Links of Interest

The Dallas DA has released boxes of material relating to the assination of JFK. The Dallas Morning news has launched a crowdsourcing effort to classify and identify the documents. Link. Tip o' hat to Brantley).

I wasn't aware Apple has an iTunes site dedicated to selling educational content to universities and students. Link

Larry Lesig may run for Congress and has launched a Change Congress initiative. (Tip to Hodgkin).

Stephen Fry has launched his Podgrams and also has an enjoyable post about digital cameras.

"Just about everybody who needs a camera has one. What is wrong with that Ixus I bought three years ago? That old Pentax Optio will see me through to my old age, don’t it? No! No, you crazed enemy of freedom, you wild-eyed anti-capitalist, you deranged luddite. Haven’t you heard of Face Detection Technology? Smile Capture? Best Shot Automatic YouTube Uploading?

WorldCat has a blog all to its own.

Shatzkin on horizontal to vertical redux.

Apax is already sniffing around Reed Business Information. Link

Tell this to Harpercollins. Link

Charkin Returns

Just as the opening credits role in High Plains Drifter, we discern the image of the returning fighter but its not Eastwood it's Charkin returning from the blogging wilderness to post a brief effort on Eoin Purcell's site.

Sales of some novels are spectacular but even the most spectacular compare in revenue and terms very unfavourably with, for example, a drug, a car, an airline, or an oilfield. As an industry we should be very grateful for all the attention (and I am) but why this journalistic obsession with the economics of books and fiction in particular?

Still no news about his permanent return.

Mills & Boon in India

The BBC takes up the story of Mills & Boon (Harlequin) entering the Indian market which I noted a few weeks ago. Link

Although Mills and Boon - which has nearly three-quarters of the romantic market in its home country of the UK - is only now launching in India, their books are already popular in the country because they have been unofficially introduced from abroad.
Many in the reading group describe themselves as long-time readers.

Reading groups members acknowledge the stories are fanciful. Rachana Srivastava, for example, says that she grew up on a "staple diet" of the publisher's works, which have moulded her perception of the ideal man.

My post: Hold on to your Sari (I really only note it because I was particularly proud of my headline).

More Reed Elsevier

Reed announced preliminary results yesterday which were somewhat overshadowed by the announcement of the Choicepoint acquisition and the proposed divestiture of the Reed Business Information division.

In the earnings presentation CEO Davis noted that their revenue growth is ahead of the market, their operating margin continues to improve year over year and the company is delivering good cash generation and EPS growth. Over the past four years underlying revenue has grown between 3-6% per year but it is operating profit which has seen annual growth expand from 3% in 2004 to 10% in 2007. Operating profit growth has improved faster than revenue due to the changing sales mix toward on-line revenues as well as corporate wide initiatives on costs reduction and consolidation.

In discussing the proposed divestiture of the RBI business, Davis used justification similar to the comments used to explain the Harcourt divesture but it boils down to several things. First, the online component of RBI is not growing fast enough to keep up with Elsevier, LexisNexis and Martindale. This will dampen long term revenue growth for RE. Second, the timing and investment required to speed the process could be significant and Third, the payback is not obvious in so far as online ad based 'magazine-type' content has yet to establish itself as a business that can replace revenues from print based subscription and advertising. Davis's comments reflect forward thinking regarding the strategic growth of RE as a platform based content solutions provider: Financially the current position of RBI is quite strong versus their segment. Indeed their performance supports the suggestion that Davis will not rush to sell RBI and is open to various scenarios.

In 2007, RBI revenues were £906m up 3% and operating income was £119m up 8% over the prior year. Offline revenues account for 70% of total revenues. Despite the long term concerns of Davis, this appears to make RBI a £300m online trade magazine/business information publisher which will prove a strong selling point for investors when they come to kick the tires. (Online revenues were up 20%). Currently, RBI includes Reed Exhibitions which the company has decided to retain. According to the company, Reed Exhibitions has continued to grow aggressively and perhaps, there are more business opportunities across the RE properties which management believe can be leveraged. Additionally, management may be considering expanding Exhibitions through acquisition. Exhibitions revenues were up 12% in 2007 and operating income up 8%.

It will be interesting to see how this divesture plays out. The division has some brand-name assets including Variety and Publishers' Weekly but it may be the more mundane titles that have been driving the online growth and investors may be more impressed with these units than the bigger brands. That could lead the way to a break-up strategy with some of big brand properties going to separate buyers and a strategic buyer purchasing the balance of the company. For example, I could see Variety going to Zuckerman or Wasserstein.

Note: Reed also noted the sale of Harcourt generated total proceeds of $4.95bn which was a 3.0x multiple of 2006 revenue and a 20.8x multiple of 2006 adjusted operating profit. The divestiture generated a substantial disposal gain.

Reed Preliminary Results presentation.

Reed Elsevier Acquire Choicepoint

In my predictions for 2008 I noted that we would see increased activity in the insurance business information space. In my view, this space is ripe for the type of consolidation seen in law, tax and business information that results in dedicated and must have information platforms for practitioners and analysts. Both Thomson and Reed dominate the law and tax segments and it looks like Reed is taking the first step to dominate and create a platform application for the insurance industry. Reed announced this morning that they will by Choicepoint for $3.5bill and assume $600mm in debt.

Commenting on the acquisition, Sir Crispin Davis Reed Elsevier's Chief Executive Officer, said: "The acquisition of ChoicePoint represents a major further step in the building of our risk management business and in the development of Reed Elsevier's online workflow solutions strategy. The market growth in risk information and analytics is highly attractive and ChoicePoint brings important assets and market positions that fit well with our existing business and, in combination, can be leveraged to very good effect.

The new unit will be combined with existing risk management revenues in the Lexis business unit that will result in a business unit with over $1.5billion in revenue.

Other points from the press release:

• ChoicePoint has a leading position in providing unique data and analytics to the attractive insurance sector (over 50% of Choicepoint's $982 million revenue and 80% of its business operating income from continuing operations in 2007) and highly complementary products and new capabilities in the screening, authentication and public records areas.
• The combination of ChoicePoint's highly regarded data and analytics assets with LexisNexis's market leading technology can be leveraged to create greater opportunities in addressing the growing risk information and analytics needs in insurance, financial, legal, screening, law enforcement, public safety, healthcare and other sectors.
• The combination will improve top line growth and deliver considerable synergy benefits through the application of powerful technology, increased scale and integration of resources.
• The acquisition will accelerate Reed Elsevier's revenue and profit growth; is accretive to adjusted earnings from the first year; and is expected to deliver a post-tax return on capital in excess of Reed Elsevier's cost of capital by the third year, with returns continuing to climb thereafter.
• Consideration of $50 per share in cash; unanimous recommendation of the ChoicePoint board; subject to ChoicePoint shareholder and regulatory approvals. Acquisition to be financed from committed new bank facilities.
• The acquisition significantly enhances Reed Elsevier's portfolio through expansion in these attractive long term growth markets, and accelerates Reed Elsevier's progress in providing online solutions embedded into customer workflows.

The strategic importance of this acquisition for RE is noted in the last bullet where the company emphasizes the importance of workflow solutions for their customers. Information is not a commodity, but is only a component of a broad market offering. A company offering monolithic data products; that is the online equivalent of a printed database, will continue to face market challenges in competition with more integrated offerings where content is a component in a larger holistic workflow tool.

In a closely related story, Reed also announced that they will sell the Reed Business Information unit. This sale has long been rumoured and analysts have suggested that Reed should have vacated the space long ago; however, Reed were progressing through a logical strategic revamp which has culminated in the acquisition of Choicepoint, the divestiture of Harcourt and now the sale of RBI. The company says the divestiture will reduce exposure to the cyclical advertising markets, which of course was as true today as it was five years ago. Best guess would be private equity.

The same press release also notes their full year 2007, results with underlying revenue growth of 6% supported by online information and workflow solutions. Topline reported revenue was £4,584m up 2%. The company also saw operating margin improve as a result of favorable product mix with underlying margin up over 100 basis pts. Adjust EPS was up 12% in constant currency. The company noted that adverse exchange rates materially impacted the results. More in the press release.

Lulu Publishes 4,000 Titles per Week

The Guardian takes a look at the US self-publishing market and notes some impressive statistics fron Lulu.com.

Lulu says it publishes 4,000 new titles each week and already has a catalogue of 232,000 books. "Our success is that each week we publish between 10 and 20,000 titles; one at a time," said , the senior vice president of operations at the company, Andrew Pate.

The company is only five years old and says it is doubling in size every year. Earlier this year, I noted the growth of Blurb.com which published 80,000 titles during 2007.

The Guardian also discusses Booksurge.com and AuthorHouse as variations on the theme and notes the recent new relationship between Borders and Lulu. More from the article:

It is not only business people who want to self-publish. Lulu's Pate says an ageing population, with more money, more life experience and more time on their hands to write will combine with the new and improving technologies to help drive the self-publish business. The ubiquitous use of Microsoft Word together with desktop publishing software, digital printing technologies and workflow solutions linked to the internet and "bang, you have got a whole new market that could not exist without each of those pieces together".

Cengage Reports Second Quarter

Second quarter revenues and EBITDA were negatively impacted by a change in accounting for deferred revenue and as a result Cengage reported slightly lower (1.2%) revenues versus their prior period. Revenues were $496mm and $502mm for 2008 and 2007 respectively. The impact of the change in deferred revenue accounting had a 100% flow-through impact and as a result EBITDA was 7% lower than the period last year ($148mm versus $160mm).

The company recorded a strong first quarter and despite the account change year to date revenue and EBITDA were 2.3% and 3.0% higher respectively. Year to date revenues were $1,146mm and EBITDA was $409mm. Margin is holding steady at a healthy 35.7%.

Other highlights:

• Academic and Professional YTD revenues and EBITDA are up 4.9% and 5.6% respectively. YTD revenues and EBITDA are $791mm and $347mm
• Gale YTD revenues were lower by 4% but EBITDA was up 2.1%. YTD revenues and EBITDA were $167mm and $63mm
• International YTD revenues were higher by 7% but EBITDA was lower than prior year by 4%.

The company indicated that their plans are ahead of schedule on cash flow, cost savings initiatives and projected EBITDA.

Cengage

Defections

Another big name author has followed the money and moved from his long term publisher. Richard Ford has moved from Knopf to Ecco after 17 years, and he follows Tom Wolfe who earlier in the year moved from FSG to Little Brown. Who can blame them? This is not a trend, as authors do move around periodically (and take their editors with them). It will have little impact on traditional publishing. The mid-market and specialty author is not suddenly going to be in a better competitive position vis-a-vis the publishing houses. What strikes me as curious, though, is that we haven't seen incursions by web companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Ebay into the original content business. Yet.

It seems so logical that one or a few of these companies will experiment in some way with branded authors. We all know the author brand is primary and we also know that some authors have become aggressive in expanding their brand - Patterson as the prime example. It may be inevitable that a major author(s) signs a three book deal with Google or Amazon. According to Publisher's Lunch, Wolfe received between $5mm and $7mm (these numbers from several sources) for his deal. It is a sad reflection on the publishing industry that these figures represent little more than gas money for the larger internet companies. Skills in book production, design, marketing and promotion, etc. are readily available and would not represent an impediment to success. It is really the expanded catalog of skills and expertise that an internet company could bring to bear that could be really interesting for authors and consumers.

Launching Major Author X via 'GooglePub' or similar would transcend the traditional publishing model and, perhaps, return it to something more like the publishing of the late 18oos where serialization (blogging) and direct reader involvement (social networking) were fundamental elements of trade publishing. (Remember Doyle trying to kill off Holmes, resulting in near riots from readers?) One of the most interesting aspects of the Radiohead experiment was that they finished their album only two weeks before it was available for download. In the world of publishing, the length of time from finished manuscript to bookstore can be years. Not only would consumer access be much faster in a 'GooglePub' world but the engagement with the author and the authors' work could be far more intense (and positive) for both author and reader.

Imagine the author maintaining an ongoing rapport with readers as the book is written. The author blogs about the process, posts excerpts, background material relevant to the story, and plot and character notes. The author publishes finished excerpts (ie. serialization), as development continues. Perhaps derivative titles or sequels are also initiated. Audio, Podcasts and video is made available. At the launch of the title, the book will have been exposed to millions of readers - perhaps all of the title has been published in parts or not - but the excitement will be significant. During this time, site traffic will also have grown and perhaps an advertising revenue share for the author will also augment their annual guarantees.

As in the Radiohead example, a physical version will be produced but, even here, the model could change. Perhaps 'GooglePub' strikes separate deals with B&N, Borders or others who produce their own versions of the titles by selecting from the wealth of content available as a direct result of the content created during the process. Basically, the author and 'GooglePub' leave it up to the physical publisher to create the physical product and just take a (painless) cut of revenues.

Publishers can't compete with this model. By the same token, the process could give rise to a new caste of publishing staffers who are familiar with the web-publishing model, social networking and engagement and who become required assets as authors migrate their brands to the internet. An interesting scenario: How prepared are large trade houses if their top-ten branded authors defect to 'GooglePub'?

Livemocha in NYTimes

I have commented on the language learning provider Livemocha and they were profiled in the NY Times over the weekend:

LiveMocha introduced its Web site in late September 2007, said Shirish Nadkarni,
chief executive of the company, which is based in Bellevue, Wash. Since then, he said, about 200,000 users from more than 200 countries have joined. “It’s a community of like-minded learners who can leverage their native language proficiency to help one another,” he said. The name “LiveMocha” is meant to evoke the relaxed atmosphere of a coffee shop. The site is still in beta, or testing, phase, Mr. Nadkarni said. Advertising will soon be added, as well as charges for some premium content and services.

The company recently closed on $6mm in additional funding.

San Francisco

I spent most of last week in San Francisco. While NYC received its first appreciable snow (and then heavy rain to wash it all away), I was wandering around in almost 70 degree weather and havinig a lovely time. I did do some work as well.






Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Click on each image to see brief descriptions of the image.

175,000 First Chapter Excerpts (And Counting)

I wasn't excessively clear in my description of the Dial-a-Book model and Mr. Greenfield has rapped me on the knuckles and asked me to correct the article. Obviously, he is quite correct to ensure we understand his business model. From Stanley,

You write:

"The idea of building a business (let alone expanding as he continues to do) on the precept that he will scan and re-key the first chapter of a book so that the content can be distributed as merchandising material in this day of e-content seems anachronistic. No telling how long it will continue to go on and many (including me) have expected publishers to take this over themselves and obviate the need for Dial-a-Book. Yet, he continues to flourish."

Michael, were this the case Dial-A-Book would not exist.

Most of the major publishers do create there own excerpts which they mount on their own sites .... and send to us for reformatting and distribution.
Our value is not that we create excerpts but rather that every excerpt we distribute is automatically mounted by

Barnes & Noble, Baker & Taylor, Ingram, EBSCO, Books-in-Print,
Buy.com, OCLC .... if they handle the books

… and by more than 1,600 library OPACs (e.g. San Francisco, Cleveland,
Seattle Public Libraries) if they hold the books in their collections.

Moreover we are the exclusive excerpt providers to all of the above, with the exception of Barnes & Noble. None of the others will mount any except unless it comes from Dial-A-Book. Every excerpt in any on-line public access catalog (OPAC) in the US is a Dial-A-Book excerpt.

The reason is that we provide an AGGREGATION function.

They would rather pay our modest charges to recieve 50,000 excerpts a year, in two deliveries a month, in a consistent format, which they can algorithmically access, or enter into their systems and servers, than receive 300 Random House excepts on a Monday, 200 Harper Collins on a Tuesday, 150 Simon & Shuster on a Friday, etc, in a variety of formats..

Dial-A-Book delivers an essential service for publishers, web sites and OPACs by the aggregation function it performs. Its unique data base contains 185,000 first chapter excerpts prepared and distributed with the permission of more than 1,400 imprints/publishers.
I would greatly appreciate your rectifying this matter for the readers of Persona Non Data lest they believe the need for Dial-A-Book can be obviated.


The original post as follows:

My friend Stanley Greenfield tells me he now has an astounding 175,000 first chapter excerpts and to think I knew him when he had less than 5,000. The idea of building a business (let alone expanding as he continues to do) on the precept that he will scan and re-key the first chapter of a book so that the content can be distributed as merchandising material in this day of e-content seems anachronistic. No telling how long it will continue to go on and many (including me) have expected publishers to take this over themselves and obviate the need for Dial-a-Book. Yet, he continues to flourish.

Here is more material from Dial-a-Book:

During 2007 Dial-A-Book continued to drive book sales and library readership as it delivered more than fifty thousand new first chapter text excerpts to its partners, e-commerce sites, media, bibliographic services, library on-line public access catalogs. The Dial-A-Book data base now contains excerpts from 175,000 ISBNs. All excerpts are produced and distributed with the permission of 1,400 imprints/publishers. The DAB Chapter One program is the exclusive excerpt provider for Baker & Taylor, Ingram, Books-in-Print, OCLC, EBSCO, Buy.com, Diesel e-books, and library on-line public access catalogs. Every excerpt appearing in any US library-on-line public access catalog (OPAC) is provided by DAB. In our continuing effort to support our partners we have enhanced our systems with a new mobile platform. The platform will allow more than five millions iPhone, iTouch and Windows Mobile users to browse our 175,000 book excerpts. Software development continues to extend the use of excerpts to other devices.

The Dial-A-Book Publishes Portal™ was successfully launched in 2007. It has been promoted by the International Publishers Association (PMA), Independent Publishers Group (IPG), Midpoint Trade Books and author services companies like AuthorHouse, Lulu.com and Infinity Publishing. Publishers Portal guarantees the display of book first chapters by the web sites and library on-line public access catalogs for which Dial-A-Book is the exclusive excerpt provider, if they handle the books or hold them in their collections. Our thanks to all our partners whose cooperation made this progress possible. Text excerpts are being increasingly displayed. This is testimony that CONTENT SELLS. We invite inquiries about how you can derive the greatest benefit from participation in Publishers Portal and Chapter One.

To learn more about Dial-a-Book contact Stanley Greenfield at 718 432 0014 or email:
srg@dialabook.net

Death of a Magazine Redux

Earlier this week MediaPost noted the almost 20% decrease in newstand sales of Time magazine for the second half 2007 versus the same period in 2006. Adding the bad news, subscription sales also fell 17%. From their article:

In November 2006, Time cut its rate base 18.8% to 3.25 million, so the decline in subscriptions may be due partly to a purge of "junk" circulation, including automatically renewed subscriptions. But it's hard to put a good spin on the steep drop in newsstand sales, which advertisers often view as an indicator of audience engagement. Ironically, the declines follow a major redesign that was intended to make the magazine appeal to a mass audience. Introduced in March 2007, the new look delivers less visual clutter for a cleaner, streamlined appearance. There is lots of clear "white" space, fewer, more eye-catching images, and interesting text formats.

MediaPost go on to note similar declines at Newsweek and US News/Report. On the flip side, The Economist inproved their numbers significantly with total circ up 12%. Time is a long way from closing down, but in my predictions for 2008 I did note that we will see some high profile magazines shut down. I think these numbers reflect wider changes in consumption patterns. (And no its not about people reading less).

Borders' Concept Store Opens

Short of visiting Ann Arbor to look over the store myself the nice people at Ann Arbor News got to preview the store opening yesterday and have written a detailed review. I hope to get out there myself in the next few months in the meantime here are some notable items from the AA News article:

The store, in the Waters Place plaza near Kohl's in Pittsfield Township, is the first of 14 concept stores the struggling retailer will open this year. Borders is striving to restructure and brand itself as a center for "knowledge and entertainment," increase sales and differentiate its 520 U.S. stores from its chief rival, Barnes & Noble
Inc.

The music section has been downsized, and in its place is Borders' digital center. The circular, oversized kiosk features several computer stations where customers can burn music CDs, download music and audiobooks onto MP3 players, create digital photo albums, learn how to self-publish and research family genealogy.

Jones said the amount of floor space dedicated to books has remained consistent in the new store, but the company decreased the number of titles it offers to make better use of space. Now, Borders stacks more books so the cover, rather than the spine, faces the customer. The new Borders also sells some digital cameras, memory cards, and more toys and gift items. Still, the selection doesn't overwhelm the main attraction - books.

There is a video in the article as well.

It might be more interesting to see how this concept store evovles as they get direct feedback from consumers. Borders' deserve credit for expanding the idea of what a bookstore is; how their ideas resonate with book buyers is obviously the point of the concept. My only negative comment is that they get points off for utilizing The Long Pen autographing system: taking autographing to the network level just eliminates all the fun.

Shocking Result: Borders Australia Sale Approved

Despite the suggestion that the consolidation of Borders and Angus & Robertson's would lead to higher prices the Australian Competition Commission will allow the sale of Borders stores to Pacific Equity Partners. The resulting combination will be considerably larger in number of outlets than Dymocks which is the only other national chain.

A&R is likely to reassess their entire chain and perhaps close some of the non-performing stores. They may also look to consolidate more retail traffic by opening larger Border's branded superstores in both urban and suburman locations. Thus far, PEP has not indicated how they will present the two brands (and Whitcouls in New Zealand) but it is probable that PEP will operate two types of stores similar to a B Dalton/B&N arrangement. Many of the existing A&R retail outlets I have been in are somewhat down-market and some look more like discount retailers than full service book retailers. Look for PEP to expand and accelerate the opening of larger Borders stores and consolidate some of the A&R business.

No official word on the price but it is estimated to exceed A$120mm. Whether this is a good number from Border's US perspective remains to be seen given the amount they have invested in the international operations.

Dymocks will also be forced to make some changes; however, their ability to do so across the entire range of stores is complicated due to franchising. With half the chain owner managed Dymocks have traditionally had difficulty (and resistance) pushing out corporate mandated initiatives. Regardless, the existence of a well funded, large and well branded competitor may help galvanize the Dymocks faithful. Dymocks could also embark on their own superstore expansion although where they would get the funding for this is anyone's guess.

The Age

NetGalley and Publisher's Weekly Launch eMarketing Platform

Publishers Weekly officially announced a partnership with Rosetta Solutions, Inc. to implement netGalley, an innovative online application. The platform is designed to help publishers better connect with both traditional and new media communities through electronic distribution and tracking of galleys, press materials, title metadata, and promotional plans. PW will use the netGalley application to capture information at the point of submission of Galleys for their reviews process. One of the key benefits of netGalley to participating publishers will be the ability to upload vital book and promotional information that will enable multiple and varied use by channel partners.

I profiled NetGalley several months ago (link).

The Bulletin: Death of a Magazine

As a newsie, I used to carry the The Bulletin on my route every week. I never understood why it came out on Wednesday; even Women's Weekly came out at the beginning of the week, but therein lay some of the failed logic that evidenced the slow and eventually rapid death of The Bulletin. Most will never have heard of this "newspaper" but it was iconic in Australia. Read as ardently in the clubs of Melbourne as it was on the station in Walla Walla, it represented the voice of Australia - both good and quite bad.

As an isolationist, white Australia and republican voice, the newspaper, established in 1880, tried hard to be confrontational and controversial. At the same time, the "Bushman's Bible” published some of the best Australia had to offer from poets, writers and journalists. They included Henry Lawson (known by every Australian school child), Breaker Morant, Banjo Patterson (Waltzing Matilda) and Miles Franklin (now the name of the leading Australian literary prize).

During the early 20th century the newspaper moderated its' views but even when it was purchased by Sir Frank Packer in 1961, he had to remove the 'Australia for the white man' from the masthead. Packer and his son Kerry built a large, influential media empire that included newspapers, television and eventually gambling. The Bulletin was always a 'trophy' property within the empire ensuring the eventual demise.

Kerry Packer's directive to his serial editorial hires, was to "make 'em talk about it." It wasn't about making money and it wasn't - eventually - about transitioning to the Internet. When any business (in this case a publication) is protected from financial reality, what motivation exists for innovation and logical strategic planning? On the death of his father, James Packer inherited the business in December 2005 and he took the long view that his fortune lay in gambling. He sold the media business to private equity and in their review of operations they shut The Bulletin several weeks ago.

The Bulletin still garner's 50,000+ weekly readers and it is hard to believe someone couldn't make a go of it at this level. The Economist only gets 20,000 in Australia and has launched a (reputed) A$500K marketing program to convert old Bulletin readers. While it is a always sad to see a media 'institution' go under, in this case it was inevitable. There hasn't been too much interest in resurrecting the newspaper from any third party and perhaps the investment required to digitize their content and production processes is too much. The real crime is the loss Australia faces from both the voice of The Bulletin and the potential to farm the content for future generations. Had The Bulletin been owned by a commercial publisher during the mid-1990s then the future may have been quite different.

Random House to Sell Chapters

The WSJ (via Reuters) is reporting that Random House will begin experimenting with the sale of chapters from their web site. The report suggests this is not a wholesale effort merely that they will "test selling individual chapters of a popular book to gauge reader demand." From the Journal:

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.

I am pretty sure that's an incorrect statement - for example. No matter, the point is publishers are rapidly experimenting with new ways to reach out to consumers.

Harpercollins Launches Free Content

The NYTimes reports that Harpercollins will begin a marketing experiment by placing the full text of selected new titles on their web site. From the article:

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.

What Circulates In England

The UK public libraries let us know what their users read the most. The TimesOnline relates a report on the top circulating titles in UK public libraries:

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.

Proves that the author brand is most powerful and developing more author brands whether related to authors that exist or not should be more of a focus. I've mentioned this before (Brands to Publish).

Zadie Disqualifies the Awards

TimesOnline reports Zadie Smith has suggested that literary awards have become prostituted to commercial interests. Surely, this is not news? Haven't the arts always been subject to commercial bias? Haven't the arts always maintained an uneasy alliance with the money that supports them and an inherent 'obligation'? Too deep for me, but the criticism of her comments concentrates on her, "I’d also like to know if her publisher is going to put her forward in future for literary awards" sniffs one, rather than on the larger point of both the extant quality of writing today and the relevance the awards have for the book buying public. Both issues seem to be immaterial to the notion that Zadie Smith is an ungrateful swine.

The whole tempest in galley seems to have erupted due to the frustration at being unable to present an award.

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 Moran

Smith 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.