The true believers of print

I had a great breakfast this morning in sunny, cool (eat your heart out rest of the US) Seattle with some of the fine folks at xerox.  Our discussion went to feedback and thoughts about Drupa 2012 and HP's decision to not participate at Ipex 2014.  It made me think a bit again about my Drupa experience, what I saw, who I met, friendships renewed.

By now everyone in the industry knows that attendance at this year's event in Düsseldorf was off 19%, or around 75,000.  I did notice a bit more elbow room around the Messe this year as opposed to others (this was my fifth time attending), but more important to me was actually who was there and who was not.

I think there were a few less folks from North America, which can be easily understood given the state of the economy in general and the condition of the printing industry.  But I think there were a bit fewer "hucksters", looking for a quick buck opportunity.  I mean, seriously, if you were looking for an industry to manipulate and exploit you probably wouldn't pick the print sector right now.  But the real story for me was who did make the trek to Germany.

What I saw during my visit was a bunch of folks that have ink in their veins and believe it to be the ultimate expression of non-human communication.  People who are in this business because they love it, believe in it, and, yes, cherish it beyond most common sense.  I saw the true believers.

Maybe it was Benny Landa's triumphant return to the industry.  Or the commitment by HP of retooling and enlarging their entire line.  Or the hand off of the iGen reins from Tony Federico to the next generation of talent.  Lots of examples of life in this industry.

This was the year that I think the big finishing companies really got it, and began providing world-class solutions to bookmaking challenges. The year the paper manufacturers were top of mind as printers look to create impressive, quality product. The year that the old hands met the new blood and said "This is what the print business is about, so let's take this thing to the next level."

You meet the finest people at a print trade show.  I think its a business like no other--none that I've been involved in anyway.  I always look up my friend Axel Zoeller from Heidelberg each Drupa as I have since 1995 when at Corbis I was scouting out new Tango scanners and Axel was running Marketing for Heidelberg US.  I saw the whole Jacobson clan from ODM, folks that were there at the genesis of the POD book industry. The folks from What They Think were spreading wisdom while bringing in the next generation of reporting from guys like Adam Dewitz. I could go on and on...I just really have a fondness for this business.

So when folks tell you about the demise of print, you know they are mistaken.  But the industry is not without challenges, as we all know. We have to make sure that when ink hits paper people are always getting a worthwhile, quality experience.  But after four days at Drupa, I know the industry is in good hands, challenges are opportunities, and ink is the lifeblood of those who truly love this business.

What Publishing Companies Do in a World Where Anyone Can Publish a Book. From @Forbes

If an author can go to Kindle Direct Publishing or Barnes & Noble’s PubIt!, instantly publish their own book and then collect up to 70% of the sale price as a royalty as opposed to the 15% to 25% that many traditional publishers offer on e-books, why wouldn’t they?

That’s a question that many authors are asking themselves in the e-book era. And publishers are answering it.

Several major book publishers have recently come out with aggressive statements asserting what they do and all the work that goes into publishing a successful book.

So, what do publishers do?  Read on here.....http://wtr.mn/M4Oe2Z

Digital colour is 'an opportunity' for book printers. From @printweek

Digital colour printing is an opportunity for book printers to win back work that is currently being offshored, according to speakers at last week's annual London Digital Book Printing Forum.

HP business manager Roger Stabler, who spoke at the event last Wednesday (20 June), said he was seeing "a lot more onshoring of colour", which could be driven by publishers recognising the cost of producing a book over its whole life-cycle, including storage and transportation, rather than just the print costs.

CPI UK head of digital Martin Collyer said that the printer, which launched its Quantum digital colour book line in May, was offering a small percentage of spot integrated-colour at "almost the same price as mono".

Collyer, who called the addition of colour a "game-changer", added: "In the age of e-books, differentiating and adding value are the challenges for publishers and with colour inkjet technology we can add both spot colour and full colour cost-effectively."

Read on here...http://wtr.mn/NxxH2P

EU publishing chiefs to discuss e-book tax. From @thebookseller

The chiefs of Europe's publishing houses will meet today (26th June) in Brussels at a round-table discussion on growing the e-book market set to emphasise the need for e-books to be taxed at the same rate as physical books.

Penguin chief executive John Makinson and Hachette commercial director Richard Kitson will join publishers including Riccardo Cavallero of Mondadori, Hedwige Pasquet of Gallimard Jeunesse and Rudiger Salat of Holtzbrink Verlagsgruppe at this morning's discussion, hosted by the Federation of European Publishers and the European Booksellers Federation.

Ahead of the event, the FEP and the EBF have told attendees VAT should be lowered on e-books in order for them to thrive, and that digital books should be possible to read on “any e-book bought on any platform, on any device” to benefit consumers.

Read on here....http://wtr.mn/LzAJXw

E-books' popularity crimps demand for paper.From @CBCBusiness

Canada's paper products industry is in for several years of weakness, partly because consumers are increasingly abandoning paper-based books and switching to the virtual kind, according to a new report from the Conference Board of Canada.

"The transition of information and media from print to electronic format has been going on for years, but until recently the effects were most pronounced for directories and newspapers,” said report author Michael Burt, the Conference Board's director of industrial economic trends.

“With the current batch of e-readers and tablet computers, it appears that a critical mass has now been reached and books are likely to follow the same path as newspapers,” he said.

"In short, demand for paper used in book publishing in North America is under significant pressure," the report says.

Read on here...http://wtr.mn/KIHqa1

Self Publishing: Vanity or Common Sense? From @Subversify

There was a time, back when publishing houses had  good reputations, and reading books was a general pastime, that self-publishing was unthinkable to an earnest writer determined to create a niche in whatever genre he or she had chosen.  Whether it was fine literature or a Harlequin romance, the main point was that it had been accepted by a House, thereby earning the writer the title of “author”.  A self published book meant going through a press that may or may not be credible, that often resorted to generic covers and cheap bindings; sometimes with nothing more than a stapled middle.  The self-published writer was expected to shell out the funds for a minimum quantity and it was up to the writer to discover the ways and means of acquiring a return on his investment; making the rounds of book stores, clubs and conventions, often surrendering in self-defeat after a few months, with a packing crate full of books moldering in the attic.

Along came the Internet.  It not only changed the avenues for self-publishing, it changed the attitudes about publishing in general.  Ironically, it was the publishing companies themselves that generated this new awareness in the trials, errors and difficulties of breaking in to a publishing house.  The Writer’s Market, once the handbook of every aspiring author, began suggesting that before looking for a publisher, a writer should gain an online reputation.  It advised joining writing groups that would help build the strength of the written hand and guide the writer into the best places to be published.

Read on here.....http://wtr.mn/MCqTlc

Why the Microsoft Surface probably won't be an iPad killer. From @cnet

Microsoft Surface, the tablet running Windows 8 or Windows RT with the nifty keyboard cover, sure looks like it's gunning for Apple's iPad. But the more we hear about it, the more it seems Ballmer and company's new hardware play may be packing a BB gun rather than a bazooka.

Granted, there's a lot to like about the Surface -- the new Windows OS is intriguing, Gorilla Glass is great and that integrated stand is the kind of design ingenuity we'd expect from a company located a little further south on the Pacific coast.

But with so many unanswered questions around price, availability and other features, I'm left with a familiar youthful trepidation. Microsoft reminds me of the crazy uncle who often promises the coolest gifts, but can't be counted on to actually show up to your birthday party and deliver the goods. Here's four reasons why the Surface has me steeling against potential disappointment, and why Apple can probably breathe easy.

Read on here....http://wtr.mn/MHQHKE

The Next Generation of Photo Book Lives and Breathes Online. From @rawfileblog

Nothing beats flipping through a big book of gorgeous photos printed on high-grade card stock, but The Bastards Book of Photography, released this week, shows that a completely digital existence has its advantages as well.

For starters, the book is published on the geeky blogging platform Octopress, which allows for a customizable structure; it’s kept in a repository on GitHub, an online version control system that allows anyone to make and submit changes; and its creator, Dan Nguyen, is assembling parts of the book, like the photo EXIF data, programmatically. Oh, and it’s also completely licensed as Creative Commons Non-Commercial.

“This is kind of a rough draft,” says Nguyen. “I just wanted to put something up while I continue to work on it.”

The text of the book offers clear and simple explanations of camera mechanics and purchasing advice for beginners with chapter titles like, “Why Even Buy a Camera?” and “Photography is for Anyone.” Nguyen’s own Creative Commons photos pulled from his Flickr feed demonstrate the topics he discusses, with the helpful EXIF data populated automatically on the page.

Read on here....http://wtr.mn/KZEClR

Improved Kindle reading experience? No. From @dailyexhaust

Last week, Amazon updated it's Kindle app for iOS. For the iPad, the new update is a case study in poor design. From the update blurb in the app store:

Improved reading experience on iPad: Smaller margins and a cleaner look help you focus on the author's words.

When I first saw this in the blurb, I was immediately suspicious. It's hard to overstate the importance of healthy margins and whitespace in good design. Generally, it's also one of the earlier casualties when good design meets project managers and clients who aren't designers. But I updated the app anyway. Upon opening, I saw what had been a decent treatment of margins had been destroyed by the redesign:

The image on the left is a screen capture from an iPad without the update installed (I'm a developer, I have more than one iPad. How first world of me.). The image on the right is with the update installed.

The smaller margins do indeed help a user focus on the words. In fact, that's all a user can focus on. What Amazon has done is create a solid mass of text that has no breathing room. It's claustrophobic. It's stressed. It's like standing three feet in front of a brick wall and pretending you're appreciating the architecture of a building.

Read on here....http://wtr.mn/MNKvkA

Will Your Children Inherit Your E-Books? From @npr

...the question of what to do with books that outlive their owners has only been a common problem since the mid-19th century, when the steam-powered press and the advent of cheap paper caused a vast expansion of the book market. Before that, few families would have had the problem of a surfeit of books. Now, though, we may be reaching the end of the 150-year-old print boom, and with it a transformation in the way we have shared books, reader after reader and life after life.

In the age of the e-book, the paper book faces two possible and antithetical fates. It may become something to be discarded, as with the books that libraries scan and cannibalize. (In the introduction to another book, Unpacking My Library: Writers and Their Books, Price mentions the severed book spines that hang on the wall at Google, "like taxidermists' trophies.") Alternatively, it may become a special object to be preserved and traded. My grandfather's copy of War of the Worlds obviously falls into the second category — but very few of the millions of books published since the mid-19th century are ones you'd want to own. If Amazon has a "long tail" of obscure but occasionally purchased titles, the tail that goes back 150 years is near endless and thin as thread.

Great read here....http://wtr.mn/M9JEzU

New gigapixel camera may revolutionize photography, surveillance. From @latimes

Say cheese: Engineers have created a new camera with the capability of capturing over a gigapixel of data, a resolution that is significantly better than normal human vision.

Pixels represent individual points of data in an image, so the more pixels in a single image, the more details can be resolved within that image. The average retail camera currently captures only about 8 to 10 megapixels. The resolution of the gigapixel camera is at least 100 times better than that, and the researchers say their design may eventually be able to capture 50 gigapixels at once.

The new device, called Aware-2, is actually made up of 98 small cameras that surround a common lens, which gathers light and sends it to the cameras. Each of the 98 cameras captures a small part of the device’s field of view and a specially-designed computer processor stitches the images together.

The resulting image has far more detail than the human eye can handle. But photographers using the camera can zoom in on different parts of the images in great detail, essentially allowing a single image to become many detailed photographs, according to the researchers, who work at UC San Diego, Duke University, the University of Arizona, and a company called Distance Focus.

More here...http://wtr.mn/PuTsTI

Making E-books Is Harder Than It Looks. From @thezackcompany

As the Department of Justice faces off with the major publishers and Apple, I want to offer up a simple statement that likely contradicts what most readers believe: Making e-books is harder than it looks.

As a literary agent, I fell victim to the same false conclusions I think most readers do, that e-books are easily produced from paper books. But that's not quite true. For older books, publishers didn't own the typesetting file (the typesetter did) and those files were not usually maintained forever. So publishers often have to physically take an old book and have it scanned and then converted using OCR -- optical character recognition -- which is far from perfect. So publishers -- good ones at least -- then have the resulting file professionally proofread for scanning errors. And in a perfect world, they also ask the author to proof it again.

Then there's the question of rights. For older books, the publisher may not have the right to use the cover art in an e-book. Granted, these would have to be much older books, as most publishers started asking for display rights a longer time ago than the Kindle has been around. These display rights are generally interpreted as allowing publishers to display the cover online or on the screen of an eBook reader. But if the publisher doesn't have those rights, it must acquire them or create a new cover. And new covers cost money.

Then there's the question of originals. Originals are books that are first appearing in eBook form and are not reprints of previously published books. And here the argument that eBooks should be cheaper and easier to produce than paper books really fails. To produce a quality eBook takes just as long and costs just as much as producing a quality paper book. Yes, you save some money on paper, printing, and binding. And you save some money on warehousing and shipping. But you incur other costs. But first let's look at the commonalities.

Read on here.....http://wtr.mn/LBSkvU

Welcome back, NBA.

Father's Day, 2012.  The middle of a nice little five-day vacation from work.  Typical Seattle spring day.  A few clouds, not much rain, low 70s.  Just finished watching the Mariners take the rubber match from the Giants after my Cardinals lose a heartbreaker to KC in 15.  Ernie Els making a charge at the Open with "Boeing" emblazoned on his chest (I'm forever the homie). It's 4:45 and I'm feeling an urge I haven't felt in years.

About four years to be exact.  July 2, 2008.  The day our city fathers sold out our Seattle Supersonics though a settlement that allowed Clay Bennett and his crew to move our basketball team out of Seattle after 41 years.

Sure, the end had been in sight for months by then.  Howard Schultz got frustrated because he couldn't control his team like he did his other employees, the thousands of Starbucks workers.  Even to the point of questioning the character of maybe the greatest Sonic ever, Gary Payton.

It was easy to dislike Bennett, Aubrey McClendon and the "Spurs Northwest" management team that had allowed our team to become the doormat of the Pacific Division.  The real blame lied with Schultz first , David Stern second (for his obvious hand in putting the city in it's place as a warning to any other NBA city that sought to question his will) and, finally, our legislators, both city and state.  But the smug mug of Bennett as he welcomed "his" team to Oklahoma City along with a jovial Stern was really too much to bear.  I decided at that moment that I would never watch this dysfunctional, dishonest league again.

I've kept to that promise.  I have not watched more than just a passing flicker on the monitor of a barroom wall, or some highlights during early morning workouts at the gym.  But watch a game?  Nope, not even interested.  Not interested until today.  Now.  At 5:08 on Father's Day 2012.  I'm watching Game 3 of the 2012 NBA Finals.

How did it come to this?  I guess with the events of the past week I've decided that I'm really only hurting myself at this point.  My friends from other cities are sympathetic but growing weary of my anti-NBA rants.  And, you know, we drafted Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Nick Collison.  The guts of this team team with the funny name (that I still can't get myself to write) was with us in Seattle that last night in Key Arena, when we all knew it was coming to an end. And then three days ago, Chris Hansen, who is the man who would be the savior of pro basketball for Seattle, organized a rally in Pioneer Square. Payton, Kemp, Schrempf, Wilkins, Watts, Colabero, The Presidents of the United States of America were all there.  As were 3000 Sonic faithful, full of hope for the return of our Supersonics.

I moved to Seattle from Columbia, Missouri in January, 1979.  On June 1st of that year Seattle won the second world championship in its history (the first was the Seattle Metropolitans Stanley Cup in 1917).  At that point it was one of the five greatest days of my life.  We beat the Washington Bullets in five for the NBA championship after losing the prior year to that same team.  A good college friend had moved to DC when I headed west to Seattle.  I remember waking him up by calling from a phone booth in the same Pioneer Square where the Hansen rally was set and yelling "Live from Seattle!", car horns blazing, folks screaming, loving every minute.  The only damage I remember was to the "Washington Street" sign at 1st Ave, taken down and paraded among the faithful.

I was hooked.  Basketball quickly became my favorite sport.  I played pick up games whenever I could, patterning my game via an odd combination of Gus Williams ("The Wizard", usually the shortest man on the court, quick, agile) and Lonny Shelton ("The Enforcer",  a rebounding machine).  Finals MVP Dennis Johnson moved on to Boston soon after the championship where he became another Celtic legend.  Even Gus moved on to Washington. Tom Chambers, Dale Ellis, The X-man Xavier McDaniel (my new hero, I wore 34 as my league career continued) continued the high standards set by their predecessors.  But soon came Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton, fueling a wonderful period, foiled only by the presence of Michael Jordan.  My memories of playoff games vs Karl Malone, John Stockton and the Utah Jazz are thick, I remember them so vividly. Basketball was my passion, and I loved every game at Key Arena.  The folks that come to NBA games are an interesting, eclectic bunch and thoroughly enjoyable to be with.

Over time Schultz bought the team, Gary left, Ray Allen arrived (class act), we drafted a bunch of tall stiffs.  The rest is well known history.

Which in a roundabout way brings me back to today.  Father's Day 2012. I don't know who I want to win this game, and in a way I can make a case for either team.  But I'm watching.  And I'm not bellyaching.  That is real progress.  And just maybe there are enough of us moving in the same direction to get our new arena built that will bring us NBA and NHL teams.  But I can tell you without doubt, Seattle will approach the "new" Supersonics from wherever they come with respect for the fans, unlike the carpetbaggers that came to our city.  And I hope wherever the team comes from it won't take them four years to enjoy the team they helped to build.

Hands on: MacBook Pro with Retina display absolutely beautiful, crazy fast. From @msnbc_tech

Marrying the power you'd expect from a MacBook Pro with the sleekness and instant-on responsiveness of a MacBook Air, the next-generation MacBook Pro is one gorgeous laptop. And with a starting price of $2,199 it should be. This machine is state of the art through and through, and it all starts with a Retina display that packs an unprecedented 2880 x 1800 pixels. Add in quad-core power, 256 GB of fast flash memory and 7 hours of juice in a 4.4-pound body and you have a potential dream machine for highly mobile pros.

We'll be bringing you our full review soon but wanted to share some hands-on impressions and photos in the meantime for those who were wondering whether they should pull the trigger.

More here....http://wtr.mn/LYdP7b

How iOS 6 changes the iPad. From @cnet

Every year, we engage in the same dance: Apple announces a new version of iOS, and we instantly start wondering how our devices will change as a result.

iOS announcements tend to work forwards for phones (the new iPhone is expected this fall), but for iPads they work backwards: the third-generation iPad with Retina Display came out in March. A host of new iOS 6 features change some of what the iPhone can be.

Will iOS 6 change the iPad, too? Yes, if you're thinking of heavily using Siri or own a 4G/3G third-gen iPad or iPad 2. 

See the details here...http://wtr.mn/MAp0Em

Apple Continues to Blur the Line Between Devices: Here's Why It Matters. From @rww

Today at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Apple officially launched the next version of its desktop operating system. Mac OS X Mountain Lion, which the company first previewed in February, will be available for purchase next month.

While the next iteration of any major operating system is always exciting news for the product's most devoted users, Mountain Lion represents something much bigger for Apple and its customers: It continues the company's slow convergence of its desktop and mobile platforms.

This trend first became obvious with the release of Lion last summer. That version of Mac OS X was the first to borrow heavily from iOS by including multitouch gestures, a desktop app store and Launchpad, an application-launching interface that mimics the iOS home screen.

Mountain Lion: Making Mac OS X More iOS-Like Than Ever

With Mountain Lion, Apple pushes the desktop experience further toward that of using the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Most of its new features either port something from iOS over to Mac OS X or otherwise bridge the user experience between the desktop and Apple's mobile platform. Notification Center, Reminders, Messages, AirPlay, Game Center, Siri dictation and Twitter integration are among the more notable examples of iOS apps and features making their debut on the desktop.
Perhaps most importantly, iCloud will be embedded deep within Mac OS X, which will allow even more wireless syncing of content and activity between mobile and the desktop.
At the WWDC today, Apple demoed how iCloud will allow syncing of everything from documents in Pages to browser tabs in Safari. The company is also doing away with the Stickies app on the Mac and replacing it with a desktop version of iOS's Notes app. Naturally, those notes will be synced across devices, much like users of apps like Evernote have been accustomed to for years.
With AirPlay mirroring between Apple TV and Mac OS X and iOS, this interscreen convergence slowly makes its way to our televisions as well. The rumors continue to point to something much bigger in that particular space later this year, but Apple is wasting no time making our TVs work more like their own gadgets.

Cross-Device Convergence: A Computing Trend Beyond Apple 

Apple isn't the only tech giant to recognize the need to create a more consistent experience between desktops, tablets and smartphones. Google has a more limited presence on desktops outside of Chrome, but the last official release of Android aimed to make the experience more consistent across tablets and smartphones running the OS. Perhaps even more significantly, given Microsoft's market share, Windows 8 is built around this very concept and borrows heavily from the interface found on Windows Phone devices.
For users, all of this means a much more seamless experience for those who work and play across multiple devices. The importance of that convergence can hardly be overstated. As our personal devices, apps and data proliferate, our lives become more flooded with digital noise and experiences fractured across multiple pieces of hardware. There's no reason for these experiences to not be at least somewhat consistent.

Why iOS-ifying Mac OS X Makes Total Sense

From Apple's standpoint, this slow convergence makes total sense. For one, it provides a better user experience, something Apple is generally obsessive about trying to achieve. It also capitalizes on the strengths of perhaps its most important product. iPads and iPhones now make up nearly 75% of the company's massive revenue, and that number keeps growing.
Laptops are now a minor part of its business but still very important, since tablets are nowhere near replacing more powerful machines like the MacBook Air and - especially for photographers, video editors and other creative professionals - the MacBook Pro.
It's hard to imagine Final Cut Pro running smoothly and fully featured on an iPad anytime soon. Yet in the meantime, it makes sense for Apple to slowly begin the transformation of Mac OS X into something that works and looks a lot more like its most successful platform of all. 

Original article here.....http://wtr.mn/LgeQKO

WWDC 2012: A year on from iOS 5 - how much difference has it made? From @guardian

With Apple about to announce iOS 6, the next version of its mobile operating system, it's useful to look back at what was introduced in iOS 5 – and, more importantly, whether anyone is actually using it. It's easy to announce software features that nobody really uses so you can bulk up the marketing blurb. But does it stand the real-life test?

Read on here...http://wtr.mn/NsSI39

Why publishers will tell you anything but the truth. From @getthefive

As the publishing industry gathers in New York for its annual trade show, BookExpo America, they’re discussing everything except the one piece of information authors crave:  how many books they actually sell.

There is no equivalent of gold records in the book publishing industry.  That’s because sales numbers are almost impossible to come by, and the numbers you can track down simply cannot be verified.

Publishers are loath to provide accurate sales figures, for two reasons.  One is that they don’t want authors to know how many copies they sold, so that they don’t have to pay all the royalties due the authors.  Second, they’re embarrassed by how few copies most books sell.

Publishers control sales data the way the former Soviet Union controlled data regarding the sale of wheat, with about as little honesty and transparency.  So what’s an author to do?

Read on here...http://wtr.mn/KsVYVR

My new @rebelmouse page

Check it out here...http://www.rebelmouse.com/bruce/

BookExpo America ends. Changes in publishing begin. From @wtcommunities

Every business is evolving to new forms of communication and new opportunities. Publishing is no excpetion. As more opportunities for self-promotion and self-publishing emerge there will be more options for authors.

Publishers still provide a wealth of support, credibility and expertise. Much like record labels, I can't see them going away completely but I can see them adapting formats and practices to fit a changing landscape. In other words, adapt or die. Publishers are smart. They will figure out how to remain relevant.

New York Times best-selling author Michael Levin thinks otherwise. He runs BusinessGhost and has written with Baseball Hall of Famer Dave Winfield, football broadcasting legend Pat Summerall, FBI undercover agent Joaquin Garcia, and E-Myth creator Michael Gerber. He has written for the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CBS News, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and many other top outlets.

Click here for his opinion and insight in to the future of publishing....http://wtr.mn/LiXz3K

Jeff Bezos & Len Riggio Battle in a Monster Movie Book Trailer. From @galleycat

In his new book trailer (embedded above), author Andy Laties staged a Godzilla and King Kong-style battle between the founders of Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

The action-packed video is for the upcoming book, Rebel Bookseller: Why Indie Businesses Represent Everything You Want To Fight for, from Free Speech To Buying Local To Building Communities. An illustrated Jeff Bezos starred as Amazilla and  Len Riggio played Barnes Kong. Rebecca Migdal directed and illustrated the trailer.

Here’s the plot of the trailer: “Barnes Kong is on a rampage! The simian chain bookstore monster could go on stomping on independent bookstores and kidnapping dead authors forever, but the fearsome Amazilla has other plans: he wants in on the action. As the two battle with their laser e-readers, they destroy every public institution in sight. Can the Rebel Bookseller save the day, rescue Emily Dickinson and bring back a community of books?”

B&N: DOJ e-book suit endangers consumers, bookstores and copyrighted expression. From @paidcontent

In a complaint sent to the Department of Justice this morning, Barnes & Noble says that the DOJ’s proposed settlement with HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster for allegedly colluding to fix e-book prices “represents an unprecedented effort” to become “a regulator of a nascent technology that it little understands” — and “the national economy, our nation’s culture, and the future of copyrighted expression” are at stake. In fact, B&N argues, e-book and hardcover prices have fallen under agency pricing.”

“You’re going to end up having choice control from a server farm in Washington state,” Barnes & Noble’s general counsel Gene DeFelice told me, referring to Amazon.

Read on here....http://wtr.mn/LoOOHG

Social reading, discoverability and other unsolved problems at BEA 2012. From @paidcontent

Social reading and discoverability are not the same thing, but they have something in common: They’re the things everyone is talking about at BookExpo America this week but nobody has solved.

Start off by assuming that social reading means being able to interact with a book through social media or with social features inside the book, and discoverability is the challenge of finding new authors and books.

Part of the challenge comes from the fact that many of the parties trying to come up with solutions are startups or retailers rather than the publishers themselves. Tony O’Donoghue, UX (user experience) lead of mobile applications at Kobo, noted in a social reading panel that “at the moment it’s retailers like us” adding additional features into e-books, but “eventually publishers could add them directly to their EPUBs. I do see us moving toward the publisher having control over this type of engagement in the book.”

O’Donoghue also claims that readers are going to want e-books “to be like the rest of the web that they use every day, with Google integration, Wikipedia, all the social networks.” But those may actually be things that Kobo wants readers to want.

Social tools haven’t taken the place of brick-and-mortar bookstores, which are declining as a source of discoverability for books, industry consultant and analyst Peter Hildick-Smith noted in a Publishers Launch BEA panel on Monday. His company, Codex Group, tracks discoverability by asking readers where they bought the last book they read. Two years ago, 31 percent of respondents found the book in a bookstore. As of the end of May 2012, that number has 45 percent, down to 17 percent.

That’s bad for book sales, Hildick-Smith said, because bookstores prompt a lot of spontaneous purchases. The Codex Group asked book buyers if they had a specific book in mind to buy the last time they went to a brick-and-mortar bookstore. Only one in three had a specific title in mind; the rest were going to browse and buy. Kindle owners are even more likely to browse in bookstores — 76 percent go in spontaneously — suggesting that online solutions (like Amazon’s algorithms) aren’t yet doing the trick for discoverability.

Read on here....http://wtr.mn/NOjrVA

BEA 2012: Is Brazil the Next Russia? From @publisherswkly

Representing an entire nation isn't easy, but fewer than 30 people are doing just that for Brazil at BEA. Most of the group is authors, who hope that their 2012 efforts to raise awareness of Brazil's rich literary environment will pay off in subsequent years—with the goal of becoming BEA's Global Market Forum country. 

"The main objective is to show everyone that we have quality in our work and in our books," says Marcos Linhares, an author whose Crime in the Heart of Brazil was just translated into English and published by Thesaurus Editora. Last year, Linhares got together with nine other authors and approached Thesaurus with the translation idea; after paying for translation and publication costs out of their own pockets, the authors are now at BEA with the product of their efforts, making connections for future years. "The idea is to come every year with better, larger participation," Linhares says. 

The world's fifth-largest country can be represented by so few people because their enthusiasm carries as much weight as a force twice as large. Brazil's publishing industry, currently burgeoned by a translation grant last year from the National Library, is increasing its efforts to expand overseas. BEA attendee Literarte, a Brazilian publisher, has representatives in eight countries; Linhares reported that 15 different booksellers approached him about carrying his book in their stores. 

Brazil could ask for no better envoys in its first year at the show, and already the results are starting to show. The authors reported high traffic and high interest in their books. Said Linhares, "It's been wonderful. Better even than we expected."

Original post here...http://wtr.mn/KACXqV

There’s Nothing Stationary about Stationery. From @infotrends

The National Stationery Show (NSS) marked its 66^th anniversary on May 20-23^rd. The NSS is one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of stationery and related lifestyle products. The show brought together over 11,000 buyers and 800 exhibiting companies, who were showing greeting cards, invitations, imprintables, giftwrap/ribbons, stationery, party supplies, paper tableware, customized/personalized products, paper-crafting supplies, calendars, and more.

The stationery market is an attractive market for service providers looking to expand their revenue channels. For manufacturers, these print centric products fit well within existing workflows and production infrastructures. For retailers, these products can become complementary to existing products. For example, wedding photographers can offer Save the Date invitations along with engagement photo shoots or birth announcements along with newborn baby photo shoots.  The retail market size for these paper products and stationery goods, by some estimates, is $41 billion. The National Greeting Cards Association estimates that the annual sales of greeting cards alone are around $7.5 billion dollars. In addition, stationery products are supported by life events and are less susceptible to the volatility of the holiday season. In contrast, the photo market is a Q4 dominated industry

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Meet Echograph, the Instagram of Animated GIFs. From @wired

You’ve been warned: You’ll soon see images like the ones in this post — part moving, part still — everywhere. Animated GIFs are making a comeback, and Echograph, a new iPad app, is taking them to the next level. Remember how the newspaper photos in the Harry Potter movies came alive? That’s what this app brings to the Muggle world, for $2.99.

Here’s how it works:.....http://wtr.mn/LyENUN

Are Publishers Failing on Tablets? From @Digiday

The tablet experience for most magazines means that elegant designs and rich content are undermined by static 96-page PDFs that can take anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour to download. The last time I checked, no one wants to download an entire website to get one page. So why do publishers still make readers download an entire magazine? And why do they insist on delivering their content in 30-day packages that are often written months in advance? In our Twitter-speed world, magazine content can sometimes feel like it’s from another planet.

And that’s the core problem. Tablet readers expect the best of both worlds. They want real-time content and Web-like interactivity within a user-friendly brand experience that “feels” like the same brand found on the Web and in print. This tablet-ization is signaling an industry overhaul, especially given the recent news regarding tablet’s soaring usage: The share of website traffic from tablets grew more than 300 percent in the past year.

Great insights here....http://wtr.mn/Ly0RyJ

Struggling with Competitiveness? Try a New Metric. From @HowieatNAPL

As we continue interviewing our digital leaders after our fourth digital services study, we are learning more about the digital strategies that propel some companies into the leadership ranks. In our industry surveys and follow-up phone calls, we find many leaders speaking of the importance of measurement-based performance strategies. In these interviews with leaders, most talked about traditional financial and operational measures. But a few told us about some innovative new metrics.

To borrow from Six Sigma lingo, two of the more traditional metrics used in print production are “rework” (First Pass Yield) and “reliability” (Throughput Yield). But another metric used in other manufacturing environments (Six Sigma, Lean, Just- In-Time) is “cycle time.”

Cycle time has never really caught on in print production circles—probably because it is tough to track jobs as they go through each step in the process. Measuring cycle time requires some type of job floor tracking feature, which can usually be found in a Print Management Information System (MIS). The most efficient systems use barcodes that are scanned as the job enters or leaves each department, a feature that is available in many newer MIS versions. Unfortunately, some people don’t know that it is part of their MIS and it goes unused.

Through our interviews, we’ve found that one identifying trait of leaders is their willingness to try new ideas. If you’re willing to look at a new way of tracking the productivity of your staff and effectiveness of your workflow, see if your MIS has the ability to track the time in and time out of each process so that you can monitor cycle time for each step or for the entire process—from the time a job enters production until it ships.

Are you measuring performance? If so, what are you measuring? And most importantly, are you acting on the results of these measurements?

Original article here....http://wtr.mn/Ma57ra

BEA 2012: Self-Published Titles Topped 211,000 in 2011. From @publisherswkly

A nearly week-long period filled with BookExpo America events kicked off Sunday at the Javits Center as the uPublishU self-publishing seminar drew nearly 300 people attracted by panels and exhibitors offering the latest developments in the self-publishing field. Those who attended the “The How, What, Where, and When of Print and EBooks” session heard Bowker v-p for publishing services Kelly Gallagher proclaim 2012 to be part of the “golden age of self-publishing,” and provided statistics to back it up; according to Bowker’s newest figures of books produced, last year there were 211,269 self-published titles (based on ISBNs) released, up from 133,036 in 2010.

 

Among the other insights Gallagher shared on the self-publishing market: the most popular genre in terms of units is fiction (45%), but that nonfiction leads in sales (38%). The average price for a self-published fiction book is $6.94, while nonfiction titles command $19.32. And while e-books accounted for 41% of self-published units, they only accounted for 11% of sales; the reason? The average self-published e-book sold for $3.18, while trade paperbacks had an average price of $12.68 and hardcovers averaged $14.40.

 

According to Bowker, Amazon’s CreateSpace was the largest player in the self-publishing space last year, publishing 57,602 titles; AuthorSolutions' various imprints did 41,605 books, and Lulu 30,019.

 

Gallagher also said that Bowker is developing a self-publishing White Paper, and is creating a self-publishing bestsellers list.

Jubilee Pantone Queen Palette. Nice work @GaryPeeling and @PrecisionToday

In celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s 60 colourful years on the British throne, Pantone and Leo Burnett London have teamed up to launch a limited edition colour guide to mark the Queen’s fashion-forward colour statements. For over 60 years, Her Majesty has opted for a full spectrum of perfectly colour coordinated ensembles, from the Primrose Yellow she wore at Will and Kate’s wedding in April 2011 to the tasteful Lilac Snow outfit she wore last year during a visit to Northumberland.

 To mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, this bespoke, limited-edition, numbered colour guide is designed to capture and commemorate some of the Queen’s most memorable colour choices since her coronation – featuring PANTONE® Colour references and citing the date and location that determined her outfit colour choice.

The Queen Palette project was developed at Leo Burnett London by art directors/copywriters Will Thacker and Blake Waters, executive creative director Justin Tindall, print producer Chris Dale, art buyer Leah Mitchell. Artwork, creative imaging and colour management was by Mundocom. Photographer was Andy Rudak. Printing was by Precision Printing, using HP Indigo 7500 Digital Press and the 7-colour (CMYKOV) HP IndiChrome on-press PANTONE emulation, simulating PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM® that can match 97 percent of the PANTONE Colour range, to achieve exact colour matching.

See the whole article here....http://wtr.mn/KYjP2x

E-books rewrite the rules for book industry. From @marketwatch

Just five years after Amazon introduced the Kindle e-reader and created a market for e-books virtually overnight, digital publishing is a hot topic and the book industry has never been more exciting for publishers, authors, readers — and investors.

Look at some recent headlines, all from the past six months: 

DOJ sues Apple, publishers over e-book pricing.

Microsoft and Barnes & Noble team up to take on Amazon, Apple.

Why Pottermore could change everything.

M&A in publishing technology heats up.

For reading and learning, kids prefer e-books to print books. 

 

If you showed this list to anyone in publishing just five years ago and told them this is what’s to come, they would have looked down their spectacles at you, pulled their tweed coat about themselves and stormed off to one of the many nearby independent booksellers. Almost nobody saw it coming, except maybe Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. 

More here....http://wtr.mn/NcmyZn

Valuable Lessons From Self-Publishing Survey. From @forbes

A survey by Taleist has shed some light on the nitty gritty of self-publishing. Whilst much of the report coverage has focused on the fact that 10 per cent of Taleist’s survey respondents can live off their self-publishing royalties, and whether that’s a high or low figure, there’s much more valuable information to be had in the rest of the report.
Here are five lessons from the Taleist report that self-publishers should take to heart:

1. Get help
2. The self-publishing explosion will wane
3. It is possible to earn a living
4. Writing vs marketing
5. The importance of reviews

Read on here..... http://wtr.mn/KRHi5i
  

Amazon got big fast, hastening the arrival of digital publishing. But how big is too big? From @thenation

From the start, Jeff Bezos wanted to “get big fast.” He was never a “small is beautiful” kind of guy. The Brobdingnagian numbers tell much of the story. In 1994, four years after the first Internet browser was created, Bezos stumbled upon a startling statistic: the Internet had been growing at the rate of 2,300 percent annually. In 1995, the year Bezos, then 31, started Amazon, just 16 million people used the Internet. A year later, the number was 36 million, a figure that would multiply at a furious rate. Today, more than 1.7 billion people, or almost one out of every four humans on the planet, are online. Bezos understood two things. One was the way the Internet made it possible to banish geography, enabling anyone with an Internet connection and a computer to browse a seemingly limitless universe of goods with a precision never previously known and then buy them directly from the comfort of their homes. The second was how the Internet allowed merchants to gather vast amounts of personal information on individual customers.

Read on here... http://wtr.mn/KxUDkO