The eBook Tipping Point: The New Issues It Creates
Speakers: Michael Cader, Publishers Lunch; Larry Kirshbaum, Literary Agent; Ken Brooks, Cengage Learning; Evan Schnittman, Oxford University Press
Moderator: Mike Shatzkin, The Idea Logical Company
eBook sales are still a single-digit percentage of most trade publishers' sales and only creep into double-digits for some of the new titles coming out. Even so, digital change has already been disruptive, forcing many publishers to rethink their release windows, their sales terms and tactics, and their entire approach to marketing. One can only imagine what changes the industry will face when the eBook percentage doubles or triples from where it is now, which recent history suggests might occur in a relatively short time period. Library lending could threaten single copy sales, agents might be splitting off eBook rights when they make print deals, and territoriality might be eliminated in the digital book arena. How will publishers react to all of that?

Because the changes are so disruptive, it is hard for incumbent C-level executives to talk about them publicly. So DBW Conference Chair Mike Shatzkin has assembled a panel of experts who know the business inside and out and who can predict the future without jeopardizing their jobs or their companies. Ken Brooks of Cengage, Michael Cader of Publishers Lunch, literary agent (and former TimeWarner Books CEO) Larry Kirshbaum, and Evan Schnittman of Oxford University Press will peer into their personal crystal balls and tell us all what big changes are in publishing's pretty short term future. What they say will surprise some people and terrify many others, but this group is too smart and too knowledgeable to be ignored.

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Ken Brooks 
Cengage Learning

Mr. Brooks is senior vice president, global production and manufacturing services at Cengage Learning (formerly Thomson Learning) where his responsibilities include the development, production, and manufacturing of textbooks and reference content in print and digital formats across the Academic and Professional Group, Gale, and International divisions of Cengage Learning... Read More 




Evan Schnittman 
Oxford University Press

Evan Schnittman is responsible for all licensing and digital partnerships across OUP’s various content divisions. He has over 23 years of publishing related business experience having held positions as an EVP at The Princeton Review, Senior Editor at Little, Brown, amongst others... Read More 


Michael Cader 
Publishers Lunch

Michael Cader is the creator of Publishers Lunch, the largest-circulation book publishing industry publication in the world, and its companion website PublishersMarketplace.com, which offers comprehensive news, databases, tools and more... Read More