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Who needs publishers? We all do!

Publishing Talk | 5:43 pm 25 Aug 10 Comments 8

By Philip Goldberg in The Huffington Post:
Recently, Newsweek ran an article about the brave new world of self-publishing. Its title asked the question “Who Needs a Publisher?” Well, the short answer is, I do. The bigger answer is: we all do.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad that self-publishing has evolved from stigma to respectability. I [...]

Seth Godin quits traditional publishing

Publishing Talk | 9:48 pm 23 Aug 10 Comments 0

By Seth Godin on Seth Godin’s Blog:
Authors need publishers because they need a customer. Readers have been separated from authors by many levels–stores, distributors, media outlets, printers, publishers–there were lots of layers for many generations, and the editor with a checkbook made the process palatable to the writer. For ten years, I had a publisher [...]

Tags: Seth Godin —

The Smirnoff effect – coming to a magazine near you

Jon Reed | 8:51 pm 20 Aug 10 Comments 1

You know those Smirnoff ads where people look through the lens of a bottle and see strange wonders? I’ve never quite understood what the marketing message there was supposed to be – “get off your face on vodka until you hallucinate”? Well, you can now have that experience with a magazine and an iPhone. So long as the magazine is Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, the first magazine to use augmented reality browser Junaio.

2010: A Publishing Odyssey

Jon Reed | 10:01 pm 26 Jul 10 Comments 4

Über-agent Andrew “the Jackal” Wylie has hatched an audacious plot. Or maybe he has just seen the future. Either way, he has disintermediated the publishers he works with – for ebooks at least. With last week’s launch of Odyssey Editions, his Kindle-only ebook imprint, a range of his authors are now available digitally for the first time. To me, this seems inevitable. Many authors and their agents get the new digital realities – and, more importantly, the opportunities – while too many publishing discussions still focus on a protectionist response to the ‘threat’ of digital. If publishers won’t grasp digital, authors and agents will.

Do iPad or do I Kindle? – Part 2

Tom Evans | 5:08 pm 15 Jul 10 Comments 2

Should authors and publishers publish for the Kindle, the iPad, or something else? Some of the current options are:

- Print – not going away in a hurry
- Publish for the Kindle and iPad via the Amazon Digital Text Platform
- Publish for the iPad via the iBookstore
- Publish via a third party ebook app like Stanza
- Publish via an aggregator like Smashwords, Lulu, Myebook, Issuu

If you are an author, my advice is to write, create accompanying audio and video assets and by the time you are ready to publish, there will be more than one route open to you.

Virtual contacts made Ward Wood Publishing a reality

Adele Ward | 4:48 pm 05 Jul 10 Comments 1

Is Second Life still useful for authors and publishers? It depends how you use it, argues Adele Ward – who has recently used virtual contacts to make her new business, Ward Wood Publishing, a reality.

Are you too big for social media?

Jon Reed | 5:25 pm 02 Jul 10 Comments 7

There are natural advantages to being a small, independent publisher when it comes to social media marketing. But, big or small, there’s a social media marketing strategy for you. Just keep it appropriate to your type of organization, make sure you engage your audience, and go for a personal voice – whether that is you and/or your authors.

London Book Trade Tweetups? There’s a Facebook group for that.

Jon Reed | 8:52 pm 27 Jun 10 Comments Off

What could be nicer than a summer’s evening with a couple of dozen book trade tweeters, a vast picnic spread and lashings of Pimms and champagne? #booktwicnic, the latest London book trade tweetup, took place on Thursday evening in Regent’s Park, attended by the usual mix book trade folk.

Tags: tweetup, Twitter —

iPadivity: Creativity and Productivity on an iPad

Tom Evans | 2:52 pm 23 Jun 10 Comments Off

A new way of working merits the introduction of a new word – iPadivity.

noun [n] :

1. the phenomenon of increased creativity and productivity when using an iPad – and activity while doing the same
2. the generation of new ideas using an iPad
3. profitability from generating and using iPad apps

Tags: Brushes, iMockup, iPad, iThoughts, iTunes, Writing —

Four ways to make life easier if you self-publish

Anna Lewis | 5:20 pm 18 Jun 10 Comments 16

Self-publishing your book is now easier than ever. Self-publishing your book well, however, can still be a real challenge. You will often hear mutterings in publishing spheres that, “You can always spot a self-published book just by looking at it”. And in all fairness, it’s not too surprising, especially if you have chosen to do as much as possible yourself. I’m going to hazard a guess that it is unlikely that as an author, you have also trained and worked as a designer, typesetter, editor, proof-reader and marketer in between writing your book! It’s undoubtedly going to be hard to get the same effect as a publisher who has spent thousands on a book’s production. However, there are some basic things that you can do that will make your life much easier and help your book blend in with the best.