By way of Tim O’Reilly’s blog, this piece from the Salt Lake City Tribune.
This flurry of publishing, including the huge growth in POD, reminds me of my experience buying for the poetry and drama shelves at the Boulder Bookstore many years ago. It seemed that everyone wanted to write poetry (and pitch their books to the local bookstore) but that few poets actually bought it.
Also, there’s no doubt at all that DVDs, video games, and the internet are cutting into reading time. I’m an avid reader, and I always will be, but I also watched four seasons of 24 in the last five months, 3 on DVD.
Or, as Bowker (Books In Print) estimates, 195,000, a 14% increase from 2003.
A couple highlights: POD publishers accounted for at least 20,000 new titles; adult fiction grew 43% (I bet much of that is also POD, and this figure doesn’t include literary fiction, which fell); University Presses increased output by 12.3%; religion, travel and home economics grew the most among non-fiction categories.
11,458 new publishers registered with the U.S. ISBN agency. Books In Print covers data from 81,000 publishers in the U.S. Wow.
Well, it’s really cool to see this satellite view of the Fresh Books World Headquarters, but it’s slightly askew and we’re actually about one inch below and to the left of the pointer.
For contrast’s sake here’s Random House, and John Wiley & Sons.
Yeah, it’s late Friday afternoon here 
Steve Hayes has posted several useful articles on wrangling a book with the “for Dummies” series. In part three he adds some excellent proposal guidelines.
Steve’s on the tech side. The process is similar on the general trade side of the company, though it seems to take longer to get to the contract.
I’ve pitched Quirk Books a couple of projects in the last few months. I’ve had no success with them yet, but I love their list, which includes, most notably, the Worst Case Scenario Handbooks published by Chronicle.
Here’s a nice article about their growth from a packager to independent publisher. They’ve done a great job with non-book outlets such as Urban Outfitters, and Restoration Hardware, where, according to this article, their Field Guide to Stains is the only book featured.
I’d love to see any proposals for “irreference.” Especially those geared toward the hip, urban reader Quirk favors.
Convinced by a client that tagging is the way to go, I’m playing with Flickr this afternoon. This is a photo from Gabe and Jonah’s first T-Ball uniform session. They’re playing for the mighty MuckDogs.
Now I’m not sure what I’ll use Flicker for, maybe taking pictures of clients’ books as they come in, or maybe writer’s conferences and Expos, but at least I’ll know how to post them.
Here’s the press release.
This gives Wiley a new foot-hold in the certification market, as well as more higher-end networking and graphics titles. I’ll be curious to see how they integrate this list. A good number of authors already wrote for both companies, and will benefit the most from more marketing muscle.
I’d expect Wiley to convert the Sybex royalty system to the Wiley schedule over time, but I wouldn’t expect much in the way of hiccups with this.
The tech book market has been brutal the last few years, so maybe it’s inevitable that we’re seeing another big acquisition.
Word has it John Wiley & Sons is purchasing Sybex, and I gather the sale will close at the end of the month. This is probably good news for Sybex authors who will probably get more marketing support and better access to the retail sales channel, but I’m sure it will result in some layoffs at Sybex and it will be sad to see another independent publisher (not to mention computer book pioneer, Rodnay Zaks) leave the scene.
Wiley has proven to be very smart at buying companies when the time and the price are right. Let’s see what happens next. I just talked to one Sybex author who said “consolidation is a good step toward getting this industry back on track.” I think a healthy dose of innovation and continued great work by smaller publishers is another critical element.
Here’s a nifty page that tracks the moves of execs and editors throughout the publishing industry, compiling info from a variety of sources, Publisher’s Weekly, Publisher’s Marketplace, and others. You can subscribe to a free weekly update.
