Ebook revolution can kindle a passion for publishing Agent Ed Victor on why he decided to publish books.
Links of the week June 4 2012 (23)
Our new feature links to interesting blogs or articles posted online, which will help keep you up to date with what's going on in the book world:
11 June 2012
Many people have asked me why I, a literary agent, decided to publish books. The short answer is %u201Cto better serve my authors%u201D. The long answer requires a little backstory on how the publishing business has changed in recent years.
US to Face Domestic Competition from Overseas Digital Publishers Publishing Perspectives on why American should watch out asforeign publihsers are starting to look at ways on getting into the American market.
America, watch out. In an attitude switch from recent years, foreign publishers are looking at ways to create market opportunities and exploit the rich digital market in the US. And it starts with the devaluing of foreign rights deals by the growing e-book distribution markets across the globe. flags of the world "Territorial rights barriers can't stand and are falling," said David Cully, President of retail markets and EVP of Merchandising for US book distributor Baker & Taylor during yesterday's Publishers Launch conference as part of BookExpo AmericaBookExpo America, commonly referred to within the book publishing industry as BEA. The largest annual book trade fair in the United States. "When a book goes on sale, it goes on sale - if you go online on the internet, rights are being violated each in their own way. I think the market will deal with it financially. Publishers are recognizing that the rights they once acquired, will have a different value."
What Makes a Children's Book Great? We Have Some Answers from the first children's book conference run by Scholastic and Publishing Perspectives
A great book is...
1. One that contains a simple and original idea presented with clarity and great power.
2. One that connects with the reader, asserting its world directly into the reader's mind.
3. One that makes the world seem larger and more interesting.
4. One written with humor and a light touch.
5. One that is a realization of a complete but very different world.
What makes a children's book great? Publishing Perspectives, along with host Scholastic Inc., held its inaugural children's publishing conference yesterday, May 31, in New York City, in attempt to answer that very question. And while the subject may not have been settled definitively, the sold-out crowd of 230 writers, agents, and publishing professionals were treated to a morning of illuminating discussion.
4 June 2012
Bloomberg Businessweek reports that in the latest development in the Google digital library case, Judge Chin has allowed class suits against the internet giant.
A federal judge granted class certification to authors challenging Google Inc. over its plans for the world's largest digital library Thursday, finding it more sensible to have a single legal action than scores of individual lawsuits. Judge Denny Chin said in a written ruling that class action is "more efficient and effective than requiring thousands of authors to sue individually." He added that requiring each author to sue Google would risk disparate results in nearly identical lawsuits and exponentially increase the cost of litigation.
James Daunt isn't a moron says blogger Agent Orange in the Bookseller's Futurebook, saying that: 'It is simple common sense to make a virtue out of a necessity and plant some flowers around it.'
He's just playing it as it lays. The stupid decision by Waterstones (which predates him by about four managerial boards) was when they failed to make the drive into digital at the beginning of the century. Is there any point in Waterstones continuing to invest in an online product that, even if it is as good as Amazon, has conceded far too much ground to ever be able to catch up? Who shops at waterstones.co.uk? There are two other major calculations to consider: how big is the e-book going to become? And how long will the consumer put up with the proprietary nonsense of the kindle.
Publishers should be proud of their legacy argues Stephen Page, CEO of Faber, in the Guardian: The word 'legacy' is becoming a term of abuse in the publishing revolution, but a long history of bringing great writing to committed readers is nothing to be ashamed of.
The near-Orwellian debate about "publishers bad, Amazon good" or "Amazon bad, publishers good" strikes me as symptomatic of the degree of revolution taking place in reading. Two recent articles in the Guardian by Barry Eisler and Nick Harkaway offered interesting perspectives, but more than the argument it was the language in both pieces that was striking. In any revolution, language matters. One powerful word in the digital revolution is "legacy". There is a conscious attempt to employ the word pejoratively, to suggest that existing media businesses %u2013 publishers, in the case of books %u2013 are going to fail to make the leap to a new world.
UK Publisher's Association Accuses British Library Of 'Tawdry Theft' For Supporting More Reasonable Copyright Techdirt argues the case against.
The UK Publisher's Association seems to be making sure it appears as out of touch and obsolete as possible these days. This is the same group that, a few months ago, announced that fair use would put a "chokehold on innovation" despite the fact that we've got plenty of experience with fair use in the US, and see no such chokehold due to it. The latest is that the Publisher's Association has apparently decided to go on the offensive (and I mean that in multiple ways), attacking all who call for more reasonable copyright laws -- including the British Library -- as defending "tawdry theft":
[PA chief executive Richard Mollet] attacked organisations such as the Open Rights Group, research councils and the British Library, who he said all to varying degrees wish to erode copyright, and the tactics of lobby groups, who have "the temerity to appropriate the language of freedom of expression as a cloak for their tawdry theft". He said it was "a grotesque attempt to draw moral equivalence between stealing someone's work and the struggle for political representation".
That's pretty funny, since it appears that he (and many others on his side) are the ones who are actually "appropriating" language in a ridiculous way -- such as referring to things like the public domain, open access and fair use as "stealing" or "tawdry theft."