You may have seen some of the stories. Publishing industry is overwhelmingly white and female, US study finds How White People Can Respond to Book Publishing’s Lack of Diversity Please pardon me as I depart from my usual schtick to comment on this ridiculous and wrong-headed exercise in political correctness. I’ve worked in publishing since …
Continue reading ‘Are there too many women in publishing?’ »
As some of you may know, I write a lot of stuff in a lot of places. I maintain a few blogs, and I also write fiction and non-fiction books and short pieces that I publish on Amazon. From time to time I get questions or comments that seem to imply that only special people …
Last week I discussed how publishers should respond to ad blockers, and mentioned several different strategies. But there’s another complication, called “pay to play.” Ad blockers aren’t really ad blockers if some of the advertisers have the option to pay to get their ads seen anyway. See, for example, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are paying …
Continue reading ‘“Pay to Play,” and get with it, publishers’ »
Many years ago, most publishers decided to post their valuable content online “for free,” and to earn their keep by selling ads against it. It’s a model that has evolved over the years, and many companies are doing very well with it — particularly those who create content for a niche audience that is willing …
When snow falls in the Antarctic, it piles up over thousands of years and forms glaciers, which flow (slowly) across the continent and sometimes end up in the sea as icebergs. As the glacier traverses the landscape it picks up nutrients from the soil, so in some cases icebergs end up moving those nutrients into …
A few times I’ve had the privilege of speaking with Chinese business and government officials about publishing. It’s very interesting to hear their perspectives, and what they worry about. The experience reminds me of something I read from C.S. Lewis about the virtue of reading old books. It’s a way to get your mind outside …
Continue reading ‘Half of what you hear about book publishing is wrong’ »
I saw an ad on Facebook for Texture, and I thought it was another attempt at the NextIssue model for magazines, which, if you don’t recall, is a plan to do for magazines what Netflix did for movies. One subscription gives you access to a library of choices. But it turns out Texture is actually …
Continue reading ‘The NextIssue reboot — and why it still won’t work’ »
If you're anything like me, when you're out at a store, or at a yard sale, you're always drawn to the book table. You already have too many books in your house, but … you have to look. You simply like books. One of them catches your eye because it's a Sherlock Holmes book, and …
Bear with me for a couple paragraphs — despite appearances, this isn’t about me. I’m a big fan of P.G. Wodehouse’s Wooster and Jeeves stories. Most of them involve Wooster bumbling into trouble and Jeeves rescuing him, but they often involve mistaken identity, so when a humorous case of mistaken identity came up at the …
Continue reading ‘Jeeves and the Smart Phone — a few thoughts about fan fiction’ »
I’ve been in subscription publishing for about 30 years. Back when I started I never heard anyone talk about “personalization.” I don’t think it was a word yet. The ability to customize content to the audience was pretty limited. Subscribers might be able to select which state tabs they got in the back of their …
Continue reading ‘The personalized newsletter of the future’ »