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
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
Between a Blog and a Hard News Cycle
How Do You Know If You Can Say No to NaNo? The Internet has mutated reasonable people into wannabe writers…We are blind to the harsh truth-light-radiating facts such as ‘half of self-published authors earn less than $500’, facts written about in newspapers by professional writers. That’s Tom Mitchell (@tommycm on Twitter) writing an essay at… Read More
The FutureBook Digital Census: What's Powering Digital Publishing?
Early indications from The FutureBook Digital Census: As our Bookseller colleague Joshua Farrington writes, the response to the survey has been strong: So far more than 1,000 respondents have completed the survey about the digital book industry, with close to 60% indicating that plain vanilla e-books are still leading the transition. is this a statement you… Read More
Waiting for the pundits to vote on Amazon's new 'Kindle Scout'
The name of the new programme rolled out, it seems, at 3:01 a.m. Eastern time in the United States today by Amazon is “Kindle Scout.” And the way to understand that name is to think like a reader: Amazon is inviting you to be a “scout” for something called “Kindle Press.” My colleague Sarah Shaffi… Read More
At Frankfurt Book Fair: 'Surprise' support for subscriptions
As my Bookseller colleague Philip Jones is writing for us today in Turn up the volume, Frankfurt Book Fair 2014 provided, if nothing else, a look at digital now under sail in early, calm waters. He writes, “The one common factor is that we have have all become participants rather than watchers. The being dazzled bit looks to have gone.… Read More
At Frankfurt Book Fair: Phoning up a book
At Frankfurt Book Fair, debate about how to position reading and publishing in the mobile space was a frequent topic of interest. Michael Cairns and Publishing Technology unveiled a new study based on the survey responses of some 3,000 consumers in the United States and United Kingdom. “An increasing number of people are now using their mobile… 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
At Frankfurt Book Fair: Where's Amazon?
My first sea journey was on the Cunard liner, the HMS Queen Elizabeth.Not the QEII, but her predecessor — longer than the HMS Queen Mary by 11 feet, I loved telling my friends. And as my family drove along the dock in France to reach the ship, I noticed a vast, dark brown wall beside us…thought nothing of it…some big warehouse… Read More
At Frankfurt Book Fair: Between creativity and commerce
Books are a business. Books are an art. And we’re all caught in the middle. Developing a creative relationship with money will make you more aware of that underlying pattern and will also surface your values, what’s most important to you in life. Surely, you’d say, this is the writing of one of our many… Read More