In about two weeks, I, along with a couple thousand or so of my closest friends, will be attending the 2013 Tools of Change for Publishing conference in New York. As you may have guessed, recently I’ve felt I haven’t had much to add to the digital publishing conversation. In many ways — while I […]
The Future of Publishing
Tools of Change 2013: What Excites Me Right Now
February 2nd, 2013 · 8 Comments
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That Customer Service Thing
October 11th, 2011 · 19 Comments
So what with this, that, and the other, Booksquare has been a bit quiet lately. The world of digital publishing has been amazingly active, and — oh! — filled with more rumors, speculation, and nonsense than even I can stomach*. Which means the important news gets buried as the digerati chase the next bright and […]
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I Went to TOC, and All You Got Was This Wrap-Up
February 23rd, 2011 · 14 Comments
Months of anticipation. Weeks of preparing. Days of thinking. Hours of wondering. And that’s before the annual Tools of Change for Publishing Conference begins. Once the action starts, the mental rush is indescribable. It takes me days just to organize my thoughts, an entire year to wonder at how what I heard is playing out […]
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Reading in the Digital Age, or, Reading How We’ve Always Read
November 30th, 2010 · 29 Comments
As much as the idea of enhanced ebooks brings the sexy to publishing, it doesn’t really do much for most of the books published. Enhanced, enriched, transmedia, multimedia…these are ideas best applied to those properties that lend themselves to multimedia experience (or, ahem, the associated price tag). While many focus on the bright and shiny […]
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Post-BiB10 Thoughts: Mostly About User Experience
October 26th, 2010 · 17 Comments
I, along with a hundred or so of my peers, spent last Thursday and Friday at a conference called Books in Browsers. As one who sat on the sidelines when the first iteration of this conference was held last year, I wasted no time in inviting myself to the event. I am still processing everything […]
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Rethinking the Publishing Company
September 14th, 2010 · 42 Comments
I think we all know what the publisher of today looks like. The hierarchy and positions have become comfortable, established. Sort of like really nice flannel pajamas. That’s not to say nothing ever evolves; I mean, who wears the same pair of pajamas forever? And, if you talk to publishing people, you know those flannel […]
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A Question of Value
August 31st, 2010 · 28 Comments
I’ve been thinking about the topic of the value of books a lot. Not for days. Not for months. Years. However, recently I’ve been angered by the implication that readers are cheap, that they won’t pay a proper price for books, that they don’t get it. Whatever it is. These assertions are not untrue. They […]
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The Glamorous Life? (Notes from the Indie Trenches) Part Two
August 11th, 2010 · 6 Comments
In yesterday’s post, Gina Frangello talked life as an indie author. Or, more specifically, life as an indie author who is also an indie publisher. She toured, she was paid (sort of), she got great press. She learned lessons. What happened next. As she says:
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The Glamorous Life? (Notes from the Indie Trenches) Part One
August 9th, 2010 · 11 Comments
One of the best parts of my job is discovering what goes on in all corners of publishing. If you look beyond Manhattan, you see innovation, experimentation, and, yes, consternation as changes to the industry seem to happen every day. I am asking those who are involved in these ventures to share successes, failures, ideas, […]
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Today in Publishing: A Skirmish
July 22nd, 2010 · 27 Comments
If you are contract, royalties, or publishing geek, today (yesterday?) was an exciting day. Sort of like the bully saying “I’m gonna beat you up” every day until the scrawny kid picks a fight. All concepts relative. As promised, agent Andrew Wylie did what he said he would: “We will take our 700 clients, see […]
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