When you start a small business, it's hard to know what success--or failure--looks like.In 2011, I started a book business with my best friend called Emily Books. We were qualified to start a business in some ways, not so much in others. We had some expertise in our field: We'd both worked at the intersection of publishing and tech for years, and we wanted to start an online bookstore that sold a small collection of books and allowed readers to subscribe and receive a carefully chosen book per month automatically. Our idea was that this would provide an online version of what we loved about shopping at independent bookstores: the great taste and careful curation of expert booksellers, which no algorithm can replicate. We had no management experience, though, and had never created a PowerPoint presentation or written a business plan. We also, probably more importantly, had no ambition to found the kind of startup that barrels toward acquisition or IPO. We wanted to test waters, grow organically, and pivot on a dime in response to customers' needs like a startup, but we also wanted to stay independent, avoid gimmicks, and build a sustainable business that would stay true to its core values.Read Full Story Continue reading at 'Fast Company'
[ Fast Company | 2014-10-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pulitzer Prize-winner Junot Díaz has won the £30,000 Sunday Times Short Story Award... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-03-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon's Little A imprint will release novels, memoirs, and story collections, while Day One will focus on short stories and new writers. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin imprint Hamish Hamilton will publish a new short story by Zadie Smith later this year.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-03-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Companies like InPowered and Disqus have rolled out ad platforms for brands to promote articles and other more media-ish content with paid placements on publishers’ sites, and now Sharethrough is upping its stake in the game. Last September, the San Francisco-based ad startup launched Sponsored... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2013-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new survey of startups, publishers and venture capitalists reveals what needs to change for the three groups to collaborate and continue to innovate the book industry. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-02-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Writer and filmmaker Jonah Ansell shares how he took his story "Cadaver" from a poem written for his sister to a short film to a graphic novel and, hopefully, a feature film. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-02-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A biography of Hillary Clinton's time as US secretary of state will be released on 5th March... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-02-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Curtis Brown has teamed up with Kobo to launch a short story competition, to be judged by author... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Salley Vickers and Chiome Okereke are among the authors shortlisted for the Costa Short Story... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A tightly focused strategy on maintaining margins has enabled WHSmith to persist after than two centuries at the heart of UK bookselling, inspiring admiration and ire alike. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Seven Stories, the national centre for children's books, is making a final push to galvanise... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Eoin Colfer has been named as the author of the first of Puffin's eleven Dr Who short stories... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A free ebook of our best work just in time for the holidays. Makes a great gift for wordy nerds! And much cheaper than a Battlestar Galactica box set. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2012-12-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In the modern world of book publishing, should we all be preparing for a second career as an entrepreneur? Plenty of our colleagues are choosing that career path. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-11-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The new app 'Put Me in the Story,' released by publisher Sourcebooks, will allow older readers to add the name of a younger one to Sourcebook titles. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-11-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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App developer TradeMobile is to rebrand as Beyond the Story as it prepares to launch one of its... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Seven Stories museum in Newcastle upon Tyne has changed its name to the National Centre for... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New York-based startup Tinypass, which helps small publishers and content creators charge for content online through existing platforms like Google, is rolling out metered content options to all of its clients. Tinypass, which signed up its first f ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-10-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A new story from Audrey Niffenegger, the author of The Time Traveler’s Wife, will feature... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-10-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bulgarian author Miroslav Penkov has won the £15,000 BBC International Short Story Award,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-10-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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