Egypt

As North American university presses struggle with identity, and seek to redefine their place in the publishing ecosystem, I felt that it would be worth exploring the activities, and outlook of the AUC Press through the eyes of its Director, Nigel Fletcher Jones. What can we learn from this publisher, who has ambition, optimism, and a recent track record of significant growth?

 

I have been studying e-publishing in developing countries since 2009, when Ramy Habeeb (Egypt), Arthur Attwell (South Africa), and I set up the Digital Minds Network to informally exchange data. As digital publishers in the Global South, we didn't feel that the US and European business models fully met our needs. Then, in 2011, the International Alliance of Independent Publishers and the Prince Claus Fund asked me to do a detailed study of the digital phenomenon in Latin America, Africa, the Arab World, Russia, India and China.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (September 4, 2012) HarperCollins Publishers announces today the launch of BOURBON STREET BOOKS, a new line of paperback mystery novels.

BOURBON STREET BOOKS will publish all types of mysteries and will feature paperback originals, reprints, backlist titles, and reissued classics. We will launch the line in the fall 2012 season with two paperback originals: The Hollow Man, an exciting debut by British author Oliver Harris, and Blood Line, the 7th book in the Anna Travis series by international bestselling author Lynda La Plante, both publishing on October 23rd.

Longform journalism site Byliner has sold over 100,000 of its “Byliner Originals” since launching the program in April, says CEO John Tayman in the newest issue of Nieman Reports. The issue, which is focused entirely on writing and book publishing, also contains other interesting info about e-singles.

With a battered economy dragging down just about every retail sector, a salient fact making headlines has been the ability of discounters to maintain sales growth—a sure sign that the “Wal-Mart Effect” has permeated every corner of the business world, and that raising prices is probably not the way to realize profits. This leaves cost-cutting, which, for obvious reasons, book publishers would like to pursue aggressively without sacrificing either product quality or valued employees. Here are some tips from a cross-section of the publishing world for reining in costs without sacrificing too much in the process.

A commercially viable, point-of-sale, print-on-demand (POD) option—a device capable of creating a single perfect-bound paperback book at a time—has remained, up until this point, beyond the book industry's reach. With the announcement last week of New York-based On Demand Books' newest version of its Espresso Book Machine, set to roll out early next year for initial testing, the current age of printing and distribution as we have come to know it may be on the verge of a major transformation.

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