There are times that an
industry introduces a new idea using a term or terms you're not
familiar with. Some years ago at a Book Industry Study Group (BISG)
seminar that I attended as part of the annual Book Expo, the term
metadata was used over and over and I had no idea what the heck they
were talking about. I remember the definition I found that evening
with the help of Google was overly complicated and I certainly didn't
feel comfortable with my understanding of the term.
It seems that I wasn't
the only one since I opened an email the other day that could have
been entitled “Metadata for Dummies”. It explained what
metadata is so simply that I wish I'd been able to read it when I
first heard the term.
As the author points out,
metadata is data about data. When you right click on a song file on
your computer, information about the song is generally available,
although it appears nowhere in the file name, such as title, artist,
length of the performance, perhaps the year it was recorded, and
often the genre.
Similarly, by offering
publishers the opportunity to describe their titles by market, genre,
author, etc. and to have that data available to book buyers provides
a more complete analysis for the buyer to consider. For the book
industry in general it's a sales tool that large publishers
understand and use routinely, but it may be that it would be most
helpful for the rest of us who struggle to establish our titles.
B&N
For Sale
It's
been awhile since Barnes & Noble openly solicited offers to be
acquired or merged, but now CEO Leonard S. Riggio has announced his
plans to buy the company (except for the Nook brand) in an all
cash deal. The guessing has begun as to what the
retailer might be worth in such a transaction.
Amazon:
You Don't Own It But You Can Sell It
In
a patent filing that is unusual and very misunderstood, Amazon
will allow people who have paid for Kindle content to “sell” the
content (which they don't own) and Amazon will cancel the book's
availability to the seller and make it available to the buyer (for a
fee, of course). ReDigi, an
online service already buying and selling “used” digital content,
uses a
different business model.
What
if …?
A
number of print and digital publishers reflect on how they would do
things differently if they were starting from scratch right now.
Amazon
Games
While
Amazon continues to fight
efforts by state governments to collect sales taxes, it has given
its blessing to a proposal
allowing states to tax online sales IF they have a “simplified”
tax code for such collection.
Amazon
is also fighting the same battle over sales taxes in Europe, but got
a black-eye for a different reason there; the warehouse security
company it hired in Germany seems to have been staffed
by neo-Nazis intent on harassing immigrant employees.
France
Sued for Lowering Tax on eBooks
The
European Commission has informed the European Court of Justice that
France
has illegally lowered its taxes on ebooks.
Readers
Digest Files for Bankruptcy (Again)
Readers
Digest Association (the publisher) has again filed
for protection from its creditors just three years after it was
taken over by its lenders in its 2009 bankruptcy filing.
If
Only Henry Luce Was Still Alive
The
directors of Time Warner are in discussions with publisher Meredith
(Ladies Home Journal) to
sell Time magazine, similar to its sale of AOL and Time Warner
Cable a few years ago.
Variety
to Stop Printing and Offer Free Content
Long
running Hollywood tabloid Variety has announced it's ceasing
production of its daily print edition while also removing the pay
wall from its online edition. A weekend print edition will continue.
Ebook
Pricing Settlement, Apple Still Fighting
With
Macmillan being the last major book publisher to accept new
guidelines for ebook pricing, Apple remains the lone defendant
willing to challenge the DOJ lawsuit. But then, when has Apple ever
followed anyone else's pricing model?
“Like”
Two Sides
Two
Sides web-site was created because there is a lot of ecological
misinformation about the paper and ink industry. Did you know today's
domestic forests contain carbon equal to 27x our annual output of
carbon? They're on Facebook
now.
How
Green is Your Tissue?
Not
only has Swedish
paper manufacturer Södra
Cell Värö been producing “totally chlorine free” (TCF)
paper since 1993, it's bark drying kiln means the plant uses no
fossil fuels in its tissue manufacturing.
Wausau
Closes Mill
Forestry
product giant Wausau is closing
a paper mill that produced specialty printing papers in Maine to
re-focus on the manufacture of tissue in other of its mills. There
will be around 130 jobs lost. I had no idea there was so much tissue
demand in the world.
Library
Re-imagined Down Under
Two
young architects have been awarded the contract to design Sydney's
new $40 million Green Square library. They presented a vision of
the library as a community center with gardens, music rehearsal rooms
and a water play area.
Print
Company Investors in 21st Century?
Gerard
Cellette must be one helluva salesman. He bilked
investors in eight states out of $150 million by selling shares
in a fictional printing company. Who invests in new print capacity in
the 21st
century?
Final
Thought
