Those of you who read TeleRead regularly probably noticed that our coverage was a little bit thin last week ... but not to worry! I've got an alibi: I was in Las Vegas since last Sunday, covering the 2013 International CES for NAPCO—my employer, and TeleRead's parent company. This was my first-ever trip to CES, and while it was a huge milestone in my still-burgeoning consumer technology career, here's the God's honest truth: The experience totally and completely smacked the life out of me, both physically and psychologically. I walked for miles and miles, literally, every day. In fact, I walked so much—while at the same time straining...

By Paul Russo  The unexpected arrival and popularity of e-books within the past decade has caused many people to estimate that book fairs would become a thing of the past. However, e-books have not rendered book fairs entirely useless, nor have they completely eliminated the use of these unique meetings due to the continued use of technology. Instead, book fairs have had to essentially evolve in their methodology throughout the past few years. Generally speaking, individuals who love to read will continue to gather at these types of events regardless of what type of format they may be reading their content...

By Brian Howard “I won’t be talking much about the future, and I won’t use the word ‘publishing’ very often.” A funny way to begin a talk called “A Futuristic View of the Publishing Industry,” but Publishing Technology COO Randy Petway’s take on the topic at yesterday’s Publishing Technology Executive Exchange at the wine cellar of Del Frisco’s on the Avenue of the Americas in New York City was apt indeed, focused as he was on the way consumers discover and purchase content. [caption id="attachment_75602" align="alignright" width="150"] Randy Petway[/caption] That bit of semantic gymnastics on Petway’s part had to do with what he described as the difference...

  It is a truth universally acknowledged that a publisher in possession of a rich future must want to attend TOC. Publishers and everyone who wants to master the forces transforming the publishing world can collaborate on the future of books and reading at O'Reilly's Tools of Change for Publishing Conference. TOC returns to New York City February 12-14, 2013, and registration has opened. Chairs Kat Meyer and Joe Wikert have announced an extraordinary program, with featured speakers including: > Evan Williams, The Obvious Corporation > Maria Popova, Brain Pickings > Jeff Jaffe, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) > Hugh McGuire, PressBooks/LibriVox/lambik > Alexandra Gillespie, University of Toronto > Travis Alber, ReadSocial and BookGlutton >...

By Brian Howard RELIVE THE 2012 PUBLISHING BUSINESS VIRTUAL CONFERENCE Free publishing resources now available on demand, for a limited time What were you doing last Thursday? No matter. We here at the Publishing Business Group were putting on another installment of the Publishing Business Virtual Conference and Expo. Whether you were online with us or not, you can now, starting today, access all 12 book, magazine and technology sessions from the conference, plus two keynotes—from Globalvision’s Rory O'Connor and the New York Times’ Charles Duhigg—on demand. Any time you want. Did your lunch run long and you missed “Organizations Confronting Digital Change”? Have a gruelling production meeting...

By Brian Howard | for Book Business “If you came here looking for a map, good luck,” joked Perseus Book Group's Rick Joyce, noting that figuring out the new world of discoverbility is “not about map following, but about map building.” While the metaphor might seem extreme, when it comes to marketing and discoverability in the Internet age, publishers really are, like the early explorers, in uncharted territory. This was the theme of the opening keynote delivered by Joyce, Perseus's Chief Marketing Officer, to the gathered publishing professionals at New York's Metropolitan Pavilion for the first Digital Book World Marketing and Discoverability conference. Joyce’s table-setting address stressed the...

On October 18 and 19 in Boston, a nonprofit group known as the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) will be presenting a forum that will take a close look at the "key issues surrounding e-books from a variety of industry, library, scholarly, and consumer viewpoints," according to the forum's page on the NISO website. The name of the forum: The E-Book Renaissance, Part II: Challenges and Opportunities. If you happen to work in the digital content field yourself—especially if you're an e-book publisher or a librarian who works closely with e-books—this seems like the type of event that could very well be worth the cost...

For four straight days last week (September 11 - 14), the second annual International Symposium of the E-Book in Spanish (El Libro Electrónico en Espanol) was held in Mexico City. If the event's name doesn't ring much of a bell, that's probably because it gets very little attention from the English-language press. But according to a recent write-up in Publishing Perspectives, Mexico (and to a lesser extent, the the Latin American world itself) is a locale all digital reading enthusiasts should be keeping close watch of. "Digital publishing is gaining an ever-greater foothold in Latin America," writes Edward Nawotka, the article's author. "And...

In April, Microsoft and B&N entered into a “strategic partnership” with no official name (but referred to as “Newco”). Now it looks like one of the fruits of that partnership may be announced tomorrow afternoon at a Microsoft event in Los Angeles. TechCrunch’s Peter Ha reports hearing from unknown sources that this event will announce a joint Microsoft/Barnes & Noble tablet which could be the first non-Xbox device that can stream from Microsoft’s Xbox Live on-line streaming service. Ha noted that, unlike previous invitations, the one for this event carried absolutely no specific product-line branding, simply calling it “a major Microsoft...

While perusing the ConQuesT dealer room, I stopped to talk to Tyree Campbell, managing editor of small press publisher Sam’s Dot Publishing. He was kind enough to consent to a five-minute interview, in which he discussed how his small press operates: Me: How long has Sam’s Dot Publishing been in operation? Tyree Campbell: As Sam’s Dot it's been operating since 2002. My predecessor was on-line mostly; we're in print. My predecessor was mostly on-line since 1986. So we've been around for a while. Me: So you were formerly an on-line publisher? Tyree Campbell:...

I will be attending ConQuesT in Kansas City this year, from May 25th through 27th. If any TeleRead readers or contributors in the area would like to meet up, drop me a line! Likewise, if you are or know of someone in the Kansas City area doing interesting things with new technology in publishing, reading, or other TeleRead-related matters, let me know—I’d be happy to do a story. This year, ConQuesT features authors Sharon Lee & Steve Miller whose works I’ve previously covered for TeleRead (and who I interviewed on my podcast The Biblio File), editor Gardner Dozois, and...

What will the publishing industry look like if all physical bookstores go the way of Borders? Publishing-industry observer Mike Shatzkin doesn’t know, but he thinks publishers shouldn’t want to find out for as long as possible. Some publishers report that the growth rate of e-book sales seems to be tapering off, However, other publishers report that their own e-book growth rate continues. And as more e-books sell, physical book sales go by the wayside—and with them go the bookstores that are selling them. UK analysts, as reported in the Guardian, predict a 40% decline in all “high street” brick-and-mortar...