This year Frances Pinter of Bloomsbury Academic is one of the keynote speakers at the Tools of Change for Publishing conference. Just reading the first line of the blurb “Living through a time of transition is exciting, stimulating, stretching and expensive!” causes excitement. This publisher embraces future trends “experimenting with open content licensing for scholarly monographs” while maintaining a comfortable position in tradition. This promises to be a great talk.

Another keynote speaker is Arianna Huffington, Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Huffington Post. Just recently I talked about the influence The Huffington Post has on the future of publishing (I wonder at O’Reilly’s skill in knowing exactly what I’m looking for). “Publishers just need to find new and innovative ways to reach these digitally-focused eyeballs.” As the publishing industry free-falls, Ms. Huffington steps up with possibilities in the brave new world.

I look forward to hearing Angela Bole, Associate Director, Book Industry Study Group, Inc. speak about the eBook consumer. Allison Belan Assistant Production Manager for Journals, Duke University Press and Maureen McMahon President & Publisher, Kaplan Publishing are joining together to explore “Change”, how to drive it and achieve real lasting change.

Lisa Shannon, Associate Publisher at Wiley speaks about the transition from ebooks into training. Christine Perey of PEREY Research & Consulting brings her “18 years experience working in emerging multimedia communications markets” to speak about “augmented Reality … mixing digital information and the real world in a highly interactive manner “. They are joined by Angelina Ward, Senior Acquisitions Editor at Syngress. Ms Ward is presenting a case study about a year growing her publishing business.

I’m always excited by Adobe, and I’m sure I won’t be disappointed by Julie Baher, Experience Design Manager at Adobe as she discusses the future of digital reading. Diana Childress, Senior Director, Content Partnerships at Blackboard Inc. and Carrie O’Donnell,President at O’Donnell & Associates, LLC talk about the digital reality and whether or not digital content eases research or not.

This sample of influential women is only from one day of the three day conference. And, just as last year, I am unable to attend in person. Thanks to O’Reilly I can view all the sessions online; I “attend” a little later than everyone else.

This promises to be a great conference. Hope you can make it.

Arianna Huffington from www.ihavenet.com

Three years ago The Huffington Post, barely out of its incubator, was brushed off as a casual, digital hobby of Arianna Huffington.

By February 2010 The Huffington Post had 3.7 million unique visitors (Nielson Online). Technorati, the premiere blog search tool, has the Huffington Post as the second most linked to blog, second to TechCrunch.

The Huffington Post (The HuffPost in the colloquial) combines American “pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps” and “Horatio Alger entrepreneurship” with the ability to brand itself as “The Online Commentator”. So why is The Huffington Post, long on government administration critique, important to the publishing industry?

In part, the answer is The Huffington Post is redefining its role in the world as the “Internet Newspaper”, including various new fields, along with books.

As she is quoted by the New York Times, “when the posts are linked on the front page, the site provides a megaphone and gives authors some prominence. ‘We’ve been very successful in selling people’s books.’”

Take a look at the Huffington Post Book Review Roundup. Even using the conservative estimate of 10,000 viewers, a book reviewed on The Huffington Post is going to do very well.

As more and more people go to online blogs for information, Twitter for breaking news, and Facebook for recreation, The Huffington Post, avante guard of the publishing world, sets the new direction for any kind of information. Publishers, in the throws of electronic rights, in freefall as the traditional publishing world disintegrates, must pay careful attention to any innovation – especially one that is so successful.

French Creek Press is a new, fledgling company. In a marketplace full of publishers that know the ropes, have been around for decades, have scoped out the marketplace, how could French Creek Press stand a chance? I’ll answer that with another question. How, in times when stores and publishers are closing, can Harlequin open an new digital only division, Carina Press, headed up by Angela James? The answer is, at least, twofold. An all digital press means publishing is only electronic. There is no need to pour money into thousands of books because no book is produced. All the preprint costs are minimal compared to the print and distribution cost. Yes, there is still distribution, but there is no heavy transport cost. This is the ultimate “on demand” product. The book is produced once in a particular format. Then it is sold multiple times, on demand, with no inventory charge

French Creek Press goes one step farther. Instead of investing tens of thousands of dollars in traditional marketing, the decision to use Social Media as the primary tool was made. Viral Marketing combined with on demand printing means French Creek Press can take a risk on new authors. The cost to French Creek Press is much less than the cost to publish a book through one of the old stalwarts. While we are not exclusively producing digital books (we do print books) we cut costs to the point where we can publish authors, sustain the cost of publishing through its lifecycle, market the books, and stay in business.

I was taken to task for following Harlequin’s move. Since the books are a bit, a little bit, risque, and my lifestyle is the antithesis of risque, what am I doing looking at Harlequin? I can’t afford not to. And neither can any other publisher. Harlequin is taking some very drastic steps to stay open and competitive. By adding Angela James to their team they have increased their survival rate multi-fold. Check out what Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has to say about Carina and you’ll see why this is a brilliant move.

I have roots in the computer industry where revolution takes place on a regular basis. Change with the newest, latest, greatest technology that just made all the equipment I bought six months ago obsolete, or die. By keeping to the principle of on demand production and viral social marketing French Creek Press has the opportunity to grab a piece of the action while producing high quality products. In the meantime, I’m keeping my eyes on the big guys that are adapting to the new reality. And I’m keeping my eye on the women publishers that make a difference in the industry.

I’ve since met many women in the Computer Sciences, and admired many from afar. The Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, San Jose corridor offered up many women with brains and personality. And now that I’ve turned my sights towards information, and specifically, the publishing there of, I’m seeking out the women publishing heroes. In one place, the Tools of Change 2009 online seminars have two panel discussions: one on Publishing house CEOs and one on women digital publishers. These women all have one very special quality in common – they love being women. They advocate for women. They market to women. To them women are interesting and distinct from the other species that walks around on two legs. And they are very vocal about it. While three, Kassia Krosser, Angela James, and Malle Vallik all spoke about digital publishing, Eileen Gittens talked more about social publishing. In all cases they were speaking about emerging markets, and the buying power of those markets. These ladies and other like them are to be watched. They are moving, and I expect will be a major influence on future publishing of any information.

Kassia Krosser, Booksquare
Kassia Krosser moderated the panel “Smart Women Read eBooks”. Kassia is the main voice behind BookSquare and a founding partner of Medialoper. While her job on this panel was to facilitate the members, her spark and humor came through. I look forward to hearing more of her voice.

Angela James, Samhain Publishing
Angela James was a panel member on “Smart Women Read eBooks”. Women are very “adventurous readers”. They like the immediacy of ebooks and delve into non-traditional ideas in reading and technology.

Malle Vallik, Harlequin
Malle Vallik was a panel member on “Smart Women Read eBooks”. An ebook is a reading experience. And women readers experience “reading emergencies” – they want a book and they want it now. The American woman is an adapter, she can mold herself to any technology that is good. By doing that, she can purchase and download an ebook easily, quickly, and fill the reading emergency.

Sarah Wendell, Smart Bitches Trashy Books
Sarah Wendell was also a panel member “on Smart Women Read eBooks”. While not a publisher, Sarah is a mover and shaker in the digital publishing world by way of her website. The statistics she sites should cause anyone in the book industry to pause and think. 80% of fiction in the market today is read by women. And women buy in bulk. And they are very loyal readers, loyal customers. And as she says, (paraphrased) if you gain a woman as a consumer you’ve gained someone who will speak about you /your product everywhere she goes. Your woman consumer is a natural marketer, and you don’t even have to pay her for it.

Eileen Gittins, Blurb.com
Eileen Gittens was a panel member on “CEO Roundtable: The Changing Role of the Publisher”. Eileen took a “social” approach to publishing. She create Blurb.com where anyone and everyone can create and published their photos albums, family books, you name it. More importantly, the books are affordable. One outgrowth of the Blurb concept, in keeping with “social” publishing, is BlurbNation. This collection of professionals are available (at an affordable price) to help pull the book together with a professional edge. And not least are the Blurb forums, groups/discussions on publishing tips, ordering, printing, anything worth discussing as relates to publishing your book.