A recent report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance made the improbable claim that Amazon accounted for 46% of all online retail sales in 2016. A quick look through Amazon’s...Continue reading
Category: Uncategorized
Medium Lays Off A Third of Its Staff, Realizes Stealing Underpants is Not a Viable Business Model
About three months back I predicted that Medium would pivot for the fourth time and/or take a buyout offer within a couple years (if it doesn’t go bankrupt first). I...Continue reading
Barnes & Noble Reports Nook, Retail Revenues Down in First Quarter
When B&N fired its CEO last month, we all knew that the first-quarter financial report would not be good. And it isn’t. Barnes & Noble report on Thursday that revenues...Continue reading
Morning Coffee – 0 September 2016
Here are seven stories to read this morning. Federal Trade Commission begins to crack down on ‘predatory’ publishers (IHE) Give me my advance back! (madgeniusclub) How Editing for Others Helps My...Continue reading
The World’s 52 Largest Book Publishers, 2016 – Or the Big Five Aren’t as Big as You Think
It’s time for a semi-annual reminder that the Big Five US trade publishers aren’t as big as news coverage would lead you to you believe. Instead, the Big Five get press...Continue reading
College Students Are Buying More Course Materials From College Bookstores, and Other Fictions
The National Association of College Stores (NACS) has just released the results of a survey which was conducted by an NACS subsidiary and contains results which will make NACS members...Continue reading
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Script Book Up for Pre-Order
The long-promised new installment in the Harry Potter saga went up for pre-order today on Amazon and B&N. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is less the eight novel in...Continue reading
Pronoun Launches a Blog – The Verbs
The self-pub platform Pronoun has just launched its first new initiative since being acquired by Macmillan in May 2016. Earlier this week Pronoun announced that it had launched a blog...Continue reading
Luddite Agonizes Over Choosing Books for a Hike
Writing on the Powell’s Books blog about a months-long hiking trip, Robert Moor reports on how he agonized over how to bring reading material on the trip. The problem,...Continue reading
JetBlue Wasted Tens of Thousands of Dollars When it Installed Book Vending Machines in Detroit
Remember last summer when JetBlue got a lot of press for installing book vending machines in Washington DC’s poorest neighborhoods? They’ve just installed more book vending machines in a reading...Continue reading
Star Trek: Renegades to Continue Production in Defiance of Paramount’s Onerous Restrictions
When Paramount announced its new “guidelines” for Star trek fan productions earlier this week, some feared that the restrictions would have a chilling effect on fan films. The film studio’s rules...Continue reading
Amazon is Sending Out Emails for eBook Settlement Credits Today
Amazon and other retailers are now informing their customers about the ebook settlement credits promised in yesterday’s announcement. If you are due a credit, it should show up in your...Continue reading
There’s No Such Thing as Common Sense, and There Never Was
The topic of common sense recently came up in the comment section of this blog, and after initially responding with a comment I thought it would be worthwhile to expand...Continue reading
Chess: Intellectual Pursuit or Just Another Board Game?
If you’ve been following the topic of “moral decay” (or as it should be called, railing against innocuous activities) then you’ve probably read that old chestnut about chess being bad for...Continue reading
Nielsen: Big Five US eBook Sales Down in 2015
A few weeks back the American Association of Publisher reported that the major trade publishers saw steep declines in ebook revenue in 2015, and now market research firm Nielsen Bookscan is...Continue reading