If the object of writing is to deliver to readers a text that is engaging & enlightens, or entertains them in some way or other, then the idea of maintaining a fixed form of a book needs to be reexamined. Writers will probably always want to keep control of their work, but who is to [...]
Great article by Cringley, on publishing, ad revenues, Apple, and mojo:
Every publisher wants to make money. The six ways to make money in publishing are: 1) selling the product outright, whether it is a book in a bookstore, a magazine on a newsstand, or a pay-per-view TV show; 2) selling subscriptions; 3) selling ads; [...]
One of the things we’ve been spending lots of time thinking about is making it easy for writers/publishers/editors/designers etc. to find each other on Book Oven. We think that the less-commercial end of the publish spectrum is going to change significantly in the next five years, that we’re going to see new kinds of publishing [...]
Paul Graham is one of the smartest thinkers about transformative technologies, market disruption, and the little companies that become successful in the middle of all that. Here he’s talking about publishing. I don’t agree with all of it, but reading Paul Graham is always worthwhile.
Publishers of all types, from news to music, are unhappy that [...]
Symtext, makers of “liquid textbooks,” launches with more than thirty publisher-partners, in a number of (Canadian only?) universities:
Liquid Textbooks defy pithy explanation but try this on for size: they let educators build the ideal course. Using just the content they need, from multiple sources, professors craft a living curriculum that reflects their unique style and [...]
The good fellows at Apt Studio, who seem to make much of the best booky stuff on the web, have released Enhanced Editions, “new books from great writers, with all the extras only the iPhone can provide.”
These are ebooks+ … with audio, video, and extras. As well as … well .. that other stuff, [...]
Well, this is very depressing. QuartetPress, the little publishing house that almost could, can’t:
For a variety of reasons large and small, Quartet Press has decided to discontinue operations. Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, a hard-working team, and the support of the community, things just don’t work out. This is one of those times. [...]
Book Oven pal Mark Bertils writes about Cloud Publishing on indexmb, focusing mostly on the reader-side, with services like Shortcovers and the more forwardlooking expectation of booky-APIs, Kindle’s or big cloud-based catalog initiatives.
The stuff that’s happening and going to happen on the finished product/reader side is exciting, but it pales, I think, in comparison [...]
My colleague, co-founder, and the chief architect and getter-doner at Book Oven, Stephanie Troeth has proposed a moderated panel at SXSW this year called:
Beyond Publishing: When Every Book is Connected to Everyone
We have an all-star line-up who have agreed to join us (if SXSW agrees to give us some space to talk):
Kassia Krozser co-founder [...]
This was going to be a short post. It’s turned into a manifesto of sorts! Ah, well …
I don’t like the term “self-publishing.”
Cloud-Publishing
In the emerging world of “cloud-publishing,” it’s meaningless, and does not reflect what’s coming, what we’re already seeing signs of. Cloud-publishing — what we’re doing at Book Oven — is providing a [...]
