2016 #FutureChat: Make a wish

How do you like 2016 so far? Not that long ago, in a #FutureChat not that far away, we asked you what you considered to have been the high points of 2015 for publishing. Today, we’re looking for something a little more (or less) than a prediction: What would you like to see become a… Read More

Enhanced ebooks and steel filing cabinets

  Funny how #FutureChat can change your mind. Camille LaGuire, whose beret-ed avatar is familiar to many of us in our weekly discussion from The Bookseller and FutureChat, started Friday’s chat by announcing: Not sure I have much to contribute about the Future of Enhanced books discussion on #FutureChat today. By later in the day,… Read More

'It's discovery that's lagging'

“A difficulty in marketing something that has no physical presence.” That’s the author Stark Holborn talking with my Bookseller associate Sarah Shaffi (pictured) about the question of digital-first publishing and its potential for writers, in Authors debate digital-first publication. And that line, appearing among many enthusiastic comments from writers about digital-first in Shaffi’s story, echoes the strongest qualm… Read More

How does our digital garden grow? #FutureChat recap

Ask The FutureBook community what’s powering digital in publishing today and — of course — you get some who want to say, basically, “what digital?” And after our weekly #FutureChat session Friday, Michigan-based writer (and self-styled “Daring Novelist”) Camille LaGuire took to her blog to follow up with some commentary to the effect that, if… Read More

Crowdsorcery: #FutureChat recap

“Join the crowd” on Friday meant jumping in on our #FutureChat conversation with The FutureBook.net community about all things crowd-ish — crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, a crowded season of releases and new ideas. Even as I create this recap, an email has arrived offering “your very own piece of PeerIndex!” (Exclamation point theirs.) The London-based social analytics platform… Read More

Publishing innovation: #FutureChat recap

Pushback and pull forward…If there had been any doubt about the scepticism encountered around digital cookbooks, you could find some verification in The FutureBook.net community’s #FutureChat on publishing innovation. Alta Editions’ Chris McBride, in our walkup to the #FutureChat, had spoken of how the cookbook sector has seemed to lag some other parts of the books industry… Read More

Digital publishing and children: #FutureChat recap

Are apps simply not apt for youngsters? With The Bookseller Children’s Conference ahead — #kidsconf14, as it’s hashtagged, is on 25th September at Southbank Centre in #London — we were glad to have a chance in Friday’s #FutureChat to look at some of the questions around digital publishing and the children’s market. The Bookseller’s children’s editor Charlotte Eyre set up up… Read More