Publishing has long been a bastion of prestige and influence, smoke and mirrors protecting what was sacred to those inside. Then along came Amazon, ebooks, digital and the rise of self-publishing. Now the old approach is hurting publishing, because this new world moves so fast that only the agile can hope to keep up. So what’s the answer? 

(1) Transparency in experimentation, failure and success Read more »

Ahead of this year’s FutureBook Conference, The Bookseller's Felicity Wood talks to keynote speaker Charlie Redmayne, c.e.o. of Pottermore, about building brands and harnessing fans.   Read more »

Who’d be an editor? What can be the best job in publishing has become something like the opposite of that for many, many reasons – so many it is hard to know where to start, but here are my top 5.

1. Everyone else does your job. Read more »

Clark Kokich nailed it for me in this article in Forbes: "It’s less about advertising and more about creating an experience that transforms what it means to be a customer of a brand." Basically, the persuasion industry is in free fall. Read more »

This is my final push to encourage you to book onto the conference. The process of putting this conference together has been challenging to say the least. It’s almost become a cliché to say that the publishing industry is at a pivotal moment, but change and disruption seem to be the only constants this year. Read more »

It was impossible not to enjoy Amazon's evisceration at the hands of MPs earlier this week as the internet retailer sought to answer no questions whatsoever about its tax affairs. But fun aside, the session told us as much about our legislators as it did about Amazon. Read more »

An illustrated book publisher in search of growth has to look for new outlets and new opportunities. Back in early 2011 – in what might be termed the Paleozoic era of digital publishing – an ad-hoc meeting at the London Book Fair resulting from a daily Bookseller interview proved the catalyst for Amber Books to enter the world of online digital retailing.  Read more »

The digital trade book business in Europe is booming and unlike US doesn’t show any sign of growth deceleration. In Europe, with perhaps the exception of UK, the weight of digital is still so small that the conventional market friction forces aren’t strong enough to absorb the important momentum tied to the digital book rise. Read more »

When I talk with people about e-books, and especially about the growth (in percentages) and the expectations, I always state that we Dutch are three years behind on the US. This has two reasons. The first is the simple fact that we started selling e-books three years later than the US did (they started in 2006, we in 2009), the other is that we seem to follow the exact same trend (market share in percentages) as the US did in their first years. In fact, we are probably doing a better job.  Read more »

It's hard saying no. And also possibly counter-intuitive. But if I had a pound for every time I've said something along the lines of, "actually, I don't think your book, An Illustrated History of Central Uzbekistani Cookery will be a very commercial eBook/ePub/iBook/App", then I'd be more profitable than your average illustrated publisher. Read more »