Engagement May Be the Most Important Measure of Product Value
Recently I went to a 5th grade STEM class, on a very cold and dreary winter day in a Chicago suburb. The class started at 8:00 a.m. yet all 20-plus kids were in attendance–some actually arrived early. A few of them had just come from band practice so it...
Finding Inspiration
As I begin my seventh month running Ross & Associates, LLC, I thought I’d show you and describe four types of objects on the floating shelf above my desk that help motivate me to meet my goals every day. (I’m sure you have your own versions of these as...
Elements of a Deal: Part IV
Royalty-Inclusive Deals One way to license a product without the burden of calculating royalties or establishing minimum guarantees is to buy finished goods on a royalty-inclusive basis. In this way, the publisher is actually purchasing a finished product (paying for...
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 […]