Right now, the relative ease of digital publishing — not yet the equivalent of blogging, but getting closer every week — and the exceptional successes of a relative handful of authors masks the larger challenges ahead for authors and publishers alike, regardless of their business model: discoverability.
Tag: Ebooks
Poke the Box, by Seth Godin
One of Godin’s running themes throughout Poke is to be an initiator, and that risking failure is the best road to achieving success, and by making Poke the Box the first offering from The Domino Project, he’s practicing what he preaches. He initiated, he shipped, and he pretty much failed to deliver a good book.
Why I Love Librarians, and Publishers Should, Too
I find it somewhat ironic that, at the same time publishers are scrambling to fill ill-advised budget gaps left by their blind co-dependence on Borders, HarperCollins decides to play hardball with the one channel that offers the maximum combination of discoverability and NON-RETURNABILITY.
The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook
Brook’s worldbuilding skills are impressive, her Iron Seas setting rivaling Cherie Priest’s Clockwork Century for potential stories, and I daresay its backstory is actually a bit more compelling, despite my general preference for American-flavored steampunk.
The Atlantic, Electric Literature, and the Digital Future
If your core pitch is your “innovative” business model and not what you publish and for whom, your 15 minutes are almost up.
Dark Horse Circumvents iTunes, Plans to Sell Direct
“No licensing fees to Apple means we can pay our creators more while offering readers lower prices.”
Comics Publishers Recognize Digital Opportunity
If there’s one area of publishing where the “game-changing” hype around the iPad has substance, it’s comic books. While comics…