Thursday, May 5, 2011

"We're undergoing a revolution"

When she called Brendan Cahill, a young manager, to launch a startup in the digital book, he did not hesitate. "Everything is new. We must constantly invent, decide quickly. That risk, lots of adrenaline, but a lot of confidence when we see how it progresses." Brendan is now vice-president of the Open Road, a publisher of books exclusively digital.

She is Jane Friedman, her boss, who has released a management position at the leading publisher HarperCollins in spring 2009 at the peak of the economic crisis, to start this business. The fund financier-producer-director Jim Kohlberg (director of The MusicNever Stopped) has invested $ 7 million.

They started at six, they are now 19 - 13 of which are just marketing. "It is said Mr. Cahill, in full revolution. Everything is mixed: telephone, computer, TV, video, news online, books, newspapers ... It should not be mistaken in the new way to publish and sell books. But if you happen ...

" He does not say, but he thinks the jackpot. His prognosis? "It is said that the e-book will hold 50% market share in 2015. But with the improvements that will experience the iPad or Kindle, we'll be there before." Meanwhile, he continues to refer to the release, at Open Road, Sophie's Choice (William Styron).

But this case is almost unique. The catalog shows that the vast majority of titles from the publisher - he will have 2000 before the end of the year - have been acquired at very low prices. The digitized works "good authors" are rare ... or older. The experts say a major change introduced by the e-book is the revival of the "backlist", old books removed as it just scan and relist.

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