My new favorite video. Talk at work about this was very entertaining.
’50 Shades of Grey’ ‘SNL’ Skit Shows What Moms Really Want for Mother’s Day
Perhaps the Internet Didn’t Kill Books
An interesting post by Alexis Madrigal, a senior editor at The Atlantic. As he aptly points out, “In 1957, not even a quarter of Americans were reading a book or novel. By 2005, that number had shot up to 47 percent. I couldn’t find a more recent number, but I think it’s fair to say that reading probably hasn’t declined to the horrific levels of the 1950s.”
As he points out from the original feedback he received, there are probably a lot of factors in these numbers and variables that are not accounted for. For instance there is a large gap in the data from 1957 to 1990 which is not accounted for. These are just a few data points – but they are data points that I’ll take.
Posted in Internet, Kindle, Physical Books, Publishing, eBooks
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Helvetica
How is the entire movie available for free on YouTube?
But better yet, a fun history of fonts that is not an hour and a half long. Or if you do have time watch the movie and read Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield
Posted in Publishing
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The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (2011)
Late to the game for a books guy, but found this seriously enjoyable.
Posted in Physical Books
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Kickstarter To Outfund National Endowment for the Arts
In an interview with Talking Points Memo, Co-Founder Yancey Strickler said that Kickstarter might actually crowdsource fund $150 million in 2012, which is $4 million more than the National Endowment for the Arts’ 2012 operating budget of $146 million. “Our entire lifetime funding is about $150 million,” said Strickler, “But $99 million was pledged last year alone.”
I have two reactions to this. First, I am delighted that a private, for profit enterprise, has been able to raise so much money for the advancement of the arts and artistic projects. Second, I am shocked that the NEA has that small of a budget. The NEA is “dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education.” I believe that the arts are fundamental to American society and wish they had a bigger budget to allow them to do even more good.
Posted in Culture
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Apple’s New Rules for Reading Apps
I write this post as a Apple customer. I own a Macbook Air, an iPhone, an iPad, two apple TVs and many, many Apple accessories. And I am furious. As it was widely reported today, in the Wall Street Journal for just one example, eBook retailers Amazon, Kobo and Barnes & Noble have stopped selling eBooks through Apple iPhone and iPad apps. I read and buy new books on my Kindle application all the time, and I can not shop from the app any longer.
While I work for Kindle, and will admit that I am biased, I was a Kindle user far before the iPad was a twinkle in Steve Job’s eye.
This move by Apple does nothing to help Apple, and everything to hurt its competitors. But more than that, it hurts readers. Let me say this again, it hurts readers. I will never use iBooks just because I can buy books from my iPad. Hopefully this is not the case, but this move may cause most eBook readers (who are NOT iBooks readers) to buy fewer books. And in that it means that book readers may read less.
I’m really disappointed in Apple.
Posted in Amazon, Apple, Kindle, Steve Jobs, eBooks, iPad
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Project Domino Project Update
A few days ago Seth Godin posted an update on Project Domino. In just seven months since the project was announced the small team has “published four books. We now have more than 250,000 copies in circulation across the four titles, and every one of them hit the Top 10 list (either hardcover, Kindle or both) on Amazon.” While I can’t speak to the details of Seth’s deal with Amazon, it is a safe assumption that it is structured in a very different way than publishing’s standard 15% royalty.
What is interesting to reflect on here, is how this project has faired versus agent Andrew Wylie’s own publishing venture, called Odyssey Editions. As you’ll recall, Mr. Wylie said his new company would focus on older titles whose digital rights are not owned by traditional publishers. Odyssey Editions flopped when Random House said that it would stop doing business with Mr. Wylie’s agency.
So, what was the difference? Obvious, for sure, but important nonetheless. Seth Godin could care less if he does business with Random House, or any other large publishing house. But Andrew Wylie’s future business depends on it.
Taking this a step further, wasn’t Seth Godin worried that Barnes & Noble would treat him the same way that Random treated Wylie? Perhaps, but in the end it’s Seth’s marketing power that causes him not to care. Seth’s customers will find Seth, wherever Seth tells them to.
For the big publishers to continue to matter they’ve got to prove that marketing is their core competency. Agents are going to continue to be wrapped up for some time, but if big authors (who publishing helped to create in the first place) continue to discover that they can go it alone, publishers are going to have a serious problem on their hands.
Posted in Amazon, Kindle
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Tired Plots
I am exhausted by old plots. From the New York Times Book Review today:
“Childhood friends in their mid-thirties find themselves at the crossroads of live and love. A vacation on the shore of North Carolina’s Outer Banks seems to be just what they need. But when an unexpected guest arrives, they all begin to question everything they thought they knew. Sometimes, when you need a change in your life, the tide just happens to pull you in the right direction.”
Perhaps I’m jaded by too many years in publishing (already… and it has not been all that many), but this and other selected summer reads are just too much over played. Too much of the same.
Posted in Culture
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Random House Builds Digital Capabilities: Acquires Smashing Ideas
As reported by eBookNewser, and others, this week Random House acquired digital media development firm Smashing Ideas.
Looking around the rest of the publishing industry, most of the other big six are connected to larger digital entities in some way. Simon & Schuster to CBS Interactive. Hyperion to ABC Digital and Disney Digital Books. Harper Collins to News Corp Digital Media.
My first set of questions surrounds what is the real relationship that these publishing house have with these digital resources? Weekly calls? Monthly meetings? Do the digital media employees at publishing houses have a concrete connection to these other resources? For strategic planning? For consulting work? Market analysis?
Recently Hyperion released the “eBook only” version of “A Modern Fairy Tale” and ABC News released a video enhanced version of the same material. It is a strategic advantage to have a simultaneous, but separate release? How did the two companies work together? How could they work together better?
My second set of questions surround, would it be more advantageous for these publishing houses (or their parent companies!) to acquire some digital publishing start ups? Vook? Ruckus Media? Open Road? Auryn Inc.? Moving Tales, Inc.? Loud Crow Interactive? (Note, this is a long, long list…)
Most of these potential acquisition targets are run by former publishing industry leaders. Why would they want to rejoin the bureaucracy they successfully already left? Or what, besides an exit, would digital media entrepreneurs gain?
Lots of questions to think about…
More on Smashing Ideas:
Posted in Random House
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