It’s time to come up with new words for what we’re creating. “Ebooks” just doesn’t cut it anymore.
The past week pretty much covered the gamut of what’s going on in our industry for me. Tuesday I heard a wonderful, impassioned speech about physical books. And then on Thursday… well, perhaps you’ve heard that Apple made an announcement or two.
On Tuesday night, Kevin Spall (CEO of Thomson-Shore, Inc.) gave a speech at the Book Industry Guild of New York meeting. Kevin spoke, not only of his background, but spent some time reminding us what a wonderful thing the printed/bound book is. The history, of course, is rich. I confess that I did not realize that codex binding (basically the same thing we do today) has been around for over 1,700 years. Of course, some will describe that history as “rich” and others as “ancient” (and not in a good way).
Stop selling your books and make more money.
This may sound like an odd notion to a publisher, but you can achieve the most success by not selling your book, but by selling the benefits potential customers will get from your book’s content. In other words, the form in which your content is sold is less important than the content itself—particularly to non-retail buyers (in corporations, associations, etc).
Frank Fochetta, the Vice President and Director of Special Sales and Custom Publishing at Simon and Schuster, agrees.
This week an article in the NY Times went viral. Well, it spread around the publishing industry anyway, so maybe we should say it had a slight head cold? The article speaks to some publishers adding special design effects on the covers of certain titles. The effects include elaborate embossing, special photographs, a shiny gold Rorschach, etc.
By definition, libraries have always served as a “threat” to publishers—why pay for it, when you can get it for free at your local library? And yet, libraries and publishers have existed side-by-side. I think a point that gets missed is that when you give people an opportunity to open their minds up, to explore and dream you create additional demand.
By definition, libraries have always served as a “threat” to publishers—why pay for it, when you can get it for free at your local library? And yet, libraries and publishers have existed side-by-side. I think a point that gets missed is that when you give people an opportunity to open their minds up, to explore and dream you create additional demand.
The process for selling your books to corporate buyers can often moving at a pace that's often slower than you'd like. Do NOT force a deal.
This blog is the fourth in a series of six blogs, each including one of the six traps to avoid when negotiating large-quantity book sales.
On a recent Saturday, the Book Industry Guild of New York held its 19th annual Softball Tournament in Central Park to support the Literacy Assistance Center (LAC).
This blog is the second in a series of six blogs, each including one of the six traps to avoid when negotiating large-quantity book sales
Tips on making a successful book sale to corporate executives and the six negotiating traps to avoid along the way
