A survey of indie presses shows that 60% fear they could be out of business by the autumn, writes Galley Beggar Press cofounder Sam JordisonOver the past few years, the success of independent publishers such as Fitzcarraldo, And Other Stories, Bluemooose and Influx Press has been something to behold. They have won prizes, engaged readers and published innovative and important books. Now that wonderful literary flowering is in danger. A survey on the impact of Covid-19 on small presses, carried out by the Bookseller and writer development charity Spread the Word, reveals that 60% of the small presses polled fear they could be out of business by the autumn, 75% don’t know if they will make it beyond March next year, while 85% of the publishers have seen sales drop by more than half.Small presses have been hit especially hard because they are more dependent on physical sales in bookstores, rather than online retailers or ebook sales. I know, because my publisher, Galley Beggar Press, has also seen a big chunk of its income disappear. One of the great strengths of our kind of publishing is that we have a real connection with dedicated readers who love books as physical objects, readers who have an equally strong connection with booksellers. A great deal of what we do relies on the enthusiasm and personal recommendations of those heroes of our trade whose shops Covid-19 has closed. We have lost many of our best advocates, not to mention the most practical way of getting books... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2020-05-15 06:00:32 UTC ]
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After months of uncertainty, efforts by former authors of MacAdam Cage, the now-defunct San Francisco independent publishing house, to retrieve the print rights to their books appear close to a resolution. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The L.A. Register's debut reflects a belief by the owner of Freedom Communications that print still sells well in the modern era of digital media.Commuters at Union Station in downtown L.A. got an early look Wednesday at the first edition of the Los Angeles Register. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2014-04-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Dr. Thant Thaw Kaung is the founder of the Myanmar Book Center and executive director of the Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Baker Publishing Group and Gospel Light announced that Baker will acquire Regal Books, the trade line of Ventura, Calif.-based Gospel Light. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Katie Bond, formerly Bloomsbury director of trade marketing and publicity, has been appointed... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-04-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Laurence King Publishing, an art and design house founded in the U.K. in 1991, is gearing up for the debut of This Is, a series of titles about 20th-century artists presented in the style of graphic novels, with illustrations, original art, and text. The first three titles—This Is Dali, This Is... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins Canada experiments with publishing a multimedia digital original fiction series with text, illustrations and soundtrack created by Bedouin Soundclash frontman. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Wool author Hugh Howey, who has emerged in recent years as one of the poster boys for self-publishing, discussed his career path, and the perks of bring a hybrid author, at a panel during this week's London Book Fair. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A music publisher is venturing into religion/spirituality with a line of books about the spiritual thoughts of celebrities. Now the company just needs to figure out where it can sell them. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In three days of meetings in the latest of our semiannual Religion Summits, fourteen religion/spirituality publishers presented their new and forthcoming books and talked about the challenges of the business. We heard about new voices to watch for and rising topics. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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"We cannot deny we are in an extraordinary transition," said author Anthony Horowitz, opening the sixth annual Publishing for Digital Minds Conference at the London Book Fair. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The proliferation of digital devices in the classroom and the reinvention of education from traditional models to new, more interactive and individualized means of learning will change education publishing faster and farther than other segments, says executive director Bill McCoy of IDPF. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Like many people across the business world, publishers have a skeptical view of so-called Big Data, seeing it as “the next big hype.” Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Paul Ingram, the legendary book buyer at Prairie Lights in Iowa City, Iowa, since 1989, is joining another elite group: booksellers who are published authors. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Booksellers and publishers in the South respond to the defunding of colleges in South Carolina over LGBT-themed books. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Powering more than 50 e-bookstores for publishers specializing in such subjects as fiction, academic, professional and romance has given Qbend COO Kaushik Sampath many unique insights on e-retailing. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Recently, experts working on ORCID and ISNI, both ISO-standard identifiers, spoke with one of the founders of schema.org to facilitate their use as embedded persona references, particularly through extensions such as BibExtend. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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For Cenveo Publisher Services, 2014 is the year digital strategies must deliver in terms of profits for its publisher clients. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Last month marked the one-year anniversary of the formation of the Readium Foundation (Readium.org), an independent nonprofit launched in March 2013 with the objective of developing commercial-grade open source publishing technology software. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With all major categories except the children’s/young adult segment reporting an increase in 2013, total book sales at the 1,211 publishers that report results to the Association of American Publishers’ StatShot program grew 1% over 2012 figures, to $15.05 billion. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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