According to OverDrive CEO Steve Potash, each month, library patrons interact with Web pages that display publishers’ books “hundreds of millions” of times.

Barnes & Noble and other booksellers will have a tough time competing with Amazon following the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Apple and some of the largest U.S. publishers, say some in the publishing industry. With the renewed ability to set prices on more e-books that it sells, Amazon will resume discounting of e-books and selling them at a loss, putting price pressure on other retailers.

Amazon’s focus on doing business with customers who buy everything from books to food to home goods from the online retailer puts those solely concerned with selling books at an economic disadvantage, said James McQuivey, Ph.D., vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research at the Digital Book World Conference in an exclusive video interview.

The so-called agency model where publishers set the prices on e-books sold through online retailers — often higher than the $9.99 that has quickly become an expected price for e-books — may offer an advantage to those publishers who do not price their books higher than $9.99.

Hyperion president and CEO Ellen Archer believes the book business is changing. Fast, fundamentally and forever. At the Digital Book World Conference, she sat down with us to discuss one of the ways in which Hyperion is adapting: by being more strategic with its acquisitions.

Publishers are more optimistic that they won’t see “significant” drops in print revenue in 2012, according to a recent survey. That optimism may be misplaced.

“They were really expecting that ‘we just have to get a website up and maybe a couple Twitter accounts and we’re done’ and bless ‘em for being so naïve. But they’re now in the middle of it, and they realize, ‘wait a minute, the very nature of the book itself, the path that we follow to make people aware of that book … has completely changed now and we don’t know what levers to push.’”

As traditional sales and marketing channels change, diminish or disappear altogether, book publishers plan on investing in new, direct-to-consumer marketing initiatives in 2012, according to a recent survey.

A prominent industry analyst sees the book industry splitting into three parts: straight text, children’s books and illustrated or non-immersive adult books. But why?

Jeremy Greenfield | While publishers and libraries work out their relationship in the digital age, a new study suggests that publishers may be leaving money on the table.

Jeremy Greenfield | Competitive compensation, generous benefits and access to top authors and top industry talent are why human resource professionals at big-six publishing houses say you should come work for them. Here’s an inside look on working at some of publishing’s biggest houses.

Jeremy Greenfield | Will librarians go the way of the soda jerk, telephone operator and travel agent? A new study suggests it’s already happening.

Jeremy Greenfield | E-tail giant and major bookseller Amazon may be headed to a neighborhood near you if a rumor published online proves true. Question is: Would it be good or bad for the book publishing industry?

Jeremy Greenfield | Publishers are less optimistic in 2011 that the shift to digital will mean more people reading more books than they were in 2010, according to a Digital Book World survey conducted by Forrester Research, Inc.

Jeremy Greenfield | A new study suggests that children prefer e-books to print books and that they retain and comprehend an equal amount of information from both. Still in its infancy, the children’s e-book industry is grasping for information about how children and parents read their books.

Jeremy Greenfield | For those in book publishing, 2011 was a surreal experience – books sales shifting dramatically to e-books, hundreds of retail stores closing, Amazon selling its own tablet to compete with the iPad. Some of the biggest stories of 2011 will continue to unfold in 2012. Here are the ones to watch.

Rich Fahle | In this exclusive interview, Kristen McClean, founder and chief executive officer of Bookigee, discusses her attempts to write a book on book publishing, the future of the industry and her warning to authors.