Best of BTB: Ending World War Copyright

Aug 31, 2014 | Best of VOC, Copyright

The creative industries – and the technology companies that carry their content – may share a common customer, but little else. Where it comes to copyright law, their differences have often flared into open war. Technology companies dream of rewriting copyright law to...

GlobalPost Covers World With Freelancers

Aug 24, 2014 | News

The American journalist, James Foley, reported for the Boston-based GlobalPost, an online network of freelance journalists, before he was kidnapped in 2012 and ultimately murdered by terrorists earlier this month. Last summer (2013), CCC’s Chris Kenneally...

Looking on Bright Side of Book Business

Aug 22, 2014 | News

If winter is for pessimists – all grey and cold and bleak – then summer certainly is season for sunny dispositions. In August, though, the publishing business has seemed frozen as if in mid-January. The source of the polar vortex, of course, is the ongoing slugfest...

Up Against Amazon

Aug 17, 2014 | News

In the book world, telling horror stories about Amazon is a common enough way to pass the time at conferences and receptions. The details may vary, but the plot is the same –Amazon eats publishers for breakfast. What dramatically changed this summer, however, is not...

The Book Fight of the Century

Aug 15, 2014 | News

In one corner: the scrappy contender whose strongest punch is a blow to his opponent’s appetite for power and profit. And in the other corner: the towering heavyweight champion who wants to pound the contender’s prices to the mat. “I think these fighters are dancing...

Bringing Up Bookworms

Aug 10, 2014 | News

As foundational as it is to our lives, reading is not natural. Reading must be learned, and that means it must be taught. Whether a child enters through the printed page or a digital screen, the world of words promises rich rewards. Author of Born Reading: Bringing Up...

Escape from Amazon

Aug 8, 2014 | News

It sounds like the title of a summer blockbuster movie. Trapped in the e-commerce jungle, the denizens of the book world dream of liberation, even as they while away the time weaving fantasies of an alternate universe: a place where Amazon plays nice; a place where...

Rules for the Publishing Road

Aug 3, 2014 | Podcasts

According to urban legend, a fundamental rule in Italian driving states, “It doesn’t matter what’s behind you.” At a time when the road ahead is shrouded by fog, does it matter what’s behind us in publishing? Writer and start-up advisor Craig Mod believes the...

Amazon to Publishers – Spread the Wealth

Aug 1, 2014 | News

We’re fighting for you. That’s what Amazon told authors this week as the public battle between the retail giant and Hachette Book Group continued. In a post on Amazon’s Kindle Forums, the Seattle company says consumers should pay less for e-books, and authors deserve...