Philip Jones

You don't have to walk very far to bump into someone offering an assessment of "the future of the book". Many of these assessments feel like an extension of the current situation, though a touch more "digital". Relatively few get at "what reading could be."

A think piece by New York Times reporter David Streitfeld provides an example of the "extension" school of thought. Streitfeld has written a number of articles about "Amazon's diminishing discounts", a focus that perhaps inevitably led him to explore "the future of the book".

Has the ebook had its day? If you've skimmed a newspaper over the past month you could be forgiven for thinking just that. "The physical book market is making a comeback after years of decline," announced the Times, citing a rise in Christmas trading at Foyles. "Sales of books are eclipsing digital alternatives," said the Telegraph, with the journalist William Langley explaining how his teenage son had discarded his Kindle.

A Guardian leader said the apparent demise of ebooks was "one of the rare examples where a groundbreaking technology ends up being supplanted

In the context of Joanna Cabot’s recent post asking “Would Anyone Care About the Amazon/Hachette Dispute If it Wasn’t About Books?”, it’s worth picking up the editorial “Disinterested? Moi?” by Philip Jones, editor of The Bookseller, about the primacy of the book. “It is the books that should do the talking, not the publisher,” he […]

The post Is Philip Jones really standing up for the book? appeared first on TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics.

A few days ago in The Bookseller’s blog, Philip Jones reported on a little spat between the UK’s Society of Authors and its Publishers Association over library e-book lending. The SoA claims that e-book lending to libraries should be considered a subsidiary rights license, which pays at a higher rate of royalties than publisher print [...]

The post UK Society of Authors agitates for higher library e-book royalty rates appeared first on TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics.

Futurebook is reporting that Pottermore, JK Rowling’s portal for all things Harry Potter, was a big winner at The Bookseller Industry Awards. As author Philip Jones explains, the thrust of the message they are hearing now is that there is no longer such a thing as ‘digital strategy.’ It’s all just strategy now. So, what do [...]

The post Pottermore’s Winning Digital Publishing Strategy appeared first on TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics.

I’ve been mostly away from my computer for the last few days, due to an early Thanksgiving visit with family. But I’ve been following the news while I’ve been gone, and there have been a few interesting items concerning Amazon. One is that, in the UK, Philip Jones reports that Amazon had to answer to [...]