Digital and online book-publishing news

Via Martyn Daniels of Brave New World (the UK Bookseller Association blog), the Bookseller reports that the literary agency PFD "is entering a print on demand relationship with Lightning Source which will enable it to bring back out of print works from its authors and estates and makes these available through Amazon and the two wholesaler channels of Gardners and Bertrams. This clearly throws the gauntlet down on rights reversals and opens up all sorts of potential opportunities for both authors and agents. By bringing these works back they effectively block publishers wakening up and doing it themselves and also are one step away from securing the full digital control of these works."

Mark Thwaite of The Book Depository, my other much-appreciated source of news about what's in the Bookseller when I haven't seen a print copy for weeks, links to an informative post "Ignore rejection slips, DIY is the route to go" at journalist Danuta Kean's blog, and adds: "If the expectation from any new author is that their publisher will have much time or energy to really get behind their book and push it for all they are worth they are, in most cases, likely to be very disappointed. Taking the DIY route means taking on to your own shoulders the responsibility for getting other people thinking and talking about your book: it means getting a website up and running, and a blog, and a presence on the social networking sites, and touring the bookshops, and padding the streets."

And finally, for this post, John Reed at Publishing Talk highlights the spring edition of The Deal, the official magazine of the upcoming London book fair (edited by the same Danuta Kean cited above) recommending "Steve Hatch’s article “Communication Breakdown” for a few frightening statistics on the mismatch between publishers’ online spending and their customers’ behaviour", and providing an extract from his own article about social media.

Comments

[Clare D]

Thanks Maxine - useful sites, and encouraging remarks for people like me!

[Martin Edwards]

It's certainly true that the vast majority of authors need to spend time on publicising their own work as well as writing. Some writers I know deeply regret this, and to an extent, so do I. But having said that, getting involved in promotion is a great way of making contact with readers and prospective readers and that in itself is very rewarding.