E-books have finally seemed to take hold in the marketplace in a big way. The major publishers are selling more e-books than they are paper books, and Christian publishers will not be far behind in captializing on this trend.
Hachette recently announced that James Patterson had sold 1.14 million e-books to date, the first author to top the one million e-book sales list. Of those, 867,881 were Kindle books.
Five authors– Charlaine Harris, Stieg Larsson, Stephenie Meyer, James Patterson and Nora Roberts, have each sold more than 500,000 Kindle books, according to Amazon. “Over the past three months for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 143 Kindle books. Over the past month, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 180 Kindle books.”
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Professional attendance at the 2010 International Christian Retail Show in St. Louis was 1,593, or flat, as compared to 1,605 in professional attendance in 2009, according to audited numbers reported by CBA (formerly the Christian Booksellers Association).
CBA is the trade association for the Christian Retail Channel, serving Christian bookstoires, including independents, regional and national chains, church-owned stores, franchises, and marketing groups. These stores provide Bibles, Christian books, curriculum, apparel, music, videos, gifts, greeting cards, children’s resources, and other materials.
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Barnes & Noble is up for sale, and insiders say it’s going to go for bottom dollar. The chain, with all their superstores, used to strike fear into the hearts of mom-and-pop booksellers. Even their religious section often had greater depth and range than the average Christian bookstore.
Why did the big barn bookseller come to such an ignoble end? According to James B. Stewart at the Wall Street Journal, it was because they were behind the curve when it came to exploiting the Internet. Barnes & Noble was in the position to be the market leader, but they gave that position away when they put the emphasis on brick-and-mortar rather than electronic sales. Barnes & Noble was slow to exploit the Internet with digital reading devices and e-books. They did enter that market, but it was too little and too late.
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Author: Fred Von Kamecke
“Reputation management” is the new buzzword on the Internet. There are companies that will alert you if someone says something bad about you online so you have a chance to challenge it. These companies are going to make a mint off the egocentric and thin-skinned. Christ and Christians have been getting a bad rap for millennia, yet the Lord abides, and the righteous endure no matter what people say, so should Christians play the reputation game?
In his book, Busted: Exposing Popular Myths about Christianity, it appears that Fred Von Kamecke is taking a shot at doing reputation management for Jesus, the Bible and matters of Christian faith. He is not on that Quixotian journey however – his approach is much more fun – he is a theological myth buster.
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The U.S. Constitition guarantees the the right of authors to make money off their intellectual property. In Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8, it says that the Congress has the power “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”
The first Congress came up with a law pretty quickly when it convened. While other issues remained on the back burner, they enacted the first Copyright law in 1790. That law has been reshaped over the years, primarily because people were living longer and the length of a vaild copyright was extended. Changing technology also had a role in changes to copyright law; it has been amended over time to keep up with the times. Revisions came in 1831, 1870, 1909 and 1976.
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