The Changing Face of Publishing

[Cassander]

WHERE THE FUCK IS MY JUMBLE?

[nacho]

Google wades into the ebook world:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/google-looking-to-be-the-next-e-book-outlet.php

[nacho]

This is big news...

Shaman Drum Bookshop, an Ann Arbor, Mich., institution for nearly 30 years, will close at the end of June. The Ann Arbor News
 
reported that in a statement, owner Karl Pohrt "said the shop is not a sustainable business anymore despite 'a first-rate staff, a fiercely loyal core of customers, a very decent landlord and my own commitment to the community of arts and letters in Ann Arbor.'"

For more than a year, in the face of a dramatically changing book industry, the economic meltdown and declining college textbook sales (Shelf Awareness
 
, February 17, 2009), Pohrt has explored alternatives with the community to find a way to keep his shop alive. These included a move to form a nonprofit literary arts center (Shelf Awareness
 
, February 4, 2008), a search for investors (Shelf Awareness
 
, February 9, 2009), and more recently the formation of a campus/community coalition (Shelf Awareness
 
March 16, 2009).

In his statement, Pohrt "pushed for Ann Arbor area customers to support other local independent book stores. While Pohrt said it was an emotional decision to close the store, he called himself lucky to have to have had 29 good years in the Ann Arbor book-selling business," the News reported.

"I feel like I've had this charmed life to sell books in Ann Arbor for nearly 30 years," Pohrt said. "That's a good run."

He told the News that "he plans to continue with the venture to create the literary arts center. The plan for the center is still in the works and does not have a planned location."

[RottingCorpse]

See, these are the type of stories that really sadden me. There have been a lot of them since the economy went south too. The city of Detroit voted a few days ago to tear down Tigers stadium (built in 1912) because the current owners couldn't come up with $34 million for a renovation project.

[nacho]

Oh-ho!

Move over Kindle, there’s a new kid on the block
Plastic Logic, Barnes & Noble and AT&T have partnered up to create what could be the Amazon Kindle’s biggest competitor yet. With access to B&N’s massive book library and AT&T’s 3G system, the Plastic Logic e-reader will certainly give Kindle a run for its money. Some differences between the two:
- The Plastic Logic e-reader has built-in Wi-fi, unlike the current crop of Kindles
- AT&T's Wi-fi hotspot network also seems to be part of the deal
- U.S. owners will be able to get online for new books in many more locations
- For business-related documents on the web, the e-reader supports PDF and Microsoft Office format documents

[Cassander]

so i haven't been keeping up with this.  is kindle version 2.0 good?  i think i might buy a device like these someday, especially if you can start downloading full color magazines for 50 cents.

[nacho]

Wait for it.  They'll have to do a new Kindle now and let us use the internet instead of Amazon's Orwellian controls.

[nacho]

I'll slightly shift the focus to generally useless publishing industry news.  Today's hot topic -- "Urban Fantasy" is the "coming thing" in the sci-fi genre:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_fantasy

[Cassander]

yes, it's been coming ever since White Wolf games released Vampire: Masquerade in 1992.  way to catch up, "publishing industry"!

[nacho]

Been reading about Richard Nash today...

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6673022.html

http://rnash.com/article/my-start-up-cursor/

    Cursor…represents a new, “social” approach to publishing. To call [it] “niche” or another “independent” publishing enterprise would be a poor approximation, because those terms fail to capture the organic gurgle of culture at the heart of the venture, the exchange of insight and opinion, the flow of memes and the creation of culture in real time that is now enabled by the Internet.

    My business plan is now out with investors—I will spare you the P&L numbers and just offer the broad strokes. Cursor will establish a portfolio of self-reinforcing online membership communities. To start, this includes Red Lemonade, a pop-lit-alt-cult operation, and charmQuark, a sci-fi/fantasy community.

    The business will focus on developing the value of the reading and writing ecosystem, including the growth of markets for established authors, as well as engaging readers and supporting emerging writers. Each community will have a publishing imprint, which will make money from authors’ books, sold as digital downloads, conventional print and limited artisanal editions—and will offer authors all the benefits of a digital platform: faster time to market, faster accounting cycles, faster payments to authors. But the greatest opportunity is in the community itself. Each will have tiers of membership, including paid memberships that will offer exclusive access to tools and services, such as rich text editors for members to upload their own writing, peer-to-peer writing groups, recommendation engines, access to established authors online and in person, and editorial or marketing assistance. Members can get both peer-based feedback and professional feedback.

    Other revenue opportunities include the provision of electronic distribution services to other publishers; fee-based or revenue-share software modules, especially for online writing workshops or seminars for publishers, literary journals, teaching programs; fee-based linking of writers to suppliers of publishing services, including traditional publishers and agents; corporate sponsorships and site advertising; and events and speaking fees. Yes, I envisage Cursor obtaining a larger basket of rights than is the industry standard, but that will be in exchange for shorter exclusive licensing periods. Our contracts will be limited to three-year terms with an option to renew.

    The Cursor business model seeks to unite all the various existing revenues in the writing-reading ecosystem, from offering services to aspiring writers far more cheaply than most vendors to finding more ways to get more money to authors faster. It also will create highly sensitive feedback loops that will tell each community’s staff what tools and features users want, what books users think the imprint should be publishing, how the imprint could publish better.

    Cursor is not designed to “save publishing,” but simply to offer the kind of services that readers and writers, established and emerging, want and the Internet enables. I believe especially strongly that the model must be viable in a world where the effective price of digital content falls to zero, and paper becomes like vinyl records or fine art prints. After all, the world is littered with things that people won’t buy at the prices their producers want to charge—like, say, the contents of remainder bins.

    If recent experience is any guide, there is little reason for me to think that people, given so many other options for their leisure time, especially in the wired world, will continue to give up hours and dollars for the sake of our industry, any more than they will for big cars or daily newspapers. We are going to have to find new ways to earn those hours and dollars, and at the prices our readers—and writers—set.

[nacho]

Old Guard Magazines getting executed...


http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/conde-nast-to-close-gourmet-magazine/

Condé Nast will close Gourmet magazine, a magazine of almost biblical status in the food world, it was announced on Monday. Gourmet has been published since January 1941. Also being shut down are the Condé Nast magazines Cookie, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride, according to an internal company memo that also was sent to reporters on Monday.

[Tatertots]

Modern Bride and Elegant Bride

Well... Good.

[Nubbins]

Modern Bride and Elegant Bride

Well... Good.

They're being replaced by Bride of the Zilla though... so it's kind of a wash.

[nacho]

Attack on the Kindle! 

It's heavier, has a shorter-lived battery, still doesn't solve the #1 Kindle complaint (web capable), and lacks the ability to subscribe to RSS feeds or blogs.

But it has color icons!  Ooh... Competition!


http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/21/barnes.noble.nook/index.html

Barnes & Noble's Kindle competitor may have been the worst-kept secret since balloon boy's disastrous appearance on CNN last week.
Barnes & Noble has unveiled an e-reader called "Nook," which will sell for $260 in November.

Barnes & Noble has unveiled an e-reader called "Nook," which will sell for $260 in November.

But the advance hype doesn't seem to have hurt the launch of the Nook, an impressive-looking $260 device that will go head-to-head with Amazon.com's Kindle, currently the most successful product in a small but growing market for e-book readers.

Basic details of the Nook were published by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday following leaked images that appeared on Gizmodo last week. And Barnes & Noble leaked product details hours before reporters filed into Pier 60 in Manhattan for the announcement on Tuesday afternoon.

"Simply following the leader is not in our DNA," said Barnes & Noble president William Lynch.

Indeed, Barnes & Noble's $260 Nook device differs from the Kindle in a number of ways. Most notably, it shares: A feature called LendMe lets users borrow certain books (depending on the publisher's wishes), the same way readers have traditionally traded paper books. The Nook's color touchscreen allows you to navigate titles and enter search terms using a virtual keyboard that goes dark once you're reading.

The Nook will be available for pre-order starting Tuesday night for $260 at Nook.com, and will ship in November. It has a 6-inch, "paper-like," 16-level grayscale display that supports up to five fonts and various font sizes. It can read a user's PDFs, as well as the 1 million-plus books, magazines and newspapers available in Barnes & Noble's eBook store.

The device connects to the Barnes & Noble eBook store using a free 3G AT&T connection, but lacks a web browser "because those are clumsy" on eReaders, Lynch says. It includes support for the ePub eBook format, FictionWise and PDF, as well as RSS feeds from the internet. However, you can't subscribe to any old RSS feed. Instead, Barnes & Noble selects certain feeds to convert to ePub, then sends them out each morning for a fee that varies by publisher.

Like Amazon's Kindle, Barnes & Noble's Nook lets you highlight and annotate content. But Nook's battery life is 10 days, while the Kindle keeps you reading for 14 -- even though at 11.2 ounces the Nook weighs an ounce more.

Unlike the Kindle, the Nook has a Wi-Fi radio that customers will be able to use at Barnes & Noble's more than 700 physical locations and 600 college stores in 50 states. The current version does not allow connection to Wi-Fi networks outside the stores, but will allow Nook owners to digitally flip through books while they're in a Barnes & Noble store and read free content.

The Nook runs Android OS, which Lynch said "works really well for navigating on this small device." However, at this point, third-party developers cannot develop apps for the device, and no version of the reader for generic Android devices is available.

The device packs enough memory to hold up to 1,500 books (2 GB), with a microSD slot that lets you add up to 16 GB more. In addition to e-books in the three formats mentioned above, the device supports a user's pictures and MP3s (it includes a speaker and headphone jack, but there's no text-to-speech engine). Another nice touch: The virtual bookmark feature called Reading Now lets you pick up where you left off on the Nook or on more than 100 other devices with support for Barnes & Noble's eBook store.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the Nook and the Kindle is cosmetic. The Nook, with color icons, a wide selection of designer cases and color-customizable back panel, looks like a fashionista compared to the more bookish Kindle.

[nacho]

Holy shit... Kirkus and Editor & Publisher are kaput!

Subject: Kirkus Book Reviews Are Closing for Business!

'Kirkus' Closing

As part of the sale of its business to business publications, Nielsen Business Media has announced that it is closing its book review publication Kirkus Reviews as well as Editor & Publisher. No details on the closing have been released yet. Nielsen is selling its major publications, including The Hollywood Reporter and Adweek to e5 Global Media Holdings.