FutureBook

Showrooming has become the bane of every bookseller’s life, to the point where HarperCollins c.e.o. Victoria Barnsley recently suggested that bookshops could charge for entry to put showroomers off. Read more »

The self-publishing industry has boomed over the last year—or maybe more accurately has been accepted. And no-one on Twitter and with an interest in the book industry can have missed the deluge of articles hailing the sector—with an added kick at the apparently dead dog of traditional publishing for good measure. Read more »

A while ago I stumbled on this post from Eric Hellman exploring the question of what sort of front- and endmatter makes sense for e-books, given that many of the pages that we see in the front of paper books have a purpose related to the printing process. Hellman gives the example of the bastard or half-title page:  Read more »

Everyone knows the doom and gloom stories. Publishers are facing the apocalypse. Amazon is the Antichrist. Read more »

So there’s been another spat reminiscent of the Stephen Leather equivalent at Harrogate last year. This time involving US self-pubber Barry Eisler.

Apparently agents and publishers don’t like being told they risk being redundant. Quite a few people have commented on this—at considerable length—so I’ll keep this brief. Read more »

Last month, the government published its recommendations about e-lending—tthe Sieghart Review—and most of us in the public library world let out a cautious sigh of relief. Read more »

The US author Barry Eisler writes very well about self-publishing and what he needlessly refers to as 'legacy' publishing. He is also prepared to debate his points, and does so in good spirit. He recently caused a stir when he gave one of the keynotes at the 21st annual Pike's Peak Writers Convention, which he says led to "a bit of upset here and there" and an apparent walkout. Read more »

It's crisis. Yes, still. When it will end? Nobody knows. Although, according to Bernard Wientjes of the Dutch labour union VNO-NCW, the crisis will end on 1 January 2016. Right… From previous crises, or attenuated variants thereof, the book world experienced little to no problems. Books are traditionally sold mostly to people who have a bit more to spend. You can at least clearly state that the largest group of book buyers is not on the lower end of the income level. Read more »

A few weeks ago my first solo novel, The Magpies, was published via my agent using Amazon’s new White Glove service. As I write this, The Magpies is at number 2 in the Kindle chart, priced at 99p, and selling 2,000 copies a day. It is also having the very pleasing effect of pulling several of my other novels, co-written with Louise Voss and published by HarperCollins, up the rankings. Read more »

Kobo's big set-piece launch of its new upmarket device—the Kobo aura—held last night in London should be remembered as the moment the e-bookseller became a serious player in the e-book business. This statement might surprise some. Read more »