The changing face of publishing...

I’m squeezed for time....so I am going to give you a short blog post...(yay i hear you say..)

This week I have been mulling over the impact of the iPad and digital publishing on the publishing industry....We are in a state of change and authors...not to mention publishers and their staff are probably feeling like they are on a hillside covered with shale...one misstep and down they go.

So how can we feel our way through the shale?

I am reading interesting commentary, on the web about the publishing future...and I note that in the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts-Writers and Readers week, on at the moment here in Wellington, that some of the writers have commented on the future of e-books and that the industry panel on Publishing in the 21st Century has sold out for Friday.

Everybody wants to know what the future will look like.

Here are two voices with slightly different points of view on the future of publishing.

Mike Shatzkin of Idealog has a wide following and his blog post looks at the challenges and changes of this new world.

We are now seeing the early signs of what will soon be a tendency, then a trend, and then a stark reality: you just can’t sell as many copies of most books if you don’t have a proprietary position with a vertical audience.

Craig Mod has started a blog specifically in response to the iPad and the challenges of the new digital mode of publishing verses the old from a book design perspective. He has lots of pictures to illustrate a very comprehensive post on the future of the airport blockbuster.

I want to look at where printed books stand in respect to digital publishing, why we historically haven't read long-form text on screens and how the iPad is wedging itself in the middle of everything. In doing so I think we can find the line in the sand to define when content should be printed or digitized.

This is a conversation for books-makers, web-heads, content-creators, authors and designers. For people who love beautifully made things. And for the storytellers who are willing to take risks and want to consider the most appropriate shape and media for their yarns.

If you have no idea what the iPad is and what it will do- take a look at this video of the Penguin CEO taking an audience of industry professionals through the possibilities of content publishing using Spot and DK Human Body.

And finally another video....this one from Pub Rants Guest blogger Simone Elkeles and how she came to have a book trailer shot as a movie...for her second YA Book...the comments after the blog post echo my thoughts as well...there is still money to throw around...with a seven figure advance to a new teen author from Harper Teen last week.

(warning- a bit steamy...)

maureen

ps Cool links at Nathan Bransfords blog

image from this is london website