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 »

(1) What is Dark Social?

Dark Social? Sounds cool. What’s that then? Read more »

Launched 2 years ago, the FutureBook Innovation awards are the most prestigious awards recognising publishing innovation. Last year we had 218 entries across 8 categories, with extremely high standards and inspiring products and innovation across the board. Read more »

Long ago and far away, one of my teachers suggested that my brain was proof of Brownian Motion.

So I move through the social media world pinging off things and bouncing all over the place without much in the way of a plan. I know what my plan ought to be, I just don't actually have one. Read more »

News reaches our shores that "The love affair with apps is officially over". This is the conclusion drawn by Forrester and Digital Book World and presented at their New York conference by James McQuivey. Read more »

If you aren't familiar with The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore iPad app, I highly recommend you download it. The developers Moonbot Studios based in LA have 'blurred the line between picture book and animation' in one of the most visually stunning iPad apps. Joe Bluhm, lead artist at Moonbot gives us the story behind the huge success of this app:

What made you launch a book app? Read more »

My mother always told me that ‘good things come in small packages’ – but then we are both five foot four – but I think it’s a great way of describing a lot of independent publishers.  Read more »

I have to admit I was perplexed by John Blake’s comments on the Bookseller blog on 3 May.  Having noted the rapid success of Crissy Rock’s autobiography from morning personal appearance on a TV programme to afternoon number two position in the Amazon Kindle Top Ten, he then asserts that serious readers are more likely to want a hardback over a wait for months for an ebook.  He believes publishers would do well to publi Read more »

As online advertising spend increases and agencies clamour for access to more retinal real estate, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) this week launched six new advertising formats at the online world. Proposed by agencies in a competition, reined in by publishers and other agencies on the judging panel, the new formats promise advertisers access to as much 950x550 pixels of the browser window (read: all). Read more »

 The great journalist Robert Fisk wrote a piece in the INDEPENDENT newspaper in 2005 which has stayed with me ever since because it articulated a feeling that had been growing since I’d left university a year earlier, a suspicion of the Read more »