Hello,
and welcome to the first installment of “Pub Club, Pub World”! This is a new
section, which I will update all of you lovely blog readers about what’s going
on in the world of publishing!
Here's the latest news for
this month!
Amazon.com is running a
new promotion this month on the mystery writer, Vincent Zandri. According to
Zandri, he was promised a run of his book The Innocent in 2008 with a $250,000
advance, but that advance was taken away from him by his publishers. They
claimed, as a last minute decision, that Zandri was not a famous name, and
without a famous name attached to the book it wouldn’t make any money – no
matter how much potential Zandri had initially shown. However, he was instead
able to electronically self-publish the book through Amazon, and claims,
"I made well beyond the original $250,000 advance from all those years
ago, and all without any help from the big publishing houses."
So what does this mean for
the publishing industry? The conversion to any eBook platform is becoming more
and more appealing to writers everywhere. The print format seems to be slowly
dying. If publishers continue to take away the advances from blossoming
writers, it seems only logical that they’ll want to self-publish, and eBooks
are the easiest format in which to do that. I'll wait while you all cringe.
On that note, let's take a
look at Barnes and Noble. Turns out our #1 source for printed books is not
doing so well right now. Making major national headlines on NBC News Business,
it has recently been reported that Barnes and Noble will be closing 30% of its
doors over the next 10 years, meaning that around 20 stores a year will be shut
down. After a 10% decrease in holiday sales, it seems like Barnes and Noble is
following in the footsteps of Borders, which went bankrupt in 2011. This begs
the question - if the printed book dies, does the book store die as well? Since
Barnes and Noble has their successful Nook platform, will that keep their doors
open? Only time will tell.
On a more positive note, let's
take a look at CUNY's new Five Day Publishing Institute. The City University of
New York Graduate School of Journalism is hosting a workshop, which will be
held June 3-7 at the CUNY School of Journalism. It’s stated that the workshop
is for “entrepreneurs eager to explore new ways of publishing, and those
wishing to enter the world of traditional book publishing, or simply learn more
about it.” The workshop will be led by several leading professionals in the
digital and print publishing industry, and is directed towards the classic
Writing, Literature and Publishing major here at Emerson. It is an attempt to
explain all the options and choices that students will have going into the
field of publishing. If you're in the area (and have a pretty penny to spend -
prices look to be around $900!), it's definitely worth checking out. Go here for more info!
Keep reading for more news
next month!
Sources:
By Natalie Hamil
