Reflections on, Takeaways from #eBookSummit
“I suppose we could sum up this entire two-day conference under the headline ‘too early to tell.’” –Steve Wasserman (Kneerim & Williams) I attended MediaBistro’s eBook Summit this week and Wasserman’s summation is perfect; consumer book publishing is smack in the middle of the digital transition, and solid answers about how it will all play
5 Things Books Should Learn From Magazines
Like my favorite writers, the magazines I truly value introduce me to new things, or show me new angles on the familiar, that I’d not have come across on my own. In my own series of posts for Folio: a few months back, I made the point that content + context = value, declaring that magazines that nail the equation will survive. That same math is also valid in the conversation about the future of books.
Indie Bookstores. So What?
I’m a firm believer that independent bookstores are not only critical to the viability of the publishing industry, but also to the cultural and economic fabric of local communities.
eBooks: The False Dilemma
People will continue to read printed books for a long time, just as some people still watch movies on VHS. But the printed book will be “dead” in a few short years in the sense that the bulk of the adoption curve, the pragmatic majority, will have moved on. –Arvind Narayanan, “The death of the
Dialect of a Skirt by Erica Miriam Fabri
Erica is a great poet, one whose work I’ve had the pleasure of publishing in Spindle; she’s also a friend, so take my recommendation (and criticism) with a grain of salt. Generally speaking, I prefer my poetry a la carte or in thematic anthologies; I’m not a fan of individual collections of poetry unless a
Everything You Thought You Knew is Wrong
And this is what surprises me. Harlequin, you’re brilliant. You’ve made nothing but all the right steps in all these decades of publishing. You flourish where others founder. You took a great (welcome) leap with Carina, but this? This displays the business sense of a kindergartner. –Moriah Jovan, Harlequin: Ur doin it rong How fast
My Next Tattoo?
The 100 Greatest Movie Characters | Empire | 79. Boba Fett “Before his back story was rewritten, Boba Fett was the coolest thing in the Star Wars universe that wasn’t played by Harrison Ford.” I’ve been trying to decide what my next tattoo would be for about 3-4 years, and have wavered between text and
Bury Me in the Leaning Rest (for Veteran’s Day)
Bury Me in the Leaning Rest C-130 rollin’ down the strip Airborne Daddy gonna take a little trip Mission Top Secret Destination Unknown He don’t know if he’s ever coming home… An old Army buddy emailed me out of the blue a while back. Found me on the Internet amongst too many “friends” I barely
What’s the Curation Algorithm, Kenneth?
I was recently talking with a couple of researchers who observed that the most interesting science isn’t usually in the big name journals, but rather in the mid-tier or even lower-tier publications where really radical thinking and unusual results find their way into the literature. The big name journals are publishing on popular topics well
My To-Read Pile is Growing
Something old, something new, something recommended, and something downloaded for free that will likely never be read… Year of the Gun by Giff Cheshire Day of the Guns by Mickey Spillaine Stormbringer by Michael Moorcock Thriving on Chaos by Tom Peters Trail of Feathers by Tahir Shah Spaceman Blues by Brian Francis Slattery South by