London Book Fair

BBC video from the London Book Fair.

Here

Digital Stuff: Random House, Macmillan, Penguin

On Monday Random House UK announced that they will make as many as 5,000 titles available for previewing on their web site. The application is available currently on everytitle that has an "open the book" icon over the cover image. Random House like other large trade publishers has been in the process of building a digital warehouse of their content for a number of years. This process looks to be well in hand and at RH and other publishers we are likely to see new and interesting applications appear with regularity. The link for the Wingfield title is here. RH has also said the tool will be available to other sites. The Guardian noted that Play.com as well as bloggers and book fans will be able to use the widget.

Other publishers with digitial news includes Penguin who let it be known they will adopt the .epub IDPF standard for ebooks and release all their titles in this format beginning later in the year.

Over at Macmillan they are experimenting in a number of different ways to create extra value with an e-version of a printed work. (At some point they become entirely different of course). This notion is similar to my suggestions in what to do about Amazon.com but the nice people at Thedigitalist actually have an example:

The idea that a special edition eBook can contain marginal material produced before, during, or after a print edition features in two other eBooks to be published by Picador this year. Sid Smith’s China Dreams, which we published in hardback in January 2007 and in paperback in January 2008, will be issued in a uniquely up-to-date edition, in the author’s latest version, with corrections, changes, and new material, and a foreword in which he considers the process of composition and revision. Cliffhanger, by T. J. Middleton (the alias of our established Picador author Tim Binding), takes this idea in the opposite direction: alongside the print edition, which we publish in October 2008, will be an urtext: a composite version of the novel as it was before it was edited here at Picador, with the text in its original form, reinstated and modified scenes and characters, and a radically different ending, also with a foreword by the author explaining the urtext’s conception and the editing process that turned it into Cliffhanger.

I am sure much more to come.

Travelling Man: Thomas Kohnstamm

My whole world shattered this morning. Thomas Kohnstamm, a travel writer for Lonely Planet actually didn't visit the country he was supposed to write about. Instead he was sunning himself in Northern California. The story hit the wires because Thomas has written a 'tell all' book "Do Travel Writers Go to Hell" about his adventures as a travel writer. Not satisfied with that riveting subject on which to write a memoir, he has thrown in lots of naughty stuff young wild (writers?) boys do when they are writing. Oh and by the way, that book he wrote on Columbia; he decided not to go there and wrote it from San Francisco. (His girlfriend was Columbian).

As you might imagine, this info seems to have put Lonely Planet on the defensive. Lucky Thomas may have generated more interest in his title than he may otherwise have deserved but it turns out he may have embellished his writing assignment. According to LP, they say he was only asked to cover the history of Columbia so there was no reason for him to visit. What of the rest of the book then?

At Berlitz we published travel guides which were updated every three years or so. (Many were on a cycle longer than that). The company also had stringers in most locations and these people helped us update the titles when they came up for review or reprint. In today's age it is inconceivable that any publisher could get away with publishing travel guides that were inaccurate for the simple reason that we have the internet! People love pointing out when you publish wrong or inaccurate information and they aren't afraid to broadcast the news to everyone.

My Wall Street Journal!

A parody of the Wall Street Journal is to be published in celebration of tax day tomorrow. Apparently some of the copies have leaked in advance and one copy has made its way to the executive suite at News Corp.




(Fake, but funny; especially the bit about Roger Ailes).

Machine Publishing

This is why statistics on annual publishing output as generally constituted are meaningless(NYTimes):

Mr. Parker has generated more than 200,000 books, as an advanced search on Amazon.com under his publishing company shows, making him, in his own words, “the most published author in the history of the planet.” And he makes money doing it. Among the books published under his name are “The Official Patient’s Sourcebook on Acne Rosacea” ($24.95 and 168 pages long); “Stickler Syndrome: A Bibliography and Dictionary for Physicians, Patients and Genome Zesearchers” ($28.95 for 126 pages); and “The 2007-2012 Outlook for Tufted Washable Scatter Rugs, Bathmats and Sets That Measure 6-Feet by 9-Feet or Smaller in India” ($495 for 144 pages).

The variation in publishing segment, tiers of publishers and the increasing numbers of new variations (or definitions of publishing) in publishing models is generally obscured by the headline grabbing "200,000 new titles published" in {fill in year}.

Subscribing to PND

Subscribers to PND continue to grow every week which is gratifying. I hope that all readers will consider referencing the site and also referring new subscribers to the blog so that readership continues to grow. I am prepared to offer the bribe of a PND T shirt to those that refer the most new subscribers. Over the past few months, the articles that current subscribers may want to forward or reference to colleagues include my posts on Amazon the Monopoly, the Borders situation and my Five Questions series.

I also have a standing invitation to anyone wishing to step on the soap box with me and offer their thoughts on the publishing industry.

Someone emailed me this week asking how to subscribe to personanondata. Other than visiting the web page directly (presumably using a bookmark), there are two subscription methods. An email subscription will deliver an update to your designated email address once per day and the message will contain any posts made since the previous email was sent. Approximately 25% of my subscribers use this method.

The second method is to use RSS. Using the PND RSS feed enables you to get updates when they are made on the site (rather than see them only in the next email message). RSS is simple to use and very functional. The RSS link is here.

Let me know if you have any problems (to do with this blog) and I hope you continue to enjoy my commentary.

michael.cairns @ infomediapartners.com

The Sell Out Of Borders

Ever get your mortgage banker to knock 25% off your interest rate? Me either. Not so those intrepid financiers at Borders. In announcing the loan rescue on their conference call, they professed due diligence seeking the best terms "under the circumstances" (what those are remain a mystery); they have now managed, no more than ten days later, to reduce their interest rate from usury 12% to a 9% rate beloved of Shylock: "Three thousand ducats for three months."

Pershing Square, the largest shareholder in Borders and the provider of this financial rescue package still retain all the advantages they had before they lowered the rate. They wouldn't have done this unless someone else offered up a better rate but even so as an insider they always had the advantage. What is troubling is that the 'due diligence' that should have occurred upfront to get the best rate clearly never happened. And remember, it is still not clear that this financial lifeboat was even necessary. The financial 'crisis' was news to every analyst that follows the company on behalf of their investors.

Great news however for all the managers at Borders since they have been able to provide a safety net for themselves. Stay bonus's galore: "For positions at the executive vice president level and above, the threshold, target and maximum bonus opportunities under the Bonus Plan as currently in effect are established at 20%, 80% and 160% of salary, respectively." This enhancement to their existing bonus plan only applies to four executives. Two of which - Jones and Wilheim (CFO) aren't going anywhere and one of the remaining is head of HR and with all due respect what is important about his contribution to the financial health of the company? And that leaves aside the question why no one lower than EVP has a package. Jones also got more options and is already in the money. There are many more insider transactions noted from last week and there was a lot of volume at the open on Monday. The stock closed at $6.54 up 6% on the day.

The company also indicated they would hold off filing their 10K.

SEC filings on Monday also saw a new strategic investor enter the fray. Gerald Catenacci who owns Highway Partners equity fund has acquired 5% of the company. Reuters also reported the news and notes no reason has been given for the investment. He evidently has something with roads: Highway, motorway, expressway, freeway are all names of investment vehicles (oopps). There doesn't appear to be any relationship between Highway and Pershing.