A few months ago, Paul Graham, founder of the startup incubator YCombinator, wrote that most really big ideas are frightening. He believes that you can tell if you are on the scent of something really ground-breaking by how much anxiety it produces personally and institutionally. This phenomenon is one of the most important things you […]
In this week’s New York Times, David Carr reports on a new committee to formulate standards for content aggregation. The committee, created by Ad Age columnist Simon Dumenco, has the support of some of the major media websites, but few prominent bloggers. Dumenco decided to form the committee after writing a series of columns in
Guidelines for Content Aggregation and Curation Read More »
Dear Author’s Jane Litte, romance blogger of the first rank, published an interesting take on IPG’s public spat with Amazon, in which the Internet retailer removed the “Buy” buttons from IPG’s books and IPG responded with a request to the public to stop buying from Amazon. Jane’s response was simple. “No.” She says that IPG
Dear Author’s Letter to Publishers — “What Have You Done For Me Lately?” Read More »
Tim Parks in The New York Review of Books, explores the question’s history in under 2000 words. Parks doesn’t take on the actual historical role of the writer, only the perception left on those attempting the profession. Let’s leave aside how accurate this is historically; it’s what they taught us and it got stuck in
Can Writers Have “Careers?” Read More »
The Association of American Publishers reported today that e-book sales increased 117% in 2011. All print categories showed revenue declines, with trade paperback falling 15.6 percent. The AAP represents 300 publishing companies, including all the big six. Via Publishers Weekly.
Assocation of American Publishers: Ebooks’ Sales Explode, Print Declines Read More »
Amazon claims that they’ve hired Kirshbaum, former head of Time Warner Books, to manage a publishing laboratory, “where authors and editors and marketers can test new ideas.” Established publishers see that, by taking on ebook production itself, Amazon can decimate their business by paying authors more and charging readers less — and many of these
Is Amazon’s Larry Kirshbaum an Author’s Best Friend or Publishing’s Worst Nightmare? Read More »
Though not in those words. After conducting several phone polls, the Pew Research Center believes that in the early part of the year the percent of U.S. adults with e-book readers doubled from 6% to 12%. By December, the figure had increased to 18% and as of this week, the number had jumped to 29
Study Shows Hockey Stick Growth for E-Book Readers Read More »
A bit of a contretemps over a leaked document at Digital Book World illustrates the divide between what publishers think they offer — support, backing, quality assurance, marketing — and what self-publishers think traditional publishers bring to the table. Prepared by Hachette as part of a presentation for agents, the document enumerates the publisher’s roles
Hachette’s Leaked “Manifesto” at Digital Book World Read More »
Every campaign is unique, from a new product launch to a membership drive — but wouldn’t it be great if there were some general principles that govern success or failure? Maybe there are. They come from a fifty-year-old textbook called “The Diffusion of Innovations,” by Everett M. Rogers. Rogers studied how Iowa farmers adopted new
How Products (And Ideas) Find Users Read More »
The current state of the media business was roughly predicted fifteen years ago by a Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen. In an article entitled “Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave,” Christensen described how small companies, even those with laughably bad products, were able to take over key markets by gaining small footholds then growing faster
Why Mainstream Media Is Being Eaten Alive (And What to Do About It) Read More »