Writing and Publishing

Come and hear

Julia Millen and Lynn Peck

From Writes Hill Press

Julia Millen is best known for the biographies of

New Zealand novelists Guthrie Wilson and Ronald Hugh

Morrieson. Her numerous works of social

history include Salute to Service, the Royal New Zealand

Corps of Transport and its predecessors, and histories of

legal firm Bell Gully, LIANZA, Kirkcaldie & Stains, IHC

New Zealand and the New Zealand National Forest

Survey.  Her most recent book, Fair Weather Trampers:

In the New Zealand bush with the Cock & Bull Tramping Club, was

published by Writes Hill Press in 2011. Julia edits the NZ National

Library Society Newsletter.

 Lynn Peck has designed and edited books for

over twenty years. She works with individuals and

corporations facilitating the publishing process, and

has extensive experience in managing book printing.

In 2010 she received a Highly Commended Pride in

Print award for Gareth Watkins' Street Adonis 2.

Writes Hill Press combines Julia’s and Lynn’s expertise to offer a

professional, stylish editorial and publishing service for family and

corporate histories, and small-run quintessential New Zealand tales

When:  Monday February 25th

Where:  The Thistle Inn, Thorndon, Wellington (near the Railway Station).

Time:  7.30 but come at 7pm to meet in the bar for drinks

Cost:  NZSA members $3 non-members $5

Not to be Missed

New Zealand Society of Authors Wellington

Used Ebooks, the Ridiculous Idea that Could Also Destroy the Publishing Industry

By Brian Merchant - Motherboard

Amazon has a patent to sell used ebooks. When I first scanned that headline, I thought it must be some Onion-esque gag, and I'm sure I wasn't alone. Used e-books? As in, rumpled up, dog-eared pdfs? Faded black-and-white Kindle cover art, Calibri notes typed in the margins that you can't erase?

Barely-amusing image aside, used ebooks are for real. Or at least have a very real potential to become real. See, Amazon just cleared a patent for technology that would allow it to create an online marketplace for used ebooks--essentially, if you own an ebook, you would theoretically be able to put it up for sale on a secondary market.
The approved patent describes the process:

Digital objects including e-books, audio, video, computer applications, etc., purchased from an original vendor by a user are stored in a user's personalized data store ... When the user no longer desires to retain the right to access the now-used digital content, the user may move the used digital content to another user's personalized data store when permissible and the used digital content is deleted from the originating user's personalized data store.

Used ebook shoppers could buy your digital copy, directly from you, and Amazon would facilitate the transfer of files--and it would pocket a fee.
It's a fascinating concept, really, but it could ultimately be devastating to the publishing industry and, potentially, to authors. First, the elephant-sized absurdity in the room: a "used ebook" is identical to a new one. It is a precise digital reproduction. The file does not age, it cannot be damaged, it cannot be altered--therefore, it is worth no less than any other copy, and the only premium purchasers of "new" ebooks would be paying for would be the right to read it first.
And that's where we start running into problems. Nobody, besides die-hard fans of a given author on a big release date, would ever care enough to pay extra for digital dibs. Used ebooks would eliminate nearly all the incentive to buy "new" ebooks. And Amazon could be banking on that, even though at first blush it might appear to undercut its own business.
Bill Rosenblatt, a copyright expert and witness in numerous digital content patent cases, argues that the online retail giant may be angling to push publishers out for good with such a move. He explained his case to Wired:

Rosenblatt believes that a digital resale marketplace wouldn’t ultimately make Amazon a lot more money on books or music, at least not at first. But he thinks it would move much more of Amazon’s digital content business beyond the interference of publishers, just as publishers can’t dictate the terms of, for example, the sale of used physical books on Amazon. Just as with physical books, publishers would only have a say — or get a cut — the first time a customer buys a copy of an e-book. The second, third and fourth sales of that “same” e-book would be purely under Amazon’s control.
“If Amazon is allowed to get away with doing resale transactions without compensating publishers, then what they can do is say, ‘hey authors, sign with us and we’ll give you a piece of the resale,’” he says. “That could attract authors who might otherwise sign with traditional publishers.”

Read more: http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/used-ebooks-is-a-ridiculous-idea-that-could-ruin-authors-publishers#ixzz2KbyUuf8p

Tips For Publishing Technologists #1-10: The Zen of Technology

Links and a quick recap of the first 10 Tips for Technologists provides further context as to how the lessons relate to different positions within the publishing industry. Read more »
Discussion:
Up Next is PHP, Java, SQL, HTM5, CSS. Now You Suggest a Topic Soon Tips for Technologists will be diving in more detail on PHP, Javascript, SQL, HTML5, CSS, and a host of other topics. Now is your turn to suggest a topic. Read more »
More News from Publishing Perspectives:
Emue Books Brings Francophone Literature (and Fairness) Down Under Emue Books is a new Australian publisher with an unexpected mission: publishing Francophone literature and reviving fairness in publishing. Read more »	Festival Neue Literatur Hits New York City This Weekend The Festival Neue Literatur features six up-and-coming German-language authors from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland appearing in New York City this weekend. Read more »
From the Archives:
In Buenos Aires, A New Digital Publisher Challenges Assumptions Los-Proyectos is a new, DRM-free digital first fiction publisher in Buenos Aires whose passion defies cynicism and conventional thinking about ebooks. Read more »

Why Education Publishing Is Big Business

• 
  By Tim Carmody - Wired

Data via Wischenbart; Graphic via Publishers Weekly

On the heels of Apple’s big education and iBooks event, it’s worth taking a quick snapshot of the education publishing industry as it stands today.
Not because the tools announced today will inevitably transform the future of education the way iTunes and the iPhone did the music and smartphone industries — however fun that may be to imagine.
Rather, you simply can’t understand Apple’s interest in breaking into the education market without at least a little understanding of that market’s scope. And you can’t understand why Apple’s adopted the approach that it has without understanding that market’s connection to our wider media ecosystem.
So, first things first.

The biggest publishers in the world today are education publishers.

It’s not even close. In 2009, Pearson’s Education division alone brought in more revenue than any other book publisher besides number two, Reed Elsevier, whose biggest businesses are Lexis-Nexis and Elsevier Science.
Education publishers dwarf trade presses. Only the top trade press, Random House (itself owned by Bertelsmann) is bigger than Cengage, the little-known education publishing division that Thomson spun off in 2008 before merging with Reuters.
Education publishers are also much bigger than other media companies that attract much more attention. Pearson is far bigger than AOL or The New York Times Company (and much more profitable). In order to find publishers with greater revenue or profits, you have to go up the ladder to companies like News Corp that include global television markets, or retail entities, like Amazon. This makes companies like Pearson too big to ignore, especially when they’re willing to partner up.

Full story