New England

Brian Adams teaches science at a small community college in western Massachusetts, but his debut novel  takes a big swing at the way global warming is discussed in the media. He calls his book a “cli fi” rom-com and introduces it that way when he gives stand-up readings around New England now. And he’s got […]

The post Science prof pens world’s first ‘cli-fi rom-com’ appeared first on TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics.

Academic librarians have long decried the prices commercial publishers charge for access to serial publications, particularly electronic journals in the sciences. With journal packages taking up increasingly large chunks of library budgets, the prospect of publishers' ramping up prices on another digital format has spooked some librarians.

"I think the fear here is that we got burned by locking into journal contracts that we should have never locked ourselves into," says Bryn I. Geffert, librarian of Amherst College. "Once burned, twice cautious."

The essence of strategic positioning is in action — performing unique activities or performing similar tasks in different ways. Here are three examples:

1. Value-based positioning is founded on the choice of product or service rather than on customer segments. Firms publishing only math textbooks for colleges would illustrate this position as they demonstrate their excellence in one sub-segment of the academic market.

In an opening session intended to be provocative, Macmillan CEO John Sargent and outgoing American Booksellers Association president Becky Anderson, co-owner of Anderson's Bookshops in Naperville, Ill., may not have necessarily covered "Publishing, Bookselling, and the Whole Damn Thing," but they definitely got the conversation going, which was Sargent's goal.
"We need to talk. We need to have a relationship where we can talk with our partners so we can understand," he told booksellers during an hourlong q&a, Talking, he said, and overcoming "the victim effect," where "everybody in the industry is afraid of the Department of Justice or legal

Monday afternoon’s bombings at the finish line of the Boston Marathon in downtown Boston affected everyone across the nation, but had particular resonance for the literary community in New England.

The tragedy played out in front of the main branch of the Boston Public Library and forced the evacuation of Barnes & Noble at the Prudential Center, which opened late today. Fortunately, most downtown publishers were closed: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Beacon Press; and Nicholas Brealey Publishers. The library and HMH remain closed.

The six major annual book design shows listed above continue to anchor our industry in its traditions of craft, even though painfully unadorned ebooks and cluttered multimedia platforms proceed apace, charting their own course. Whatever the wide range of book show presenting criteria, as shown in the survey that follows, ultimately the purpose of book design is to enhance the readability and message of the book itself. 

Print will survive and thrive in those areas where it continues to fulfill that purpose. Where digital media prevail, irrepressible design aspirations will soon follow.

While some shows are beginning to provide digital edition categories (mostly fixed format and multi-media), print editions continue to be foundational platforms for book design and organization — at least for the time being. Leading edge designers are exploring ways to bring design criteria into the reflowable formats.