I don’t say this enough but one of the problems in academic publishing is how journal publishers are exploiting the academic “publish or perish” imperative to force researchers to hand...Continue reading
Category: Publishing
Say Good-Bye to the Ten-Digit ISBN
The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) announced last week that newly purchased ISBNs sold through Bowker will soon be sporting a 979 prefix. Bowker’s John Purcell and Pat Payton said...Continue reading
Ten Tips for Authors Going to Their First Book Fair (updated)
Book fairs and other local events can be a great way for authors to connect with readers and make new fans. They are immensely valuable, but at the same time...Continue reading
Kobo and FNAC Partner to Launch a POD Service
Earlier this month Kobo partnered with the French retailer Fnac to offer a print-on-demand service through Bookelis. Authors who have their books in Kobo Writing Life can pay 49 euros to...Continue reading
KDP Print Expands to Canada
Amazon’s POD service has expanded into the land of moose and snow. The retailer announced in the KDP support forums last week that KDP Print could now print and distribute...Continue reading
ISBN Registrations Jump 40% After Createspace is Merged Into KDP Print
Bowker, the private company responsible for issuing ISBNs in the US, released its annual report on the number ISBN’s sold last year. The data doesn’t tell us as much as...Continue reading
Why Is It a Big Deal That HarperCollins Puts “Hundreds” if Titles in Kindle Unlimited When They Already Have “Thousands” in Scribd?
The hot publishing news story this week has everyone talking excitedly, but it’s left me scratching my head. There’s a (paywalled) story over on The Bookseller reporting that the Commonwealth...Continue reading
Is Anyone Else Not Seeing the New Audiobook Section in Kobo Writing Life?
One of the more interesting news stories last week was Kobo’s announcement that Kobo Writing Life now distributed audiobooks (I didn’t expect this to happen until after Rakuten bought Findaway)....Continue reading
Washington Post Revises a Year’s Worth of Best-Seller Lists, Assures us the Problem Will Not Recur
It has long been acknowledged that getting on a best-seller list has little value to authors; it won’t help you sell more books, and is really only useful for things...Continue reading
Publisher Revenue Up 4.5% Through April 2019, eBook Revenues Down 2.5%
For some reason I do not understand, I have fallen off the AAP’s mailing list. Here is a belated report on publisher revenues from the Association of American Publishers. Publisher...Continue reading
AAP: Publisher Revenue Up 6.7% in First Quarter, eBook Revenue Down 4.5%
The Association of American Publishers the March StatShot Monthly report which includes data for the first three months of 2019 on Monday. Among the highlights: Overall participating publisher revenue was...Continue reading
PRH Buys Half of F+W Media At Auction, Including Half of Writer’s Digest
Do you know that story in the Bible where Solomon orders a baby cut in half in order to settle a dispute about who was the mother? One point of...Continue reading
Amazon Launches Worldwide Full-Language Support for Traditional Chinese in Kindle eBooks
Amazon first started selling Chinese-language Kindle ebooks in 2012, but only in China. Chinese expats or foreign-language learners either had to find another source or use a VPN, but that...Continue reading
KDP Reports Dashboard Now Has a Royalties Estimator
I have just heard via the 20Booksto50K group on Facebook that Amazon has added a new royalty estimator to the KDP Reports dashboard that launched last November. I have no...Continue reading
Google Play Books is Cutting Out the Middleman, Now Wants a Direct Relationship with Authors and Publishers
Many authors and publishers use a company such as PublishDrive or Draft2Digital to handle their distribution to smaller ebook retailers. They trade a small cut of their revenue for less...Continue reading