Category Archives: Future of Books

Go Read This | Exclusive: Amazon Has Sold Over Two Million Kindle Singles | paidContent

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See what I mean when I say gold? I’ve long felt that by far the biggest weapon in Amazon’s arsenal (after the platform itself) is the self publishing/publishing abilities of the platform which is a while new kind of threat for publishers and one that is becoming much more real and present a danger than just the shift to digital:

Amazon says that in the 14 months the program has been running, it has sold over two million Kindle Singles. Seventy percent of each sale goes to the author or publisher, and Amazon keeps 30 percent. Amazon wouldn’t disclose its total revenues from those two million singles, but the minimum price of a Single is $0.99 and most are $1.99 (the author or publisher sets the price). So with an average price of $1.87 multiplied by two million, a rough estimate of Amazon’s 30-percent cut is $1.12 million. (How much are some authors making? See our post later this morning.)

via Exclusive: Amazon Has Sold Over Two Million Kindle Singles | paidContent.

Go Read This | Ebook sales are being driven by downmarket genre fiction | Media | The Guardian

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You would be forgiven if you read this piece and thought afterwards that the only print books sold in bookshops were literary fiction and non-fiction and the bulk of them Booker prize winners. Of course we know this isn’t true and just as readers of digital books like their genre fiction, so too do print book readers.

I honestly struggle to see the point of such articles. Shock horror they seem to say, people read the same crap they read in print form in this new digital form:

There is a literary snobbishness at play here, clearly. Reading has always been a competitive sport. Why else would anyone have read Ulysses? Consider those boys who read ostentatious poetry to pull winsome girls; the girls who read Vanity Fair to let the poetical boys know that they are clever and minxy.

The reading public in private is lazy and smutty. E-readers hide the material. Erotica sells well. My own downmarket literary fetish is male-oriented historical fiction histfic. Swords and sails stuff. Im happier reading it on an e-reader, and keeping shelf space for books that proclaim my cleverness.

via Ebook sales are being driven by downmarket genre fiction | Media | The Guardian.

Go Read This | Graphic Novelist Alex de Campi Uses Kickstarter to Sell Print, Film and Foreign Rights | Publishing Perspectives

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I rather like this idea, I really do:

Crowdsourcing the funding to self-publish books isn’t a new idea. Kickstarter got the trend going more than a year ago, Unbound took it a step further (just to name two examples). But how about using a service like Kickstarter to sell print, translation and film rights — as well as to secure bricks-and-mortar retail distribution? Author Alex de Campi and illustrator Jimmy Broxton are doing just that. Using Kickstarter as a platform, the duo seeks to raise $27,000 over the next two months to fund production of their latest project, a futuristic dystopian graphic novel called Ashes.

via Graphic Novelist Alex de Campi Uses Kickstarter to Sell Print, Film and Foreign Rights | Publishing Perspectives.

Go Read This | Introduction to The Conversation

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I’m pretty sure this is a good idea. It’s like Tor.com for politics and current affairs. Smart and well led by the looks of things. Vertical niches folks, vertical niches!!

This is a new experiment at Random House, an effort to explore whether we can hold an engaging conversation online about different books that we think may shed light on what’s going on in the world right now. The suggestions and the essays will not be limited to Random House books, or to new books, but to any title that strikes us as relevant and worthwhile.

via Introduction to The Conversation | Conversation Online.

Go Read This | Scholastic, Ruckus Media Form New Digital/Print Imprint

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This is a very interesting way to tackle the challenges ahead. It effectively takes the advice of Clayton M. Christensen and creates a new organisation outside the realm of the legacy company. Hope it works:

Children’s digital developer Ruckus Media is joining with Scholastic to create the Scholastic Ruckus imprint, a joint venture that will publish a wide range of children’s and teen content across all platforms, from interactive content and transmedia projects to e-books, enhanced e-books and print. The first titles from the Scholastic Ruckus imprint will be released in 2012.

Cofounded a year ago by former Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing president Rick Richter and Ruckus Media COO Jim Young, Ruckus Media has developed a list of interactive storybook apps and will publish about 40 digital titles this year. In a phone interview, Richter said that under the new imprint, Scholastic will oversee the marketing and distribution of print editions of Ruckus Media’s digital titles through Scholastic’s network of school book clubs and book fairs, libraries and through trade book retailers. Scholastic will also manage the worldwide distribution and publishing rights for both print and digital content coming from the imprint.

via Scholastic, Ruckus Media Form New Digital/Print Imprint.