Sourcebooks Inc.

Scholastic has entered into a partnership with independent publisher Sourcebooks, which will soon offer its children's titles through Scholastic's distribution channels, including a new e-reading app.

E-book production challenges are forcing publishers to rethink workflows and reallocate resources to handle creation, conversion and distribution. Experts tell you how.

It was probably a coincidence, but on one Sunday in July, two New York Times luminaries wrote columns complaining about books. Bill Keller, the outgoing executive editor, had a piece in the magazine headlined "Let's Ban Books, or at Least Stop Writing Them." In the Sunday business section, Bryan Burroughs, a regular reviewer and himself the author of multiple bestsellers, took on the preponderance of business books in an essay called "Compelling Tales, Rarely Told Well."

Almost everyone in the book business will acknowledge that we are in the midst of the most interesting, challenging and promising period in the industry's history.

Amazon's rollout of a deep-discount pricing program for 600 books last week already is putting downward pressure on eBook pricing. The “Sunshine Deals” offer sells electronic books at price points of 99 cents, $1.99 and $2.99.

Surprising new information about consumer and student e-book reading habits capped off this year's International Digital Publishing Forum conference at the Javits Center in New York.

This year's Book Industry Study Group (BISG) Annual Meeting at the Yale Club on Sept. 24 was alive with new-found energy and challenges.

In part one of this discussion, I discussed how in the word “book,” and in the various ways we hyphenate it, we set the definition and expectation of how we view our work as professionals and how content will be developed.

This two-part essay attempts a survey of electronic media developments in the book industry and their impact on the creative talents and skill-sets required of authors, writers, editors and production people in order to produce new forms of content organization and media mix.

Self-publishing and online services, e-books, and digital demand printing are joined into a new and powerful sector that is transforming the industry. For industry professionals whose career satisfactions and livelihoods are bonded to the future of the book, this new sector offers a wild ride and a venturesome future.