Bowker

I think we can all agree that ebooks are part of our present and future, right? Obvious, right? Of course, there are all those open questions about format and timing and volume and functionality, and what print will be like, etc., etc. But the basics are in place, aren't they?

(Press Release) New York, New York, January 6, 2011—Despite their fondness for social networking and cell phones, most college students say they prefer textbooks in printed rather than e-text form.

Industry standards organization Book Industry Study Group (BISG) is expanding its Making Information Pay conference series, held each spring in New York City, with a new half-day live conference.  The inaugural event, entitled What College Students Think: Making Information Pay for Higher Ed Publishing, will be held Feb. 9, 2011 at the Yale Club of New York City, and will address ways in which new media is impacting how and where college students are acquiring course materials.

Tom Allen discusses the growth of the Espresso Book Machine, its potential in the evolving book publishing marketplace, and more.

Bibliographic information provider Bowker has released the "2009 U.S. Book Consumer Demographics and Buying Behaviors Annual Report," which includes consumer-based research on who buys books and why. The 2009 Annual Report is culled from more 44,000 total respondents, responsible for the purchase of 118,000 books in 2009.

Self-publishing and online services, e-books, and digital demand printing are joined into a new and powerful sector that is transforming the industry. For industry professionals whose career satisfactions and livelihoods are bonded to the future of the book, this new sector offers a wild ride and a venturesome future.

(Press Release) New Providence, NJ, May 4, 2010 — Bowker, a leading global provider of bibliographic information solutions and services, has reached an agreement with Google to provision and facilitate the assignment of ISBN numbers to Google Editions, Google’s digital book offering launching later in 2010.  The agreement sets an important publishing industry precedent, helping to ensure a standards-driven framework for the identification of digital and print-on-demand book products made available and sold through Google Books.   Bowker operates the U.S. ISBN Agency.

181% Increase from 2008 to 2009 in the number of titles produced by self-publishers and "micro-niche" publishers, according to Bowker, a provider of bibliographic information management solutions. These types of publishers produced 764,448 titles last year.

Editors’ Picks: Quotes that we love … or at least think are pretty cool (from the past year in Book Business). And, they actually paint a pretty accurate picture of the state of things.

The consumer market for U.S. book publishers has changed significantly in the past three years, driven largely by fundamental shifts in the way books are published, found and ultimately purchased by readers. These changes sometimes leave publishers with more questions than answers in determining what their next move ought to be to keep pace with today's consumer.