Browsing Archive: December, 2010

How Books Need to be Packaged, Bundled and Sold

Posted by John R. on Wednesday, December 29, 2010, In : publishing 
You often hear of authors selling their book rights...but, today's post is about a best-selling author buying back his book rights!

 Best-selling author, Steve Farber, is paying a handsome figure to buy back the rights to two of his leadership books from Kaplan Publishers so he can publish with No Limit Publishing Group; publishers more savvy in all the new tech publishing platforms. 


No Limit is also offering Mr. Farber a 50/50 split on net royalties for both digital and print formats AND wor...
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Self-Published "Pleased But Not Satisfied" Topseller for Bookworm

Posted by John R. on Monday, December 27, 2010, In : self-publishing 
David Sokol, an Omaha native, has self-published a business management book (his first book) through online bookstore Bookworm. It has been it's bestseller over the last two years with 8000 copies sold to people from all over the world.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that Sokol is a top manager in a Berkshire Hathaway major subsidiary company AND that  Sokol is rumored to become Berkshire Hathaway’s next chairman and CEO, succeeding Warren Buffett, 80.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is essentia...

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Google Making Down Under It's Up Over!

Posted by John R. on Friday, December 24, 2010, In : digital publishing 
"authors will take distribution into their own hands and sidestep publishers altogether, using platforms such as the ones offered by Apple and Google to go directly to readers"

While reading an article in the Delimiter, an Australian technology news source, written by Renai LeMay (owner) I discovered the "book ecosystem concept"... which simply takes you from author, to publisher, to digital platform and retailer...hopefully in one seamless swell swoop! LeMay explains how Google is trying to c...

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How Jackie Kennedy Onassis Became an Editor

Posted by John R. on Wednesday, December 22, 2010, In : Editing 
When I began reading this inside look at Jackie Kennedy Onassis, I did not realize how captivated I would become. I really never thought of her as an editor...only as the First Lady or the wife of a very rich industrialist.

BUT, she had quite a life after the death of her second husband, Aristotle Onassis...as an editor...

Joseph Kanon, a published author of spy and action novels, wrote this special for the Washington Post:

"A woman of many titles"

JACKIE AS EDITOR

The Literary Life of Jacquelin...

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Books To Always Be...Publishers Not To Be

Posted by John R. on Monday, December 20, 2010, In : digital publishing 
Books, albeit 'live' or interactive, will remain a part of the human experience forever....And they will primarily consist of text, whatever the media format. Publishers, as an industry, will not. That industry has been fragmented into a democratic individualistic endeavor, if you will...A vastly more level and responsive playing field

Everyone who writes and presents are now 'publishers'...Talk about an all-inclusive vertical business model...In fact, talk about an all-inclusive horizontal b...

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How About Letting Readers' Input Write Your Book?

Posted by John R. on Saturday, December 18, 2010, In : self-publishing 
An idea for lazy writers (although not new, damn it!): get your readers' feedback on an interesting subject and then formulate that input into a finished book and sell it on the internet!

Cool idea...and that's just what Andrew Sullivan, writer of the 10-year-old Daily Dish blog on the Atlantic web site, has done successfully for the second time...Hell, I have to admit it, I admire pure genius.

He first published a book on the Blurb.com "Make Your Own Book" site back in June, made up of photos ...

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Are Lists and Databases Protected By Copyright?

Posted by John R. on Thursday, December 16, 2010, In : Publishing & Copyright Law 
The answer to this post's title is: maybe so. I never really thought about a compilation of data being copyrightable until I came across an article about an Australian court case Publishers see red over court's Yellow Pages copyright ruling.

My interest was tweaked! So, I delved into a little research into American law on subject copyright existence...It seems some lists and aggregations can, indeed, be copyrighted. Depends on how much originality went into the compilation, sorting and listing...

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Picture Books are Still Vibrant and Thriving

Posted by John R. on Monday, December 13, 2010, In : print publishing 
The New York Times recently published a front page story essentially writing the orbituary for children's picture books...A story much in conflict with the real world according to big house publishers, booksellers, libraries and agents.

Karen Springen, Publishers Weekly, gives the straight story on printed picture books (with considerable associated writing):

Don't Write the Obit For Picture Books Yet

Children's book publishers are still reeling from the New York Times front-page story back in ...

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Are Print Magazines Seeing Some Improvement in 2010?

Posted by John R. on Saturday, December 11, 2010, In : Magazine Publishing 
Is the print mag publishing market finding it's bottom...or optimum level of sustainability? Seems it might be as there were fewer closures this year than last. There were also fewer start-ups than last year, but there were start-ups!

Matthew Flamm has some insightful figures for us un-initiated that are quite revealing in this report for Cain's New York Business:

Magazines say fewer hellos, goodbyes in 2010

A year that saw innovations like iPad-only magazines both launched and shuttered fewer ...

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Google and Ad-Supported Book Publishing Model

Posted by John R. on Thursday, December 9, 2010, In : digital publishing 
The newly opened Google eBookstore has some nice surprises and offerings. The Google Store can sell books to targeted people right after they search a particular topic AND they can also create an ad-supported publishing model...delivering targeted ads from the book subject purchases...Seems this is more possible since the ebooks will be provided from the cloud configuration.

Wonder what the split is on an ad-supported publishing model?  Authors/publishers get what % and Google retains what %? ...

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Borders May Offer Takeover Bid for Barnes&Noble

Posted by John R. on Tuesday, December 7, 2010, In : booksellers 
Both these booksellers have struggled to adapt and keep pace with new digital tech, discounters and online competitors...But, if I had to guess which one would buy the other in a takeover bid, I would have guessed B&N would be the pursuer and not the other way around.

Borders must have more vision and strength than I realized...or they just want to stay in the game. Borders is smaller than B&N but some say they are better organized.

This from the Associated Press through Crain's New York Busine...

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Canada's 'Fair Dealing' Law Trumps Copyright Rights

Posted by John R. on Monday, December 6, 2010, In : Publishing & Copyright Law 
First this:
 
Fair Dealing is the right to use copyrighted materials without permission of or payment to the copyright holder. Under current law, it applies only to materials used for the purposes of research, private study, criticism, review and news reporting. The new bill seeks to add education, along with satire and parody, to this list...(TOTALLY BAD IDEA!)

Canada has a cluster-muck mess in it's publishing arena laws right now, and probably has had for some time, if this amateur researcher ...

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U.S News & World Report Abandons 'print' Ship!

Posted by John R. on Friday, December 3, 2010, In : digital magazines 
A venerable old weekly print news mag (it was reduced to monthly in November 2008) is riding off into it's last sunset (the last issue is this month)...

BUT, the U.S. News & World Report will re-appear in digital clothes with an expanded online edition that will appear 8 times per year and definitly include it's famous "list" issues...you remember them: the best colleges, hospitals, etc.

Here is a great eulogy delivered by big fan Greg Brown of FOLIO magazine:

Right about now, you should be gett...

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Digital is Growing Up

Posted by John R. on Wednesday, December 1, 2010, In : digital publishing 
A little visionary post tonight...As much as I can envision the future anyway (being retarded makes it difficult).

We talk about "traditional" print publishing today as old hat. Well, not too far into the future the new tablet computers, eReaders and other mobile devices will be "traditional" or old hat also. Just like the old bulky camcorders (remember them?) have given way to more diminutive devices.

After all, who will need ANYTHING you have to carry to compute on, or receive data on, when...

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About Me


John R. Austin Writer, Old-Warrior-Adventurer, Blogger... I was born in Key West, Florida. A rather famous hangout for some past famous writers: Hemingway and Tennessee Williams to name two. I just hope that I possess a glimmer of their talent. I have a bachelors degree in architecture/construction and a master's degree in industrial engineering. I have been writing for fifty plus years. Most of my writing has been in the technical, instructional and business areas. I am working on my first book: "Havana Harvest---When Cuba Was Naughty" which details my coming of age experiences in 1958 Havana, Cuba, at the age of 15. Please visit my other blog "Writers Welcome Blog" at http://alturl.com/4z88.

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