Friday, September 21, 2012

A New Digital Publisher to Challenge Amazon?

Did you catch the article on the front Business Page of Wednesday's New York Times this week? It looks like there's a new player in the digital publishing world with an eye to making a big splash. The new company is called Brightline.

The people involved are entertainment moguls Scott Rudin (film and theater producer), and Barry Diller (IAC/Interactive Corp. Chmn), along with Frances Coady (long-time publishing executive), and Evan Ratliff (one of the founders of Atavist, the company that will provide the online publishing experience and expertise).

As noted in the article, the traditional publishing industry has been in turmoil for some time. The principals of Brightline are seeing an opportunity with their entirely new venture, which they feel will be able to get considerable traction through a combination of high-profile projects without "the legacy costs and practices of traditional publishing."

Brightline has big name connections and possibilities. Scott Rudin often works with Michael Chabon, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Jonathan Franzen, for example, and Brightline "will pay big advances to compete for big-name authors," and "will publish e-books and eventually physical books in a partnership with Atavist."

Brightline and Atavist will remain separate entities for the time being, and lots of questions still haven't been answered about the actual distribution and payment to authors, etc. But as Barry Diller said, when expressing their hopes, "There is a possibility here that if we start with a blank piece of paper that you could hit the opportunity that exists in the book business."

Just one small mention was made in the article about Brightline's possible challenge to Amazon's market share dominance in the digital book market (which it placed at 65% of sales). Intriguing.

This is one to watch.

8 comments:

  1. Hadn't heard of this Linda. Thanks for sharing about it. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is fascinating. You know with every shift in the industry, there will always be room for ingenuity. And Amazon has 65% of market share? Wow. Is that just with ebooks? A company to watch. I hope you'll keep us posted on the progress.

    Is this someplace you might send your novel?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, 65% is the e-book market. This new company . . . sounds to me like they want to hit the ground running with big names, and probably won't be looking too actively for newbies, at least for a while!

      Delete
    2. I wonder if they have a newbie they believe in, they may just get flagged at the power of finding new talent too. You just never know.

      Delete
    3. Definitely worth keeping an eye on, just in case! :)

      Delete
  3. They definitely sound like one to watch. They have my attention now for sure. Thank you for this post!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're welcome, Heather. It is a really interesting development. These guys are major, so fingers crossed!

      Delete