publishers

Self-publishing, the Slush Pile, and Print Books

by Sabrina Self-Publishing

Self-publishing may be the new slush pile. In the past, the slush pile has been the pile of unsolicited manuscripts sent by aspiring authors in hopes of being picked up by a publisher. Now, some publishers are looking to pick up books that have already proven to be successful. They offer authors bigger advances and [...]

Publishers Should Sell Directly

by Sabrina Publishing

Should publishers sell directly? Many arguments are floating around about the benefits and drawbacks. Some drawbacks are that huge retailers such as Amazon have such a large share of the market, that publishers can’t hope to reach nearly enough consumers through direct channels. Others argue that this line of thinking will keep the cycle with [...]

Digital Content: Where are publishers investing and what challenges will they need to overcome?

by Sabrina Publishing

publishers investing

I’ve been really in to webinars lately. I think part of it is I’ve been finding a lot free webinars that discuss either various aspects of the publishing industry or entrepreneurship. (Although the webinars on metadata were not free, but I think it’s important to learn and understand as much about metadata as possible). Anyway, [...]

The Reader Revolution: Recap of How the “Publishing Game” is Changing

by Sabrina Future

BEA offered an education series, where many experts participated in panels about a wide range of topics relating to publishing. One of the most interesting panels was called “The Reader Revolution: Changing the Game for Readers, Writers, and Everyone in Between.”

Getting Support for Your Projects

by Sabrina Publishing

I’ve been researching ways regular people like me might be able to get their projects off the ground. One of these ways is via Kickstarter. The site is a funding platform where people can post their ideas for projects–anything creative involving Art, Comics, Dance, Design, Fashion, Film, Food, Games, Music, Photography, Publishing, Technology, and Theater–and ask [...]

Making Money with Mobile

by Sabrina Musings

Between the iPhone, the iPad, and the Android platform, mobile and tablets are on their way to becoming hugely profitable. But it’s not just the apps that are making them popular. Mobile web is still an important component of mobile as a whole, and McDonald’s certainly knows that. Advertising and monetizing mobile is still being [...]

BEA Day 1

by Sabrina Publishing

First day of my first BEA, BookExpo America. Fortunately, because of this publishing blog, I was able to attend for free! I spent about five hours today at the Expo, and I still wasn’t able to cover everything. It can be a little overwhelming, as some attendees may agree, but totally worth it. This year, [...]

Inside the Book World

by Sabrina Publishing

Every once in a while I like to update my 2 readers on all the interesting stuff I’m learning about the book world. First off, I finally figured out why the book industry has the most ridiculous/backwards business model where return on sales of books are expected and planned for. It all started in the [...]

The Future of Publishing…We’re In It

by Sabrina Publishing

Three interesting articles about the publishing industry caught my eye today. But first, I’ve found that reading and thinking critically about articles goes more smoothly with music, so I invite you to play the video below and enjoy the sweet sounds of “Stereo Love” while reading the rest of my post. (And yes, I may [...]

I may be a pack rat, but I’m not the only one

by Sabrina Publishing

This blog post title may sound harsh, but that’s not how I intended yet. Last week, while working at Random House, I learned about something amazing: literary research collections. It started when I was assigned the task of sorting and mailing FOUL matter (manuscript versions of books once the book has been published, including copyedited [...]

Twitter News: Borders Files for Bankruptcy

by Sabrina Publishing

Last week, Borders filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. It had been a long time coming, but at least they avoided a Chapter 7, which would mean they basically would have been liquidated. About 200 stores of the 600 Borders stores will be closed. I imagine the bankruptcy of Borders worries many publishers. Borders and Barnes [...]

This Week in Publishing

by Sabrina Publishing

Theodore Gray, the co-founder of Wolfram Research, said at the O-Reilly Media Tools of Change for Publishing conference that “next-generation book publishers will need multiple disciplines—programming, writing and video—to be successful.” They need to be very high-quality, and textbooks in particular need to embrace the digital age. One example of what Gray has in mind [...]

This Week in Publishing

by Sabrina Publishing

Last year Skyhorse Publishing acquired Sports Publishing, and starting this year they will be “releasing instant books about the winning teams of major sporting events—albeit with a twist.” Skyhorse will update relevant backlist titles. For example, because of the Green Bay Packers win on Superbowl Sunday, Skyhorse reissued Tales from the Green Bay Packers SidelineTales [...]

This Week in Publishing

by Sabrina Publishing

According to this blog post, the death of print media is coming sooner than we think. Amazon recently said it’s now selling more e-books than paperbacks, and “for every 100 paperback books they’ve sold this January, they’re selling 115 ebooks…” This means ebook sales are 45 percent of all Amazon book sales. But what about [...]

Visit to HarperCollins

by Sabrina Publishing

My interactive media class was held at HarperCollins today. I don’t have the best photo of the building, but we were told to wait outside until 6:30 p.m. so as not to overwhelm security, and it was freezing. Below freezing, in fact, it was snowing, and we were waiting in a wind tunnel, longingly looking [...]

12/12/10: This Week in Publishing

by Sabrina Publishing

In Scandanavia, readers and libraries want more e-books and are getting e-books from other countries. But publishers distrust libraries, thinking they help piracy, and they are facing a dilemma with pricing and copyright protection. SCANDINAVIA: e-Book market uncertainty Even though there’s a lot of news about more schools using e-textbooks, a recent study shows that [...]

12/06/10: This Week in Publishing

by Sabrina Publishing

It has finally happened! Google launched the Google eBookstore on Monday. The bookstore is an extension of Google’s book project, “an effort that began in 2004 to scan all 130 million books in the world, by Google’s estimate.” Because it is cloud-based, it is an “open-ecosystem,” which means consumers can buy their books once through the [...]

What’s Happening in the Publishing World

by Sabrina Publishing

Every week for my Interactive Media class, I post links to current articles about what’s going on in the publishing world. So here’s a list of what’s happening this week: First, here is an argument against the agency model for e-books. Annette Green writes about how, through the agency model, publishers are basically screwing themselves. Print versions [...]