Ancient Art Updated

The Internet is a global phenomenon, yet we typically see it through our own limited nationalistic or cultural perspective. For many in North America, that means the Internet is in English, delivering media and services produced by and for North Americans. But a...

A Book For All Seasons?

In the midst of “summer reading” season comes word that another longstanding bookselling tradition may be headed for the digital dustbin. Seasonal sales once helped publishers and stores to organize their work, but in the age of e-books and social media, the seasons...

A New Map & More For ‘Book Country’

When it comes to online workshopping for authors, Book Country has redrawn the map. Today, the two-year-old virtual writing community from Penguin Random House re-launches with expanded coverage of literary fields, known as its “genre map.” Writers of almost any type...

Instant Books Now Breaking Speed Limits

What once took weeks and months now may take only days, or even hours.  As long ago as the early days of the space age and the JFK assassination, book publishers have pushed their printing presses into warp speed to capitalize on the public’s hunger to learn what lay...

Pearson Keeps Its Crown

For 2012, a listing of the top publishers of the world looks a lot like a reprint from 2011. The first four placers all have repeated, with Pearson retaining its crown as the world’s largest publisher, boasting 2012 revenues in excess of $9 billion. A careful eye also...

Education, the Universe & Everything

Once upon a time, in schools everywhere, the textbook was the whole course.  That’s no longer the case, noted Bruce M. Spatz, Vice President of Strategic Development, Global Education at John Wiley and Sons, for an audience of textbook authors attending the recent...

E-books Case ‘Not Even Close’ For Apple

The verdict, as both the government and the defendants had wanted, came swiftly. Barely three weeks after the lawyers fell silent, federal judge Denise Cote, delivered a crushing judgment against Apple, finding that it had conspired with book publishers to inflate the...

UK Copyright Hub Launches

Today, July 8, in partnership with a dozen leading media and copyright organizations, including Copyright Clearance Center, the UK Copyright Hub launches its first phase of an ambitious effort to leverage technology to make copyright work. “What we really looked at...