FINALLY!!!

Nielsen got around to announcing the shuttering of The Book Standard. So I wasn't crazy - they really did re-reroute the URL to Kirkus Reviews. WITHOUT TELLING ANYBODY WHAT WAS UP.

According to Authorlink:

The sudden disappearance of The Book Standard led some to speculate that Nielsen might be among bidders for Reed Information, a $1.7 billion company.

Oh, yes, let's speculate! Because if you're not telling anybody what's happening, THAT'S ALL WE HAVE LEFT TO US.

Book as souvenir...and then some....

Gawker has an interesting take on Seth Godin's "book as souvenir" idea here. What are bookshelves actually FOR? Are they to display the books you've actually read? Are they to display books you want to read/intend to read/think you might be a better person if you were reading? Are they to impress people? A little of everything?

And what happens when we're all about the Kindle or its equivalent? Yesterday I was in Mike Shatzkin's office - he's a huge Kindle fan - and yet he's got wall-to-wall bookshelves with what seem like every single baseball book ever written. What are his bookshelves for?

Viral Marketing for Book Publishers

Just a reminder that the white paper I co-wrote with LibreDigital is available on the LibreDigital website. You sign up and they send you a copy. (You can opt out of marketing blasts, no worries.)

Topics we cover include leveraging your niches, a toolbox for viral marketing, and the importance of discoverability. You'd be surprised what BISAC categories can get you.

Developing a Digital Distribution Strategy...digitally

Andrew Benneman, who manages the Digital Media Group at Chicago University Press, has loaded up a slide show called "Developing a Digital Distribution Strategy" which is accessible for free here. It's moderated by Matt Steinmetz, of Book Business. If you don't have the hour to spare, Andrew Le Peau has a great summary on his blog.

A nice tip of the hat to Cader

From Galleycat:

"Dude, Publishers Weekly has already lost to Publishers Marketplace," he emailed yesterday afternoon. "The PW 'brand' is almost irrelevant among anyone in book publishing under 50 years old."

"Michael Cader doesn't do much original reporting," he continues, "but his daily newsletter and multi-faceted Web offerings are much more useful to most of us in the industry than PW's thin reported content. All they offer now that distinguishes them are the reviews, which anyone with a few bucks could start producing tomorrow."

Andrew Savikas makes it clearer

His post at TOC blog:

It's important to note that "online book" does not mean "eBook" (though they do say "The emerging ebook concept is a lucrative offshoot of the online book industry"). When they say "online book" they appear to mean "book purchased online"....

Robert Martinengo very graciously attributed my misreading to...having had too much pasta and wine in Italy. This is a very plausible excuse and I think I'll use it to cover my ass right now.

Rule #1: Read Press Release Before Blogging

Robert Martinengo helpfully pointed out this morning that I mis-read the Global Industry Analysts press release yesterday. What they were referring to was not ebooks. It was the online market for print books. In other words, what you can order online as opposed to going to a bookstore to get.

I am embarrassed.

Ebook market projected to reach $9.5 billion by 2010

Global Industry Analysts published a report that looks closely at the ebook market in the US and Europe:
 

United States is the largest market for online books worldwide. The market is estimated at US$4.8 billion in 2007 as stated by Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Europe is the second largest regional market with a projected value of US$2.76 billion in 2009. The US and Europe together account for close to 95% of the global online books market. The global and regional markets are expected to register CAGRs ranging between 13% and 17%. Online sales of consumer books are estimated at over US$4.2 billion in 2007.     Academic and professional books are forecast to register sales worth about US$3 billion in 2008.

Random Drops Encryption on Audio Products

The WSJ reports this morning that Random House will stop encrypting its audiobook products, making them DRM-free. This will enable users to download them to iPods without necessary going through Audible or iTunes.

Snow day

I'm not hearing much from NY-based clients today - a good day to hunker down and shovel away at the email box and go over spreadsheets and all that sort of work that passes as contemplation in this business. My little one scrambles around in the snow outside with my partner, building snowmen and snow-whales and of course a throne. I'm puttering at the computer with a cup of English Breakfast tea, while my stepdaughter noodles around on the sofa in front of some PBS cooking shows. I have the last chapter of "I, Claudius" to finish (I had to re-read it during my trip to Rome), and of course a snowy day like this is the perfect curling-up-and-reading day. I'm saving it as a reward for figuring out a knotty little e-commerce problem.

Which is to say, I can't imagine looking forward to curling up with a Kindle. Or a Sony Reader.

PW up for sale

Now that The Book Standard is mysteriously re-routing to Kirkus Reviews, there seems to be very little coverage on the development that Reed is putting its information unit up for sale - which includes PW. John Mutter at Shelf Awareness and Michael Cader at Publishers Marketplace have had pieces - that's about as MSM as we're going to get on this.

Apparently Reed is looking to get away from the ad-subsidized business model. Michael Cairns at Persona Non Data has this analysis:

First, the online component of RBI is not growing fast enough to keep up with Elsevier, LexisNexis and Martindale. This will dampen long term revenue growth for RE. Second, the timing and investment required to speed the process could be significant and Third, the payback is not obvious in so far as online ad based 'magazine-type' content has yet to establish itself as a business that can replace revenues from print based subscription and advertising. Davis's comments reflect forward thinking regarding the strategic growth of RE as a platform based content solutions provider: Financially the current position of RBI is quite strong versus their segment. Indeed their performance supports the suggestion that Davis will not rush to sell RBI and is open to various scenarios.

It's worth remembering that Michael Cairns was CEO of Bowker, which for quite a while owned PW before selling it to Reed.

Writer says Jobs wrong about books; Jobs too busy counting his money to respond

ON!!!!!!

OMG so Rome and Palermo were awesome and all the food we have in this country tastes like plastic and even though I ate and drank to my heart's content I wound up LOSING five pounds because of all the walking we did. The ruins, the mountains, the churches....

I may have to move.

OFF!!!!!!

I am running away. To Italy - Roma e Palermo - with my beloved. We will be back and functional by 2/19.

Register at LibreDigital to get your white paper!

LibreDigital and I have collaborated on a white paper called "The Insider's Guide to Internet Viral Marketing for Book Publishers" - you can register to receive it here.

Google says they're a nicer company because they share

The NY Times today looks at Google CEO Eric Schmidt's anti-Microsoft mindset - one that well predates his tenure at Google (he came up at Sun Microsystems, as anti a Microsoft shop as Apple):

In an interview in November, Mr. Schmidt said he understood the comparison [between the two behemoths] but that it “rankled” him.

“Microsoft was found guilty in a federal court,” he said. The big software maker, he argued, illegally maintained its Windows monopoly by stifling rivals. “Fundamentally, they blocked people from entering their ecosystem.”

“At Google,” Mr. Schmidt added, “we had a long conversation about, if we became a big company, how could we avoid that. There are a lot of technical things we can do and have done. But the one that we decided that was most important was not to trap user data. That is important because” if you can move your data from Google, “you always have a choice to go to a competitor of Google. That is absolutely not true in Microsoft’s history.”

Digital gurus frighten publishers, leave them twitching in anxiety