The popularity of e-books is on the rise. On a year-to-date basis, e-books were up 12.7 percent at the start of 2020, while print sales slowly decreased. And the increase continued throughout the year. U.S. e-book sales were up 39 percent as of June 2020. This spike is partly due to COVID-19 and the resulting retail closures and self-isolation.
In our personal lives, many people are involved in book clubs. The purpose might be to increase one’s commitment to reading or to connect with others over a common interest. Another reason is to pursue an intellectual conversation that leads to greater understanding of a topic or experience. Now that experience is available to busy leaders and executives who want to enhance their skills, drive innovation and address core organizational issues in a structured yet non-invasive way.
Barnes and Noble recently announced it will open up its struggling Nook platform to Google’s offerings, including Chrome, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Play, an online digital content store that will compete directly with Barnes and Nobles’ own store that is built into the Nook. However, Barnes and Noble won’t get any money from Google
Success is something that is usually best explained in hindsight, when one can see the trends that came together that made someone or something into a hit, while another seemingly surefire idea or icon went down in flames. Much like the stock market, it’s easier to make guesses at why something happened than to venture
An article in the LA Times in late December, “Making books do things e-books can’t — and vice versa” by David Ulin highlighted an interesting trend that bucks the movement toward electronic books. Called “slow reading” by its advocates, it features works such as “Torture of Women” published by Siglio Press, which has a red
This is the first of two blog posts about two recent articles in the Los Angeles Times. The first, “Book publishers see their role as gatekeepers shrink” by Alex Pham, describes the growing trend that we’ve discussed here on Trade Secrets before: more and more authors are bypassing traditional publishing houses for self-publishing options like
If there is any one word that can describe 21st-century media, it’s “non-traditional.” Our radio is broadcast from satellites, sent to our cell phones and streamed over the Internet. Our TV shows are recorded on little black boxes called “DVRs” and watched with pause, rewind and instant replay. And magazines are read on portable readers
One of the best ways to promote a book is to create a website for it. A website can expose your book to millions of potential buyers who may not ever come across your work by other, more traditional means of promotion. An important step in creating a website for your book is to pick
In business today, it’s not unusual to hear conversations that start out with “Some day, when I finish my book…” or “You ought to write a book.” In fact, writing a book is on many professionals’ “wish list” and “authors” are filled with excitement and anticipation as they picture themselves on TV, radio or in
