The week in publishing (November 28 to December 4)
Posted By Sue Collier on December 4, 2011
Here’s some of the latest in industry news and views:
From Publishers Weekly: Black Friday Weekend Proves A Dickensian Start to Holidays
This year’s holiday selling season at independent bookstores hews closely to the opening of Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Some stores, especially those near closed Borders, reported sales for Black Friday weekend up between 30% and 40%, while others have seen flat sales or even a dip…
From The Millions: Reasons Not to Self-Publish in 2011-2012: A List
In a previous essay, I interviewed four self-published authors I admire, and I examined some of the benefits of that career path. Midway through writing the piece, I realized I’d have to continue the discussion in a second essay in order to fully explore my feelings (complicated) on the topic (multifaceted)…
From Allison Winn Scotch: Bouncing Back From Disappointment: Christina Katz Weighs In (and GIVEAWAY!)
The worst thing a writer can do is wear his disappointment like a badge of resentment. That is the first thing other people notice about you and the last thing they forget. You want, instead, to become the writer who bounces back from disappointment, stronger and wiser…
From Paid Content: No More New Titles For Seth Godin’s Amazon Imprint, The Domino Project
About a year after it launched, Seth Godin is ceasing publication of new titles at his Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) Publishing imprint, The Domino Project. His biggest takeaway, he writes, is the importance of “permission”: “The core group of 50,000 subscribers to the Domino blog made all the difference in getting the word out and turning each of our books into a bestseller.”…
From Huffington Post: 5 Most Dangerous Career Pitfalls For New Writers
The writing life is fraught with dangers big and small—everything from life-crushing depression to sore fingers from long typing jags. But there are a few dangers that can derail a new writer’s career at the outset…
From Publishers Weekly: B&N Sales Dip, Losses Cut, Forecast Moderate
Barnes & Noble’s second quarter report was a bit of a mixed bag. The company reported a 0.6% decline in total revenue for the period ended October 29, to $1.89 billion, but its net loss was cut to $6.6 million from $12.6 million in the comparable period in fiscal 2011. The company said, however, that more investment in “customer acquisition activities” plus continued investment in technology would result in EBITDA for the full fiscal year coming in at the low part of its range of $210 million to $250 million…
From Indie Bound: INDIEBOUND READER FOR ANDROID AND IOS
IndieBound Reader™ is an ebook reading application created by the American Booksellers Association and Bluefire Productions, an independent software company in Seattle, WA. It allows book lovers to read ebooks purchased at their local, independent bookstores. Currently, IndieBound Reader is available for the Android operating system, and it will soon be available for iPhones and iOS devices…
From NY Times: The 10 Best Books of 2011
At a small college on the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan, the baseball team sees its fortunes rise and then rise some more with the arrival of a supremely gifted shortstop. Harbach’s expansive, allusive first novel combines the pleasures of an old-fashioned baseball story with a stately, self-reflective meditation on talent and the limits of ambition, played out on a field where every hesitation is amplified and every error judged by an exacting, bloodthirsty audience…
From Book Marketing Bestsellers: Book Marketing Makeover: Top 15 Reasons to Do a Virtual Book Tour
As publishers’ promotional budgets shrink and travel costs rise, the traditional city to city author tour is waning in popularity. But what if you could reach a much larger, highly targeted audience from the comfort of home? You can, with a virtual book tour…
From Publishers Weekly: E-book Sales Doubled in September, Mass Market Tanked
E-book sales doubled in September, to $80.3 million, at the publishers that report results to the AAP. Sales in the print segments had a mixed performance with children’s/YA hardcover sales up 2.1% at reporting publishers, although children’s/YA paperback sales fell 14.6%. Sales of mass market paperback plunged in September, falling 54.3% at reporting houses…
Recommeneded website…
below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit…