Event Description

Panel
PUBLISHING 101: Trends in the Book Biz

Monday, January 28, 2007

“When did the rules change?” Many writers and journalists have pondered this question over and over about book publishing, which has completely undergone a metamorphosis in the past decade. The Internet, media consolidation, big-box vs. independent bookstores, the boom in self-publishing/online “e-books” and blogs, and Hollywood-style demographics, age discrimination, and target-audience issues have transformed what was once the most stable and reliable of media industries into a completely new — and relatively uncharted — landscape.

IWOSC kicks off 2008 with a panel created to untangle some of these knotty career issues. It includes experts from every checkpoint of modern publishing -an agent for one of Hollywood’s most A-list literary and talent agencies and a top book publicist. Plus, two of LA’s most prominent booksellers — one anchored in the independent bookseller world while the other hails from one of the nation’s premiere chain bookstores.

A sampling of issues to be addressed:
*The boom in non-fiction publishing over the last 25 years * why it is more difficult to acquire an agent and a major publishing house *the decline in traditional paperbacks * when preppy, buzzy, young first-time authors are paid top dollar — where does that leave young and mature writers starting out? * What carries more weight? A fiction author’s career, platform, and education or how well an author writes? * The trend toward specific markets such as gay/lesbian, black or Latino, chick or lad lit, etc. * What booksellers are looking for in new books and new authors * What types of books are considered hot for the foreseeable future and which ones are so last year.

Moderator, Telly Davidson