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Bookstore installs first POD unitRIDGEWOOD, New Jersey, April 29, 2004 -- The first print-on-demand bookstore machine from Instabook went online for customers at the Bookends shop. Bookends can print and bind a book on the spot from InstaBook's 10,000-title inventory, bypassing expensive warehousing and in-store inventories. Also, as Bookeneds co-owner Walter Boyer noted, the equipment can take convert a manuscript into a book right there in the store: "The writer can use us as a print shop -- or we can help them launch the book." Uploaded digitally into the Instabook system, a book can be available instantly on POD machine anywhere. Uploading from a manuscript on a disk for a basic, unadorned book can be done in 10 minutes. Customization with color, special faces and fonts, graphics and photographs, and laminated covers takes longer.
What this means for authors: POD technology holds great promise for authors who want to bypass traditional publishing houses. There is peril, however, for authors who are with a traditional publisher and who decide to regain rights to a book. Most existing contracts allow a publisher to keep the rights as long as a single book is in the warehouse, which, although not tested in the courts, could be argued to include a single master digital copy held for one-at-a-time POD publication. |
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Used books now hurts trade sales| NEW YORK, April 27, 2004 -- Used books, long the bane of textbook publishers are authors, are catching on in the trade book business. The market tracking service Ispos-BookTrends reported that used books accounted for 14 percent of trade books purchased for adults in 2003, one point more than the year before. Overall, consumers spent $11 billion on 1.8 billion trade books in 2003, down $300 million from 2002 on roughly the same volume. Ispos analyst Barrie Rappaport said publishers and bookshops need to devise strategies to leverage and preserve their backlist sales. |
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LeapFrog empanels literacy advisers| NEW YORK, April 22, 2004 -- Publisher LeapFrog created a litearcy advisory board to help develop and evaluate the company's products. The members:Alma Flor Ada, University of San FranciscoJeni Riley, University of LondonLiliane Sprenger-Charolles, University of Rene DescartesKeith Stanovich, University of Toronto |
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LEAPFROG
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R.I.P.: Computer science author Ida FynnPITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania, April 16, 2004 -- Friends, family, colleagues and students of Ida Moretti Flynn attended a funeral mass for the University of Pittsburgh professor and author. She died on April 12 at age 62 of breast cancer. Flynn and co-author Ann McIver McHoes, wrote the college textbook Understanding Operating Systems, now in its third edition. The book has been applauded for explanations of operating system functions from a conceptual standpoint. The book holds a 2001 Texty award for excellence. Flynn also served as associate editor and contributing author for Macmillan's four-volume Computer Sciences for high school students. Flynn wrote numerous journal articles and a book chapter and made several conference presentations on information retrieval and multimedia systems, particularly for young writers. She also edited Spanish and Italian translations for Pitt's language center.
Ida Flynn joined the School of Information Science faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in 1980. She received Pitt's Apple excellence in teaching award in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1987. She retired as director of the university's Bachelor of Science Program in 2000 but continued to teach and publish. She bheld bachelor's degree in math from Adelphi University, master's from the Illinois Institute of Technology and University of Pittsburgh, and a doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh. She had taught at Point Park College and before that in high school. Prior to coming to Pitt, she taught high school mathematics.
Survivors include her husband, Roger, an associate professor in information science at the University of Pittsburgh, and sons Anthony and Christopher. |
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FLYNN
1942-2004
A charter member of the Society of Academic Authors |
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| McGraw-Hill: Education sales grew
6.4 percent to $278.2 million for the first quarter ended March 31. The company's operating loss was reduced 1.9 percent to $68.8 million.
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ProQuest: Sales of the Information and Learning Division grew 12 percent to $279.5 million for 2003. compared to the year before, during largely to the acquisitions of Bigchalk and SIRS Publishing. Adjusted earnings grew 20 percent to $109.8 million.
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Ban on "outlaw nation" articles under fire| WASHINGTON April 16, 2004 -- The government is denying the First Amendment rights of U.S. publishers with a flawed interpretation of a law on publishing materials from so-called "outlaw nations:" like Iran and Noth Korea, according to a protest filed with the U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control. The protest was filed by the Association of American Publishers, the Association of American University Presses, and the PEN American Center. Alan Adler, of the Association of American Publishers, said any interpretation that bars "artistic alterations or enhancements" is a First Amendment violation. The issue began in October when the U.S. Office of Foreign Asset Control warned technical publishers that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act required them to hold a government license to edit the work of authors from outlaw nations. In odd, tangential twist, the department also ruled that the same material could be published verbatim. In early April, the Treasury Department approved Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers's peer review and editing process for material authored in outlaw nationa, but still noted that oiher publishers may still need a license. |
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Marilyn Gardner. "Sad Chapter for University Presses," Christian Sience Monitor (Apri 1, 2004), Page 11. Garner sums up in journalistic style the travails at university presses, with a focus on recent developments at Northeastern, Idaho, Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan and Chicago. |
Delmar buys Career Press titles| FRANKLIN LAKES, New Jersey, April 14, 2004 -- Thomson imprint Delmar has acquired 49 backlist career and reference titles from nonfiction publisher Career Press. The titles expands and complements the existing Delmar list, Delmar President Greg Burnell said. Terms were not announced. The titles include 101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions, the Master Math series, and Five O¹Clock Club career books. New titles will be put into digital formats, including online, DVD and subscription-based platforms, Burnell said. The sale will allow Career Press to concentrate on other genres, including its new-ge imprint New Page Books. |
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DELMAR
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| ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE |
| Bob Laronga, president of Haights Cross's Sundance/Newbridge division, was named president of Chelsea House. He succeed Blumenthal, who resigned after 14 percent sales decline last year in the slumping school and library markets. |
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| James A. Heintz (accounting), University of Kansas, and Robert W. Parry (accounting, Indiana University, wrote Chapters 1-28 of the 18th edition of College Accounting (South-West). |
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| Hugh T. Wilson (health), California State University-Sacramento, wrote the 19th edition of Drugs, Society, and Behavior (McGraw-Hill). |
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Please
tell
us
about
your
latest
project:
EDITOR |
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College textbook sales tumbleNEW YORK, April 8, 2004 -- The bottom fell out of college publishing in February, according to the latest data from the Association of American Publishers. Higher-ed sales fell 87.6 percent from February 2003 to only $2.3 million. For the year higher-ed sales are down 11.2 percent. Sales of professional and scholarly books slipped 13.9 percent in February. El-hi sales were brighter, up 6.2 percent. Here is the year-to-date data as extrapolated from 92 reporting publishers:
El-hi
Univ press (hard)
Prof'l, scholarly
Univ press (soft)
College
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| February
6.2%
9.0%
-13.9%
-25.3%
-87.6%
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| Year-
to-date
5.8%
-13.8%
-16.8%
-11.2%
N/R *
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* N/R = Not reported
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U.S. book production shifts to China| WASHINGTON April 7, 2004 -- China strengthened its hold in 2003 as the largest source of books imported by the United States, the U.S. Commerce Department reported. The report further confirmed the extent to which U.S. publishers are manufacturing their products in China. In 2002, China became the largest foreign source of imported books for the first time. The volume grew 22 percent in 2003 to $413.1 million. |
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Ebooks creates library journal service| PERTH, Australia, April 6, 2004 -- Australia-based digital book supplier eBooks announced plans for a library service specializing in scientific, technical and medical e-books for academic and research libraries. The service, called Electronic Books Librray, EBL for short, features multiple concurrent access, online and offline access, read-aloud, chapters for reserve circulation, short-term circulation and document delivery services. Available will be publications from Cambridge University Press, Kluwer, Oxford University Press, Springer, Taylor & Francis and World Scientific. The service will be available in June, eBooks said. The concept was developed with eBook library customers, which include North Carolina State University, Yale University. Curtin University and the European Organization for Nuclear Research. EBooks Corp. has operated its eBooks.com bookstore since 2000. |
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Online chem study aids coming| AMHERST, Massachusetts, April 5, 2004 -- An online learning system for homework and assessment in introductory, organic and general chemistry courses, called OWL, is being developed by Thomson Higher Education and University of Massachusetts instructors. OWL is a customizable cross-platform system that is correlated to Thomson Brooks/Cole introductory and general chemistry textbooks. |
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Thomson buys drug data company| NEW YORK, April 4, 2004 -- Publishing giant Thomson has acquired Newport Strategies, which provides competitive data for the pharmaceutical industry. Thomson said Newport products, including comprehensive databases will be folded into the Thomson Scientific & Healthcare group. Terms were not announced. |
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THOMSON
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Prometheus tries sci-fi, fantasy| NEW YORK, April 3, 2004 -- Prometheus Books, known mostly for nonfiction in an academic vein, will issue six to eight books sci-fi and fantasy titles next year. The venture isn't really all that much of a stretch, said spokesperson Jill Maxick, noting popular science has been one of the best-selling Prometheus genres. |
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Haights puts Oakstone on market| WHITE PLAINS, New York, April 2, 2004 -- Publisher Haights Cross Communications, which is shifting its focus to the el-hi and library markets, placed its professional publishing unit, Oakstone Publishing, up for sale. |
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New study supports summer reading| CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, April 1, 2004 -- Elementary-level pupils who read over the summer perform better on reading-comprehension tests in the fall, according to a large study that will be reported in the Journal of Education for Students Placed at Rsk. Jimmy S. Kim, of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, based his findings on 1,600 pupils in 18 schools. Kim said his results were consistent regardless of race, socioeconomic background and earlier tests. He said the amount of summer reading -- he had a variale of one to six books -- didn't seem to make a difference. The study confirmed early research that summer eading can offset losses that otherwise occur over summers. |
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