Book Talk, E-Books, On the Web, Publishers

The trouble with April Fools Day

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I am not enjoying today and have given up listening to NPR and reading blog/tweets until April 2nd. It’s just too much!!!! Ahhhh!!!! NPR got me this morning with the whole 2 minute piece on STEAM. And I haven’t been happy since. 

And now over on the most excellent harperstudio blog, they have announced a new ebook pricing/marketing plan. Which seems really forward thinking as it engages the Twitter crowd, but then you can read the comments and every other person is “This has to be April Fools”. So what’s the point? If it’s legit, then they missed the boat cause their plans are being second guessed and if it’s a joke then it’s just wasted time. But, I guess it did spawn a blog post here…

So I’ll just have to wait until tomorrow, to see what’s really real in the real world.

Book Talk, Events, New Releases, Publishers, Upcoming Titles

The 5% Sweet Spot

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Chris Anderson says his new book Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business will be unleashed – free- upon the world on July 6th. As popular as his first book The Long Tail was, I’m sure I’m not the only anxious to read his latest thoughts.

In the interview he had with Guy Kawaski, Anderson does say that he expects the free version of his book to spur print sales. Something many in the industry are watching, I know. How does a publisher make money at giving their products away for free? While I’m sure the book will contain nothing as useful or solid as the formula filled The Art and Science of Book Publishing, Anderson says

“If you can convert 5 percent of users to paid, you can cover your costs. Anything above that, and it becomes extremely popular.”

I haven’t started crunching the numbers yet, but that seems to assume a very slim overhead. But it gives us a starting point. Something for the industry to aim for or pass. We’ll see. Five percent it is.

One of these days I am going to have to make it to SXSW…. but until then, thank the internet gods for blogs and twitter.

Birmingham, Bookstores, News

Jonathan Benton Going Out of Business

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I just read over on Gasp! that Mountain Brook bookseller Jonathan Benton’s is going out of business. March 31st will be the last day the doors are open. The owners and operators blamed all the online book sites and such. The Jonathan Benton site has been down for months, but this is such a shame. It’ll be sad to see that empty space in the Mountain Brook Village shopping Center.

The number of non-mega-chain stores is dwindling here in Birmingham…

Books, Publishing and Birmingham