Association of American Publishers

Google’s deal to settle a seven-year conflict with five major publishers over the search giant’s book-scanning initiative is a milestone in the publishing industry’s grinding transition from print books to e-books. The pact, struck by Google and the Association of American Publishers (AAP), does not address the underlying question of whether Google violated copyright law by scanning millions of books over the last several years. Both sides, apparently weary of legal wrangling, have agreed to disagree on that point. The deal also doesn’t affect an ongoing lawsuit filed against Google by the Authors Guild, which represents thousands of authors.

In the first half of the year, the Hachette Book Group derived 27% of its revenues from digital publishing, according to an announcement from the company today. Digital revenues were up 20% in the first half of the year compared to the first half last year.

While digital growth was strong at the book publisher, it represents a significant slowdown compared to the early years of digital at Hachette. In 2008, digital publishing accounted for about 1% of Hachette’s overall revenues.

According to the Association of American Publishers (AAP) StatShot monthly revenue report for April, sales revenue in the adult fiction/non-fiction hardcover category beat eBooks for the month. “For April, Hardcover returned to the #1 spot for sales revenue for Adult Fiction/Non-Fiction ahead of eBooks, reflecting seasonal buying patterns …"

By now, it’s no surprise that tablets and mobile devices are revolutionizing the way we consume and interact with media. Although print is not expected to disappear anytime soon (63 percent of book publishers see no end­ in sight for producing printed books as part of their mix), book publishers are ramping up production of e­books with a focus on improving the overall user experience to accommodate the transitioning consumer. While more than half of the book publishers we surveyed decide how to produce a book on a per-publication basis, 30 percent are consistently producing both an e­book and printed book for each new publication.

In a new report produced by the Association of American Publishers and released today, US publishers in the Trade sector (fiction and non-fiction for adults and children) have seen significant sales increases worldwide in both print and e-format English-language books in the past year.

According to publishers who contributed 2010 and 2011 data to the report, factors for the recent growth include internet access to the full range of English-language titles, particularly those previously unavailable in many markets; the rise of eBooks globally and new readers; interest in US editions; and publishers’ strategic expansion in international sales, marketing and distribution.

At the BISG ninth annual Making Information Pay Conference, held at the McGraw Hill auditorium on May 3, seven expert presenters took the assembled 200 industry professionals through a fast-paced three-and-a-half-hour session slicing Big Data down to manageable bites.

Not for the faint of heart, the event was focused on the message that Angela Bole, BISG Deputy Executive Director opened with. Citing a McKinsey Institute study’s warning of a critical shortage of expert analytical information workers she said that “It’s our belief that, as an industry, we need to harness the awesomeness of ‘deep analytical expertise’ in order to create the kind of book industry that’s truly capable of the innovation necessary to stay relevant over the coming years.”

Big Data, she said, “refers to the act of ‘taming’ the volume, variety and velocity of massive datasets.” It is what takes us to a place where we’re now able to develop holistic approaches to full-scale strategies that are analytical in the deepest sense of the term.”

Her books have been featured on The Martha Stewart show, Town & Country Magazine and People.com. Now best-selling children's author Leslie McGuirk is teaming up with Skyreader Media Inc. to bring Pip the Penguin to the iPad featuring Skyreader's new draw-along interactivity built on the company's proprietary eBook authoring platform. Pip the Penguin has so far sold 600,000 copies in hard cover worldwide, and has been translated into Japanese, Swedish and French.

It's been an upbeat Public Library Association 2012 meeting in Philadelphia so far, with strong attendance, and a slate of great authors, speakers, and programs. But the issue of e-book lending has loomed large over the meeting. On Wednesday, March 14, prior to the opening general session at PLA, ALA president Molly Raphael was in New York, participating on a panel on library e-book lending at the Association of American Publishers annual meeting, a session that was reported to librarians to have been quite positive. PW caught up with a busy Raphael in Philadelphia yesterday following an afternoon session,

E-books may be the publishing medium of the future, but they're already leaving a bit of literary history behind. The announcement of Apple's(AAPL) New iPad and the continued growth of Amazon(AMZN) Kindle products, the Barnes & Noble(BKN) Nook line of e-readers and Google(GOOG) Android-based tablets in general are giving e-books Library of Congress-sized platforms for expansion. Yet even with a growing base of new releases, low-priced "singles" works from up-and-coming authors and a sprawling library of free books out of copyright, the e-volumes are still missing characters such as Holden Caulfield, Paul Baumer and Atticus Finch.

In a concerted action, a global group of publishers and publishers' associations achieved an important success in the fight against copyright piracy on the Internet. Overcoming significant technical and legal obstacles, the publishers were able to locate the alleged operators of two high-traffic rogue Web sites, the sharehoster service, www.ifile.it, and the link library, www.library.nu, and to serve judicial cease-and-desist orders to them. These sites have now shut down.