Have you ever actually seen an olive branch? Self-publishing has dramatically changed the freedom and control authors exercise over their writing careers. The self-publishing successes of top-selling and midlist authors have made it possible for many of them to earn more income from their writing and have raised questions about why authors need publishers. Those… Read More
Digital Book World’s Choir: Keynotes From Amazon, Apple, And All
The First Major Publishing Pilgrimage Of 2015 Publishing conferences are ritual performances. They are to the varied segments of publishing what morality plays are to the various forms of Christianity. They are narratives that are organised to demonstrate, emphasise, and reinforce the orthodoxy. Those are the words of one of our most dependable iconoclasts, Baldur… Read More
#PorterMeets Alastair Nash: 'Barriers falling'
Alastair Nash is among featured speakers who will bring especially astute messages to publishing from other, nearby sectors on Friday (14th November) in Europe’s busiest publishing conference, The FutureBook , at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster. Bookings will close Tuesday the 11th, so hurry to secure your seat. We are fond of… Read More
Writers in Conference: The Micro-Tension Of A Pause
Autumn And Authors Holding Their Breaths The townspeople of Salem, Massachusetts, are busy this week pointing out to visitors their brilliant fall leaves. “They should be on the ground by now,” one longtime resident says, shaking his head. “Should have hit the grass a long time ago.” And like the eerie pause in the pace… Read More
George Berkowski's FutureBook Conference podium warmer
The Bookseller’s The FutureBook 2014 Conference programme on 14th November promises to have the widest scope and most inquisitive bent yet, in terms of signalling digital directions ahead. Keynote commentary will come from not only from author and entrepreneur George Berkowski, but also from WGSN’s Carla Buzasi, and — in conversation with Philip Jones — Penguin Random House’s Tom… Read More
"Influenced by people": Tumblr & Mozilla at #FutureBook14
“It’s about how people collaborate, how people meet each other…” When Jennie Rose Halperin joins theFutureBook Conference’s Changing Technology panel, she’ll be carrying a message from Mozilla that echoes that of Tumblr’s Rachel Fershleiser on #futurebook14’s Long-Term Role of Social Media panel: Think community. “For us, the emphasis is on community and creativity,” Tumblr’s Fershleiser says. “We’re the place… Read More
#PorterMeets Crystal Mahey-Morgan: 'Beyond good will'
At the FutureBook Conference on 14th November, Crystal Mahey-Morgan says she intends to to what The Bookseller editor Philip Jones asked for in his Turn up the volume post. Jones, in that reflection on a Frankfurt Book Fair that seemed too quiet to some of us, wrote about #FutureBook14, as we’re hashtagging it, this way:… Read More
Vote on The FutureBook Innovation Shortlist's "Inspirationals"
The winner will be named as part of The FutureBook Innovation Awards announcements at The FutureBook Conference on 14th November at Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London. (Best early-bird prices for the event are offered only for a week longer, to 17th October.) Among a boisterous gathering at Halle 8’s Publishing Perspectives Stage on Thursday evening to… Read More
4 Observations On Publishing From Anna Rafferty In Stockholm
“I tell stories digitally and I build audiences for stories in digital. That’s the best way to explain what I do.” Anna Rafferty hasn’t left the field. In the six months since she stepped out of her role as Managing Director for the UK’s Penguin Books Digital into private consulting, she has worked as a committee member… Read More
Charleston’s PubSmart Joins Conference Row
PubSmart may be creating something we’ve needed to see much more of: a conference in which not only business-conscious authors but also smaller publishing companies can start doing the logical networking they’ve needed: with each other. Read More