At this year's
Digital Book World Conference in New York, a panel filled with publishing CEOs talked about what they learned in 2011 and how that affects what they plan on doing differently in 2012. Scarletta listened to what they had to say, and then we thought about how that affects us, as a small publisher.
Dominique Raccah, CEO and publisher at
Sourcebooks, spoke of 2011 as the "Renaissance of the book," because more people than ever are once again thinking of books.
Ellen Archer, president of
Hyperion, added that "the book is now elastic and dynamic." She went on to tell a story of mixed media, and how the television show
Castle (about a writer who helps solve crimes) helped prompt the idea of an unlikely partnership. It's hardly news that books are created about popular TV shows, but the producers of Castle wanted the book to be "penned" by the fictional character in the show. Hyperion worked with them to release the first half of the book online, chapter by chapter, the summer before the show was renewed for a second season with the plan to release the book in print once the TV series was renewed. It was a hit, making the NYT bestseller list.
John Donatich, director of
Yale University Press, also mentioned the digital book age as an era for previously unseen manuscripts to be made widely available.
Which left John R. Ingram, chairman of the
Ingram Content Group, asking "Where do you get the money?" and expressing the need for balancing relevance and profitability.
