The week in publishing (February 13 through February 19)
Posted By Sue Collier on February 19, 2012
Here’s some of the latest in industry news and views:
From Publishing Perspectives: Why Foreign Rights are a Big Deal for Small Publishers
SAN FRANCISCO: As Director of Subsidiary Rights at Berrett-Koehler Publishers, one of the most common questions that I get from other independent houses is: “Are translation rights worth the effort?” My answer is always a resounding “Yes!”
A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing: Amazon Will Destroy You
I’ve been hearing a lot of whiny bitching on the interwebs over the past year. “Amazon is going to put Big 6 publishers out of business!” “Amazon is a bully!” “Amazon is going to destroy bookstores!”
From Publishers Weekly: Books Invade the Cable Networks
The tagline “It’s not TV. It’s HBO” is something many will remember from the late 1990s, back when the cable network was in the vanguard for airing critically acclaimed series like The Sopranos and Sex and the City. Today there’s hardly a cable network in the game that isn’t trying to capture the audience HBO once had all to itself. The upside of all this, aside from better TV, is that more books are being optioned for series adaptation than ever.
From Publishers Weekly: Bookstore Sales Plunged in December, Slipped for Year
Many booksellers reported that the past holiday season was the best in a number of years, but whatever gains surviving stores enjoyed appear to have been the result of the collapse of Borders since preliminary figures released this morning by the U.S. Census Bureau show a large decline in bookstore sales for December. According to the Census, December bookstore sales fell 15.6% in the month, to $1.67 billion, by far the largest decline in 2011. Despite the December plunge, bookstore sales for the full year were down 0.8%, to $15.53 billion. The Census Bureau estimates are from stores that generate at least 50% of their sales through books.
From Writer Beware Blogs: BookTango: Author Solutions Rolls Out Ebook Distribution Services
Just introduced from self-publishing conglomerate Author Solutions (owner of the iUniverse, Xlibris, AuthorHouse, and Trafford brands, and the power behind the outsourced self-publishing divisions of Harlequin and Thomas Nelson, among others): BookTango, an ebook aggregator for self-published authors.
From FutureBook: I am proof that publishers love authors
It’s easy to assume that Joseph Konrath is angry at publishers not because he has a legitimate concern with the way they do business but because he suffers from a serious case of a broken heart and hurt pride. It’s easy to assume this because he makes it easy.
From GalleyCat: Amanda Knox Inks HarperCollins Book Deal
Amanda Knox will write a memoir for HarperCollins. According to the New York Times‘ sources, the deal was “for close $4 million.” The Seattle student was charged in the 2007 death of her former roommate Meredith Kercher while studying abroad in Italy, but was exonerated by the Italian court system last year.
From Bloomberg: Why Book Publishing Can Survive Digital Age: Echoes
Word on the street is that the publishing industry is under attack by technology. Amazon.com Inc. has launched a bare-knuckled assault against independent bookstores. Print-on-demand firms make it possible for anyone to get his work on the market, and thus threaten to render agents and editors obsolete. And with e-books priced so low, how can authors and booksellers earn a decent living?
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