Future of Publishing

Mark Coker of Smashwords got me thinking about the future of publishing. Many people have written about the end of the year, end of the decade, predictions for the future, but Mark’s prediction kindled a flame of thought. I try to hold on to these moments because my work schedule has become so crazy I [...]

Collaboration in Fiction and Fact

I’m quite the ostrich with my head in the sand at times. And so when I began hearing about writing circles, post World Wide Web, I thought it was a new phenomena centered around new technology.  Writing circles are no newer than any group of people getting together to further a common cause – in [...]

Life Cycle of a Book: Understanding the Basic Book

Books on a Shelf

So many book models exist today. From the traditional write-and-publish to the eBook, with everything in between, the variations are staggering. This post is about the basic book model. Once the book life cycle is described I can then talk about the variations on the model. By enumerating the book models I [...]

Doom and Gloom or New Beginning?

Everyday I receive an article talking about the demise of this publisher or that book store chain. This morning The Independent out of the UK lamented the Borders UK non-agreement-that-would-save-the-day. The managers’ buyout does not seem to be happening, or they are too little too late – Borders UK is not taking online orders. It [...]

Multitudes of eBook Readers

How many eBook readers are out there? Do you read eBooks with an eBook reader? I don’t. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to. I tried loading text files on to my iPod. That was shear misery. I don’t wish that on anyone – well, maybe my worst enemy I would. Reading a text file [...]

Information Brokers

Chris Brogan in his three hour talk at the Tools of Change 2009 Conference made several thought provoking statements. Aside from being a very funny guy Chris pointed out the obvious. It is so obvious that it escaped my attention. And if he had to remind everyone in the room of the same fact, it [...]

Women (Publishers) Can Be Heroes Too

As a girl growing up I didn’t have many female role models to choose from. Either the woman was the Florence Nightingale type, or a teacher. My sister, whom I worshipped desperately, was interesting because she was at least in science, even if it was nutrition, and she a terrible cook. I knew no female [...]