At a recent staff meeting, Janet Grant filled us in on a Bookspan/Publisher’s Marketplace webinar she attended a week or so ago. She took great notes on many topics but one point stood out to me. The presenter observed that …
Publishers Weekly
A Manuscript’s Death Knell
by Janet Kobobel Grant
I’ve previously extolled the benefits for me in reading Publishers Weekly. Each issue I peruse provides me with some insight or confirms I’m correct (or that I’m incorrect) about some aspect of publishing. Because publishing is …
Cheap Grace
Blogger: Wendy Lawton
I’ve been back and forth more times than the airport shuttle on whether I should comment on this topic. We, as Christians and especially as women, are taught to forgive and smooth things over, especially things that …
Publishing’s Greatest Challenge Might Surprise You
Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
In the October 2 issue of Publishers Weekly, the publication revealed the results of its annual salary and jobs survey. One of the questions the 442 respondents answered was, What is the #1 issue facing the …
Promo Shock
Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
Writers who published their first books in the 1980s to 1990s–even the early 2000s–tend to flip out when someone utters the word platform. They’ve never recovered from the sticker shock of seeing a list of what …
Should a Bookstore Censor Books?
Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
Recently I read an article in Publishers Weekly about a panel held at BookExpo that discussed how a bookstore, especially an independent store, should respond to books that might offend their political or moral principles.
This …
Everything I Know I Learned from Publishers Weekly
Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
Recently I settled in for a close read of Publishers Weekly, the trade journal of the publishing industry. I intend to do that every week but generally only manage to fulfill the goal once per …
Publishing Trends
Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
Recently Rachelle wrote a post on how Amazon continues to be a disruptor to the publishing industry. This time Amazon’s decision about what buy buttons are readily displayed based on which seller offers the lowest price …
The Longing for the Physical Book
Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
Digital book sales are flat, and polls show that teens are much more prone to read physical books rather than digital ones. Those who proclaimed the death of the physical book when digital sales were skyrocketing …
Why Are You Telling Me This? Why Writers Write
Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
Writers write for many reasons. But readers seldom care what motivates an author. Instead, readers subconsciously ask every writer–whether it be a composer of ads, a journalist, a magazine feature writer, or an author, “Why are …