I really don’t see why adults shouldn’t share apps with their children in just the same way that they share print books with them. Anecdotally, from our social media and other contact with parents, that’s just what the parents who read picture books to their children but also have access to iPads do. That’s Kate… 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
Crowds and empowerment
Elias Canetti’s Crowds and Power (Penguin Books in the UK, FSG in the US) has been with us for decades, but arrived too early to look at questions of what crowds can mean in publishing. And with the advent of the digital dynamic comes the idea — the ideal — of crowd wisdom, of crowd leverage, of crowd… Read More
16-24-Year-Old Readers And Their Books: #PorterMeets Luke Mitchell
With all the pleasure any good teenager has in proving his elders wrong, the 16-to-24-year-old age group might seem at times to delight in confusing marketers. And at Thursday’s The Bookseller Children’s Conference, in London, some of Luke Mitchell’s comments to the audience will help sort out what may be behind that demographic’s role in… Read More
Independent Author Previews and a 'tide turning'
The Bookseller’s announcement that it will begin next month previewing self-published work from the Nook Press platform prompted our #FutureChat focus on efforts to “open up to indies,” as the Alliance of Independent Authors’ campaign (ALLi) has it. While most of the reception of the news has seemed positive, the new programme’s outlines are still coming… Read More
A Chuffed Market's Children's Conference: #PorterMeets Charlotte Eyre
If you walked into publishing right now and stopped one of us to ask, “What’s the healthiest, happiest part of the business to get into?” — the answer you well might get is “children’s books!” The exclamation point would be there, yes. They’re a generally exuberant lot these days, the children’s books folks. And why not? Thanks to Charlotte Eyre’s… Read More
Can we float more indie boats?
With news of The Bookseller’s Independent Author Previews — an arrangement with the Barnes & Noble self-publishing platform Nook Press — self-publishing authors gain a store window on a long, virtual high street that’s swarming with competition. For those books and authors chosen to be featured, Independent Author Previews has the potential to be a game-changer. The new programme will see an average… 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
Night Of The Social Media
“Your ignorance is stunning!”…That line got one of my Twitter followers muted recently. And she has stayed muted. And she will stay muted. I only regret that I have but one chance to mute her. Despite this follower’s flattery — I’d never speak of my own ignorance in such vaunted terms — she is one author I will… Read More
Alta Editions' cookbook innovation recipe
Just when you thought we had innovation on every corner…”Cookbooks belong on line,” Chris McBride tells us. “Not just on your shelf.” By the time we wrapped up Friday’s live #FutureChat on publishing innovation, we’d hit the deadline (5 p.m. London time) for making entries in The FutureBook.net Innovation Awards (#FBIA2014). By Tuesday 9th September,… Read More