Random House Publishing Group's experiment appears to be the first time a major consumer publisher has offered a title on a chapter-by-chapter basis. It will sell the six chapters and epilogue of "Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die" for $2.99 each.
Starting Monday, readers who log on to http://www.harpercollins.com/ will be able to see the entire contents of “The Witch of Portobello” by Mr. Coelho; “Mission: Cook! My Life, My Recipes and Making the Impossible Easy” by Mr. Irvine; “I Dream in Blue: Life, Death and the New York Giants” by Roger Director; “The Undecided Voter’s Guide to the Next President: Who the Candidates Are, Where They Come from and How You Can Choose” by Mark Halperin; and “Warriors: Into the Wild” the first volume in a children’s series by Erin Hunter.As the article notes, consumers interested in purchasing the titles will be able to do so via existing online retailers. Currently, this is not designed to be a storefront for Harpercollins but does represent a continuation of their web-based marketing and promtion efforts.
Figures published today for the year up to last June offer a fascinating glimpse into the nation’s reading habits. Patterson’s novels, which have sold more than 130 million copies worldwide, were borrowed from libraries more than 1.5 million times. A former advertising executive, he began writing in his spare time and he has published almost 50 novels. He now produces up to eight books each year with the help a team of co-writers. In third place was the children’s writer Daisy Meadows. The name is in fact a pseudonym used by a collection of writers, including Sue Bentley and Sue Mongredien, whose seemingly endless sequence of Rainbow Magic fairy books have risen from 26th place the previous year.
The three-person Willesden Herald panel between them read all 850 entries and then drew up a list of 20, which were sent to Smith. She and her fellow judges decided that this year they could not find “the greatness” that they were looking for and so decided not to award the £5,000 prize, which had been raised privately by MoranSmith then voiced said frustration on the newspapers' blog site:
No entry was good enough, Smith declared - before going on to savage more famous literary awards, such as the ones she has won, for doling out prizes for commercial imperatives. The blog under her name declares that she is “depressed by the cookie-cutter process of contemporary publishing”.Awards do have a function; however, we are seeing more and more discussion about how important they are to the general public (not really) versus the publishing community (Big, Big Big). This topic maybe this year's book reviews angst.
For the full year they reported the following:Publishing (formerly the Books division) – Excellent quarter in virtually all the countries in which we operate. Sales were particularly robust in the United Kingdom, driven by a raft of successful fiction and non-fiction titles. The very strong growth in the United States since January 2007 was maintained. In France, Literature and Illustrated Books both ended the year strongly.
In related French publishing news, France's number two publisher Editis has been placed on the block by its private equity owner Wendel. (Reuters) The company is said to be worth approximately €900mm. Spanish publisher Planeta and Italy's Mondadori were immediately suggested as potential purchasers. The following is from their corporate web page:Revenues reached €2,130m (up 8.6% on a reported basis), including an extra quarter of sales from the Time Warner Book Group (impact: €80m), which in 2006 was consolidated from April 1.On a like-for-like basis, an excellent final quarter propelled full-year revenue growth to 4.7%, versus 3.0% to end September 2007.In the United Kingdom, the year ended with a surge in sales. The group published 7 of the top 10 Christmas non-fiction best-sellers (including Bobby Charlton, Russell Brand and Al Murray), and 5 of the top 10 fiction titles (including Martina Cole and Patricia Cornwell).In the United States, the strong growth seen since the start of the year continued, driven by best-sellers (including Patterson, Baldacci, Hitchens and Meyer) and healthy backlist sales. In France, the fourth quarter was boosted by a fine contribution from Literature, thanks to authors such as Simone Veil and Philippe Claudel. Illustrated Books also enjoyed solid year-end sales.In Spain, sales are traditionally sluggish in the final quarter. Over 2007 as a whole, Spain recorded further strong growth not only in Education, but also in General Publishing and Children’s Books.Finally, Part-Works ended the year well, with steady sales growth in Italy, the United Kingdom and Japan.
I have noted Editis once before. On their web site they offer their take on the future of the book/reading experience. It is in French but none the less interesting. Here.With 2400 employees and about 40 publishing imprints, Editis holds leading positions in three segments of the publishing business, in particular Literature (trade and mass market formats), Education (scholarly, scholastic aids, middle school, high school, university, legal and medical), and Reference (dictionaries and encyclopedias), as well as in the field of publishing services (promotion and distribution). Prestigious publishers and efficient group-wide services have made Editis number two in the world of French publishing and a major player in Europe. Editis has a clearly stated objective: to strengthen its position on the French market, to continue its growth, and to expand its influence throughout the French-speaking world.
Macrovision offers content protection, digital rights management, and software licensing solutions that enable businesses to maximize the value of their digital content and software products. Our solutions are deployed by companies in the entertainment, consumer electronics, gaming, software, information publishing and corporate IT markets to solve industry-specific challenges.They are not a database or information management company, but they do (I think) realize that use of bibliographic information in the businesses they own could be an advantage.
"I’m very happy about the recovery this quarter. I thought it would happen, but until it does you hold your breath.” She also noted that the improvement was driven by what Friedman called the “three Ds,” The Daring Book for Girls, The Dangerous Books for Boys and Deceptively Delicious. The three titles are continuing to sell well into the third quarter, and Friedman said the titles should become strong backlist works.From the Newscorp Press release:
HarperCollins reported second quarter operating income of $67 million, an increase of $13 million versus the same period a year ago, which included charges due to the bankruptcy filing of a major distributor. The 24% growth included strong sales of The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz, The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn and Hal Iggulden and Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. During the quarter, HarperCollins had 40 books on The New York Times bestseller list, including 5 titles that reached the #1 spot.Given the slow first quarter, HC remain short of its prior year sales and operating income numbers. No mention of HC on the earnings call with Newscorp management which is true to form.
I came across this a few weeks ago and I thought it was very interesting. Google has place where you can see some of their experimentation with new search interfaces. In the Google search box enter the following: joseph conrad view:timeline and you will see a dateline version of the life of Joseph Conrad. It works for all kinds of things: Try replacing JC with Viet Nam War. If you play with this a little you will see that you can narrow down searches within years. As far as I can tell it doesn't do months.
Fellow traveler, Peter Brantley reminded me of the Google interface by referring me to an article in Arstechnica.com. In this post they look at six of the experimental interfaces.For calendar 2008, we expect net sales of between $18.75 bllion and $19.75 billion, a growth of between 26% and 33%. This guidance anticipates greater than 200 basis points of positive impact from foreign exchange. GAAP operating income to be between $785 million and $985 million, or between 20% growth and 50% growth. This includes approximately $240 million for stock-based compensation and amortization of intangible assets. We anticipate 2008 consolidated segment operating income, which excludes stock-based compensation and other operating expense to be between $1.025 billion and $1.225 billion, or between 21% growth and 44% growth.Some interesting comments on the Kindle from Bezos:
And answering a question on Kindle demand:Well, the Kindle has a few experimental features that are -- some of which are visible on the Kindle. It has something call a Now-Now, where you can type in any question and using the Mechanical Turk in the background, which is one of our web services, that question gets answered and the answer to the question gets displayed on the Kindle. There is an experimental web browser on the Kindle, which is actually, for a mobile device, a pretty good web browser, and of course is has the Whisper Net EVDO connectivity, which gives you broadband wireless access to that web browser.
So there are a number of experimental features and we’ve put those on there and made them accessible to customers so that these early Kindle users can tell us what they think of those features, whether we should continue to invest in them, continue to work on them and make them part of the product.
Yeah, Kindle is, in terms of demand, is outpacing our expectations, which is certainly something that we are very grateful for. It’s also on the manufacturing side causing us to scramble. We’re working very hard to increase the number of units that we can build and supply per week, so that we can get back -- our goal is to get into a situation as quickly as we can where when you order a Kindle, we ship it immediately. That’s the standard we want to hold ourselves to and we are working very hard to get there. We are super-excited by the very strong demand.
This bookseller thing is great. So easy. I think there should be a store front however instead of Google. I understand the agnosticism but if I am clicking on the isbn – effectively either looking for more information or wanting to buy – it could be an anti-climax getting steered to Google. What The Bookseller should do is build dynamic pages that once someone clicks on the Isbn they come to a retail outlet page where the user can see the book vended from four or five or six possible vendors. The Bookseller could sell each of these slots or storefronts. Perhaps also, the landing page could show more from that publisher which again would be potential ad salesBooksellers and librarians who use these guides and who migrate their book browsing to the web will really enjoy using this application and it will be interesting to see how it evolves. The Exact Editions widget application could also be implemented at other publications - consumer magazines, newspapers, reviews publications for example - that will make it easier for consumers to create their own buy lists and shopping carts without having to scribble down titles or rip pages out of magazines.
revenue for The Bookseller.
Paul J. Crecca, HCC’s President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “Upon the completion of our recapitalization in August 2007 and the constitution of our Board of Directors, we indicated we would evaluate all strategic alternatives, including the possible sale of all or substantially all of our assets. Throughout this process, the Haights Cross businesses and our committed employees have remained focused on providing customers with quality products and services, and thus strengthening their positions in the markets they serve. We believe that despite the current economic environment, these assets offer compelling value to prospective buyers.”
Beah is not going to change is story and perhaps there is a ready and acceptable notion in the minds of those familiar with the story that perhaps he suffered so much (and is a symbol of many other lost children) that we should therefore forgive some minor infraction. I was however, surprised at the view taken by Publisher's Weekly which effectively apologizes for every authors confusion with reality and fiction.The Australian has believed that those inaccuracies were a result of Beah's memory being impaired by the trauma, drugs and extreme youth he describes in his book but the latest statement by Beah, who is now 27, and his publisher Sarah Crichton of Farrar, Straus & Giroux seriously misrepresent The Australian's reporting over the last week.
In this country, it's commonly known in the publishing industry that memoirs—even post–James Frey—are not stringently fact-checked; at most, they're submitted to legal departments looking for libel. Writers are responsible for their facts, and editors for probing their writers' hearts and souls and memories. In the case of A Long Way Gone, however, an excerpt (including the now-disputed dates) was fact-checked by the New York Times last January. “The fact-checking, as often happens, turned up a few discrepancies that were resolved without undermining the plausibility of his account,” Times spokesperson Diane C. McNulty said in an e-mail.Apologizes but doesn't hold anyone accountable. PW goes on to say that in the memoir world no ones memory can be completely verified but in this case (and in countless others) just some basic fact checking might have raised a few flags. Note also, the incredible amounts paid for celebrity and political memoirs: Are we now to believe these might contain only a casual relationship to reality or are they true and close depictions of reality as the author knew it at the time. Possibly both. This book was sold as 'a truth' and in the pursuit of that truth it looks like anyone asking any pointed questions was patronized and rebuffed. Surely there are enough 'real' memoirs worth reading without embellishment and Long Way Gone is a case in point.
Interestingly, the expectation for success continues to rely on printed products. It will be interesting to see if Harlequin sees more rapid growth in their electronic products in this market where travel and access to products is still a challenge.“India is crazy about true romance,” Andrew Go, the head of the Indian operation, said. “Look at the basic Bollywood plot: boy meets girl; conflict; happy ending. We carry across that trend. We say we sell four books a second, Actually it’s 4.4. If I can take that to five, I’m a hero.”
India has the potential to hit Mr Go’s target: the popularity of the country’s lending libraries is declining as India’s burgeoning middle class opts to buy rather than borrow.
Tom Stoppard in the NYTimes this morning about his book satchel by T. Anthony. So, if you are wondering what to buy that avid reader, or if you are like Mr & Mrs. PND who, when travelling on vacation distribute their travel reading material across several suit cases, this is the gift for you. Unfortunately, T Anthony stopped making the book satchel many years ago and so you may be SOL. I quick check on Ebay this afternoon proved fruitless.
Shares rose as much as 12.5 percent. Chief Executive Harold McGraw said he expects the U.S. economy and capital markets to show signs of recovery in theDespite these full year numbers, the company's results were significantly impacted by a slow fourth quarter - mainly due to the slow-down in credit market - and net income was almost half the level the company recorded in 2006. Revenues were off 1.5% versus 2006.
second half of 2008, though a "housing recession" will likely persist all year. McGraw-Hill also publishes school textbooks and magazines such as BusinessWeek,
and owns researcher J.D. Power & Associates.
Education: "Revenue for this segment in 2007 increased 7.2% to $2.7 billion compared to 2006. Operating profit in 2007 grew by 21.5% to $400 million. Included in the segment's 2007 operating profit is a pre-tax restructuring charge of $16.3 million in the fourth quarter for severance relating to a workforce reduction of 304 positions. In 2006, there were pre- tax restructuring charges of $5.6 million in the third quarter and $10.4 million in the fourth quarter.
Financial Services: "Revenue for this segment in 2007 increased by 10.9% to $3.0 billion compared to last year. Operating profit grew by 13.1% to $1.4 billion. Included in the segment's operating profit is a pre-tax gain of $17.3 million on the divestiture of a mutual fund data business in the first quarter and an $18.8 million pre-tax restructuring charge in the fourth quarter consisting mostly of severance relating to a workforce reduction of 172 positions, driven by the current business environment, as well as the consolidation of business support functions.
Information & Media: "Revenue for this segment in 2007 increased 3.6% to $1.0 billion compared to last year. Operating profit grew 27.2% to $63.5 million. Included in the segment's 2007 operating profit is a pre-tax restructuring charge of $6.7 million in the fourth quarter for severance relating to a workforce reduction of 114 positions. In 2006, there were pre- tax restructuring charges of $5.7 million in the third quarter and $3.0 million in the fourth quarter. The operating margin for 2007 was 6.2% versus 5.1% in 2006. Foreign exchange rates did not have a material effect on revenue, but reduced operating profit growth by $4.6 million.
"Without the divestitures obtained by the department, purchasers of clinical tests for adaptive behavior, speech and language, and adult abnormal personality likely would have faced higher prices and reduced innovation as a result of this transaction," said Thomas O. Barnett, assistant attorney general for antitrust, in a statement.
Under the terms of the proposed settlement, Pearson and Harcourt must divest: Harcourt's adaptive behavior clinical test, the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System; Harcourt's adult abnormal personality clinical test, the Emotional Assessment System, which is under development; and in the speech and language clinical test market, either Pearson's Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language and the Oral and Written Language Scales or Harcourt's Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals. Under the proposed settlement, the Department's Antitrust Division must approve the buyer of each of the divested assets.Given the breadth of the Harcourt and Pearson assessment offerings this resolution looks inconsequential; the subject areas are fairly narrow and specialized. Also, the release doesn't indicate whether Pearson is precluded from competing in these segments at some point in the future. There is likely to be any number of potential buyers - Reed Elsevier may buy them back, Wolters Kluwer may also be interested given their existing health titles.
After my 37 years in the business, I'm running the 2008 London Marathon for the UK book trade's welfare charity, BTBS. You can make a contribution at http://www.justgiving.com/michaelholdsworth [or see below if you don't like using a card online.] Since I did my last Marathon aged 50 (and before that, at age 40), 2008 - at 60 - is appropriate, I guess. As you will know, BTBS is a very small charity and every little bit helps proportionately much more!Best as ever - and thanks in advance for anything you care to contribute. Michael
Utilizing SharedBook's Reverse Publishing Platform, consumers can now create a unique, personalized version of The Poky Little Puppy by using an online book-making template. Consumers can create their own version of The Poky Little Puppy complete with a custom dedication and also upload a personal photo to the front of the book. The book is then purchased and sent to the printer for on-demand output in laminated hardcover format.I saw a sample of this product several weeks ago and other than the personalization the book is indistinguishable from a book found on the shelves of any bookstore. The binding, boards, ink and color qualities are all of a high level as you would expect from a product from Random House.
The price for a unique, personalized edition of The Poky Little Puppy is $25 in laminated hardcover format, which includes standard domestic shipping. Completed books arrive in 10-14 business days. Expedited shipping options are available for an additional charge.
FARRAR STRAUS AND GIROUX, BOOK PUBLISHERS
19 Union Square West
New York,
NY 10003
January 22, 2008
For immediate releaseFor months I told Bob Lloyd and The Australian’s reporter, Shelley Gare, through my publisher, my agent, and my adoptive mother, that unfortunately they were wrong, that the man they claimed was my father was not my father, and that my mother and brothers were not alive, as Lloyd claimed. Last week, when The Australian sent reporters to my home in Sierra Leone, they were forced to cknowledge that this has been a hoax.
Now The Australian’s reporters are trying to raise questions about the dates in my book, A Long Way Gone, regarding when the war came to my village. They offer as "proof" a man named Mr. Barry who claims to have been the head of the school I attended when I was young. I have never heard of a Mr. Barry. The principal of my school was Mr. Sidiki Brahima.
The war in Sierra Leone began in 1991. My story, as I remember it and wrote it, began in 1993 when rebels “attacked the mining areas” (my words from the book) in my village while I was away with friends. I never saw my family again. The Australian, presumably, is basing their defamation of me on reports that the Sierra Rutile Mine was closed down by rebels in 1995. But there were rebels in my region, my village, and my life in 1993. They attacked throughout 1993 and 1994 before closing down the mine.Others from Sierra Leone can bear witness to the truth of my story.
Leslie Mboka, National Chairman of the Campaign for Just Mining in Freetown, was a counselor at Benin Home, the rehabilitation center in Freetown, Sierra Leone, which I entered in January 1996. He told this to my publisher, Sarah Crichton, on the telephone today:
“A gentleman named Wilson was here investigating regarding Ishmael Beah’s book, and I told him emphatically - emphatically- that Ishmael’s accounts are accurate and correct. Wilson was going to Mogbwemo to find out if Ishmael Beah’s family was alive. When he came back to Freetown, he said he couldn’t find anyone alive, and the man who said he was Ishmael’s father was actually just a relative. But then he asked, what about confusion with the dates? And I said, there is no problem with the dates.
The rebels made sporadic attacks on the mining communities between ’93 and ’94, leading up to and in preparation for the major assault in ’95. In fact, military personnel were deployed to the area because there were these sporadic raids. Ishmael was caught in one of the earlier attacks. I told all this to Peter Wilson. I told him everything that Ishmael wrote is accurate and completely factual, and I explained to him what was confusing him. I do not understand what his paper’s agenda is. I do not understand why they are trying to blackmail this brilliant and honest young man.”
Mboka was contacted by The New York Times when they fact-checked the excerpts of my book which they published. His testimony did not appear in The Australian’s reporting.
Creative writing professor Dan Chaon, who helped Beah produce the book, told The
Australian: "If it turns out there are factual errors, I wouldn't necessarily be all that concerned about it."
In his book, Beah says his home town, the mine where his father worked and his mother's town were all attacked in January 1993. He and a group of friends were then waiting in Mattru Jong for news when a Catholic priest was ordered by the rebels to deliver a message telling people in the town to co-operate with the rebels. Many people fled immediately; two weeks later, the rebels attacked from a surprise inland route, leaving only one unanticipated escape route on a footpath through a nearby swamp.
That is exactly what happened in 1995, according to the adult witnesses, internal records at the mine and numerous published sources.
"This is another excellent performance across all our businesses and on all our financial measures. We have produced another record year and our third consecutive year of underlying earnings growth in the mid-teens or higher. Over this period we have changed the shape of Pearson, invested in our future growth and made the company more efficient and more resilient. Those moves make us confident that we will sustain our financial and competitive progress in 2008."
A rescue financing backed by parent Quebecor, run by Mr. Peladeau, and restructuring fund Tricap Partners was just too cute by a half for banks that had, until August, been willing lenders. Quebecor World carries $2.5-billion of debt. Mr. Peladeau misread the sea change in sentiment among lenders that has come with the credit crunch.It is likely that the company will be sold up in the short term as soon as the existing lenders can get as much as they think possible for the debt they own. Existing shareholds - primarily Mr Pelaseau's holding company may get nothing.
“Blurb is redefining how success is measured in publishing,” said Eileen Gittins, Blurb’s founder and CEO. “For some, success is creating a book that helps raise money for a foundation, for others it might be selling 25 copies of one’s own book, and for still others it might be a marketing piece like an event book or portfolio. Unlike traditional publishers whose economics drive a focus on the best-seller, Blurb is expanding the book market to include books for millions of very small, niche markets.”The market for these titles extends from people like me who produce one or two printed titles to others who may print several hundred to support a business or seminar program. The flexibility and variety enable all kinds of applications and it is entirely possible that the market is yet only partially satisfied. Driven by the continued growth in digital camera sales and the adoption of images into a much broader array of applications - from facebook to phones to blogs is likely that Blurb and other companies like it will continue to see rapid increases in usage. More people are taking more photos and using the photos in more places.
Much of the work is done by five giants: CTB/McGraw-Hill, Educational Testing Service, Harcourt Assessment, Pearson Educational Measurement and Riverside Publishing. Together, the companies own about 90 percent of the state-testing business, which has become a $1.1 billion industry since passage of the federal No child Left Behind Act in 2001. The law, which took effect in January 2002, requires states to give annual reading and math tests to third- through eighth-graders, and to test students in those subjects once again in high schoolThe absence of both Federal guidelines and consistency from state to state has also created significant disparity in testing approaches and effectiveness. This coupled with a tendency to manipulate the test outcomes - thereby making the educators look more effective - has some worried that the objectives in the testing program are compromised.
“States are not putting any more resources into the testing infrastructure, and as a result, we are getting testing on the cheap, and that is working against No Child Left Behind’s efforts to produce high-quality assessments that promote higher standards,” said Thomas Toch, the co-director of Education Sector, a nonpartisan think tank. “If we’re going to make tests the driver of quality in public education, then we need to invest to ensure that we get tests that are up to that task.”There is little doubt that the testing business will continue to grow. In the absence of 'no child left behind' teachers and administrators have now 'drunk the cool aid' and understand that they can use testing to their own advantage. Ironically, without uniform objectives, practices and policies it is the students who will be left disadvantaged. There is much more in the article.
"We were hit by simultaneous challenges on both sides of our business this quarter," said Courier Chairman and Chief Executive Officer James F. Conway III. "In book manufacturing, despite all indications pointing to another full year of strong sales in education, textbook reprint orders were unexpectedly slow this fall, sharply reducing the segment's capacity utilization and profitability even as we continued to gain share. Normally, publishers order textbook reprints during the fall to spread manufacturing workloads throughout the year, but this year a variety of industry factors significantly reduced that order flow. In publishing, Creative Homeowner sales continued to be held back by reduced consumer traffic at home improvement centers, its most important sales channel.
Unfortunately, that's hard to take seriously and I would have expected better. I would always have given Apple and Jobs more credit in understanding market dynamics and trends. On the surface his comment is partly accurate, but there is no cause and effect here.Mr. Jobs can be like that when he assesses the competition.
Today he had a wide range of observations on the industry, including the Amazon Kindle book reader, which he said would go nowhere largely because Americans have stopped reading.
“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”
The report also states that they want the report to generate a wider discussion - a "call to action" that will lead to more specific plans and recommendations.The Working Group envisions a future for bibliographic control that will be collaborative, decentralized, international in scope, and Web-based. The realization of this future will occur in cooperation with the private sector and with the active collaboration of library users. Data will be gathered from multiple sources; change will happen quickly; and bibliographic control will be dynamic, not static.
The Report is based on the key premise that the community is at a critical juncture in the evolution of bibliographic control and information access/provision. It is time to take stock of past practices, to look at today’s trends, and to project a future path consistent with the goals of bibliographic control: to facilitate discovery, management, identification, and access of and to library materials and other information products. Libraries must work in the most efficient and cooperative manner to minimize where possible the costs of bibliographic control, but both the Library of Congress and library administrators generally must recognize that they need to identify and allocate (or, as appropriate, reallocate) sufficient funding if they are serious about attaining the goals of improved and expanded bibliographic
control.
The 1981 Lang law was passed at a time when booksellers were losing sales to supermarkets and other new competitors. It was meant to assure that the French public had equal access to a wide variety of books, both high-brow and low-brow, not just heavily marked-down publications. The law has twice come before the European Court of Justice and both times it has been affirmed. The law is not considered anti competitive because all book retailers are held to the same standard, Manara said. In the Amazon case, a union of French bookstores won its lawsuit against the company last month over the free-shipping offer, which applies only to deliveries within France on book orders of more than €20.
Interupted by the persisent whine of the helicopters, I looked up from my newspaper around 7am to see this thing sliding up the Hudson on its maiden visit to NYC. It is quite a monster.
Of course, had I been more inspired I would have pictures; but it is just a matter of time.Caramelized Bacon
You can make this up to 3 days in advance. Keep in a tightly sealed container at room temperature. This is a dish that can’t be ruined. You can freeze the leftovers. But why are there leftovers?1 pound bacon
1 1-pound box light brown sugar (about 2 ¼ cups).1. Go to a butcher and spend as much money as you have on very good bacon. Cut it into medium-thick slices, say, 3\16 of an inch.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a large, rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper. Dump a box of brown sugar into a big bowl. Light brown sugar is best, but if you want to use dark brown, I won’t stop you. Add ¼ cup of water, so that the sugar becomes more than damp but less than soupy. Some bacon caramelizers add a dash of cayenne pepper, but I think this makes the dish too nutritious.
3. Dredge the bacon in the sugar, one slice at a time. If the sugar isn’t sticking to the bacon, add some more water a teaspoon at a time until it sticks. (By the way, you won’t use all of the sugar, but it’s good to have extra.) Place the bacon strips on the paper. I then smear some sugar on top of the bacon, on the theory that if a little sweet is good, more is better.
4. Place the bacon in the oven. It’s impossible for me to tell you how long to cook the bacon because it depends on whether you like it chewy or crispy. Some recipes tell you to keep it in the oven for 8 to 13 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of the bacon. I keep it in on the longer side. You should take yours out when it resembles the kind of bacon you would like to eat. Cut it into roughly 1 1/2-inch triangles. Serve at room temperature. Serves 8 to 10.
Still, the overall holiday shopping environment was intensely promotional and impacted the bottom line more than we anticipated. As a result, we anticipate fourth quarter consolidated operating earnings per share from continuing operations (excluding non- operating charges and discontinued operations) to be flat to down slightly compared to last year's $1.45 per share (excluding non-operating charges and discontinued operations). Overall, we continue to move forward with confidence in our strategic plan for a turnaround of the company and are encouraged by the progress we are making."
While the broker said it is too early to discuss how investors will realise gains, potential exit strategies over the next two to five years include a stock market flotation in America or a trade sale "to a large international publishing company such as Newscorp or Viacom". It said a third option of refinancing the group is the least likely route, given the current state of the debt markets and EMPG's relatively high existing debt.In the Independent article all so notes the potential for cost and efficiency gains that are assumed in the combination of HM and Riverdeep.
The identification of digital book content A discussion paper commissioned by the Book Industry Study Group and Book Industry Communication and prepared by Michael Holdsworth.Executive summary Although there are strong similarities between the identification needs of physical books and of digital book content in the supply chain, new business models and new delivery channels challenge existing practice. There is a pressing need for clarity on the use of standards for the identification and description of digital products.The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is considered fit for purpose for trading,discovery and reporting of digital products within the supply chain.Every digital manifestation traded separately should be assigned an individual ISBN and publishers should adopt the principle that products should be separately identified to the extent that they need to be so identified.The Digital Object Identifier (DOI), though not in any way a substitute for an ISBN, is a valuable additional identifier which enables content to be “discovered” on the Web.Publishers and others should explore the possible opportunities for using the International Standard Text Code (ISTC) as a means of collocating different manifestations of the same textual work.Publishers should review their practices relating to the assignment of identifiers, particularly where a digital product is traded through an intermediary and accurate reporting of sales is required for royalty payments or management information.The practice of using a single ISBN for all digital manifestations of the same work is strongly discouraged.The use of “ISBN‐like” 13 digit identifiers other than those properly assigned by the ISBN agencies is strongly discouraged in all circumstances.
Barnes & Noble store sales for the nine-week holiday period from November 4, 2007 to January 5, 2008. were $1.2 billion, a 4.1% increase over the same period in fiscal 2006. For the 48 weeks ended January 5, 2008, Barnes & Noble store sales rose 4.8% to $4.3 billion, while comparable store sales increased 2.0%.
Barnes & Noble.com comparable sales increased 10.9% for the holiday selling season and totaled $129.4 million. For the 48 weeks ended January 5, 2008, Barnes & Noble.com sales were $428.8 million, representing a comparable sales increase of 12.8%.
Based on holiday sales results and January sales trends to date, the company is reducing its earnings per share guidance to $1.57 to $1.76 and $1.81 to $1.99 for the fourth quarter and full year, respectively. The company’s previous earnings per share guidance was $1.67 to $1.86 and $1.91 to $2.09, for the fourth quarter and the full-year, respectively.
In the case, Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle challenged the copyright protection given to so-called "orphan" works, or material for which the owner can't be found. Currently, if Kahle or other Web companies post such material, but the owner later steps forward and sues, the companies can't defend themselves on the grounds that they couldn't locate the owner. Kahle, represented by the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford, had hoped to change that by arguing that the law protecting orphan works--passed before widespread Internet access--violated the First Amendment.
Unknown to me until I read this article was that Ransom married Trotsky's secretary and spied for the Bolsheviks. Who knew?Inspired by the success of The Dangerous Book for Boys, the BBC is betting that camping, fishing and messing about in dinghies will seem as thrillingly exotic to modern children as any special-effects-laden superhero movie. The producers believe that the resourceful young heroes of Swallows and Amazons and the book’s idyllic Lake District setting possess an allure that they did not have when the tale was last filmed in 1974, before childhood hobbies became as sedentary, solitary and technology-driven as they are today.
After the success of their updated Chaucer and Shakespeare dramas, the BBC have set their cross hairs on the fairy tails of the Brothers Grimm, Han Christian Andersen and Charles Perrault. Fairy tales work on subconscious levels, quite unlike normal stories and plays. Their plots are weird and the characters are symbolic rather than human. For Rapunzel, the writer Ed Roe has concocted a farcical little fantasy about a useless Eastern European tennis player who pretends to be a woman in the hope of beating Rapunzel the long haired woman's champion.All told an interesting weekend in the British press for publishing. Rent the Shakespeare titles if you can find them.
The cuts will result in a $43.7 million pretax restructuring charge and reduce fourth-quarter earnings by $27.3 million after taxes, or 8 cents per share, McGraw said.Also of note, MGH shares have fallen 39% over the past 12 mths in part because of what some have seen as faulty advice from its S&P unit with respect to the sub-prime banking crisis. While McGraw attributed the restructuring to the financial market issues the largest cuts look to be in their education unit. Given the amounts being invested by the other large players this seems counter intuitive.
"For 2007, we still expect double-digit earnings per share growth" excluding the restructuring costs and other charges, McGraw said.
Brian Napack, president of Macmillan, said that custom publishing was the fastest-growing arm of the textbook market. He said that while Hayden-McNeil was “not huge at this point,” its revenue had been growing by double-digit percentages in the last five years.
All writers join the Web site for free, and soon readers will be able to have their own free pages, too. Publishers also will be invited to have free Web pages on Redroom.com, with Chronicle Books serving as the Web site's first test case. Madison has collected $1.25 million in venture capital for the business and has hired a staff of 15, and anticipates raising $2 million more in the coming months. She said she expects to break even in 2008 and make $15 million in gross revenue in 2009.Revenues will be generated by ad revenues and tranaction fee and a portion of revenues will be designated for charity.
As a result, yesterday's announcement should be seen as aWhether this will have a material impact on Canadian publishing is doubtful although some commentators will be all doom and gloom. The domestic Canadian publishing industry is a strange beast with significant amounts of government money distributed to small publishers on the basis of maintaining cultural heritage who wouldn't survive commercially without the funding. In fairness, this active nurturing does produce some great Canadian titles but no doubt most are less than commercially viable.
back-to-the-basics move, and a return to Raincoast's core competency, as a distributor that represents an estimated 50 domestic and foreign-owned publishers, including Bloomsbury U.K., Bloomsbury U.S., Chronicle Books, Lonely Planet, Grove Atlantic and Harcourt/Houghton Mifflin.
