Today we had a demo
And it was fun. Robin from Anko visited Mercier Press and gave (almost) the entire team a run down on their system. In short, it addressed all the points we had raised in our internal meetings designed to figure out what we wanted and needed from an integrated system.
Anko bill the product heavily on its ability to provide ONIX compliant messages for our partners in the trade. It is essentially one of those back room tasks that makes life easier for them and makes it easier for us to sell books.
From our perspective the time saving of moving from multiple entries for a title to a single easily updated entry that is valid across the entire system is beyond measure. It will be a change to have a single system but a good one and the challenges of data migration seem, at least for now (let’s see how that changes when we begin), a minor inconvenience in achieving it!
Looking forward to integrated-ness
Eoin
Macmillan Launches Lovelybooks.com (great name) a site for book lovers which to me seems like simply a new Librarything.com but what do I know. I am beginning to fear a series of walled book gardens with valuable data locked behind walls of different services. Seems a shameful waste of potential. Speaking of social book sites Publishers Weekly has a wonderful review of US sites.
Here
Comics online. DC Comics is launching a new online and off-line imprint for comics zudacomics.com. From The Bookseller:
The site will accept submissions from the public and viewers can vote on their favorite comics, whose authors will then be offered a year-long contract for web comics and will have their work published in print as well.
“There is an explosion of creativity in web comics,” said Paul Levitz, president and publisher of DC Comics, in a statement. “We want to build a great stage for this new generation of creators to perform on, a solid system for their work to reach audiences online and in print, and for the creators to share in the profits their creations can generate.” DC Comics will pay all winners, including up to six “instant winners” per year, for their work.
And of course, I forgot to link to this announcement by google:
Whenever you find an out-of-copyright book in our index, you’ll see a “View plain text” link, which lets anyone access the text layer of the book. As Dr. T.V. Raman explains on the main Google blog, this opens the book to adaptive technologies such as screen readers and Braille display, allowing visually impaired users to read these books just as easily as users with sight.
Fearing gardens and walls
Eoin
Interesting Perspective
To be had today in Publishing News which carries an interview with Martin Lee on the idea of Waterstone’s as a boutique offering:
I think the future is boutique. There is scope for a niche chain that has attitude, edge and point of view. I think in many ways the demise of Fopp proves my point. Fopp was that kind of chain but became too big.
Of course the inevitable villains have been highlighted as being behind the demise of chains:
the shift in the market brought about by the Net and the supermarkets means there is no longer a place for chains of Waterstone’s size.
Who has the Net not hurt? Supermarkets (it seems to me) for one and consumers for another. There must be a way for a chain the size of Waterstone’s to compete against a supermarket. Maybe boutique is the answer. I have to say a boutique history store would appeal to me and about six people I know but it sure as hell won’t keep a business running!
Indies
Seem to be having good and bad news> From Publishing News again:
According to the BA, the number of independents has fallen from 1562 in 2005 and 1483 in 2006, to today’s figure of 1422. Yet figures from Book Marketing Limited show that, since 2003, sales through independents have grown by 2% in volume and 10% in value. Observers believe those less efficient independents that were perhaps protected by the NBA have now fallen by the wayside, leaving the well-run businesses to carve out a niche.
I have to say I think a well run independent bookshop has a much better chance in teh current market than does a chain store, but what do I know.
Book newsed up
Eoin
I mentioned before
About the challenges of independent publishing in Ireland. Well the news has just broken about Transworld entering the Irish market:
Transworld has revealed plans to set up a new subsidiary company in Ireland, headed by Eason’s head buyer Eoin McHugh. Transworld Ireland will launch with its first list in 2008, focusing on Irish writers or books about Irish issues. McHugh, who joins the company as publisher in September, will report to senior publishing director Francesca Liversidge.
Good for them. Eoin McHugh is pretty well known in the trade (Easons controls a lots the booksales so he would be) and respected too. Looks like a good move on their part to hire him. It will be interesting to see their first list in 2008.
Anticpating
Eoin
Just for the laugh: here is the Hoff @ an Easons signing.
