Square Pegs

It’s hard to believe another year has passed, and that it’s time for the annual Tools of Change for Publishing Conference. This year’s conference will be held in New York from February 14 through February 16, 2011, and (I know I say this every year) has the best possible line-up of speakers and programming. To give you a hint of what’s in store for you, I forced Kat Meyer, Conference Co-Chair to answer a few deeply important questions. And — if you haven’t already registered for the conference — at the end of this post, you can learn how to […]

No matter where you stand on the various issues surrounding the future of publishing, one thing is clear: without readers, what we do doesn’t matter very much. We sometimes take the privilege of our bookish lives for granted, forgetting how many people out there would give anything to be able to pick up a book and read it. Yet, this is the season of giving (and, yes, tax deductions). Every year, we here at Booksquare make a pitch for our favorite causes, hoping some of you, like us, will find a little something extra to give this now and in

It thrills me that the book community is actively participating in the South by Southwest Interactive festival. For some, it’s an opportunity to explore the latest and greatest in technologies and trends; for others, it’s a chance to discover how others fit into the publishing ecosystem; and, for all, it’s a chance to connect with a wider community, expanding points of view. Not only is the bookish world attending SXSWi, but they are also actively participating as speakers. Which means, yes, once again I bring you a listing of book-related panels with brief descriptions. Part of the panel selection process

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The Unicorn has landed, and like all mythical beasts, it has some magic powers. And like all mythical beasts, the legend may be greater than the reality. Of course, this depends on what you were expecting versus what you got. I expected that the iPad, at least initially, would be a larger, faster, more feature rich version of the iPhone/Touch, and, so far, that’s what I’ve gotten. As app developers get their hands on the device and explore potential, I fully expect applications that rethink “computing” — we’ve seen hints of this already. It’s really hard to develop without a

And it happened. Traditional book publishers were out in force at South by Southwest Interactive this year. I was pleased to see so many stepping outside the publisher bubble and into the crazy interactive bubble. I was even more pleased by the breadth of sessions my compatriots attended. Foursquare tells all, my friends! I don’t attend South by Southwest for “aha” moments, though I’ve had them. I tend to soak up zeitgeist, themes, and trends. Many of the ideas I note below are not unique to this year’s festival. I’d say most have been simmering along for a while. This

My mark of a good conference is how I feel when it’s over. It’s a given that I’ll be exhausted (I am an introvert after all), so the test is whether or not I’m inspired to do something. Read, write, create, think. This is how I felt at the end of this year’s Tools of Change conference. Ready to roll. There are a lot of of conferences focused on the changes facing publishing. Some might say too many, but I disagree. Over the next few decades, we will see all sorts of shifts in publishing, and these conferences — which

A recent meme in publishing is that some readers are exhibiting a sense of “entitlement” about buying ebooks. I’d like to humbly offer myself as Exhibit A. It is true: I feel entitled to buy books. I insist upon it, actually*. Seriously, is it ever a good idea to disparage your customers? To treat them like they are annoyances? To suggest that they simply don’t understand how things work, when, really, why should they? Especially when, in at least one instance, the publishers were the ones who changed (or attempted to change) the rules? So, as a person who happily

No matter where you stand on the various issues surrrounding the future of publishing, one thing is clear: without readers, what we do doesn’t matter very much. We sometimes take the privilege of our bookish lives for granted, forgetting how many people out there would give anything to be able to pick up a book and read it. Yet, this is the season of giving (and, yes, tax deductions). Every year, we here at Booksquare make a pitch for our favorite causes, hoping some of you, like us, will find a little something extra to give this now and in

Yep, it’s time to predict the future! I’ve pulled the BS crystal ball out of storage, buffed it to a shine, and gazed deep and long. Through the glass — which has no mystical ability, as far as I can tell — I saw the future splayed in a haphazard pile: a beautiful cookbook, my Kindle, a Sony Reader, my laptop, several magazines, and at least one iPhone. Reading. Choices. Formats. Choices. This future of words is good, the future of publishing as we know it, hmm, there are justifiable concerns. Right now, the only thing standing in the way