Beyond the Book

The digital tide is high – and rising – at leading publishing education programs. A Publishers Weekly survey finds more courses than ever on metadata and SEO, with the number of graduates finding digital-driven jobs growing, too. “In 2007, just 6% of NYU [publishing program] grads landed jobs in digital. Now, that number is over [...]

If you think 40 million readers can’t be wrong, think again. On Monday, Publishers Weekly named 50 Shades of Grey author E.L. James as the magazine’s “Person of the Year.” That award was not an award for the book, though it surely sounded like that to many critics who have lambasted PW for the choice. [...]

As 2012 draws to its end, magazines and media proclaim the year’s winners and losers. Publishers Weekly gets the party started early next week with its announcement of book publishing’s “Person of the Year” for 2012. In the same issue, PW previews the upcoming Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association. “Overall, 2012 was a [...]

A newspaper man takes home a book award. At a time when both the news business and the book business face crisis, a celebration provides welcome diversion. This week’s ceremony for the National Book Awards included honoring New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. “Given the fate [...]

Self-publishing, like politics, makes for unusual bedfellows. Not only authors, but also now publishers are turning to platforms like Smashwords that publish and sell e-books, and taking advantage of digitally-devoted distribution services. Publishers Weekly’s Calvin Reid takes a look this week at the broader themes of the digital revolution,” Andrew Albanese, the magazine’s features editor, [...]

Hurricane Sandy, the superstorm of 2012, will go down as one for the record books in numerous categories – for flooding, for amount of rainfall, and for its terrible impact on human lives and livelihoods. In Manhattan, the epicenter of American trade book publishing and so much other media, the long days without power and [...]

The countdown begins: Confirmation from Pearson that it is talking to Random House about a merger with Penguin, its trade book publishing division, could see the Big Six drop a notch. “This would be massive stroke of consolidation for an industry that has been steadily consolidating for decades,” Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly features editor, tells [...]

Like the book business itself, the Frankfurt Book Fair is undergoing a metamorphosis. Yet while publishers continue their own transformations, the Fair organizers have already emerged from a chrysalis with a new kind of show. “The Frankfurt Book Fair has succeeded in doing what the larger pub community is still in the process of doing,” [...]

Even as the publishing industry converges in Frankfurt, Germany, for the world’s largest annual book fair, the news keeps breaking elsewhere. This week, in Stockholm, the Nobel committee awarded the Prize in Literature to Mo Yan of China. And in a New York courtroom, the Authors Guild heard the bare facts on fair use from [...]

Trade book publisher Penguin sets to thaw out relations with libraries, but the move on e-book sales is seen as cold comfort by some. “The program is still very restrictive,” explains Andrew Alabanese, Publishers Weekly features editor. “For one, it windows new books for six months. Then, libraries only get a single-year license. Think about [...]