“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
#FutureChat recap: Your 2015 Digital Publishing Predictions
We asked, and we received. We started with the excellent, provocative predictions of a group of invited guests. We’d asked them to give us around 50 words each on what they see ahead in digital publishing. Among some of the strongest commentary we had was Philip Jones’ estimation of the reader’s place in the digital dynamic… Read More
Not exclusively about exclusivity: Kindle Unlimited
With subscriptions at the center of last Friday’s #FutureChat — and Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited (KU) in particular — it’s worth noting how pleased we are that both Justo Hidalgo of Spain’s 24Symbols and (tentatively) Eric Briys of France’s Cyberlibris will join us on 14th November in London for The FutureBook (#FutureBook14), Europe’s largest publishing conference, at the… 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
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
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
Torchin' For Books Data
Nobody came forward to say we have too much books data. The fact that we cannot see the size and shape of the publishing industry today, however, strikes some as more problematic than others. And shortly after The FutureBook.net community’s #FutureChat on the problem of missing data, I was reminded once more of how many folks… Read More
Multi-track issues: #FutureChat recap
After our good #FutureChat exchange about the recent protests of Amazon’s negotiating tactics, one of our FutureBook community members noticed that the #UK’s “Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store” ranking seemed to be top-heavy with a group of Amazon Publishing titles. In fact, these titles doing so well on the list were all books published by… Read More