FutureBook

The book publishing trade has passed the digital tipping point - no, the majority of trade publishing may not yet be electronic, but as an industry, th Read more »

Much has been made of the ongoing ding-dong between publishers and agents over certain agents' decisions to publish their clients work directly in electronic form. In March, Sonia Land, agent for the Catherine Cookson literary estate, pulled a flanker on publishers Transworld and Simon & Schuster and announced she would publish the books directly.

Let's remind ourselves what she said to the Daily Mail at the time: Read more »

As I write this, I am listening to the newest album from The Gorillaz, which was released a mere couple of weeks ago – and I didn't pay a penny for it. Well, technically I paid something for it, because I'm listening to it on Spotify, the advertising- and subscription-funded music service launched by clever Swedish geeks in 2008. Under their model, I pay £4.99 per month, in return for which I could in theory listen to 744 hours of non-stop music a month, untroubled by pesky adverts. Read more »

In the most recent Bookseller editorial, the point is made that if ebook sales are taken in to account, the book trade has turned a corner and is starting to enjoy a period of modest growth. Good news. But why are we not reflecting this new reality in our charts and publicised sales figures? There's a massive irony in the fact that there is nothing more measurable than a digital sale (trust me on this, I'm a geek), and yet we have far less published data than we do for physical book sales. Read more »

By any sensible measurement, 59p is not a lot of money. What can you get for it? A tabloid newspaper, maybe, or a bar of chocolate? The right to 'spend a penny' in some modern shopping centre or mainline railway station? None of these things is much to write home about - yet when it comes to the selling apps for that kind of low price on the iPhone and elsewhere, it seems that rational considerations don't apply. Read more »