If you’re on Twitter or considering it, you’ll want to read Lauren Dugan’s 13 reasons why people don’t get followed back on Twitter.
Suzie Townsend at FinePrint Literary Management wants to actively update her adult list This is first on her wish list:
Upmarket and issue driven women’s fiction. I love novels that would be great for book club discussions. I especially love authors like Jodi Picoult, Sue Monk Kidd, Anna Quindlen, and Alice Hoffman.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch wrote a brilliant post on the changes in the publishing business and what this means to writers.
Brett Sandusky, Director of Product Innovation for Kaplan Publishing, writes an insightful post of how his company is transitioning from print-only to “one where we’re about to publish more digital products than print ones.”
Sad news about Borders. They aren’t down yet but not paying publishers doesn’t look good. And it affects authors, as Joe Konrath discusses here. Literary Joshua Bilmes gives a post-mortem on the reasons behind the slide. Scary thing, I’ve noticed a lot of what he mentions at my nearest Barnes & Noble.
Better news for Smashwords. Mark Coker’s Year in Review and Plans for 2011 reveals that Smashwords had a breakout year and has big plans for the future.
Kindle lending is live! This is big, because readers have complained that one thing they didn’t like about Kindle books is that they can’t loan them out as they would print books. But as you can see below, not all Kindle books are available.
“Eligible Kindle books can be loaned once for a period of 14 days. The borrower does not need to own a Kindle — Kindle books can also be read using our free Kindle reading applications for PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android devices. Not all books are lendable — it is up to the publisher or rights holder to determine which titles are eligible for lending. The lender will not be able to read the book during the loan period.”
The week after the holidays, e-books outsold print books.
No matter how the trend toward e-books pans out, “it’s good for readers, and reading is good for publishing,” says Scott Lubeck of the Book Industry Study Group.
But business models must change, he says. “It’s sort of like the transition from the horse and buggy to the auto. Some people will get it, some people won’t.”
Half-Price Books is making their inventory available online.
“There’s no shortage of used books online from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders and thousands of independent sellers. But a marketplace for Half Price Books, the 38-year-old brand that stands for used books, makes sense as the big box chains battle it out.”
