In our rapidly evolving technology environment, the agile approach to proprietary software development can yield great results for publishers. As with most technology projects, the single greatest challenge to this radical approach remains the people and politics (the wetware) involved, not the software technology itself. This challenge involves not only everyone understanding, but capitalizing on the →
Earlier this month the Apple iBookstore launched Breakout Books, a new category of the online store which features self- and independently-published books. Although the iBookstore has always accepted self-published titles, Breakout Books highlights the increasing market share of the independent author and gives added support in terms of marketing and promotion. To give an idea of →
Faced with Amazonian Losses, Indie Publisher Sells Books out of Car Trunk An independent small publisher called recently, seeking to maintain control of, and expand market reach for his successful books on organic farming. His leading title, in its 9th edition, has sold over 18,000 copies. He wants to control business model, pricing, content, and →
Now that every client has become a server, every reader a potential publisher, and everyday people like tuna fishermen have become reality TV stars, it’s reassuring to see some privacy pushback. Not everyone wants to be a superstar 24X7. Recently, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler convinced the Hawaiian legislature to pass a law protecting celebrities from paparazzi in Hawaii: →
Back in 1996, the Weld-Cellucci Administration in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts signed Executive Order 390 – The Affirmative Market Program in Public Contracting. The idea behind this order was to ensure a commitment to incorporate minority and woman-owned businesses into the public sector marketplace. Now, over 15 years later, OBS is proud to announce our →
Last week we attended the MLA annual convention in Boston and ran into some industry friends from the “old” days of e-publishing, primarily from the university press community. Most reported a steady erosion of paper sales at their various institutions, particularly among the niche of scholarly monographs, which used to be a steady mainstay and reliable source →
While digital subscriptions to online magazines have soared in the past year – the fall 2012 Survey of the American Consumer, conducted by research group Growth from Knowledge (GfK), reports increases of nearly 50% for online magazine subscriptions – major newspapers such as the New York and Los Angeles times are reporting losses in digital subscription revenues. One survey →
The release of the iPad Mini as a dedicated e-reader device suggests that e-readers are following a technology trend set by laptops and cell phones: the smaller, the better. At the same time, legibility on an e-reader screen is instrumental to its functionality. With the iPad Mini, Apple is delicately toeing the line of streamlined technology →
September 2012—Reaching out to the academic market in time for the new school year, the Library of Congress and Copia Interactive has announced the free eBook release of Jefferson’s Legacy: A Brief History of the Library of Congress, the Library’s hallmark publication, as well as a collection of rare lectures. Readers can now visit the Library’s page at Copia →
(Reuters) An ongoing antitrust investigation of Apple’s pricing negotiations with European publishers in December 2011 may be coming to a close, though not in Apple’s favor. The four publishers – Simon & Schuster, News Corp (HarperCollins), Hachette Livre and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck (owner of Macmillan in Germany) – made deals that allowed Apple to →