Todays links of interest: 15 (More) Twitter Users Shaping the Future of PublishingThe awesome Hugh McGuire introduces his top 15. We are honored to be included. Chris Anderson on What Does NOT Work in Book MarketingVideo interview with Chris Anderson.
Todays links of interest: End of an era for early websitesAs GeoCities is razed, the Internet Archive attempts to save the memories. Pretty cool, huh?, how we have people thinking now about preserving our (sometimes ephemeral Internet) past for the future? Love it. It’s not digital publishing. It’s publishing.Kate Eltham makes an excellent point. DIY Publishing: What’s Worth Paying for?Excellent post from Maria Schneider.
Todays links of interest: What Can Book Publishing Learn from Online Gaming?Immersive story. E-Book Fans Are Proving to Be Enthusiastic ReadersCount books purchases as up in the Booksquare household as well. Bookglutton Launches Social Bookstore With O’Reilly TitlesVery, very cool. We love Bookglutton and O’Reilly.
A lot happened in publishing this week — so much that just as I wrapped my head around one thing, something new popped up to either make me re-evaluate my previous thinking…or to send me down a different rabbit hole. Let’s just put it out there: once you’ve gone subterranean, things start to make a lot of sense. Which probably accounts for my mood today. Here in the dark and dangerous world of the publishing underground, spirits are sapped and minds are bent. Sometimes you travel toward the bright light, only to find a seemingly insurmountable pile of “that’s how
Todays links of interest: L.A. Times, Newspaper MorgueAnd the LA Times keeps cutting staff. Sigh. Readers are not the enemyAuthors, read this important commentary from one of your best customers. In-App Sales and iTablet: The Killer Combo to Save Publishing?Now *this* is interesting.
Todays links of interest: What is “Library Bypass”?Hmm, this topic has arisen in various forums several times in the past week. Something in the air or everyone seeing a smart solution to a looming problem? Joe Esposito offers his thoughts. 75 wordsWhat came after information wants to be free? Quite a bit actually. Edifying. Important. Exclusive: A Talk With the ‘Wild Things’ CreatorsRead for Maurice Sendak’s commentary on his fight with his editors over the word hot.
Todays links of interest: Patricia Cornwell’s Latest MysterySad story, but a solid lesson at the end: when you let other people manage your money, you should at least pay attention to what they’re doing. You Can’t Even Buy ‘Wolf Hall’ (Because of the Nazi Capitalist E-Book Conspiracy!)Or due to stupid publishing tricks. Your call. Reclaiming Your Copyright After Thirty-Five YearsMust-read for all authors. Jane Litte on copyright terms, reversion, and reclaiming your copyright.
In his Frankfurt wrap-up, Richard Nash distills a lot of thoughts and questions into some very big ideas. Picking a single quote was hard, so go read and consider the whole thing. There will be an essay test later. What this means is that we (publishers, authors, agents) are going to need to make decisions based on the world that is (people will make unauthorized copies, people will undercut your price), rather than the world we will wish for. Until recently, it was not clear that the publishing industry accepted this, but these statements by Richard Charkin, Victoria Barnsley and
Todays links of interest: What is the Problem with International Ebooks?Joanna Penn throws several ideas into the mix: prices, rights, and the US-centric ebook marketplace. Will The Lost Symbol Kill Book Publishing?No. Off the Shelf, Onto the Laptop – Libraries Try Digital BooksOh yeah, libraries are queuing up to be the next big issue in ebook world. Stay tuned…this one is going to especially bumpy.
Like so many others, I am bemused by some of the coverage of the Tools of Change Frankfurt conference (bemused=not sure people interviewed were at same conference I attended)*. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but when your industry is undergoing what can generously be described as upheaval, it is imperative that you listen to other viewpoints. You do not have to agree, but if you’re not hearing what the other side is saying, you are making a huge mistake. DRM — Digital Rights Management — has effective and useful applications. I heard representatives from major European publishers say (and
