http://www.blackplasticglasses.com Musings on Publishing and life in the Digital Age by Evan Schnittman Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:07:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2011/08/01/the-day-digital-died/ http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2011/08/01/the-day-digital-died/#comments Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:12:31 +0000 Evan http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/?p=605 Things started innocently enough – the usual suspects began to chime in (I am shamelessly unable NOT to talk in a group). As I spoke I began to feel a strong sense of familiarity. And that feeling grew and grew as the conversation rolled forward until I felt I was having a deja vu on steroids moment. It dawned on me that I was in the exact same discussion about the exact same conference in the...]]> http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2011/08/01/the-day-digital-died/feed/ 5 http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2010/03/23/digital-reading/ http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2010/03/23/digital-reading/#comments Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:15:02 +0000 Evan http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/?p=445 This was brilliantly summarized in 2003 by Niko Pfund, OUP’s VP of Academic and Trade Publishing, when he referred to this kind of reading as “extractive, as opposed to immersive.” Extractive reading is an extension of search – its primarily purpose is to “extract” information from searched databases. Extractive reading is easily done...]]> http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2010/03/23/digital-reading/feed/ 5 http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2010/02/18/im-coming-back/ http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2010/02/18/im-coming-back/#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 07:36:48 +0000 Evan http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2010/02/18/im-coming-back/ ]]> http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2010/02/18/im-coming-back/feed/ 3 http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2009/04/15/ebook-discounts/ http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2009/04/15/ebook-discounts/#comments Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:41:18 +0000 Evan http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/?p=85 To be perfectly clear, this blog is not sanctioned by, endorsed by, or even remotely associated with Oxford University Press, my fantastic employer. What I say here is my opinion and my opinion alone. In my inaugural post, Why Ebooks Must Fail, I promised to follow up by exploring a variety of business models I believe could work in the long run for publishers of all sizes and shapes. This is the first part of a 3-part series in which I propose changes and new initiatives for ebooks that, I believe, will help ensure that ebooks don’t fail. I theorized that the book industry relies too greatly on advance sales and billing and that the predominant model of ebooks,...]]> http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2009/04/15/ebook-discounts/feed/ 12 http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2009/04/11/book-advances/ http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2009/04/11/book-advances/#comments Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:47:51 +0000 Evan http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/?p=60 MICHAEL MEYER has a piece in the Sunday NY Times book review section entitled "About That Book Advance ...". While it logically has the perspective of an author, it does point out some of the issues associated with the predominant model in current trade publishing. One part that I think doesn't quite compute is the following: "In 1971, for example, Viking sold paperback rights to “The Day of the Jackal” to Bantam for 36 times the $10,000 hardcover advance it had paid its author, Frederick Forsyth. “Agents realized that they should be the ones holding auctions for their authors and get advances more in line with the anticipated total value of their books,” Georges Borchardt, who brokered...]]> http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2009/04/11/book-advances/feed/ 1 http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2009/03/30/why-ebooks-must-fail/ http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2009/03/30/why-ebooks-must-fail/#comments Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:33:14 +0000 Evan http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/?p=5 NB - I have noticed from the amazing amount of commentary this post generated over the last two weeks that there seems to be a misunderstanding of my intentions here. Granted, I chose a very inflammatory title, but this article, especially when taken in context with the follow up piece Discounts Must Align to Risks, is about supporting growth in the ebook market, not predicting its demise. Ebooks are the future and getting there as an industry will require some hard evaluation of how things work and a better understanding of publishing economics. Evan This piece is about consumer or “trade” publishing as we call it in the industry.  To begin, let's review how a book becomes a book. A...]]> http://www.blackplasticglasses.com/2009/03/30/why-ebooks-must-fail/feed/ 62