Book Distribution

First Environmental Impact Survey of the U.S. Book Industry
August 17, 2007

The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) and the Green Press Initiative (GPI) have announced a partnership for a study designed to establish a baseline for tracking climate impacts and progress toward environmental improvements through-out the entire U.S. book industry. The “U.S. Book Industry Climate Impacts and Environmental Benchmarking Survey” will target printers, manufacturers, paper mills, publishers, retailers and wholesalers for participation. According to Michael Healy, executive director of BISG, the survey is the first of its kind. Organizations interested in the study can visit BISG.org. The results of the study will be published by BISG and GPI in December 2007.

Distribution Goes Digital
August 1, 2007

“We are leading the pack by building a digital warehouse, which is the digital equivalent of our print warehouse,” commented Jane Friedman, president and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers, in the May issue of Book Business. This is the ultimate sign-off on the industry’s embrace of the future, and its take-back of content control from trailblazers such as Google, Amazon and Yahoo. For some years now, various technology vendors have enabled publishers to deliver electronically formatted versions of their titles for special purposes. These have included applications such as conversions to XML formats (e.g., Publishing Dimensions), proprietary e-book reader formats (Mobipocket), sight-impaired applications (National

‘Harry Potter’ Serious Business When It Comes to Early Shipping
July 20, 2007

The New York Times is reporting that Scholastic, the U.S. publisher of the “Harry Potter” series, has sued an online bookseller and its distributor earlier this week for “flagrant violations of their strict contractual obligations” by shipping copies of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” before the time and date set by the publisher. A breach of contract suit was filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County in Illinois, in which Scholastic accused Infinity Resources, which owns the online retailer DeepDiscounts.com, of shipping books to some customers up to a week before the on-sale date, according to The Times. Levy Home Entertainment, a

Baby Boomers Driving Online Used-Book Selling
June 15, 2007

AbeBooks.com—one of the world’s largest online marketplaces for new, used, rare and out-of-print books—has released survey results pointing to evidence that the majority of online used-book sellers in the United States are Baby Boomers. Between October 2006 and January 2007, AbeBooks polled 1,949 U.S. booksellers that sold through its network of Web sites. “Hard work is the key to successfully selling secondhand books on the Web,” said Hannes Blum, CEO of AbeBooks.com. “Although this profession is relatively new, it requires dedication to build up an online inventory of books and considerable effort to find books ideal for the Internet. We’re seeing a commitment to

Supply Chain Management
June 1, 2007

When it comes to improving the supply chain function in book publishing, the watchword is communication—between various components of the chain, and especially between manufacturing, distribution and retail. Saying this, however, is not saying nearly enough, as the quality of information and the way it’s used matter just as much as making the right connections. “Communication is the No. 1 supply chain issue,” says Rich Eby, director of inbound distribution at Thomson Learning, the Stamford, Conn.-based provider of educational, training and reference books for academic and corporate customers. For Thomson, that means anticipating shipments from manufacturers around the world for distribution in the

University Presses and the Digital Universe
June 1, 2007

The Association of American University Presses (AAUP)—an organization of nonprofit publishers whose members strive to advance scholarship through their offerings—believes that the university press segment’s fundamental mission has not changed since America’s oldest university press, The Johns Hopkins University Press, was founded in 1878. However, the landscape in which its members operate has changed greatly, and the forecast calls for additional change in the future. As throughout the rest of the publishing industry, driving this change are advances in digital technologies. A varying segment According to Steve Maikowski, director of NYU Press, the university press world is divided into four major sales groups

Piecing Together the Distribution Puzzle
June 1, 2007

If distribution means getting books into the hands of sellers, circulators or readers, then a true profile of the distribution business would cast a wide net, beginning at the binding line and continuing through to the ‘long tail’ of online portals, used bookstores and curbside pushcarts. However, if distribution, from the publisher’s view, means getting books to generate sales revenue, we can overlook all of the aftermarket, recirculation and reselling channels and focus solely on reaching stores, libraries, online and catalog warehouses and—increasingly, thanks to the Internet—direct marketing from the publisher to the consumer. In the article “Deconstructing Distribution,” in Book Business’

Bowker Partners With Lulu.com
June 1, 2007

Online independent-publishing marketplace Lulu.com and R.R. Bowker, the U.S. International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) agency, have partnered to provide Lulu.com users with the opportunity to purchase ISBNs for their self-published books. This is the first time that New Providence, N.J.-based Bowker, the sole distributor of ISBNs in the United States, has partnered with a company to offer individual ISBNs. These 13-digit, bar-coded numbers are used by publishers and retailers to facilitate the sale and distribution of books. Lulu.com, with headquarters in Morrisville, N.C., is offering the ISBNs for $50 per number through its “Published By You” distribution service, which allows authors to publish

Books By E-mail and RSS: Q&A With the Creator of DailyLit.com
May 18, 2007

DailyLit.com, a Web site based in New York that currently offers a free service allowing users to read entire books via e-mail and RSS installments, recently announced plans for aggressive growth. DailyLit currently allows visitors to sign up to receive more than 370 classic and contemporary titles, free of charge, in installments designed to be read in less than five minutes. The contemporary titles used are available via Creative Commons, a non-profit that offers an alternative to full copyright, built within current copyright law, that allows you to share your creations with others and use music, movies, images and text online that’s been

Exclusive Interview: Jane Friedman, President and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers, Offers Insights On Motivation, Mentors and More
May 4, 2007

Jane Friedman, president and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers has been a driving force behind the creation of multi-media pronged author tours, Publishing Plus and more. Friedman has a 39-year career in publishing and is considered a mentor by many in the industry. Book Business Extra spoke with her in this exclusive interview. She shares insights behind her career accomplishments, motivation and advice to others. EXTRA: You are credited with creating the author tour in 1970 as a publicist who took cook and author Julia Child around to different store locations promoting her book. Can you explain the experience for our readers? FRIEDMAN: I actually