Thinking of Sponsoring a Summer Intern from Abroad? Brace Yourself
A few years ago, an Italian friend of mine asked me if I would hire her son Luca as an intern for the summer. Carlotta ran an educational publishing company in Parma, just south of Milan, and Luca was attending a local business school and wanted to get experience in...
Creative Adaptation: Beyond the SOW
When it comes to building creative products from scratch, such as videos, websites, or even articles that contain mixed media, clients often do not know exactly what they want. They may think they do, but they sometimes have expectations that are not aligned with...
Elements of a Deal: Part V (and final)
Sealing the Deal The process for formalizing a workable licensing or co-publishing partnership consists of having three documents in place: A mutual non-disclosure (NDA) agreement. A term sheet. A binding agreement or contract. Mutual Non-disclosure Regardless of the...
Increasing Value by Co-Publishing: Part I
Luck is Not a Strategy There are two times in a man’s life when he should not speculate: when he can’t afford it and when he can. —Mark Twain, Following the Equator: Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar When publishers set out to create a product, they normally do the...
Partnering: Part I
Whether you are in a small market, like, say, Sweden, or a large market, like the U.S., there are good reasons to find partners outside of your geography. Here are the top three reasons why I think publishers in markets with small populations should aggressively...
Digital Publishing Ideas
- Paid and Free Website OptionsTypes of education and consumer subscription models currently available The many ways that educators and consumers can obtain web-based content varies greatly depending on the market and the type of content. The choices can be bewildering, especially because the landscape continues to change. Netflix, for example, for years followed the HBO subscription model where for […]
- How Publishers Can Best Leverage Libraries in the Digital AgeFor almost the entire history of the library ecosystem, publishing companies and libraries have been as tightly aligned in their missions as any other pair of mutually beneficial partnerships. It is hard to imagine a more symbiotic relationship than that between publishers and libraries. The two entities appear more interdependent than baseball bat manufacturers and […]
- Why Libraries are Critical to Our Cultural IdentityThere’s no use going to school unless your destination is the library—Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 In his book Palaces for the People, Eric Klinenberg suggests that the future of democratic societies depends not only on shared values but on shared spaces: The libraries, childcare centers, churches, and parks where crucial connections are formed.[1] The title of […]
- Pricing Models for Online ProductsWhat Price Is Right? Pricing models for books and physical media (CDs, DVDs, audiocassettes) are straightforward, whereas the current pricing models for online content can be baffling—a mixed bag of sponsored content and motley subscription and licensing models, with little market consensus on what online access to various products should cost. Buyers favoring subscription models […]
- Preface excerpt from “Publishing in the Digital Age”(From the Preface) In 2007 I wrote a book entitled Publishing without Boundaries: How to Think, Work, and Win in the Global Marketplace, which had two main objectives: to provide publishers with editorial strategies for creating culturally appropriate products for non-traditional markets; and to outline ways to leverage emerging digital technologies to generate additional revenue […]
- Salt of the EarthSaving Analog Film for Future Use Located about 50 miles northwest of Wichita on the Arkansas River, the city of Hutchinson, Kansas—known as “Salt City” for its extensive labyrinth of salt mines—is the home of Underground Vaults & Storage (UV&S), one of the largest and most secure storage facilities in the world. A 60-year-old […]