Jim Calder

In the first half of this decade, sales were skyrocketing for LeapFrog SchoolHouse—a division of LeapFrog Enterprises Inc. and publisher of interactive, research-based assessment and curriculum content for the PreK-8 education market. The Emeryville, Calif.-based company saw a boom in net sales from $8.8 million in 2001 to $55.2 million in 2004. In 2005, however, the company faced some hard (and controversial) times, and its sales began to drop. Last winter, LeapFrog SchoolHouse made a number of changes to get the company back on a growth track, including restructuring the organization, hiring a new president and focusing on its strongest segment within the

ou may be sitting at your desk wondering if the stressful job that is giving you gray hair and ulcers is worth it. Or, you may be perfectly content in your current position, but just a little bit curious as to whether your salary is competitive. You also may be wondering whether you are paying your staff enough to keep them from exploring other opportunities. Now, using Book Business’ first “Book Industry Salary Guide,” you can see how your salary and your staff’s salaries compare to others in similar positions at other book publishing companies. The guide is based on data compiled from

As a writer, I have been a member of MySpace.com for several years and have been taking advantage of the social networking opportunities that exist. When I joined, the site had around 70 million members; today it has surpassed 183.7 million members. Many in publishing are realizing the value of making a connection via social networking. At this year’s Book Expo America, authors and publishing executives shared social networking tips at a session titled “MySpace for Authors and Publishers: Everything You Need to Know to Make it Payoff.” The panel included Richard Nash, publisher of Soft Skull Press; Barry Lyga, author; Josh Kilmer-Purcell, author;

The Association of American University Presses (AAUP)—an organization of nonprofit publishers whose members strive to advance scholarship through their offerings—believes that the university press segment’s fundamental mission has not changed since America’s oldest university press, The Johns Hopkins University Press, was founded in 1878. However, the landscape in which its members operate has changed greatly, and the forecast calls for additional change in the future. As throughout the rest of the publishing industry, driving this change are advances in digital technologies. A varying segment According to Steve Maikowski, director of NYU Press, the university press world is divided into four major sales groups

HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide, one of the five largest book publishers in the world and a subsidiary of News Corp., is strategically focused on a digital evolution that will shape the company’s goals and mission in the future. The foundation of this evolution can be traced back 10 years to when Jane Friedman was hired as the company’s president and CEO. According to Friedman, in the past 10 years HarperCollins has increased profits by more than 1,000 percent and its total revenue went from $600 million to $1.3 billion in 2006. The company publishes an average of 4,300 titles globally per year, with 3,100 employees

Many publishing management solutions are available in today’s competitive marketplace that can help publishers automate and link business functions such as sales commissions, royalties, title management, fulfillment, invoicing, marketing, production management and more. As with choosing any solution, it is important to do extensive research on both the product and the company behind it. Ideally, you should be looking for a solution that won’t need to be updated every year, that can expand as your company evolves, and that will support your customer-centered business. “A solution must not only meet your needs today, but it must meet your needs five years from now. The