3 posts tagged “publishing”
Authors are showing up on blogs to take reader questions and write guest posts. The appearances aren't limited to book blogs either. Have you written a book about a blossoming Jewish wallflower? Then you may want to write a post on a Jewish dating blog.
An interesting idea.
[Updated: Realized I forgot to link to the article.]
“People think publishing is a business, but it’s a casino.”
“The Newspaper Association of America has a staggering amount of data on people who read newspapers. The book business has, basically, nothing,” said Professor Greco. “They’re not going into the marketplace and doing mall intercepts and asking people, as they leave the bookstore, ‘What did you buy? Did you find what you’re looking for? What motivated you to choose that book?’ ”--New York Times, May 13, 2007
From the New York Times a great piece about the problems facing the publishing industry. Funny thing is, they know what the problems are, but "it's the way this business has run since 1640,” according to the article. Publishing companies have no real data on who's buying and reading their books. Seems like if a publisher would embrace the ideals of Web 2.0 they could turn the industry on its ear.
For anyone who writes, publishes and reads books. Bottom line: get ready to say goodbye to many indy/small book publishers.
Publishers Group West is the largest book sales and distribution company in the US -- it is the distributor that my publisher, Cleis Press, uses and
PGW doesn't just do indies but alsotheir parent company AMS distributes biggies like Random House. Here's their active list of publishers. PGW was founded as company on their own, and then in 2002 became part of a behemoth book distribution company called Advanced Marketing Services. AMS filed for bankruptcy, and as of December 29, 2006, all assets were frozen and are now held. So even though book sales were terrific last year and PGW (and all the publishers they distribute) had a great year, the book publishers' money now belongs to the court.
The money, exactly, is from sales months September though December -- the most profitable book sales months of the year. This is calculated as roughly a third of most publishers' yearly income. For those months, publishers like Random House are now out to the tune of $43 million. Imagine what's going on at all the small book publishers, where $20K is like a million dollars to them. Off the cuff legal advice tonight told me that it may be possible that some publishers *might* see about 70% of those funds by the end of the year, but that it will likely take longer, and making it to that point will be the question. I have now received emails on this topic from friends who run publishing companies who have laid off their entire staff. Happy New Year. Say goodbye to small publishers. Only the big boys are going to make it.
Violet Blue's post is frightening to me as a reader, writer and hopeful indie-publisher. This story seems very tip of the iceberg to me.
