So after spending over 5 days in Austin for SXSW (or the short-form and less noobish, South By), I’ve realized one thing: people in Austin love hula-hoops. I don’t know how to explain it, but everywhere I go, there seems to be someone with a hula-hoop…either they’re spinning it around their arms, or they’ve got [...]

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The best key combination in the world (or Command + Alt + Esc for us Mac users out there), this represents the restart. A chance to wipe the slate clean and give it another go when our computers crap themselves and we’re left cleaning up the mess.
And that’s what I’m doing here today. Because [...]

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I’d go so far as to say that Book Expo America last week was a reawakening of the publishing spirit (if digital hasn’t already brought some new wakefulness to publishing in general…although what we’ve awakened is yet to be known). Never have I seen such a crowded convention space, owing just as much to this [...]

Book Expo America, conference, digital, Ebooks, publishing

It was probably about a year ago, at Tools of Change 2009, where I first heard about the concept of platform agnostic books. While a very confusing term for something relatively simple (at least in theory), the idea of a book without specific media in mind should be top of mind for many publishers as [...]

apps, Authors, books, digital, Ebooks, ipad, iphone, platform, tools of change

London Book Fair, how a volcano has smite thee (or more accurately, how volcanic ash has messed up everyone’s plans). While we have a tendency to forget how the natural world sometimes butts up against our everyday lives, it seems Mother Nature has reared her earthly head at just the wrong time.
I can’t help [...]

Authors, deals, Ebooks, london book fair, signings

Today marks the first day that the Agency Five will begin selling books through retailers via the agency model (or at least for most, that’s the case…some don’t make the switch until April 3). This represents a day of great change for publishers, but underneath what appears to be a huge win for ebook sales [...]

Agency Five, agency model, Apple, Authors, digital, ipad, PW, retailers

The New York Times came out with an article about a week ago, detailing some of the roadblocks that have come up over developing partnerships between publishers, Apple and Amazon. Full text of the article can be found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/technology/internet/18amazon.html
For anyone who didn’t have a chance to read it, Amazon is threatening to stop selling the [...]

Amazon, Apple, digital, Ebooks, ipad, Kindle, pricing, sales

By now, many have seen this video, but I feel it’s a great example of what we can do with the right message and a dose of creativity (it helps that my roommate and I were discussing palindromes last night…of which this is in a similar vein). I hope others in our industry bring this [...]

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There’s been a lot of talk, both ongoing and lately, about how libraries fit into the digital publishing world…and whether they actually can. Overdrive has crafted a strong offering through which they’re looking to become the main intermediary between publishers and libraries. Who knows if they’ll be able to pull it off or if enough [...]

advertising, digital, downloads, Ebooks, Eric Hellman, John Sargent, libraries, Macmillan, publishing, subscription

So I’ve got an idea for a new business. I’m going to start a company, a clothing company. And I’m going to make some really fabulous stuff, better than my competitors and others in the industry in many ways. I’m going to be independent of the big chains, consumer-focused and market-driven. And I’m going to [...]

Authors, digital, distribution, Ebooks, free, publishing