Publishers’ brands are under attack from all sides. The tectonic shifts the sector is undergoing have been brought on by a combination of increased competition, mainly in the form of consolidations balanced at the other end of the spectrum by nimble pop up publishers, and digital disruption. Now more than ever, publishers need to focus…
An Author’s Risk: A Publishing Trip Abroad – D. J. Adamson | Guest Post
D. J. Adamson recently interviewed award winning author Laurie Stevens to find out how she found a successful publishing home in Germany, which then garnered her an agent in the United States. There is no single market on the web. Nor is there only one way for an author to sell their work. The internet is challenging traditional…
Pearson Steps up Moves to Sell its Stake in Penguin Random House
Pearson has said in a press communication today that operational profits will be below initial expectations for 2016 and it will not now achieve its target of £800 million in 2018. Pearson reported that North American higher education market sales in 2016 were worse than forecast, with a poor fourth quarter and a revenue drop of 30% compared with the last quarter of 2015. The press release reveals…
Ingram Launches Academic Services for University Presses and Academic Publishers
Press release: NASHVILLE, Tenn. — July 26, 2016 — Ingram Content Group through Ingram Publisher Services announces the launch of Ingram Academic Services, a service customized for university presses and academic publishers. The first joint initiative following Ingram’s acquisition of Perseus’ distribution businesses, Ingram Academic Services offers distinguished resources, tools and services to help university…
Reading and Writing for Pleasure: April | Douglas Burcham
Douglas continues his writing and reading for pleasure series with thoughts for April on writing matters in the news, work in progress, reading and publishing. Several years ago, I watched a TV programme showing Sir Terry Pratchett at work in front of a number of computer monitor screens. Then a little later, the news…
Why an Author Needs a Publicist in Today’s Competitive Book Market – Tany Soussana | Guest Post
For the author who is looking to make a difference between where their book is at today (perhaps just puttering along), or where it can be (with a publicist in tow), let me ask you this: If not now, when? First off, congratulations are in order if you are an author who has made it…
Reading and Writing for Pleasure: March | Douglas Burcham
Douglas continues his writing and reading for pleasure series with some leap year thoughts for March on work in progress, reading and publishing. “How do you plead?” “Guilty.” “Mitigation.” “I just need time to find the right words and then place them in the right order.” Being locked up in jail before a big drop…
2015 Man Booker Prize Shortlist Announced
This morning in London the judging panel for the 2015 Man Booker Prize announced its shortlist of six books. Press Release: Marlon James, Tom McCarthy, Chigozie Obioma, Sunjeev Sahota, Anne Tyler and Hanya Yanagihara are today, Tuesday 15 September, announced as the shortlisted authors for the 2015 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. The six names were announced…
Man Booker Prize Announces 2015 Longlist
The longlist for the £50,000 Man Booker Prize was announced this morning, Wednesday 29th July 2015. From the Press Release: This year’s longlist of 13 books was selected by a panel of five judges chaired by Michael Wood, and also comprising Ellah Wakatama Allfrey, John Burnside, Sam Leith and Frances Osborne. The judges considered 156 books for this year’s…
Pearson in ‘advanced discussions’ to Sell Financial Times Group
Publishing group Pearson is reportedly in advanced discussions with Germany’s largest newspaper publisher Axel Springer to offload its iconic newspaper, the Financial Times. The Financial Times Group includes a 50% stake in The Economist magazine and several other titles. In recent years Pearson has been concentrating on consolidating its brand as an educational publisher and over the past few…