The Book Industry Study Group

The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) announced today the preliminary program and speakers for Digital Book 2012 at BEA (idpf.org/db12). The conference, held in partnership with BookExpo America (BEA), will be held June 4-5, 2012, in New York City's Javits Center, and is expected to draw global leaders in the publishing industry, including technologists, marketers, retailers, solution providers, publishers, authors, and agents.

Featured speakers at Digital Book 2012 will include best-selling authors Seth Godin and Bella Andre, as well as publishing CEOs and senior executives including Jane Friedman (Open Road Media), Madeline McIntosh (Random House), Otis Chandler (Goodreads) and more.

Join hosts Book Industry Study Group — the standards and research body for the US publishing industry — and Bowker Market Research — a leader in consumer research for the US & UK — as they debut results from the first ever Global eBook Monitor (GeM). This virtual webinar, offered on both the 2nd and 23rd of April will host participants from around the world thanks to the support of participating partners Pearson, Tata Consultancy Services and AT Kearney in making the seminar available to the global publishing community.

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.

Where does a publisher go for the latest in process, for a view of the future and to map a path for getting there? This year’s three day 6th annual TOC conference provided an immersive opportunity to do so. It was at once a celebration of the traditions of storytelling and an exploration of new developments and business frameworks for their presentation and distribution. The theme was "Change/Forward/Fast and Start Again."

BISG has learned how to pack enriched expert presentations into a 3-and-a-half-hour session that provides useful perspectives, allows for productive networking and a savory luncheon, and for the rest of the day to catch up on business.
 
Pitched to the theme of “Innovation in the New Reality,” the meeting brought together on neutral ground and in equal standing publisher, distributor and vendor stakeholders in the college sector to consider matters of mutual interest to their business development. Len Vlahos, recently installed as the BISG executive director, characterized its unique blend of multi-sector membership as “The Switzerland of the Industry.”

Really Strategies Inc. has announced the promotion of Marianne Calilhanna to director of marketing. Marianne started her career with Really Strategies in 2001 as a consultant helping publishers re-engineer content structure and editorial processes.

As tablet sales surge and put downward pressure on dedicated e-reader ownership growth, publishers are pessimistic that tablets will provide readers with an enticing reading platform. According to a recent Digital Book World survey, conducted by Forrester Research, 31% of publishers think iPads and other tablets computers are the ideal e-book reading platform, down from 46% a year ago.

Only 30% of publishers think reading tablets like the Nook Color and Kindle Fire are an ideal reading platform. This question was not asked in the previous year’s survey.

Sourcebooks launches today an Agile Publishing Model (APM) that will allow for the rapid and interactive development of books, ebooks, videos, and other materials by its authors, where the content evolves through a partnership between the author and their community. This framework allows for a more iterative publishing process -- making content available faster, getting real-time customer feedback, and shaping the final product based on the collaboration between the author and reader.

As the e‑book market evolves, so do publishers' internal processes for producing them. Book Business asked Baker Publishing, Harlequin Enterprises Ltd. and Hacket Publishing Co. to pull back the curtain on how they handle e‑book workflows, from editorial and design through conversion, formatting, proofreading and distribution. The answers are varied, but all demonstrate an ability to make the best use of existing internal talent while strategically investing in additional or outside resources to create e‑books expertly and efficiently.

The year 2011 may well go down as the annum of the e-reader. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Sony and Kobo went all-in for holidays to get their e-readers, tablets and apps into as many hands, purses and briefcases as possible. In 2012, we'll see the results of that push, as publishers anticipate the next step in the digital evolution. Book Business interviewed executives across a wide swath of the industry, from giant trade publishers to university presses, educational outfits and upstart indies. We found that while digital is on the march, print is far from dead, and the next bold move in the industry may be maximizing the synergies between the two.