Business Readers In Search of Rigor And Relevance

What do readers hire us to do?  The editors of one of the world’s most recognized and respected business publications asked themselves just that over five years ago.  Answering the question inspired a transformation of the organization and a reinvention of the brand....

Learning To Change

Change has come to publishing.  That’s hardly a news flash.  We are all familiar with the digital transformation of books and related media such as news.  But the change that’s rarely spoken of is what happens to our work and our workplaces. Amy Wrzesniewski,...

Rules for the Publishing Road

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...

In Hills of Books, Finding Gold

In 2013, buying and selling rights in the digital age has never been easier – or harder. Clearly, good books can – and do – come from anywhere. And if you’re a literary agent or literary scout,  that’s also the challenge: getting to the good works is as laborious as...

Recipes For Successful E-Books

The questions editors and designers must ask when developing e-books are not only different than for printed volumes, but also different between e-versions of cookbooks and poetry collections, notes Liisa McCloy-Kelley, vice president and director of e-book...

BTB #316: Winning Publishing Strategies

There’s no business like show business to serve as a model for book publishing, according to industry veteran Bruce Harris, who spoke earlier this summer at the Yale Publishing Course. “When you’re doing a show, a group of talented people come together. They...

BTB #311: A New Job Description for Books

On the leafy campus of Yale University, the view from the summer session at the Yale Publishing Course was of lush chestnuts and towering ivy. Tranquil as it seemed, warned a lecturer, danger lurked for book publishing businesses. That startling call to attention came...

BTB #309: Copyright & The Cartoonist

From his studio in Seattle, “The Oatmeal” cartoonist-humorist Matthew Inman posts online his views on everything from Sriracha hot sauce to designs for “how a movie theater should be laid out.” But when he discovered his work re-posted to Funnyjunk, an...