BOOK BIZ | Healthy, Says Ingram, Citing WSJ

If you don't study your history you are a leaf
disconnected from its tree, said Michael
Crichton. So there.

May 31, 2018 – In its regular emailed newsletter, the book distribution giant Ingram reports that the publishing industry is alive and well, the focus of the attention of several investors with deep pockets.

I was blessed with a copy of the Ingram email because I stopped by their Javits Center booth this morning at BookExpo. Ingram offers a great deal to self-publishers, including hard-cover options in  a variety of sizes.

In support of the thesis that book publishing has a great future, Ingram cites an article from earlier in the month in the Wall Street Journal that names Snap Inc. Chairman, Michael Lynton, billionaire Len Blavatnik, and Ellis Jones, chairman of investment firm Wasserstein & Co., among investors pouring millions of dollars into printed books.

The immediate focus of the WSJ article was the acquisition by Lynton and the investors of the regional publishing company Arcadia, which engages nostalgia buffs by producing collections of high-quality old photographs in heritage books. Arcadia is the largest local-history publishing company in the United States, with 14,000 titles.