So who is starting off 2012 reigning supreme? Read on to declare your own victor.

“Through an arrangement with Google, independent booksellers began selling e-books a year ago. Although they work on the Kindle Fire, the Nook, iPad, and most smartphones, booksellers continue to field customer questions about whether they sell the Kindle. ‘What we have learned is that it’s a lot more about the device than we originally thought,’ American Booksellers Association CEO Oren Teicher told The Bookseller last month. ‘We’re aggressively in the process of trying to develop a device that our members can sell as well.’”

– Judith Rosen, Publishers Weekly (1/9/2012)

“On the retail side, the relationship with Rakuten should offer new e-commerce channels for the e-bookseller and the devices are already available through Rakuten-owned subsidiaries Buy.com and Play.com. It also won’t strain existing bookseller and retailer relationships, promises Humphrey, who says Kobo devices will continue to be sold at outlets such as Best Buy and Target in the United States and WHSmith in the UK. “In fact, we expect to have an even bigger presence with our retail partners in the coming year.””

– Edward Nawotka, Publishing Perspectives (1/17/2012)

“But would Barnes & Noble want to associate themselves with any and every publisher? The New York Times and People are well-chosen: not only are they both national brands, but readers of the Times seem likely to buy more books, just as readers of People are likely to pick up more magazines and other media.

This is why the Times is paired with the e-reader and People with the tablet; it’s not just formatting. It’s a bet on developing a relationship with a customer. Regional papers and hobbyist magazines may not attract as large an audience nor turn its members into continued high-value customers.”

– Tim Carmody, Wired (1/9/2012)

“While a number of analysts made predictions that Amazon’s $199 tablet would take a bite out of iPad sales — Morgan Keegan’s Travis McCourt thought the Kindle Fire could cost Apple as much as $1 billion in holiday sales — it looks as though Apple’s iPad business emerged unscathed.”

– Zach Epstein, Boy Genius Report (1/2/2012)

“The Kindle Fire is crushing standard Android tablets in market share after only three months, according to data collected by Flurry Analytics. Measured in application sessions on Android from November 2011 to January 2012, the Kindle Fire went from a 3 percent market share to 36 percent, while the Samsung Galaxy Tab, a brand that has been on sale for over two years, dropped from 64 percent market share to 36 percent.”

– Casey Johnston, Ars Technica (1/31/2012)

HarperCollins announced that Angela Tribelli has been appointed to the newly created position of Chief Marketing Officer, General Books Group. Tribelli, who comes from NYC & Company, will report to Michael Morrison, President & Publisher. Her first day is February 22.

The J. Paul Getty Trust has hired Kara Kirk as Publisher of Getty Publications, effective April 13. Kirk most recently served as Associate Publisher at MoMA in New York. Prior to that, she had been the Getty’s General Manager of Publications.

Meanwhile, Robie Rogge has resigned from The Met Museum, where she was most recently Publishing Manager.  She has been at The Met since 1970.  Her last day is Feb. 29., and she will then set up her own book production company.

Steve Kasdin has joined Curtis Brown, Ltd as Director of Digital Strategy to supervise its e-book program. Previously, Kasdin worked as Senior Kindle Evangelist, and before that, with the Sandra Dijkstra Agency.

Ileene Smith will join Farrar, Straus and Giroux as VP and Executive Editor on February 15. She had been Executive Editor at large for general interest books for Yale University Press since 2005. Joy Peskin has been named VP, Editorial Director of FSG Children’s, reporting to Simon Boughton. Previously, she was Associate Publisher at Viking Books for Young Readers.

John Mahaney, long time Executive Editor at Crown Business, has joined Public Affairs as a Contributing Editor, focusing on acquiring economics, finance and business books.  Crown announced that Amanda Cook has been hired by Crown as VP and Executive Editor.  She was Executive Editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Cook will continue to be based in Boston.

Corinna Barsan has been named a new Senior Editor at Grove/Atlantic Books. She was previously Senior Editor at Other Press, where she worked since 2006. Grove Editor Amy Hundley has also been promoted to Senior Editor and Rights Director.

Emily Williams has joined B&N as International Content Manager, Digital Products, reporting to Patricia Arancibia, Director, Editorial & Publisher Relations for International Content. Williams was most recently Digital Content Producer for Publishers Marketplace. She may be reached at ewilliams@book.com.

William Kiester, Publisher of Fair Winds Press, is leaving after five good years to pursue a new venture, Page Street Publishing Company. He can be reached at williamkiester@gmail.com.

Carrie Thornton has joined HarperCollins as Executive Editor, It Books. Previously she was Executive Editor at Dutton.

Kate Folkers has joined Perseus Group Worldwide as Senior Marketing and Client Services Manager, reporting to Chitra Bopardikar, VP of International Sales.

Tim Ditlow, who joined Brilliance Audio in 2008, has moved over to Amazon Publishing Children’s Group as Associate Publisher for the Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books. He replaces Brian Buerkle who has gone to Kingfisher.

Earlier in the month Dan Farley, most recently President of Macmillan’s Children’s Publishing Group, was named Executive VP of Business Development for Swoop That LLC, a San Diego-based company with course search technology for college students to find the cheapest prices for textbooks.

Open Road announced that Betsy Mitchell will work as Strategic Advisor for sci-fi and fantasy, and will “spearhead” their acquisition and publishing of backlist sci-fi and fantasy titles. Mitchell retired from her position as Editor-in-Chief at Del Rey Spectra in December.

Susanne Woods will join Interweave Books as Editorial Director at the end of the month, overseeing the book group’s editorial and design teams and leading the strategic and creative.

Nicole Judge has joined Free Press in the new position of Marketing Director, overseeing direct-to-consumer marketing efforts. She has been at HarperCollins for the past 7 years, most recently as Associate Director of Marketing for Harper and Harper Business.

Brett Sandusky has joined Macmillan New Ventures as Product Manager. He was most recently Director of Product Innovation at Kaplan.

Lindsay Guzzardo recently joined Amazon Publishing’s romance imprint, Montlake, as an Associate Acquisitions Editor. Previously she worked at Guideposts Books and NAL.

PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES

Libby McGuire, formerly SVP and Publisher of Ballantine Bantam Dell, has been promoted to EVP and Publisher and continues to oversee the hardcover and mass market publishing programs.

At Viking, Julie Miesionczek has been promoted to Associate Editor, reporting to Rick Kot and Amber Qureshi. Maggie Riggs has been promoted to Assistant Editor, reporting to Wendy Wolf and Josh Kendall.

Norton’s Alane Mason has been promoted to VP, Executive Editor. She has been at the company since 1999.

Barnaby Dawe, Marketing Communications Director at News International, has moved to corporate sibling Harper UK, in the new position of Chief Marketing Officer, reporting to Victoria Barnsley.

Lucy Cummins has been promoted from Associate Director of Art to Art Director at S&S.

At Egmont USA, Greg Ferguson has been promoted to Senior Editor.  He was previously an editor.

At Penguin Press, Virginia Smith Younce has been promoted to Senior Editor.

DULY NOTED

The Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency, Inc. (JVNLA) has expanded its services and are interested in partnering with agencies managing a backlist where original publication rights or eRights were either reserved by the author, or have reverted back to the author.  Over the past two years, JVNLA has, its press release states, “cultivated a number of relationships with a variety of players in the eBook marketplace and continues to expand its understanding of this arena as new players emerge and opportunities evolve.”

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Berrett-Koehler Publishers, the San Francisco-based independent publisher started by former Jossey-Bass President, Steve Piersanti, is celebrating its 20th anniversary. The company plans on holding a multitude of events to mark the occasion, including a celebration on July 17, 2012 at which the top 10 bestselling BK authors will speak and be honored and a day-long “Community Dialogue” to engage BK authors, readers, service providers, and other stakeholders in planning collaborative actions to support the BK mission of “Creating a World That Works for All.”  For details go to http://www.bkconnection.com/20thAnniversary.asp

UPCOMING DATES

January 28–February 2, 2012
New York International Gift Fair
Javits Center, New York, NY

February 1–3, 2012
Professional Scholarly Publishing 2012 Annual Conference
“Prospering with Digital: Making Investments Pay”
Mayflower Hotel, Washington, DC

February 1–6, 2012
Taipei international Book Exhibition
Taipei World Trade Center, Taipei, Taiwan

February 11–18, 2012
Havana International Book Fair
“To Read is To Grow”
San Carlos de La Cabana, Havana, Cuba

February 12–15, 2012
American International Toy Fair
Javits Center, New York, NY

February 13–17, 2012
Social Media Week
Conferences taking place simultaneously in
New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Miami,
Rome, Paris, Toronto, Tokyo, Sao Paolo, London,
Hong Kong, and Singapore.

February 13–15, 2012
O’Reilly Tools of Change for
Publishing Conference
Sheraton Hotel & Towers, New York, NY

February 20–25, 2012
The Jerusalem International Book Fair
International Convention Center, Jerusalem, Israel.

February 22–25, 2012
Centenary College Art Association Conference
LA Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA

February 27–28, 2012
Niche Magazine Conference
The Hutton Hotel, Nashville, TN

The Content Licensing Network, which launched earlier this year, is run by EPM, publisher of The Licensing Letter, the most respected publication about the $147 billion consumer products licensing business.

Market Partners will continue to contribute articles, research, and news to Content Licensing and will operate PublishingTrends.com as an independent website, offering insight into the book publishing business.

“Combining Market Partners’ knowledge of the book industry with our expertise in film, music, videogames, social media, and other content areas gives the Content Licensing Network the breadth to help members assess the opportunities new digital delivery options offer across all media,” says Content Licensing Publisher Ira Mayer. “Our members will know who the decision-makers are — and how to reach them — as well as how to prioritize which new media to pursue, what the negotiating points are, and how content is being licensed for advertising and promotions.”

“When Ira approached us about using an article that had recently appeared in Publishing Trends for the first issue of Content Licensing, we were excited to be part of EPM’s launch,” says Lorraine Shanley, President of Market Partners International.  “Market Partners has had a long history with the company — including having taken over one of its newsletters (Subrights Letter) several years ago, and sharing occasional reports in each others’ publications.  In the course of conversations about Content Licensing’s mission, Ira broached the idea of Content Licensing acquiring Publishing Trends’ monthly newsletter.  Though we had never considered selling, the prospect of Publishing Trends becoming part of the larger media landscape that CL reports on made a lot of sense.”

For information on membership in the Content Licensing Network, which includes a subscription to Content Licensing, visit www.epmcom.com/contentlicensing.

Contact: EPM Communications, Inc./Content Licensing Network—Ira Mayer, 1-212-941-1633, ext. 27; imayer@epmcom.com.

The DBW sessions featured companies that are both outgrowths of other companies, like ACX, which is a division of Audible (itself a division of Amazon) that allows publishers to source talent – and then remotely produce – audiobooks, and those like Small Demons, a startup still in beta, which offers in-the-book wikipedic resources to enhance the user’s experience. Other companies, like Cookstr, have had success in the marketplace as a database of cookbook recipes, but are now expanding into new categories like sports, gardening, and other verticals.  Vook, which started out as a company devoted to creating ebooks with embedded video, and now offers a cloud-based epublishing platform. BookRiff, one of the cleverer startups, allows readers to build their own libraries, but offers publishers a turnkey system that ensures metadata, permissions and payment will accompany any books, chapter or chunking of content.

At the Children’s Publishers Go Digital Launchpad, some of the presenters were well known in the industry, like Oceanhouse Media’s Michel Kripalani and some were better known by their celebrity authors, like Vancouver-based Loud Crow, which does Sandra Boynton’s well regarded ebooks.  Others, like Storybird’s Mark Ury, help young writers and, increasingly, their teachers, to create and share their stories and art.  Genera Interactive, a company with offices in Spain, Brazil, London and New York, has several arms to it, including a robust interactive bookstore for kids, Playtales (formerly TouchyBooks).

What all the companies had in common was a willingness to evolve with the market, while maintaining their commitment to the creator, and end user, otherwise known as The Reader. The complete list of Publishers Launchpad participants includes, in alphabetical order:  ACX, The Atavist, BookRiff, Cookstr, Ganxy, Genera Interactive, Loud Crow, Oceanhouse Media, Semi-Linear, Small Demons, Storybird, Subtext, Vook, and Zuuka.

“Content is King,” Russell Hampton, President of Disney Publishing Worldwide, pointed out in his presentation, which is easy to appreciate, given  Disney’s ownership of all its own content (and beloved characters). Still, content is also key for Oceanhouse Media, which doesn’t own any of its own content. “Brands matter. Authors matter,” said Michel Kripalani, President of Oceanhouse Media, as he explained that the company’s design philosophy is to stick to the original content of the book, with  enhancements used for educational purposes over entertainment. Even Fancy Nancy author Jane O’Connor humorously announced that rather than be called an “author,” perhaps she should be called a “content provider” from now on.

Youth Markets Alert President Ira Mayer encouraged publishers to think about how their customers are going to “live a book across platforms,” especially given a landscape where most teens are device agnostic. Scholastic‘s Deborah Forte also warned that, while it is important to consider devices for digital products, publishers also had to keep in mind that they must be careful not to get locked into one ecosystem. “It’s important to note,” Forte said,” that the Apple iBooks Author was not designed to sell apps and books, but to sell Apple products.”

On the research front, many figures from RR Bowker and YouthBeat focused on families and how relationships between parents and children are shifting. While YouthBeat’s Amy Henry showed that there are fewer traditional households,  with working,  single or divorced parents, she also demonstrated that parents and children are showing increasing common interests,especially in categories like music, a once-divisive sticking point. Also, as Bowker’s Kelly Gallagher and Bookigee’s Kristen McLean revealed in their presentation, 72% of parents of children 7-12 years old buy their books based on recommendations from their children, signifying that parents are listening to their children more than ever.

Though much of the focus of the day was on trade publishing and consumer content, the Education Meets Digital panel was illuminating in showing how schools are using digital in their classrooms—and how all types of children’s media can participate in providing content. Neal Goff, President of Egremont Associates, mentioned that schools should and can implement “BYOD” or Bring Your Own Device, which would take advantage of the prevalence of smart phones and tablets already in students’ possession in the classroom. Capstone Digital’s Todd Brekhus also pointed out that the movement from centralized IT to individual devices can allow teachers to be more creative with what materials students have access to, though the biggest challenge Brekhus pointed out will be “shortening the sales cycle,” as funding for school materials requires a district wide, top down approvals process.

What emerged as the biggest challenge facing publishers was discoverability in an increasingly cluttered digital space. Lori Culwell, Founder and Marketing Consultant of Get Creative, Inc., talked about the importance of Facebook ads for exposure at a low fee, and Simon & Schuster’s Lucille Rettino and Justine magazine’s Jana Kerr Pettey talked about the opportunities that group author events offer. Todd Brekhus presented Capstone Digital’s myOn Reader, which was described as “Netflix for reading in schools.” By assessing a student’s reading level, myOn Reader recommends appropriate books for students and allows them to access the books digitally. One marketing ‘Don’t’ that Alloy Entertainment’s Josh Bank shared from experience was that publishers need to be careful about aggressive cross-promotion, as people have complained when they are being marketed products outside of their specific fandom.

As far as what the future of digital books for children will look like, authenticity remains key. Many “newbie” content developers from the Publishers Launchpad panel pointed out that all the bells and whistles must be used meaningfully. Loud Crow’s Calvin Wang demonstrated how their animation mirrors that of print books to make them complementary, not mutually exclusive. Wendy Bronfin and Kevin O’Connor of Nook said that ebooks with audio are amongst the Nook store’s children’s bestsellers. Sesame Workshop’s Jennifer Perry listed the qualities that make the best ebooks for preschoolers, and ease-of-use was on the top of list for making visuals easy to understand and straight-forward navigation. (See Paid Content’s article about her presentation, along with Bowker stats.)

More than anything, however, the day-long conference demonstrated how  digital content and marketing present a myriad of opportunity for publishers. . “At the beginning of 2011, digital was an option,” said Zuuka’s Woody Sears, “but by the end of 2011, digital was imperative.”

For more information on the speakers and the schedule for the Children’s Publishing Goes Digital event, click here.

Macmillan President, Brian Napack, has left the company, where he had also served as Chairman and CEO of Scientific American. He will announce plans early in 2012.

Also at Macmillan, Kingfisher has hired Brian Buerkle as Associate Publisher, Director of Marketing, replacing Angus Killick who has been named VP, Associate Publisher, Macmillan Children’s. Buerkle was Senior Marketing Manager at Marshall Cavendish.

Lots of news from HarperCollins: Carrie Thornton will join the company in January 2012 as Executive Editor for It Books. Thornton held the same position at Dutton. And Hilary Redmon has joined  Ecco as Executive Editor, focusing on non-fiction titles.  She was Senior Editor at  Free Press. Iobyte’s Dan Lubart is joining HarperCollins in the new position of SVP of Sales Analytics. He will “develop, build and implement dynamic pricing strategies” for their books. Lubart will report to Josh Marwell. And Casey McIntyre will be joining HarperCollins Children’s Books as Publicity Manager on January 9th.  She was at the Penguin Young Readers Group.

Shannon Welch will join Scribner as a Senior Editor on January 9. She was previously an Executive Editor at Rodale.

Roger Labrie has left his position as Senior Editor at S&S and will be providing freelance editorial services to agents and authors. He is based in Summit, NJ, and may be reached atrlabrie311@comcast.net

Josalyn Moran, who left her job as children’s publishing director at Chronicle Books to become VP of publishing at Albert Whitman in 2010, will step down from that role at the end of the year. Whitman head John Quattrocchi said in a memo that “having achieved all preset goals,” Moran will transition to an advisory role from St. Louis.

Peter Miller has been hired as Director of Publicity at Liveright Publishing, the new division of W.W. Norton. He was formerly with Bloomsbury and Walker.

William Kiester is leaving his position as Publisher at Fair Winds Press after five years. In 2012 he will be pursuing a new publishing venture. He can be reached at williamkiester@gmail.com.

Dystel & Goderich Literary Management has hired Morris Shamah as the agency’s new Royalties Director and Junior Agent. Shamah previously worked at Writers House and the Carol Mann Agency as an intern.

Amy Grillo has been named Digital and Print Projects Manager at The Museum of Modern Art. She was Digital Accounts Manager at Hachette.

Marcy Goot is leaving Kaplan, where she was Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, and moving to California to be Marketing Director, Literacy Program, at non-profit Benetech. She may be reached at marcyg@benetech.org

PROMOTIONS AND INTERNAL CHANGES

Kate Klimo, VP Publisher Random House/Golden Books, is moving over to the television side of the Random House Young Readers Group.  Her contact info will remain the same.

At Grand Central, Ben Greenberg has been promoted to Executive Editor; Alex Logan moves up to Editor; and Latoya Smith is promoted to Associate Editor.

Vanessa Mobley is being promoted to Executive Editor at Crown, reporting to Molly Stern.

At Public Affairs, Tessa Shanks has been promoted to Assistant Director of Publicity.

Paul Whitlatch has been promoted to Editor at Scribner. He was previously an Associate Editor.

Deborah Aaronson has been promoted to Associate Publisher, Abrams adult trade, with responsibility for editorial resources and the adult art and design department. Both Aaronson and Publishing Director for lifestyle Leslie Stoker will report to Tager. Jennifer Levesque moves up to Editorial Director, reporting to Aaronson, where she will oversee Abrams Image.

Lauren Shakely, who stepped down last month as Senior VP, Publisher, Clarkson Potter, is reachable at lshakely@earthlink.net

DULY NOTED

Below is the Audio Publishers Association just-released annual Survey Highlights:

• Unit sales were up nearly 10% in the past year, showing continued consumer interest in audiobooks.
• Based on the companies who reported (representing 61% of industry), total net sales (after returns) are up by 2 million units and $2 million.
• The total number of audiobooks being published doubled in the past three years, from 3,073 in 2007 to 6,200 in 2010.
• Audiobook downloads continued on a growth trend representing 36% of dollar volume (up from 29% in 2009) and 52% of unit sales (up from 48% in 2009)
• In the past 5 years, downloading has grown 300% by dollar volume (from 9% in 2005) and 150% in terms of units (from 21% in 2005).
• The CD format still represents the largest single source of dollars but showed slight declines overall in 2010 – 58% of revenue (down from 65%) and 43% of unit sales (down from 46%).
• Unabridged editions (89% of the market by dollars; 85% of the market by units) continue to lead in sales.

******

The Women’s National Book Association wants to know about bookstores in the United States that excel at inspiring kid’s interest in reading, as well as creatively bringing books and young people together. The organization will present the annual WNBA Pannell Award to two bookstores—one a general bookstore and one a children’s specialty bookstore—at BookExpo America in June. Each recipient will receive a check for $1,000 and a framed piece of original art by a noted children’s book illustrator. Deadline for nominations is Jan. 15. Nominated stores can make their submissions to the Pannell jury electronically via email: vtomaselli@mtmpublishing.com

UPCOMING EVENTS

The spring awards seasons begins in January, with the Newberry and Caldecott medals, which will be presented along with the Coretta Scott King Book Awards on January 23, 2012, at the midwinter ALA in Dallas. For details go to: http://ala.org

The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction will be given in Toronto on March 5, 2012. For  details go to http://www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca/

The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Awards take place on March 8 at The New School, 66 West 12th Street.  For details go to http://bit.ly/txEwEZ

The 16th Annual Books for a Better Life Awards will take place Monday, March 12, 2012 at the The New York Times Center at 242 W. 41st St.   For details go to: http://bit.ly/rHJoCZ

PEN New England is now accepting submissions for the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for books published in 2011. The award of $8,000 is presented for a novel or book of short stories by an American author who has not previously published a book of fiction. The award will be presented at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston on Sunday, April 1, 2012.

Anna Quindlen has been named  honorary national chairperson for World Book Night US. World Book Night is a campaign to give away a million free books across America all on one day — April 23, 2012 — by enlisting 50,000 volunteer book lovers to help promote reading by going into their communities and distributing free copies of a book they especially enjoy. World Book Night US has opened the registration process for those wishing to become volunteer book givers. They can go to www.us.worldbooknight.org and register through February 1, 2012.

So which ereader closes out 2011 reigning supreme? Study the following evidence to come to your own verdict:

“Just two weeks after its introduction, Amazon’s Kindle Fire already is shaking up the market, with the device expected to surpass all other iPad rivals to take second place in the global media tablet business in the fourth quarter.”

– Rhoda Alexander, iSuppli (12/2/2011)

“Overall, if you’re looking for a tablet to listen to music or watch movies, you’ll likely find the more integrated software experience on the Kindle Fire to be a better fit. If you’re mainly interested in reading books and magazines, the $249 Nook Tablet packs a great value.”

– Michael J. Miller, PC Magazine (12/6/2011)

“All the individual grievances — recorded on Amazon’s own Web site — received a measure of confirmation last week when Jakob Nielsen, a usability expert, denounced the Fire, saying it offered ‘a disappointingly poor’ experience. For users whose fingers are not as slender as toothpicks, he warned, the screen could be particularly frustrating to manipulate.”

– David Streitfeld, The New York Times (12/11/2011)

“Kobo also remains arguably the best choice for a truly international e-reader, due to its wide-ranging set of global partners and willingness to allow content from other stores that use the EPUB standard (including Sony and Smashwords).”

– Tim Carmody, Wired Magazine (January issue)

“The Sony Reader Wi-Fi lacks the menu finesse and social media hooks that Barnes & Noble’s Nook Simple Touch boasts. But its new pricing puts it right in line with its e-reader competition, and as a result it’s an attractive choice, especially for people who prize light weight, navigation flexibility, and easy access to reading text PDFs.”

– Melissa J. Perenson, PC World (US online) (12/14/2011)

“In a note to clients issued Monday, Hudson Square Research’s Daniel Ernst reported on the results of a pre-holiday scouting trip he took to retail stores in New York and Connecticut over the weekend — only a handful of shopping days before Christmas — where he found “floor traffic up materially, but lines at checkout short.” …Amazon’s (AMZN) tablet sales, however, were a mystery: ’While Amazon reported that the Kindle family of devices was selling more than 1M units per week, we continue to be surprised that the Kindle Fire is still in-stock (as opposed to sold-out).’”

– Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune blog (12/19/2011)

When I started working in the mid 1980s, the publishing world was not unlike the one I’m leaving today.  It’s filled with passionate people questioning how the business will get through the latest transitions.  Whether it’s the death of the book club; the decreasing influence of reviews (or just the decrease of them and reviewers, period); the birth, then death, of the superstore; the multi-national conglomeration of houses; complaints about distribution and returns: or about a fickle reading  public, everything old is new again.  Only one thing really blindsided us – the ebook and its radical transformation of our field.

It’s too early to know if this new medium will have a radical effect on the work of publishing folk, finish independent bookstores off for good or come to prevail in the form of Kindle or iPad. But it’s not too early to wonder if the new medium will lead writers to new forms.  Will Hypertext, once promoted by Robert Coover and other experimental writers, have a renaissance?  What else will change with digitization?

In my new job as the Literature Director of the National Endowment for the Arts, I hope to lead grantees—specifically small presses and journals—to a better understanding of our new world so that they  have a fighting chance to prevail.  The non-profit presses and magazines that the NEA funds publish work of the highest artistic merit.  More than ever, they fill in where the large publishing houses leave gaps by supporting mid-career writers; in translation; in poetry; in publishing work that is both culturally and formally adventurous. Ebooks and POD technology also give these small presses a chance to spend less on inventory and more on editorial and marketing.  That’s good news.

A different world can offer new and exciting opportunities; it can even help those who have been marginalized by mainstream publishing.  My hope is that the transitions we are facing, hard as they are to fathom at times, do some good for those who need it most.  Non-profit presses are our farm teams.  Please spend this year thinking about how you can support their work.

Congratulations, U.S. trade publishers – you have successfully surfed the Conversion Wave. Your frontlist and active backlist are now digital, and the remaining challenges (fixed format, complex conversions, deep backlist, out of print and reverted titles, etc.) are in sight of solution. Can publishers now relax? Nope—the next wave is already here: Digital Discovery, and it promises to offer similar disruptions, costs and opportunities.

Discovery is the next frontier for at least 5 reasons:

1) traditional marketing avenues are waning or fully optimized; 2) the entire chain of distribution-purchase-consumption is digital, and we are now wired for impulse purchases;  3) Every avenue of promotion is either born digital, or lives on digitally via coverage, amplification, archiving and/or sharing. 4) Smartphones and tablets mean that consumer attention is less captive by place and time and so can be spent in ways the consumer finds most rewarding; 5) Browsing is being reinvented and new tools for Interaction, Integration, Connection, Comments and Commerce are emerging.

So, while the goals of book discovery are fairly eternal—to get noticed, get sampled, get merchandised, get qualified, get awarded, get discussed, get bought, get read, get recommended, etc.—the means are rapidly evolving, and require attention:

• Recommendations reinvention: recommendations that are increasingly amplified by social media, analyzed by metacritic-like scoring, and auto-generated by profile-based engines, etc.
• Social Media Monitoring: Getting noticed means not only starting conversations (via traditional PR) but finding and analyzing relevant and influential conversations to join in real time—(via Twitter, Facebook, comments, posts, sentiment)
• Platforms and Assets: these relevant social conversations don’t take well to ad-speak, so publishers need to have the right, more personal platforms, i.e. actual editors and authors rather than imprint Twitter handles.  And, the right bite-sized sharable assets (short excerpts, short video, value-added context, etc.) to contribute
• Getting bought means not just being available for purchase on an e-tailer site, but coming up higher in search; so SEO and SEM techniques applied to enhanced metadata will be increasingly crucial

At Perseus, we have active efforts across all these discovery avenues, which requires leaning in with startups, inventing new tools, piloting new approaches, and coordinating across the ecosystem of author, publisher, retailer and discovery partners. Happy 2012—think of it as the Year of Discovery.

If 2011 was the Year of  Change in the book industry with the dramatic rise of digital and with shifting roles and reinvention the new norm, from where I sit, 2012 will be the Year of Collaboration. Basically, we all realize that we can’t do it alone . . . and why should we? What one does well another does less so and vice versa. The basic wheel has already been invented, but there are always new spins on it.

A few examples—at Ingram, we’ve spent decades building strong distribution capabilities, pioneering print on demand and more recently, launching a full-service digital distribution and sales program. But it still took individual publishers working with us to look beyond the models we’d already built to see what’s possible.

In 2010, Laura Baldwin, the COO and CFO of O’Reilly Media challenged us to put our existing capabilities to use and to help them move from carrying lots of inventory to carrying little, while still never missing a sale. Today, through our POD and distribution services, we manage O’Reilly’s inventory and print their books. Macmillan also had slower moving books they wanted to continue publishing. We had space, systems and print capability, and another new model was born in which Ingram houses, ships and, in some cases, prints several thousand titles for the Macmillan imprints. Collaboration.

And HarperCollins wanted to expand their reach to Christian booksellers; now, Ingram Publisher Services/Spring Arbor has launched a new distribution program into Christian markets. Award-winning books, coupled with strong market access. Collaboration.

Brill chose to hand over its digital books to Ingram’s CoreSource platform to distribute and archive its scholarly volumes to bookselling partners worldwide, allowing Brill more time to concentrate on publishing academic content rather than devote resources to the logistics of redistribution of e-content. More collaboration.

These are just a few of our examples at Ingram, but there are numerous others in the industry. Penguin recently announced a “virtual inventory” model in partnership with a printer. Earlier this year, HarperCollins and long-time print partner struck a deal that significantly changed the publisher’s supply chain model. Oxford University Press launched University Press Scholarship Online, so other university presses can offer their own monograph repositories around the world. These collaborations are just the tip of the iceberg.

I’ve had the pleasure of being in the book industry in one capacity or another since the late ‘70s (please don’t do the math!), yet I’ve never been more excited about what is possible, probable and yet to be discovered. There are a few things I know for certain—the Reader, our ultimate boss—is in for a treat as we bring them tremendous content (and 2011 was chock-full of it)  in brand new as well as in familiar ways. I also know this will come about behind the scenes and amongst the various players in the book industry through growing collaboration and specialization. Experts enabling other experts to do what they do best. From where I sit, everybody wins—publishers, distributors, booksellers . . . and, ultimately, readers.