You would be forgiven for thinking in these hard-pressed times that anyone starting a new commercial publishing venture must be on something stronger and more refreshing than tea or coffee. The current economic challenges to the publishing industry have been covered here and in many other places, ad nauseam, so you will be glad to…
Author Advances Come Tumbling Down?
Back in May on POD, Self Publishing & Independent Publishing I wrote a couple of articles about publishing advances and the reasons why they might one day be a thing of the past and the implications if more publishers continue to reduce or suspend paid advances altogether. http://mickrooney.blogspot.com/search?q=advances http://mickrooney.blogspot.com/2009/05/no-advance-or-be-damned-part-2.html Well, Jack Malvern, writing in the…
PODTV – Program 10: London Book Fair 2009 – Digital Book Publishing Discussion
For our tenth program in PODTV we return to a news item we covered in April. Hosted by the BBC Media Correspondent, Torin Douglas and a panel of Gail Rebuck, Chairman and CEO, The Random House Group Limited. Tim Hely-Hutchinson, Hachette. John Makinson, Chairman and Chief Executive , The Penguin Group. Victoria Barnsley, Publisher and…
Reinventing The Publishing Wheel
During my time away from the site over the past week I came across Alma Books and their own blog – Bloggerel, written mostly by Alma Books founder, Alessandro Gallenzi, and his take on the current state of publishing in what he describes as ‘Chicken publishing’ in an article posted over the weekend. Below, he…
Different Industry – Same Mistakes: Susan Piver Article
The comparisons about what is happening in the publishing world and the music industry over the past 15 years continue to be made. Here is an insightful perspective on the issue from Susan Piver following her attendance at an O’Reilly’s Tools of Change in Publishing conference. “What offed the music business—and what the publishing industry…
The ‘Indie’ Publishing Debate
This debate certainly seems to have struck a chord with many of you, and indeed the debate rages on over on Writers Beware blog, becoming quite heated at times, particularly regarding the benefit of Publitariat Vault and IndieReader. It should be borne in mind that these sites are new and only time and the testimony…
Indie Publishing – To Be Or Not To Be: That Is The Meaning
Over on Writers Beware Blog there is a posting and comment discussion about IndieReader and April Hamilton’s launch of Publitariat Vault. These are places for self publishing authors to list their books for sale and expose them to a wider industry audience as well as the buying book public. It got me thinking about the term…
Independent & Small Press Publishers – Submission List & Resources
I spent the last few weeks doing the final proofing on Trees and have been looking to put together a suitable submission list of publishers to work through. I came across Newpages.com and this site is invaluable for any writers looking at US/Canadian based Independent and Small Press publishers. The site also includes a list…
Better Discounts For Authors – Milnes-Smith
Philippa Milnes-Smith is president of the Association of Authors Agents. Today, she spoke to theBookseller.com and expressed the growing frustration authors have with their publishers when it comes an author having a heavy influence on sales and promotion of their own books. Milnes-Smith is quoted as saying; “If an author can make significant sales on…
Penguin Introduces The Publisher’s Office On Line
Penguin US have improved their web site and introduced The Publisher’s Office which features video and audio segments on authors and their books, as well as a reading preview segment. While there is perhaps nothing groundbreaking about Penguin’s improvements with these new on line features, it does emphasise the need for tradition publishers to use…