Posts Tagged ‘book publishing’

“like the interent made out of trees”

I just watched “The Family Guy” while procrastinating today’s blog post…

Toward the end of the show, Brian meets a young (bimbo) at a bar and his pick-up line is “I wrote a book.” She never looked up from her mobile and replied, “what’s that?” Brian tried to describe it “like a long magazine.” Still not looking, “Huh?” The exchange ends with Brian defining a book as “like the Internet made out of a tree.”

LMAO

But to take it seriously for a moment, is it really funny? Speaking as a publishing industry professional in job search, probably not. And while the line was probably not meant to spark more than a laugh about generational differences it does get me thinking. Here we are, at the end of the year, and the decade, predictions abound, how many years before the paper and ink format for a book is considered “old-fashioned.”

And on the flip side I’m glad it is the digital version of books (the avenues of their creation and how to market them) that really interests me these days.

Publishing Point meet up

I went to a Publishing Point Meet-Up today – it was a talk by Mike Shatzkin on “How to Have a Long Career in Publishing.”

Lots of food for thought, still digesting most of it but here’s some highlights.

As expected, doom and gloom on the future of publishing as we know it – which is probably true and isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I think the possibilities are exciting and interesting.

I loved having an e-reader, it was light and easy to read on the go. When I read a novel I want it be a linear experience – I’m less fussed about paper and ink vs. screen – I want to get lost in a story without the distraction of augmenting features.

Having said that, in other types of books, bring on the augmentation. For instance a travel guide if you can get me real time pricing, vacancies, community commentary and a gps feature – bring it on.

I was especially interested in some of his points about marketing possibilities for books in a “vertical world.” I agreed with a lot of what he said here, and he definitely gave me some additional thoughts for my job search.

And, lastly for today, I learned in Mike’s opinion, simply by virtue of blogging and creating content, apparently I am a publisher unto myself. Ah Ha Ha Ha.