In This Space

Three weeks ago I went to hear Tim O ‘Reilly, the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, speak at The Publishing Point meetup.  I’m still thinking about the some of the things he said (and I tweeted them at the time.)

“People who are lit up by the future pursue it, those that are not, are trying to preserve the past.”

In my daily routine I read different opinions about the state of publishing, the new shiny and practical information on how to work with new tools.   It’s easy to lose sight of why we were attracted to publishing in the first place.  For me, its the storytelling.  So whether we tell the story on paper or pixels I’m just as excited about the stories we’re telling.  And I believe as Bono might put it, “The Future Needs A Big Kiss.”

“The hard part is no longer curation, the hard part is identifying all the new channels and scaling.”
Curation is still a very important function of publishers but  disintermediation is a greater challenge.   How do we sort out being present in the right places as the traditional channels of book selling are becoming smaller markets?   How do we make sure readers find books?  I know my first step in researching anything is Google followed by asking my “friends” or “followers.”  Are you paying attention to your metadata?

“It’s okay to fail, but you should try not to spend a lot of money failing.”
New tools and new formats are costly, are you making sure what you’re doing is what your readers want?  Fancy enhancements do not fall under “if we build it, they will come.”  Experiment, use analytics, and engage with your readers.

“Make books Beautiful again”
If I’m going to buy a book in print I want it to be a beautifully put together package.  I want it be a work of art and I want to appreciate the designer.  I compare this to buying music, I haven’t bought a simple physical cd in a long time, I legally download music unless I buy the pretty fancy deluxe edition.