Data

“We’re actively trying to grow” internationally, said Carolyn Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster, as the 2015 Frankfurt Book Fair kicked off on Wednesday. “Particularly with the increase in digital, there are lots of new players, people to talk to, business to do.” Reidy is constantly looking for the next opportunity, whether that’s the “old-fashioned…

Over the next few months, I will be sharing the results of an assessment I conducted with the help of 12 independent publishers on how well their websites are optimized for getting the best rankings on Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). I hope that the results of this free analysis will pinpoint challenges that…

In 2015, the publishing industry is seeing signs that ebook sales as a share of all books is flattening out. Whatever the forces behind this are, publishers are forced to explore better methods of optimizing ebook revenue...

Amazon wants to be a startup’s best friend. But it may have to make big changes to fulfill that promise. Late last month, Amazon unveiled a new online storefront dubbed Amazon Launchpad, where new products from startups and Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns are for sale. Shoppers will find new twists on familiar items such as…

Marketing professionals from Little Brown and Co. discuss the power of data-driven marketing on FiveThirtyEight’s podcast.

Recent years have brought publishers greater access to data, and with it, more nuanced insight into everything from the topics that certain demographics are interested in to the completion rates of specific books. While most publishers may not aspire to replicate the latest literary fad to the farcical extent that Homer does, some in the industry have expressed concerns that an overreliance on data in service of reducing risk could stymie the creative aspects of title acquisition and diminish the vibrancy of the industry

Paul Gazzolo had a sizeable task in front of him as soon as he took the job as senior vice president and global general manager of Michigan-based Gale in November 2014. His mandate: to turn Gale, a 60-year-old education, research, and reference publisher supporting libraries, schools, and academic institutions, into a global, patron-centered company

There's a school of thought that contends the publishing market is a "fixed pie," in which total revenues are flat and unlikely to change.  While the marketplace has reached a limit when it comes to traditional book buying, publishers can still grow the pie by capitalizing on the opportunities digital media and platforms present to package, distribute, and sell content in new ways. 

It's easy to forget that Oyster, dubbed "The Netflix for Books" by every writer who's covered them, has only really been around for a year. In that time, they've signed on two of the Big Five publishers, built a library of 500,000 books and basically made us forget that Scribd has been trying to contend for exactly the same space. And at the heart of Oyster's business is their recommendation engine - a recipe for bringing readers in and hooking them on book after book. 

Developed initially as a way of producing picture books, Blurb has bulked up in novel and magazine publishing, and sees itself as the future of the industry - and a massive threat to traditional publishers. "The volume we're seeing globally is unbelievable," says Gittins. "We're entering the golden age of publishing. Back in Dickens's day, everybody self-published, and it only became stigmatised when mass publishing came along and you weren't picked. Even five years ago, there was a stigma attached to self-publishing."