The Independent Book Publishers Association will hold its annual Publishing University in Chicago in just a few weeks, on April 26th and 27th. The organization was founded thirty years ago by what president Florrie Kichler calls a “group of small publishers who couldn’t get their books out anywhere into the trade.”
By now you've likely heard that the Supreme Court has ruled, in a 6-3 decision, in favor of immigrant scientist Supap Kirtsaeng in Kirtsaeng V. Wiley.
In what's being heralded as a win for consumers and libraries, and a loss for publishers, the SCOTUS overturned a previous ruling against Kirtsaeng, who had been buying textbooks printed (legally) abroad—where they cost significantly less than they do in, say, the United States—and then reselling them in the U.S. on eBay and turning a handsome profit in the process.
In a statement yesterday, Wiley's President & CEO Stephen M. Smith wrote: "We are disappointed that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided in favor of Supap Kirtsaeng and overturned the Second Circuit’s ruling. It is a loss for the U.S. economy, and students and authors in the U.S. and around the world."
I’ve left sunny, friendly Austin behind and returned to colder, crankier Philadelphia, and can now reflect on my virgin tour of SXSW. The verdict: good, but not great. I had looked forward to attending this festival for so many years, and I fear I may have missed my window, the window when I had the stamina to tramp all day from session to session, and still be alert and energetic enough for nighttime events that begin at midnight and beyond.
Perhaps it was good but not great because there was no big new thing announced at the fair. Perhaps it was good but not great because, while sessions were uniformly good, there were speakers who were disappointing and less than revelatory. But hey, I learned new things, met interesting people, and there was that free Samsung battery replacement for my Galaxy S3!
Arrived in Austin late Saturday night in time for a beautiful, noisy thunderstorm—a sparkling deluge that soaked the parched earth and was welcomed joyously by the grateful natives. It left behind a clear blue sky and a cheerful sun blazing benignly over all these tens of thousands of folks who have flocked to town to grab and probe at the newest and coolest, to wait in line and dash from session to session, to be in the know and be able to say we heard it here first and then to go back to their respective somewheres enriched and inspired.
Truly it is too much to take in at once.
I’m excited to be heading to SXSW Interactive, but need advice from experienced attendees on how to best spend my time and how to navigate the show.
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.
I have just finished reading the latest issue of Yoga Journal pretty much cover-to-cover, and I am inspired—inspired to commit to my practice on a daily basis, even if only for five minutes, inspired to try drinking a green smoothie for breakfast, and inspired to try to connect with an inner sense of peace to overcome the daily stress that makes me clench my jaw and hunch my shoulders.
Book Business spent last Sunday hunkered down at Workman Publishing in New York attending… camp. Specifically, Book^2 Camp ("book squared"), an annual pre-TOC "unconference" dedicated to discussing, well, just about anything related to book publishing, but with an eye toward sussing out the future of the industry.
A big task, for sure, but the campers were up to the task, compiling an agenda on the fly, gathering into intimate, round-table discussions—in conference rooms, offices, break rooms and really any otherwise unoccupied space at Workman—about profitbility, discoverability, readers, editors, the Internet, etc. and asking a lot of "what if" questions:
- What if publishing started today?
- If there was no money in publishing books, what would book publishing look like?
- What if digital predated print?
In general, the conversations were focused on possibilities and opportunities, with a pinch of pragmatism thrown in to hold it all togther. In the interest of trying new things, we're going to present our report using Storify, a platform for turning social media into narratives. It's not new to many of you, but we've never used it before. So here goes nothing. Tell us what you think/
Over the last two week, Book Business ran the proverbial gauntlet of publishing industry trade shows, starting withe the Book Industry Study Group's Making Information Pay For Higher Ed on Thu., Feb. 7, at the Yale Club, then hitting the Book^2 Camp "unconference" on Sun., Feb. 10, at Workman Publishing, and, on Wed., Feb. 13, catching a day of O'Reilly's Tools of Change at the Marriott Marquis.
We’ll be running through them one by one this week. First up: BISG: Making Information Pay for Higher Ed Publishing
The Book Industry Study Group’s annual Making Information Pay for Higher Ed Publishing was a morning jam-packed with great information and expansive ideas on the state of higher ed publishing and what it might look like in the near to distant future.
The four terms of the day:
Shadow Library
Roll Your Own
MOOC
Autodidact
The scene: Michael’s Restaurant on W 55th Street in Manhattan, a longtime hangout of the literati
The occasion: The announcement and celebration of the winner of the Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction Contest
The winner: click here and see…
