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Pearson won’t go quietly (that’s if the rumours are even true)

Eoin Purcell

“Over My Dead Body”
Is what Brandrepublic.com quote Marjorie Scardino as saying in response to rumours of a sale of Pearson. It makes for a great story and indeed there is a good deal of coverage.

It is a frightening thought that there is so much cash sloshing about (the rumoured price tag is 7 Billion STG) and that a company of the stature of Pearson would be a target. On the other hand if you look to recent acquisitions and the interesting developments in Educational Publishing like this, then the rumour might just have an element of reality and suggests that the changes that were highlighted in PersonaNonData’s futurist post recently.

Speaking of the future, this article on if:book blog is nice and the video is cool too. [via Booktwo.org]

UPDATE: The emerging consensus seems to be that the FT will be sold off. See paidContent for more.
Pondering bids
Eoin

Filed under: Business, Future of Publishing, ,

Winners & Losers

Eoin Purcell

Loser
The far too late reading of blog posts brought to mind the adage that the world is a funny place. On one blog [Galleycat, who picked the news up here] I read of the end of ReganBooks at HarperCollins:

This afternoon, HarperCollins announced that effective immediately, the ReganBooks name and logo will no longer be used and the imprint’s LA office will close on March 1. An interim logo, HC, will appear on Regan books through this summer, after which the list will be reassigned to existing Harper imprints.

It is not so much a surprise as it is a little blunt. It was an almost inevitable move following Regan’s departure. It is that departure that is so unsettling, the fall from grace as it were is a timely remind that no matter how far you go it can always come to ruin (speaking of which this post by Michael Hyatt is revealling).

Winners
Reading POD-dy mouth today the case of a truly successful POD writer came up:

Based on Lulu’s own Book Cost Calculator, the cost to produce the book is $9.98–which leaves $38 in profit (if purchased from Lulu–I realize the profit drops when purchased through Amazon and the like, not to mention that Lulu takes a small piece of the pie as well–something like 20% of the royalty.)

But let’s play it conservatively and say the author gets $27 per unit. If he sells only 2,000 copies (he will, if he hasn’t already), he’s made $54,000–far more than the average midlist author published by a major house.

Now who would be displeased with that turn of events. The book itself is terrible (yes I read a few pages) but my lord it is a seller! Sucess and failure in one day! And at such extremes.

It is cold here today
Eoin

Filed under: Authors, Books, Business, Distribution, Future of Books, Future of Publishing, Innovation, Self Publishing, Writing, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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