The Book Industry Study Group

This is an important matter that has created quite a bit of controversy in the industry.  From the press release: The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) announced today the publication of a new Policy Statement detailing best practices for assigning ISBNs to digital products. Developed over the past 18 months within BISG’s Identification Committee, BISG Policy…

Dilemma: When it comes to reading, what's kinder to the environment - an e-reader or books?

Of course I'll: Stick with traditional books. Yes, they use paper and ink, but at least I don't need to plug them in.

Trade-off: There are carbon emissions in the production of books too, not to mention the loss of carbon-gobbling trees felled for paper.

Then I'll: Use the e-reader; as much as I read, it's bound to be a better choice over the long run. Trade-off: At the rate technology evolves, the e-reader I buy today will probably be obsolete within a few years.

Across most of Europe, e-books are taxed at full national value-added rates, which reach 25 percent in Sweden, Denmark, Hungary and other countries. Printed books, benefiting from an industry lobby, are taxed at a fraction of the full rates — and not at all in Britain.

It seems, Mr. Seaman said, that the value-added tax gap “discourages traditional publishers from innovating by effectively subsidizing them not to.”

Hachette Book Group has been awarded Gold Certification from the Book Industry Study Group, the U.S. book trade association for supply chain standards, research and best practices.

Ignoring your digital readership potential is not an option; and treating e-books as an afterthought by offering up a recycled printer's PDF is not a digital strategy. For some types of highly formatted content, a PDF version may be useful, but if that's all you do, you'll be leaving significant distribution and enhancement options (aka revenue) on the table.

Former executive director (designate) at the Book Rights Registry joins global rights broker as executive director, author and publisher relations

If predictability is a qualification for success, I suggest to you that we are, as an industry, in for a bit of a roller coaster ride for the next several years.

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."

Len Vlahos, currently Chief Operating Officer at the American Booksellers Association, has been appointed Executive Director of the Book Industry Study Group, Inc.

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.