Not to beat a Dead Symbol, but here’s an update on Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol” sales. The Kindle version is outselling the Hard Cover edition on Amazon’s website! We’ve been following the back and forth between the publishing industry and Amazon for several months, and this latest data point should really focus some minds. … Continue reading
“The Lost Symbol“ by Dan Brown was published a few days ago. His last book, “The DaVinci Code” has more than 81 million copies in print world wide. With books sales down about 15% this year the entire publishing industry is hoping that “The Lost Symbol” will pull consumers into bookstores and boost sales for … Continue reading
Several weeks ago we castigated the book publishing industry, and in particular Knoff Doubleday, for the idiocy that passed for their marketing strategy of e-Books. At the time of our post Knoff Doubleday had declined to offer “The Lost Symbol“, Dan Brown’s (author of Da Vinci Code) new book on Amazon’s Kindle until some unspecified … Continue reading
In a previous post we brought you up to speed on what passes for strategic thinking in the book publishing world regarding electronic editions. Instead of working with distributors like Amazon (Kindle) to develop new business models, the publishers have been screwing their partners by forcing them to sell e-books at a loss, while they increase … Continue reading
At least the lawyers kiss you first. I’m not a huge fan of the legal profession, but compared to the people who package the laundry detergent at warehouse stores, they are squeeky clean. About three years ago we consumers were the beneficiaries of a huge step forward in state-of-the-art packaging. Laundry Detergent delivered in new … Continue reading
I guess I completely missed the 80’s. I know for sure I missed the 60’s, but I came by that honestly; as in “if you remember the 60’s you weren’t there.” So imagine the surprise when my son Matthew told me he found a really great T-Shirt featuring a Flock of Gulls. He pointed me … Continue reading
Walter Cronkite passed away today, so we are down one icon. But thankfully the Economist’s Big Mac Index soldiers on. In a previous post we expressed concern that Big Mac might be supplanted by Big White, but our fears were unfounded. Herewith the latest Index, no ketchup required. Just to review, The Economist has been … Continue reading
This wasn’t going to be a post about multi-tasking, but I got distracted. And then I realized I was…wait for it… multi-tasking! But before we get to multi-tasking, my original purpose was to review an audible.com book. “Audible” books are a great way to spend your time when you are already spending your time. It’s … Continue reading
The Credit Card guys have a bunch of algorithms to spot fraud. Supposedly, a sure-fire way to set off alarm bells a few years ago were these charges: A gas tank fillup. Another gas tank fillup. A charge at a Sporting Goods store. The idea was that the stolen card is first used to fill … Continue reading
Traveling in a foreign country teaches you to get familiar with a few key words in the local dialect, especially if you are language-challenged like me. So it’s been natural for me to learn some PLU when I venture out to the grocery store. Especially since PLU’s are just numbers. It’s not that I can … Continue reading