By Matt Jones on BERG Blog: The very term “digital magazine” smacks of “horseless carriage”, Marshall McLuhan’s term for an in-between technology that is quickly obsolete. While nothing is certain about the future of any media, there is no doubt … Read more
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. Read more
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. Read more
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 Read more
The iPad delivers something very specific for authors that ereaders don’t: quite simply, it is the ability to write. Will I be getting one? You bet! Will I wait a while? Yes too as I specifically want it to act as my mobile writing toolbox and I want 3G. Also the apps I need aren’t quite yet available in iPad format. So apart from the obvious ability to write, here’s what I plan to use it for and my app shopping list for developers to step up to the plate with – some of which I know are ‘appening! Read more
Ben Hammersley, Editor-at-Large of Wired UK is an engaging speaker, not afraid to tell the audience: “if you’re not producing content for all platforms – especially mobile – your business will die.” Straight to the point then. He also made a pertinent point (much to the relief of many in the room) that the old formats won’t die. Cinema didn’t kill theatre, the iPad won’t kill print. Each format is usually better in one way than the other. Read more
Many have seen online magazines and newspapers as a threat to revenues – notably Rupert Murdoch. But what if you could create content and a user experience so compelling that people would willingly pay for it? We’re already seeing signs of this with iPhone apps. The iPad could take things a stage further. I talked about the Minority Report moment on this blog back in 2007. I also said magazines would get there before books. With the iPad, I’d say that moment is pretty much here. And the magazine will be WIRED – coming to an iPad near you this summer. Read more
In case you hadn’t realised before the announcement of the Apple iPad in January, this is the decade of the eReader. The publishing industry is going through a similar transition to that of the music industry in the last decade.
In these days when you can publish direct for ereaders like the Kindle, Cool-er and soon the iPad – or just blog a story – what’s to stop anyone stealing and copying your work illegally? Read more
Tom Evans is an author, author mentor, writer’s unblocker and e-publishing wizard. Follow his memes and musings on Twitter @thebookwright The debate is not about which device is better than the others. It’s about authors and publishers embracing a whole … Read more
