This installment of Industry News tackles the Year of the Dragon thanks to social-media expert Kristen Lamb and her Kung Fu Writing post and dragon-beating tips. It’s never been easy to get a book published, but digital-book expert Mike Shatzkin argues that it used to be easier for publishers to turn a profit. Nowadays, more titles [...]

Happy New Year! I’ve organized this longer-than-usual post to optimize its usefulness. One section is dubbed “Last Year in Publishing,” another is “The Year Ahead,” and a third, in a shameless rip-off of Oprah, is “Your Best Writing Self.”  You’ll find information about traditional and  indie publishing, links to insiders and to those proud to call themselves [...]

Galley Cat reported on Amazon’s hardline reaction to Reader Views. Amazon banned the company, which is dedicated to reviewing books and author publicity, from posting reviews on Amazon that authors have paid for via Reader Views’ publicity services, and took down reviews already posted. In a follow up, Galley Cat queried reader reactions to paid reviews [...]

Penguin Group (USA), via its Book Country subsidiary, now offers a menu of services for writers planning to self-publish. For fees ranging from about $99 to about $549, plus a share of sales revenue, Book Country will convert files, create covers, and handle other tasks. Read more at  http://goo.gl/jWVun and at http://on.wsj.com/sKqzGn Danielle Poiesz, Book [...]

In Frankfurt, Germany, publishing CEO’s gathered at the Frankfurt Book Fair, billed as the world’s largest (and longest running) book expo, for a panel discussion on the future of global publishing. Market predictions are mixed, according to region, but overall prospects for book publishing, both digital and traditional, were positive. The bottom line: “We are living [...]

Espresso, anyone? I know I need a double this morning. In publishing industry news terms, however, espresso means the Espresso Book Machine (EBM), the nifty in-store machine that can whip you up a print-on-demand book while you wait. HarperCollins publishers—home of women’s fiction author Marisa De Los Santos (Falling Together) and romance icon Susan Elizabeth [...]

The publishing industry is supposed to be on summer lull right now, but the blogs have been active as late summer conferences wind down, and Apple and Amazon launch salvos in the ebook access and pricing wars. On Barbara Vey’s Beyond Her Book blog, guest blogger Maggie Mae Gallagher gives a rundown of reader-author event [...]

If you’re querying agents and editors, you’ll enjoy this two-minute video in which agent Kristin Nelson gives two down-and-dirty query tips. Amazon is venturing into book publishing, with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to publish the print editions. They put in a bid for Amanda Hocking’s YA series, but she decided to go with St. Martin’s. More [...]

The fight between Amazon and Macmillan has been big news this week, with Amazon removing the Buy links for Macmillan books in a dispute over pricing. I read last night on Twitter that the “Buy” links were up, so all is well now. But a lot of people were angry at Amazon, and many others [...]