News and Links for September 18, 2009

[K Sawyer Paul]

 

Dan Brown’s ‘Lost Symbol’ Sells 1 Million Copies in the First Day. That, my friends, is a lot. 

But before you get all excited about how this one book is going to make everything okay, make sure you read 'The Lost Symbol' won't save publishing and resume your weeping.

BUT, there's a BOUNTY OF BOOKS, and publishers cautiously optimistic about fall bo.... Talk about mixed signals, right?

Here's an organization we can get behind, The Green Press Initiative, a non-profit that wants to work with publishers to lower their environmental damage. I do have one problem with their "solutions for publishers" list. It doesn't include pushing ebooks, which are 100% better for the environment than paper books. 

Finally, here's your big important article of the day: Peter Darnton talk at Columbia University – “Google, Libraries, and.... More than anything, explains why Google winning might be *gasp* a good thing.