The BS team spent the first full day of 2008’s Book Expo America watching booksellers, publishers, agents, authors, and everyone else get religion. In 2006, Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics, spoke to what should have been this crowd about the future and how the publishing business needed to move forward quickly…sadly, Tapscott spoke a large […]
Articles from May 2008
BEA 2008 – Basic Web 2.0 Takeaways
May 30th, 2008 · 8 Comments
File Under: Marketing For Introverts · Perennials
The eBook Problem and The eBook Solution
May 28th, 2008 · 24 Comments
I am increasingly convinced that ebooks are not going to be the next big thing. While every pundit waits eagerly for signs of an ebook “surge”, ebooks will increase market share in a slow and steady way. By the time it’s noticed, ebooks will simply be part of the mainstream reading mix. It’s closer to […]
File Under: Non-Traditional Publishing
Microsoft Ends Live Book Search
May 23rd, 2008 · 2 Comments
Wow, usually it’s the government dumping news on Friday; you don’t expect it from Microsoft, but here you have it: they’re discontinuing their Live Book Search project. Effective, well, now. They say: Today we informed our partners that we are ending the Live Search Books and Live Search Academic projects and that both sites will […]
File Under: The Future of Publishing
Life On Venus: Authors Do Market
May 21st, 2008 · 36 Comments
Dan Green is one of my favorite bloggers — smart and provocative — even though we see the world from very different perspectives. I would rather read a 1000 of his words over 10 of most bloggers, even when he takes exception to one my recent comments, one where I was baffled about authors who […]
File Under: Marketing For Introverts · Perennials
Story vs. Book: The Future of Publishing
May 19th, 2008 · 8 Comments
It has been suggested that I am in love with new concepts, new media. It’s true. I am absolutely in love with “new” media models (as opposed to new media models, though I am very fond of those as well). As an old media person who has witnessed successes and failures and inefficiencies, I am […]
File Under: The Future of Publishing
Not A Formula For Success
May 12th, 2008 · 28 Comments
Once there was an author who wrote a book. He (though he could have been she) sent the book to his editor who cried at the beauty of the words and published the book and the people bought this book and declared it a thing of wonder and the book was deemed an American Classic […]
File Under: Marketing For Introverts · Perennials
In Defense Of Women’s Fiction Book Covers
May 5th, 2008 · 16 Comments
As a long-time romance novel reader — yes, Mom, I know, but I never warmed to the serial killers — I know that many of the books will never qualify as “great”. Still, there are a lot of talented writers telling incredible stories with amazing voice and creativity in the genre. This is so for […]
File Under: Square Pegs