Book Biz: Page Design, Captain Underpants, Amelia Bedelia
I’ve collected books for a long time. I think I was a collector before I knew I was a collector. One day you just wake up and realize you have a few hundred books packed into your one bedroom apartment. I’m not a “serious” collector, though. I don’t dream about ribbed leather spines or [...]
Book Biz: Paywalls, Pantone, Phablet, and World’s Smallest Book
Printers seem to be born innovators. I remember many employees who “customized” the equipment they ran for more efficiency, perhaps better ergonomics, and (most commonly) to increase quality and production. While watching the short video in this newsletter about Mergenthaler and the invention of the Linotype, I was reminded that Alois Senefelder had invented lithography [...]
Dear One Term Rick: Playing Politics With Potholes
I’d hoped that my last article about funding road repair in Michigan had exhaustively covered the subject. It was time to move on and discuss other attributes of our current one term governor. Little did I know there was more to the story than I covered and thanks to the additional information from many of [...]
Book Biz: Australia Re-Imagines Libraries, Magazines Merge, Stop Printing or Declare Bankruptcy, B&N Buyer?
There are times that an industry introduces a new idea using a term or terms you’re not familiar with. Some years ago at a Book Industry Study Group (BISG) seminar that I attended as part of the annual Book Expo, the term metadata was used over and over and I had no idea what the [...]
Book Biz: B&N Closing Stores, Yiddish Revival, 1949 ebook, Audible Books
Last month I asked for publishers to share their experiences in converting their titles into audio books. Apparently no one has tried it. After some research, the first article in this February’s newsletter is audio books 101, a most elementary look at what they are. As it turns out, however, it seems that I asked [...]
Book Fairs, Amazon Collects Sales Tax, eBook Facts
After reading and writing about the popularity of the Jaipur Literary Festival in India last February I’ve become increasingly aware of hugely successful Book and Literary Festivals in locations that I may not have considered conducive to such celebrations. I’ve traveled to the Chicago Printer’s Row Book Fair/Lit Fest a number of times and found [...]
Book Biz: Texas Judge Cites Steinbeck, eBook Price-Fixing Settlement, Kindle Fire Sold Out
As I finished proofing the September newsletter, eBook news stories started popping up in my various email accounts . On Thursday it was announced that three major publishers had settled price-fixing lawsuits with Maryland, Ohio and Texas to the tune of $69 million. Later, attorneys generals in Florida and California also announced settlements with Hachette [...]
Book Biz: Ann Arbor and short run printing; Weekly Reader gone; Zondervan merged
It’s always been true that the technology a printer has in the shop defines the products that can be produced most efficiently. Now the digital age has redefined “short run book printing” by introducing technology that expands the meaning of “short run.” When I started in book manufacturing in 1979, Michigan, and especially Ann Arbor, [...]
