HarperCollins

I recently attended the Book Industry Study Group’s Making Information Pay event (more coverage on pages 7 and 32), where Michael Cader, founder of Publishers Marketplace and Publishers Lunch, offered publishers simple, yet pertinent advice on engaging their audiences: “Leverage the damn book.” One example he gave: His son read a book from the “Alex Rider” series, so Cader went to the store to buy the series’ next book. To illustrate the point he was going to make, he projected a slide featuring the cover of every book in the series. There was nothing that told consumers which book to read next. The

HarperCollins Publishers has announced the creation of an in-house Internet broadcast studio. The studio, modeled on a newsroom environment, has been developed to create author videos for sales, marketing and promotional opportunities, says the publisher. Marisa Benedetto, formerly of the Wall Street Journal, has been named executive producer of the studio. HarperCollins plans to produce about 500 videos—which will be available on HarperCollins.com author and title pages—per year. The publisher’s publicity and marketing teams will use the content to promote authors on blogs and Web sites, as well as to the media and to bookstores. “The studio allows us to be a

Last month, I attended the London Book Fair and came home with new thoughts on the future of e-books. In particular, an in-booth presentation by DNL eBooks’ Peter Kent—author of many books including “SEO for Dummies” and “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Internet”—combined interesting statistics and Kent’s opinion on e-books’ future. Of course, Kent’s affiliation with DNL eBooks should be kept in mind, as the vendor provides a 3-D e-book technology (that incorporates Adobe Flash) through a software download for personal computers. (The technology was used in the Avon [a HarperCollins imprint] e-book release of “Lady Amelia’s Secret Lover,” which featured embedded video

One year ago, New York-based Beaufort Books was a small, independent, relatively unknown publisher working to reinvent itself after years of inactivity. By summer, it was caught in the middle of the media firestorm that is O.J. Simpson—catapulted to national recognition and the top of the New York Times Best-Seller List. Its newfound notoriety came in the immediate wake of the announcement that Beaufort would be doing what HarperCollins—and, it was rumored, all of the other major publishing houses—would not. Beaufort would publish the book “If I Did It,” the ghostwritten account of how Simpson would have murdered his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and

The 2008 Publishing Business Conference & Expo—held March 10-12 in New York City— was the setting for a meeting of many of publishing’s top minds. With more than 1,000 book and magazine publishing industry executives in attendance, the Publishing Business Conference & Expo featured two-and-a-half days of intensive conference sessions addressing the biggest issues facing publishers today. Held concurrently, the expo hosted more than 100 exhibitors showcasing publishing technologies and services. The show, which this year featured its new Publishing Business brand, is produced by Book Business and Publishing Executive magazines and follows in the footsteps of the BookTech Conference & Expo. “The evolution

Adult trade publishers with a “change is good” attitude are finding success in today’s market. From promoting literacy to experimenting with new marketing initiatives, such as social networking sites and author videos, and new distribution formats, such as e-books and digital downloads, industry leaders are now acting upon, not resisting, the significant turn the publishing world has been taking. Data indicates that while monthly sales fluctuate, overall, sales are still up, and many publishers are proactively striving to keep them that way. Last month, The Association of American Publishers (AAP) reported that adult hardbound book sales totaled $2.8 billion in 2007, a 7.8-percent increase

I have just returned from the Publishing Business Conference & Expo in New York (full coverage begins on page 10) and couldn’t help but feel that this year, more than ever, there was a sense of camaraderie, a message of “We can do this. Look at all the opportunity out there.” In an interview for this issue, Jane Friedman, president and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide (see the story on HarperCollins on page 18), said, “I think that, in the past, publishers have been afraid of change. … What we’re all seeing now is that experimentation is necessary, and … everybody is facing the

“To resist change, at this point, is true foolishness,” says HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide President and CEO Jane Friedman. Under Friedman’s direction over the last 11 years, HarperCollins has gone beyond not “resisting” change; the company has, in fact, been a pioneer of change, several paces ahead of the industry in many of its endeavors regarding digital content creation and distribution, marketing and audience-building. This year, the company—one of the largest English-language publishers in the world—has been named as book business’ Publishing Innovator of the Year in recognition of the company’s leadership and innovation. The first-annual award was presented to HarperCollins at an awards reception

HarperCollins Publishers has signed Robert S. Miller, the founding publisher of Hyperion Books, to develop and launch a new global publishing program based on a nontraditional business model. Miller will start in his new position on Monday, April 14, at the London Book Fair. He will report directly to HarperCollins President and CEO Jane Friedman. Miller will serve as president and publisher of the yet-to-be-named program, which will publish approximately 25 popular-priced books per year in multiple physical and digital formats. According to HarperCollins, the program will aim to combine the best practices of trade publishing while taking advantage of the Internet for sales,

HarperCollins Publishers was honored with the first-annual Publishing Innovator of the Year Award in book publishing at an awards reception Monday evening. More than 200 industry professionals attended the reception, which was held during the Publishing Business Conference & Expo at the New York Marriott Marquis. HarperCollins was singled out for pioneering a number of digital publishing strategies. Among other achievements, the company was cited as the first major publisher to sell e-books to libraries. It was also among the first book publishers to create its own digital content warehouse, and to utilize webcasts and audio and video content to promote its authors