:08 pm

I watch Twitter, so you don't have to. Visit each Sunday for the week's best Tweets. If I missed a great Tweet, leave it in the Comments. Always welcome your suggestions on improving this weekly feature. Check out new Twitter lists: List of Tweeps most often included in weekly Best Tweets for Writers (always under development) Writer's Digest list of publishers on Twitter (let us know who we missed) Writer's Digest list of agents on Twitter (let us know who we missed) Best of Best The top 5 Secrets to Getting a [nonfiction] Book Deal (by editor Alan Rinzler) @mariaschneider Rights and…

Self-Publishing Review
Ebooks are a Disaster

Henry Baum

4 Nov 2009 | 9:25 am

A confession: ebooks are totally mystifying to me. I may run this site and the future success of self-publishing rests on how much ebooks saturate the market, but I’m not a tech-head whatsoever. I don’t buy the latest gadgets or even follow the news that religiously - because a new gadget comes every third minute, and who can afford to shell out another $300 for the latest thing? I have a Sony ereader, but it’s not my first choice when it comes to reading. This may put me in a better position to talk about how incredibly and unnecessarily difficult it is to navigate the…
Don’t You Just Hate Words?

Stefanie Flaxman

4 Nov 2009 | 8:52 am

I hate words. Nothing complicates your ideas more than words. However, most writers love words. Go figure. I don’t necessarily mean that an article’s word count is problematic. How many words it takes you to express and support your points is circumstantial. Just don’t get carried away with words that hinder, rather than enhance, your thoughts. For example, the passive voice is often considered taboo. But I just used it anyway. In the exemplary first sentence of this paragraph “is often considered taboo” is the passive voice. In this case I used the word “considered” to…
West of Mars: An Interview with Susan Helene Gottfried

Kristen Tsetsi

30 Oct 2009 | 4:35 pm

Susan Helene Gottfried runs the website West of Mars, where she will tell you she does very little talking about her writing. Instead, she writes. She engages readers addicted to her Demo Tapes, described on her website as “collections of short fiction that introduce you to Trevor, Mitchell, and the rest of the fictional band, ShapeShifter — as well as the world in which they inhabit.” But West of Mars, winner of twenty blog awards, isn’t all about Susan and her own writing. She also promotes other writers who want to reach readers. In the following interview, Susan discusses…
Page One Review - Eyeleash by Jess C. Scott

Kristen Tsetsi

29 Oct 2009 | 9:29 am

This first page of Jess C. Scott’s Eyeleash falls flat, and here’s why: the use of shortened language (”abt”), the suggestion that I’m about to read a series of random blog entries with no particular movement in any direction (”Rants raves and everything else”), and the immediate introduction to a narrator who believes her blog and herself are interesting enough to warrant warnings about sharing the material, which usually means the entries won’t actually be that interesting - or, not as interesting as the author suspects. However, at the same…
What Book Designers Do with Their Time

Guest Post

29 Oct 2009 | 9:17 am

A guest post by Cathi Stevenson, from Book Cover Express, reprinted from her blog on book cover design. Part 1: It Should Only Take Five Minutes “It shouldn’t take more than five minutes or so. I saw a web designer do it once.” Words that make any print designer cringe. I remember one client I had a few years ago who wanted seven or eight images combined to make a design and he told me it would take only a few minutes. First, I had to find all these images. Just for the heck of it, you try a search on fotosearch.com, istockphoto.com, bigstockphoto.com or photos.com for some similar…

Self Publishing Today
Social Media in the Self Publishing World

Courtney the Intern

5 Nov 2009 | 8:34 am

An article by B.L. Ochman was released this week marking the “Ten Things Social Media Can’t Do.” As technology improves and progresses, businesses need to be able to keep up with it in order to better contend with their competitors. That being said, social media is not the answer to everything. Of course, it’s a cool [...]
Self Publishing Taking Over Traditional Publishing?

Courtney the Intern

29 Oct 2009 | 3:17 pm

In Monday’s article in the Huffington Post, Mark Coker questions the future of the publishing industry. With publishing a book, risks are involved. Is the book marketable? Who will purchase the book? Will it sell? In traditional publishing, the risks lie with the company. There is no way to know whether a book will be a [...]
Publishing Trolls – Breaking Down Authors One Page at a Time

Courtney the Intern

27 Oct 2009 | 9:21 am

Scenario: You have been writing your book for some time, and it is finally completed. After all of the work and effort you put into it, you are genuinely proud of your creation. People may frequently look down on you because you are an author (and authors are supposed to be broke and unsuccessful), but [...]
Quick post – Top ten rules for creating a personal brand – for self publishers

Ray Robinson

14 Oct 2009 | 2:36 pm

I stumbled on to this from a Tweet by Guy Kawasaki … Dan Schawabel (the ‘personal branding’ guru) put together ten rules for creating your personal ‘brand’. Since a book – and an author – need to stand out to be successful, this list make sense for any author self publishing their book… There are some classics [...]
Thomas Nelson gets into the self publishing game

Ray Robinson

13 Oct 2009 | 9:26 am

What an odd juxtaposition of traditional publisher and self publisher – a self publishing story breaking today in the Wall Street Journal indicates that the venerable religious publisher has decided to enter the fiercely competitive landscape of self publishing. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Thomas Nelson will launch West Bow Press, their self-publishing imprint, and will [...]

mediabistro.com: FishBowlLA
Veronica De La Cruz Blogs On Her Battle For Health Care Reform

6 Nov 2009 | 3:33 pm

Veronica De La Cruz, a reporter and former television anchor for CNN news, has written a story for the Huffington Post on her fight for health care reform, and why it is such a personal battle: On July 4, 2009, I lost my brother and my only sibling Eric Alexander De La Cruz. He passed away while awaiting a heart transplant. Five years ago, he was diagnosed with severe dilated cardiomyopathy, a weakening of the heart that prevents it from pumping normally. Since then, we had tried to get Eric insurance coverage that would allow him to get the treatment he needed, but no private insurer would…
Mediabistro Blog-Family Roundup

6 Nov 2009 | 3:10 pm

Could Glenn Beck take over Oprah's syndicated slot? - TVNewser The state of the blogosphere - MediaJobsDaily Condé Nast gets crisis management help - FishbowlNY Journalists turn to Scribd in Fort Hood shooting - GalleyCat Droid ad on Google's homepage - BayNewser New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
LA Weekly Advertises On Craigslist For Mikulan's Replacement

6 Nov 2009 | 2:16 pm

You remember Steven Mikulan? The widely-respected journalist and editor the LA Weekly canned last month after 25 years on staff? Mikulan was known for his versatility, earning accolades as both a theater critic and trial reporter. He counted Dominick Dunne as one of his many fans. Mikulan's most recent role at the paper was as editor of the LAW news blog, LA Daily. Said Kevin Roderick on LA Observed "I liked the aesthetics, if you will, that Mikulan brought to the Weekly's blog. He seemed to rise above the overheated city is falling apart while the Valley suffers meme that's currently in…
FBLA's Top 5 Stories Yesterday

6 Nov 2009 | 8:26 am

BREAKING: Protest Of CNN FBLA Exclusive: Trendsetter Richard Rushfield Wants Us Not To Follow Him Porn Star Janine Battling Jesse James, Sandra Bullock For Daughter Conservative Female Former CEO Descends on 2010 CA Election...Another One Entertainment Weekly Staff Cuts Felt In L.A. New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Congressman Punches Patrick Gavin

6 Nov 2009 | 8:14 am

This is our former colleague at FishbowlDC current POLITICO reporter Patrick Gavin boxing with Congressman Peter King. The congressman seems to land a couple on Gavin's face. This is every politicians wet dream. Via FishbowlDC Politico Pillages Mediabistro For Staff New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Personanondata
Segmenting Publishing Strategy

PersonaNonData

8 Nov 2009 | 10:28 pm

There is a self-publishing conference in NYC this weekend which reminded me of a project I worked on several years ago. After reading an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review about defining a company's corporate strategy, I decided to use the ideas in the article to spur discussion about my clients strategy. The HBS article Charting Your Company's Future is available from the HBS site and is summarized as follows:Few companies have a clear strategic vision. The problem, say the authors, stems from the strategic-planning process itself, which usually involves preparing a large…
K-12 Online Learning to exceed 10.5mm students by 2014

PersonaNonData

5 Nov 2009 | 7:25 am

A report recently conducted by is bullish on the growth of online learning suggesting that the number of K-12 students taking online courses will jump from 2mm currently to over 10.5mm by 2014. The results we discussed in a webinar and the full report is available for $4K (LINK):The information was presented in a Webinar that coincided with a new report from Ambient Insight focusing on the growth of the electronic learning market (in terms of dollars spent on products and services) from 2009 to 2014. Titled "US Self-paced eLearning Market," the new report highlighted some of the dominant…
Maggwire.com: The iTunes of Magazines?

PersonaNonData

4 Nov 2009 | 4:30 pm

I've been going to monthly meetups for the NY Tech group for the past year and they are a lot of fun (I've mentioned one of two presentations shown there in the past year - Snooth is one). At these meetings start-up companies are given five minutes to present their company and answer questions from the audience. The response from the audience is generally positive; however, the audience are not afraid to challenge the presenters over some aspect of their offering and worse not ask any questions if the company has failed to inspire. Each monthly meeting has about 700 attendees.Last night one…
Digital Book World Conference in January

PersonaNonData

4 Nov 2009 | 7:02 am

There is an upcoming conference that seeks to break the mold of your traditional digital media conference and I hope you can join us in January at Digital Book World. Below is an update on our progress and a discount code you can use based on my role as an adviser to the conference.We're gaining some tangible momentum as we close in on our early registration deadline. In the next 2+ months leading up to the January conference, we will continue to offer insightful content and resources that are relevant to both the specific topics covered in our conference sessions, as well as in areas not…
Christopher Walken Reads Lady Gaga

PersonaNonData

2 Nov 2009 | 1:23 pm

And if you haven't seen Chicken with Pears it is worth a look: Link PND

Editors Only
Editing Foreign Authors

30 Oct 2009 | 12:24 pm

Tips for applying your editorial skills to foreign writers. By Linda Johnson A Frenchman who says "It's Hebrew...
Book Review

28 Oct 2009 | 1:01 pm

The Magazine from Cover to Cover (2nd edition), by Sammye Johnson and Patricia Prijatel The Magazine from Cover...
Lessons from Books

28 Oct 2009 | 10:38 am

Some useful tricks from what the experts say and how they've mastered their craft. By Peter P. Jacobi...
Sentence Adverbs -- The "Hopefully" Debate

23 Oct 2009 | 12:28 pm

Ideally, this article will shed some light on the subject. By Meredith L. Dias You have likely encountered...
Advice from the Competition

30 Sep 2009 | 11:33 am

Useful tidbits taken from other publications invested in the art of writing. By Peter P. Jacobi I'm not...

eMedia Vitals
Virtual events come of age

Naomi Reiter

5 Nov 2009 | 5:11 am

Virtual events have come a long way over the past several years, evolving from cartoonish (and sometimes creepy) environments to streamlined 3D cyber-venues. The question is, are publishers ready to include virtual events in their stable of revenue streams and lead-generation tools
The rebirth of the infographic

Sean Blanda

4 Nov 2009 | 12:07 pm

As data and graphic design tools become more widely available, the infographic is becoming the trendy way to display complex data sets to readers.
Texas Tribune: A nonprofit model for political journalism

Dylan Stableford

3 Nov 2009 | 6:43 am

When Evan Smith announced in July that he was stepping down as president and editor-in-chief of Texas Monthly after more than 17 years at the magazine to take a job at a nonprofit, local e-media startup called the Texas Tribune, it was something of a head-scratcher. After all, Texas Monthly had just won a coveted National Magazine Award for general excellence, and Smith had a coveted publishing job.
Subscription management gets strategic

Rob ORegan

29 Oct 2009 | 9:50 am

Among the numerous challenges that media companies face these days, one that often flies under the radar is subscription management. But it’s one of the more critical issues as publishers make the transition from print to digital business models.
Bridging the digital subscriber gap

Sean Blanda

29 Oct 2009 | 6:05 am

As the industry shift to digital picks up, most eMedia companies are becoming dual-medium brands with editorial content in print and online. With this transition comes the added challenge of tying together print and online readers.