Just as we’re finishing our book, the ongoing death of publishing is a popular blog topic
- Jason Fried proclaims himself the new publishing sheriff in town with 1700 downloads of their Get Real ebook. Note the “how you like me now,” diss of pronouncing their success against the publishing industry, while running ads from publishers on their site!
- Steve Baker posts, if book publishing is dying, have I made a bad mistake? and the economics of books are being debated
I remember during the dotcoms that Bill Gates predicted that ebooks would eclipse hard copies in a few years. Books haven’t died and neither has Apple, despite being declared dead 48 times since April 1995. Doc Searls posted on the usual death of books in 2003 and The Observer observed last year that it’s the death of the book again and “delivery systems evolve.”
Delivery does evolve and not too long ago, the Gutenberg press was da bomb. Considering this topic more, I keep coming back to the NYTimes article on the 30 second spot remover and this quote
I think technology is going to wreak havoc on the agency business.
What Greenberg, the creative force of R/GA, is saying is that traditional approaches in the agency business are going to continue to be less effective as technologies like iPods emerge and the millennials consume media in ways we don’t and pretty much tune out ads. Replace the word agency in that sentence with publishing, or PR, and the same criticism applies. Readers are going to want content on demand and while late to the online party, publishing is offering delivery systems like Rough Cuts.
For publishers, it’s like debating global warming while the ice caps melt. The world is changing under their feet and they’re wondering what pair of shoes they should wear. Finally, it seems, they’ve figured out the appropriate footwear and are pulling up their bootstraps.
Want a publisher offers is distribution. Google Publish and Prosper: Blogging for Your Business to see all the resellers, many of whom I’d never heard of, that are ready to sell our book. Now, to 37Signals credit, they’ve got a gazillion readers and can do well self-publishing. For us, we want that book to carpet bomb the blogoshere beyond our blog with good how-to practical advice.
Finally, no mention of new sheriffs in towns can go without a Blazing Saddles quote. I’ll have to ask Jason at SXSW
Is that a ten-gallon hat, or are you just enjoying the show?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
steven e streight aka vaspers the grate 03.07.06 at 10:06 am
Millions of issues flash through me as I read this cogent and coherent post. A consistently great read, this blog is the new Red Couch as far as I’m concerned.
I want to sell ebooks on Vaspers the Grate, which I am slowly transforming into an ecommerce site/rich information hybrid site, a “mashup” with multi media, and not just text and digital art.
How to set up a ebook download mechanism, *without* any Adobe garbage involved. I am an Adobe hater, BTW, and have a PDF file stuck in my high speed Avant brower, which illness causes, somehow, all browser operation chrome be non-present, unobtainable, a browser window that acts as a mouse trap. That’s a new one.
So what are the best tools for setting up a Paid Ebook Download on my blog?
Printing out books, like the Reporters Without Borders “Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents”, is fun. But no matter how many ebooks I download, I still *walk* to Barnes & Noble and get intoxicated with Old Books, those nice smelling, highly addictive, shiny new BOOKS.
Do I get to review your book?
steven e streight aka vaspers the grate 03.07.06 at 10:12 am
I love to plug those I love, and so, in love, let me tell your noble and devoted readers: I subscribe to this blog, but not RSS. I do use the Awasu RSS scraper/aggregator, but in this case, I subscribe to the email update.
Why? I’m usability wank, that’s why. So here is my promo spot: I *always* click on the BBS email link and come here to read whatever the flavor of the moment happens to be. Rarely am I bored or able to ignore the vital topics, sharp thinking, contemplative brooding, and insta-linking.
I *always* click on that BBS email link. What’s that tell you about blog post delivery systems?
-b- 03.07.06 at 10:55 am
Steven,
Thanks! I’m also not a big fan of Acrobat. It’s a hideously bloated beast and the associated DRM is not much better. I do know that it’d be cool to read a book on an iPod video with a slighter bigger screen. That’s coming soon and when I used a PDA, I liked reading news and such. So, to me, I’d think the next step for a Rough Cuts is to mobilize it. Send out updates in digest form. RSS for a book.
I’ll add you to the list of reviewers, but please note that’s the publisher that sends those all out.
steven e streight aka vaspers the grate 03.07.06 at 1:14 pm
thin Q my friend…and inspiration!