Book Distribution

The publishing industry is not one of the overachievers in terms of its use of big data. And since my book on big data-Big Data @ Work-is out, I thought it might be fun to speculate on what big data will do to the business of publishing books. The goal of any publisher is to get its content bought and read. In the past, publishers could know only if their books and magazines were bought, and knowing even that was problematic.

Much of the publishing industry is not in a data-first mindset asserts Tom Davenport in a recent article dubbed "Book Publishing's Big Data Future".  Although Davenport criticizes the publishing industry as a big data underachiever, he admits that's in part because publishers have traditionally worked through intermediaries to reach consumers. But that dynamic is changing.

Many new eBooks services are setting themselves up with claims to be the next Netflix or Spotify. They aim to be the subscription service for eBooks. But are they just dreaming and hoping that there is a market? Are they truly aligned, or are they adrift of consumer demand? The pundits and soothsayers all have their opinions, but does anyone really know, or are they merely playing to their respective audiences? The truth today is that no one knows and a gut feel is just that - a gut feel.

Following the announcement of a website devoted to the world of business books in early February, today Simon & Schuster launched a publisher-agnostic website dedicated to the "discovery of favorite books." Off the Shelf will highlight previously published books through a daily original review or essay centered on a title released at least one year earlier.

I recently signed up for a similar model from Oyster: $9.95 per month provides unlimited access to Oyster's 100,000+ ebook catalog. I'm sure some of these books are part of the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, so why would I pay an additional $9.95/month for Oyster?

One (hyphenated) word: All-you-can-read.

Apple (AAPL) pulled no punches in the 65-page brief it filed Tuesday, asking a higher court to overturn the controversial results of last year's e-book antitrust trial and placing blame for the outcome squarely on the shoulders of the judge who heard the case. In Apple's view, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote was not only wrong about the law when she ruled that the company orchestrated a conspiracy with publishers to fix the price of e-books, she was wrong about the facts as well.

Barnes & Noble (BKS) Inc., the struggling bookseller, received a proposal from G Asset Management LLC to acquire 51 percent of the company at $22 a share, valuing the total business at $1.32 billion.

G Asset also proposed buying 51 percent of Barnes & Noble's Nook e-book division at $5 a share as an alternative deal, according to a statement yesterday from the investment firm. It said it was confident that separating the business would unlock "substantial" shareholder value.

George Packer’s epic 12,000-word piece on Amazon and the publishing industry in the current issue of The New Yorker is full of memorable reported bits—the culture clash between Amazon’s editorial staffers and its programmers, insider accounts of the company’s hiring process, the story of an Amazon employee who was handed a printout of a Slate article about Amazon’s stingy philanthropy with the words “Fix This” scrawled at the top in Bezos’s hand. But for a wide-ranging survey of the new publishing landscape, its cast of characters is a notably familiar one.

The number of independent bookshops gracing British high streets has fallen below 1,000 - a third fewer than nine years ago, amid cut-throat competition from supermarkets, Amazon and ebooks.

Booksellers warned that the health of the publishing industry was at risk as new figures revealed more than 500 independent outlets have shut since 2005.

Ebook and literacy nonprofit Worldreader is partnering with the UN Refugee Agency on a pilot program to give Kindle Paperwhites to 2,300 secondary school students in African refugee camps.