Publishing

In a New Yorker blog post this week, James Surowiecki questioned the American Booksellers Association's "dubious" claims about "illegal predatory pricing" by Wal-Mart (WMT) in its Book Price War with Amazon.com (AMZN). Here's more: "[T]here's just no reason to believe that Wal-Mart is cutting prices now in order to raise them later: the company's entire history has been one of perpetual cost-cutting, even after it's become the country's dominant retailer."

GalleyCat has been tracking the stock performance of the major companies that influence the bookselling business. We created this chart with eight publicly-traded publishing stocks hand-picked by our readers--including company name, symbol, current stock price, and price increase or decrease at week's close.

-Name- -Symbol- -Last price- -Change-
The McGraw-Hill Co. MHP 29.32 -0.14
Books-A-Million, Inc. BAMM 8.15 0.23
Borders Group, Inc. BGP 2.06 -0.05
Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN 126.2 5.59
Barnes & Noble, Inc. BKS 17.05 0.18
Wiley John & Sons Inc. JW.A 36.5 0.22
Scholastic Corporation SCHL 25.3 0.09
News Corporation NWS 14.15 0.04
Google Inc. GOOG 551.1 2.45
Apple Inc. AAPL 194.34 0.31
Sony Corporation SNE 28.84 0.11

The as the ticker-tape parade for the Yankees winds down in New York City, Triumph Books is running off a 63,000-copy first print run of "The Best! Yankees Bring the World Series Title Back Home"--a rushed 128-page book about the team's 2009 World Series-winning season.

According to Publishers Weekly, Triumph will spend a considerable amount of money sending the short book to New York City bookstores via messenger service on Saturday morning. The publisher is a Random House imprint with offices in Chicago.

Here's more from the article: "Mitch Rogatz, Triumph Books publisher, explained that the press had put together two books--one done completely in-house on the Phillies, and the other done in collaboration with the New York Post on the Yankees. A printer also was lined up to go to work as soon as the last game ended...the book on the Phillies has been shelved--for now."

With over 2.3 million Americans currently incarcerated, prison outreach is a vital vocation. Today's guest on the Morning Media Menu was Jackson Taylor, the novelist and Mediabistro teacher who has directed PEN's Prison Writing Program for the last 20 years.

Taylor shared his experiences working with hundreds of imprisoned authors and creative writing mentors. The writing program will be celebrated on Monday at Breakout: Voices from Inside--a fundraising event with appearances by Mary Gaitskill, Eric Bogosian, and John Turturro.

Here's an excerpt from the interview: "[Some inmates] can't get their hands on pencil and paper, but still feel the urge and desire to express themselves in writing ... That's the thing that's really moving, when you see the desire is so strong in people. We believe that writing is a skill, and it can be practiced. Unlike many skills, writing well is useful. And it's useful in almost every avenue of life: employment, education, and daily life. It's also a skill that generates other skills."

As the national unemployment rate hits 10.2 percent, a new crop of six publishing jobs surfaced this morning (alongside eight other jobs earlier this week). Like a hardboiled gumshoe, GalleyCat has been investigating publishing work on the mediabistro.com job boards. For your resume-making pleasure, here are the new postings.

To begin, Penton Media seeks a Senior Editor, Registered Rep and R.A. Rapaport Publishing needs a Circulation Assistant. In addition, Scholastic is looking for a Product Manager.

Finally, Scholastic is also seeking a Statistical Analyst, a Director, User Experience/Interface/Site Construct, and a Book Clubs Coordinator. Here's more about that final job: "Coordinator will be responsible for reviewing each Book Club catalog, creating the order forms, and ensuring their accuracy. The Coordinator will research all promoted books to ensure that book titles and images are correct, and that titles and prices are consistent."

As the weekend glimmers like the light at the end of a five-day-long tunnel, here is your daily dose of quick links and publishing catnip.

In a WowoWow interview, author Lorrie Moore confesses: "I do know a lot of writers are watching musicians and the way they've bypassed the sinking music industry and struck out on their own."

Entertainment Weekly landed an excerpt from "Nightlight," a Twilight parody.

In gorgeous graphs, web comic xkcd maps out character interactions from famous literary adaptations.

The new issue of McSweeney's pays homage to newspapers with "huge and luxurious broadsheet" and a massive book section.

The NY Post thinks legendary rock star Bruce Springsteen could earn up to $10 million for his rumored autobiography.

Everybody knows the publishing industry is struggling, but that has never stopped passionate readers and writers from entering the field.

Today's guest on the Morning Media Menu was Peter Ginna, publisher and editorial director at Bloomsbury Press. Ginna fielded questions from a listener about how to get a start in publishing during this difficult time for the media industry. The publisher also discussed his new blog, the hardcover pricing war, and the most important skills needed to work in 21st Century publishing.

Here's an excerpt from the interview: "You have to recognize you are going into a very volatile industry. I think the most important thing for anybody going into the industry now is to really learn as much as you can, and, to the extent that you can, master social media. That's going to be the most important channel that publishers have to sell books. It's one of the areas we've been struggling with--so many of the traditional avenues that publishers have used to communicate with readers...are disappearing or dwindling or being transformed themselves. The great promise of the Internet for publishing is that it's the most effective way we've ever had to get the word out about our books to potential readers."

In an amazing day on the employment front, publishers have posted eight new jobs. Like a hardboiled gumshoe, GalleyCat has been investigating publishing work on the mediabistro.com job boards. For your resume-making pleasure, here are the new postings.

First, Rosen Publishing needs an Assistant Editor, HarperCollins Publishers is looking for an Editorial Assistant, and Hachette Book Group needs an Online Media Buyer.

Next, Zagat Survey wants an Editorial Assistant and Prestel Publishing is seeking a Production Assistant. In addition, an "Academic Publishing Giant" needs a Media Producer and Macmillan is searching for a Marketing & Design Assistant.

Finally, Random House U.S.A seeks an Assistant Brand Manager. Here are a few key responsibilities: "Act as a key relationship manager between licensors and Random House publishing and sales. Regularly meet with key franchise authors and their agents to review our business results and ongoing strategies. Work with the sales and marketing teams to develop retailer-specific programs and promotions."

Yesterday Simon & Schuster launched a new "e-commerce solution" for selling digital editions of medical books, following iTunes' lead by offering individual chapters of books.

In the new Ask Doctor Oz site, readers can find answers to specific medical questions from different authors, including books by Dr. Michael F. Roizen and Dr. Mehmet C. Oz. Once the reader has located an answer in a specific text, they can buy individual e-chapters of the relevant title--instead of buying the whole eBook. However, readers can still buy the complete digital title as well.

Simon & Schuster's Chief Digital Officer Ellie Hirschhorn had these thoughts: "It represents a transformational shift from current trade publishing models, and means that consumers may no longer have to purchase an entire book when perhaps a chapter or two will provide them with the answers they are looking for, or if they are looking to sample parts of a book before making the decision to purchase the entire work. This opens up a new world of opportunities for where and how our digital content can be distributed and sold, and we plan to expand both the chapter selling model and use of our e-commerce widget to other content categories."

As another Monday winds down, here are some odds and ends from the day's publishing news...

Next week, Mary Gaitskill, Eric Bogosian, John Turturro, and others will read from stories written by inmates for PEN's Prison Writing Program.

Author Stephen Fry defended Twitter and the Internets in a video interview about a generation of kids growing up online.

In a True Slant interview about "Eating Animals," Jonathan Safran Foer talked about his move from vegetarianism to a vegan lifestyle: "my basic stance on the issue is, I'd say, forgiving--but still quite firm. I am transitioning to veganism, and I don't like, run home and eat 1,000 eggs or something."

Paul Auster talked about a time when all aspiring poets wanted to start their own magazines.

Beating the annual listmakers by a month, Amazon.com unveiled the Best Books of 2009.

As a new week begins, publishers have posted five new jobs. Like a hardboiled gumshoe, GalleyCat has been investigating publishing work on the mediabistro.com job boards. For your resume-making pleasure, here are a the new postings.

HarperCollins Publishers wants to find a Senior Editor and Hachette Book Group needs a Marketing Assistant. Next, Scholastic is looking for a Desktop Support Technician and Cambridge University Press needs a Chief Financial Officer.

Finally, Scholastic is also looking for an Editorial Director. Here's more about the position: "Work with other Editorial Director(s) to shape and execute the overall vision and business plan, with a specific attention to and accountability for light forms of technologies, such as e-and-audio books. Ensures high-degree of creative and sound pedagogy and instructional experiences/activities for all students."