Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Grub Street Printing Newsletter #27, July 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Grub Street Printing Newsletter #26, June 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Grub Street Printing Newsletter #25, May 2011
Monday, April 4, 2011
Grub Street Printing Newletter #24, April 2011
App Irony
This children's app (based on a 2004 book) chronicles a bookmobile librarian who gets lost and ends up at the zoo teaching animals to read. Thursday, March 3, 2011
Grub Street Printing Newsletter #23, March 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Grub Street Printing Newsletter #21, January 2011
Borders Suspends Payments
Borders Group began 2011 by suspending payments to some publishers. Borders per store sales (200 stores have been closed) were off 12.6% in the third quarter.
China, Indonesia Dumping Paper
Both the International Trade Commission and the European Commission have ruled that coated free sheet manufactured in China and Indonesia was “dumped” in the US and European markets below its home market price and additional duties will be imposed on this paper.
Borders B&N Survival
While this article isn't remarkable to those who follow the book industry, I was shocked by the number of comments posted. It seems MSNBC readers have strong opinions about book retailing.
Quad Graphics
Quad Graphics' $1.1 billion purchase of World Color Press (formerly Quebecor World) out of bankruptcy last year has created many manufacturing inefficiencies. The world's largest privately owned printer has six plants with 2,400 employees that have been, or are being, closed.
Eco Friendly Paper: Beyond the Labels
Is using recycled paper always the best environmental choice? Are FSC papers always the most eco-friendly? These questions and more are discussed by an industry expert.
Gray Market Harvesting
31% of all data collected on the internet is obtained by companies who collect data from sites other than their own. In one study of fifty web sites, 167 different companies were actively gleaning customer information from them without the sites owner's knowledge or consent.
2011 Publishing Predictions
Another round of predictions to consider about an industry that must adapt to monthly, if not weekly, paradigm shifts. Is traditional book distribution (still?) on its last legs (again?).
2010 Printer's Wrap-Up
The big stories that affected the print industry in 2010 are right here. Some of the video links at the bottom of the page are pretty funny.
Great Books
On Oct. 5, 1789, President George Washington borrowed “Law of Nations” and a book of debates from the British House of Commons from the New York Society Library. There are over 221 years of late fees that have been forgiven, but the library just wants the books returned.
GPO and Google ebookstore
The US Government Printing Office has allowed Google ebookstore to distribute its backlist titles (which Google has already scanned anyway). Although the arrangement is beginning with only 100 titles, it's expected that thousands of titles will soon be available.
Web Sites Beget Books
While publication of a new title often spawns a new web site, two Chicago authors found the popularity of their sites brought offers from publishers to produce ink and paper books based on their web site content.
Hold Up on Those BEA Plans
According to these folks the world will end on May 21, 2011, two days before BEA opens.
Final Thought
I can't write without a reader. It's precisely like a kiss – you can't do it alone. John Cheever ********************************************************Past GrubStreetPrinting.com newsletters available at http://grubstreetnews.blogspot.com/
Monday, December 6, 2010
GrubStreetPrinting Newsletter #20 December 2010
While the Federal Trade Commission and Environmental Protection Agency work toward an American definition of “recycled paper” the international community already uses a different ISO standard.
If your paper is imported, will it still meet the legal definition of recycled?
Print, Electronic Media and the Price of Paper
This is an extremely insightful interview covering the immediate challenges and the future of the print industry, the impact of new technologies and the need for less expensive paper.
Meet Mooks
A hot topic in Newsletter 13 was “vooks”, a combination of videos and books. Now get ready for “mooks” a combination of magazines and books that seems to be catching on in Japan.
The KVML
If you missed the sneak peak of the soon to open Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Indianapolis, IN, fear not: the Grand Opening is just weeks away.
Digital Inks
The “inks” used by digital output devices are broadly divided as inkjet and toner. As development continues to improve the “inks” and the presses they run on, the notion that one is better than the other in any given application is changing with new press technology.
RAN Ratings
The Rainforest Action Network has published a guide of publishers that don't use paper stocks produced from pulp from rain forest trees, especially Indonesia.(See Newsletter #7)
2010 Word of the Year
The editors of The New Oxford American Dictionary has named Sarah Palin's “refudiate” as the Word of the Year.
The Bad Sex in Fiction Award...
..goes to Rowan Somerville for the unusual imagery used in his book The Shape of Her.
Sales Correction 12 Months Later
Newsletter 14 reported a 12.3% spike in September 2009 book sales. This September book sales fell 12.1% according to the AAP.
Literacy Campaigns
Scribd and Scholastic have announced new literacy campaigns. With a high literacy rate of 19%, the US trails countries like Greenland, where 100% of the population is rated as highly literate.
Before Digital, Before Offset
Over 400 years after Johannes Gutenburg invented movable type for printing presses, Ottmar Merganthaler invented a machine that let printers set type while sitting at a keyboard instead of picking letters out of a type tray. Thomas Edison called it the Eighth Wonder of the World.
An upcoming documentary hopes to show how society was changed by this invention. Here's a promo of the film.
More Print Technology
In contrast to the Linotype (which set a “line of type”) the Espresso 2.0 doesn't make coffee and looks downright fragile compared to Merganthaler's invention.
Final Thought
Books are hindrances to persisting stupidity. Spanish Proverb
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Past GrubStreetPrinting.com newsletters available at http://grubstreetnews.blogspot.com/
Thursday, October 14, 2010
GrubStreetPrinting Newsletter #19 October/November 2010
Digital Solution?
Rice University Press has closed after a last ditch effort to continue operations as an all digital book publisher failed.
Who Makes How Much?
Some surprises in PW's annual salary survey, not least of which is that men still earn more than women, although the industry is comprised primarily of women.
B&N Proxy Fight Cools Sale Interest
A fight for control of Barnes & Noble seems to have stalled a possible sale of the company. Perhaps that was the whole point?
Asian Paper Companies Grow
Paper companies located in China and India continue to grow rapidly. Before you place an order, however, I recommend a quick review, and full compliance with the Lacey Act, as does
129,864,880
According to Google, that's the number of unique titles and editions of books written and published in the world. Given Google's view on copyright issues, that's 129,864,880 profit centers waiting to be exploited.
Jargon
Print terminology has evolved more in the past 15 years, as digital production has become more common, than in the preceding fifty years when offset printing supplanted direct (letterpress) reproduction.
Confused by all the jargon? Print Buyers International supplies an online glossary.
More iPad and Kindle
If you're still not sure of the differences between iPad and Kindle this is a good summary. In the eBook wars, according to analysts, each iPad device acquired 2.5 eBooks in the first 3 months they were available. During the same period, Kindle owners purchased 3 books per device.
Fonts, Type and Page Design
The convenience of desk-top publishing has turned font selection and page design into a no-brainer...and some text certainly looks it. But type and book design embody centuries of study, analysis, and creativity, so if you aren't sure about your skills and don't have a design staff here's a primer.
Borders Headquarters For Sale
The 460,00 sq ft building comes with a twelve year lease to Borders, but apparently concerns about Borders long term viability have prompted the landlord to list it for $18+ million. The asking price is said to reflect that concern.
Cruel and Unusual
Coming on the heels of Banned Book Week, a South Carolina sheriff has banned all books except for the Bible at the Berkeley County jail in Moncks Corner, SC.
This list demonstrates how fearful (and intentionally ignorant) the extreme among us can become.
And hey! What about those wild and crazy Moncks Corner cops, eh?
Final Thought
When you sell a man a book, you don't sell him twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue, you sell him a whole new life.
Christopher Morley
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Past GrubStreetPrinting.com newsletters available at http://grubstreetnews.blogspot.com/
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Past GrubStreetPrinting.com newsletters available at http://grubstreetnews.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
GrubStreetPrinting Newsletter #18 - August/September 2010
B&N For Sale
Barnes & Noble announced that it will investigate a possible corporate sale to enhance stockholder value.
Kindle News
The introduction of the iPad seems not to have hampered Kindle Reader sales which experienced a sharp increase when the price was lowered to $189.00
Amazon also announced that ebook sales for the Kindle reader have surpassed their sales of hardcover books by a ratio of roughly 1:1.4.
Mid-Year Sales Reports
Sales figures for the first half of 2010 are being released that show that publishers are actively adjusting their market sector mix.
Book Production Methods
While letterpress is no longer commonly used in book printing, even seasoned publishers ask about the differences between offset and digital book production. Here's a primer.
Amazon Exclusive
The Wylie Agency has seized the ebook rights for titles it represents and is offering them exclusively through Amazon, angering brick and mortar bookstores and some copyright holders.
Impressing Booksellers
Suggestions by booksellers for improving publisher relationships with booksellers can be followed on Twitter.
ISBN Info
As more of the publishers I work with are breaking into the industry via digital printing, I've been explaining ISBN numbers more frequently. How much do you know about buying one ISBN number?
Green Printing Tax Credits
Paper mills, printers and publishers may be eligible for federal tax credits under a proposal that would encourage eco-friendly print production. The proposal over-reaches in a few areas but expect a slimmed down version of the credit to become law.
Chasing 13%
Articles in the latest edition of Publishing Executive focus on electronic distribution of magazine content.
Yet in a poll of 1,000 magazine subscribers earlier this year, 87% said they prefer print over digital editions.
Gibson Guitars Busted
Perhaps the first citation under the enhanced Lacey Act protecting rain forest woods occurred when U.S. Fish and Wildlife personnel raided Gibson Guitars in Nashville TN and seized office records, computers and wood samples showing Madagascar rosewood was illegally imported for the manufacture of its guitars.
The Gibson CEO sits on the board of the Rainforest Alliance.
Do you know where the wood pulp used in your book's paper is from? You need to find out.
Enhanced ebooks
In an interview some years ago I was quoted saying that ebooks would command a set portion of the market until they were capable of sound, video and web links.
Meet the enhanced ebook from Simon & Schuster.
Past GrubStreetPrinting.com newsletters available at http://grubstreetnews.blogspot.com/
Monday, June 7, 2010
Grub Street Printing Newsletter #17 - June/July 2010
Book Expo 2010
It wasn't possible for us to attend Book Expo this year, but a number of friends managed to get to NYC and were kind enough to share their experiences.
Nearly everyone mentioned that a two day show is simply too short. Acquiescing to the majority (and angering the NYC publishers) next year's show will resume the three day exhibition format, May 24 -26 at the Javits Center.
The ABA announced a partnership with the forthcoming Google Editions to make digital books available for all e-readers but Amazon's Kindle.
Cursor's Richard Nash explained why copyrights are irrelevant at a morning panel, using Cursor's 3 year contracts as a business model.
Carole Horne of the Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, MA, acknowledged that the store's reliance on an Espresso Book Machine as part of its three pronged “green delivery system” has received an underwhelming response.
And while the BISG gushed about the rise of the e-book (5% of the total market!) the Wall Street Journal questioned proprietary formats in the industry. Further format discussion is ongoing. And concern about piracy and profits haunts many authors and publishers.
Flat Was the New Down
At last years BEA, the BISG predicted modest 1.8% growth for book sales, proclaiming “flat is the new up” (Slide Show page 30). In April the AAP reported that book sales fell 1.8% in 2009.
All Hail iPad
Even though we're more paper and ink than pixels and iAnything, we've received many questions
about e-book formatting this year, and the introduction of the iPad has spurred about half of them. Current info on iPad formats is still being released. If you use Adobe CS or InDesign, this video offers an overview of converting books to the ePub format for iPads (and many other readers).
This blog is an e-book format do-it-yourself guide.
Calligraphy, Typography and Hermann Zapf
Your word processor probably has at least one font created by Hermann Zapf. In the past century he's designed 61 typefaces, including Palatino, Optima, and a collection of dingbats.
CMYK and RGB
There's still confusion about the difference between what your monitor shows and what your printer produces. Additive vs. subtractive color reproduction isn't that hard to understand, but even with all of your devices (monitor, printer, scanner) calibrated, there is no way to perfectly convert RGB colors to CMYK.
Changes at Borders Group (Again)
Borders has shuffled the name plates in the executive wing one more time. Mike Edwards has been named President of Borders Group and CEO of Borders Inc.
Big time Borders investor ($25 million in May) Bennett Lebow is the new Borders Group Chairman of the Board and CEO of Borders Group. Edwards will report to LeBow (in case you were as confused as us).
Past newsletter issues are available at http://grubstreetnews.blogspot.com/
No. 17 June/July 2010

