A Mother’s Day Tribute to My Mom: Elky Shatzkin
I’ve written several times about my father’s life in the book business, which shaped quite a few careers, including mine. Here’s one. Andanother. This post, for Mother’s Day weekend, is about my...
View ArticleRuth Cavin, great editor and world’s nicest person, gone at 92
The title of “nicest person on the planet” is now open. The longtime incumbent, Ruth Cavin — also a veteran book editor who was known to many as the doyenne of mysteries — died early Sunday morning at...
View ArticleVendor-managed inventory: why it is more important than ever
The idea of vendor-managed inventory has never become particularly popular in the book business, despite a few experiments over the years where it was implemented with great success. (And despite the...
View ArticleSome things I will be looking to learn more about at London Book Fair
The London Book Fair is an every-second-or-third-year thing for me, going back many decades. From an English-centric perspective, it is like a mini-Frankfurt. All the UK players are there and a lot of...
View ArticleNew data on the Long Tail impact suggests rethinking history and ideas about...
For most of my lifetime, the principal challenge a publisher faced to get a book noticed by a consumer and sold was to get it on the shelves in bookstores. Data was always scarce (I combed for it for...
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