Ebooks open up a whole range of possibilities, from how people consume stories to how they talk about books they've read, and even how they find new works to read. Because ebooks are digital, authors and readers have many opportunities to be social with their books. One example is annotating books online. Tools like AnnotateIt and Annotator allow readers to mark up and share … [Read more...] about Social Reading and Writing
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Digital and Social Book Discovery
Digital Book World hosted an interesting webcast today, called Finding Books Without Borders: Discoverability in a Digital and Social World. Two fairly new companies, Jellybooks and Readmill, talked about how they tackle the issue in their own ways. … [Read more...] about Digital and Social Book Discovery
Trends and Startups in Book Publishing
The last couple years have been a time of change for the publishing industry, and I expect this year to be the same. Every few weeks I've been hearing about new startups and ventures that expect to--and probably will--disrupt publishing. I think it's worth sharing some of them here, and what their success could mean for publishing, both traditional and indie. … [Read more...] about Trends and Startups in Book Publishing
Zola Books: A Review
I had the pleasure of meeting three of the employees of Zola Books, a new ebookstore, at BEA. Zola Books is, according to their pamphlet, "not just an eBooks retailer, but a community and a platform for everyone who participates in the conversation around books--including authors and curators, independent bookstores and publishers." … [Read more...] about Zola Books: A Review
Writers, Readers, Publishers: Present Tense, Future Bold #2
Last night's meeting for Present Tense, Future Bold featured guest speaker Rick Joyce, the chief marketing officer of Perseus Books. Perseus is a publisher and a printer/distributor for over 300 indie publishers. According to Rick the digital transition happened distinctly in each industry (music, books, etc.), and was not monolithic. But, the future of print books may not … [Read more...] about Writers, Readers, Publishers: Present Tense, Future Bold #2
ChannelCaster, a new social mobile app
Apps are becoming a big part of our culture. Recently my sister has gotten into the app world. Right now she's working for ChannelCaster, and here's what she has to say: ChannelCaster is a new mobile app that allows users to discover, mash and share content on their mobile/tablet devices. Users are able to create and broadcast their own channels featuring any interest they … [Read more...] about ChannelCaster, a new social mobile app
Coca-Cola, Advertising, and Santa Claus
Over the weekend, I went to visit my uncle in Battery Park. We were at the dinner table, dropping fish balls and slices of beef into a hot pot, when my uncle told me something shocking: "Santa Claus wasn't a jolly fat man dressed in a red suit until Coca-Cola made him that way." I'm not surprised he knew this. Back in the '90s, he collected coke cans from around the world … [Read more...] about Coca-Cola, Advertising, and Santa Claus
The Future of Publishing, According to Richard Nash
Today in my Interactive Media class, we had guest speaker Richard Nash. Nash, former publisher at Soft Skull, is now launching a start-up company, Cursor, which is a social approach to publishing. Anyway, he was a very interesting speaker, so I’d like to share some of his thoughtful quotes. “Of all the media, games and books have the most in common with one another … [Read more...] about The Future of Publishing, According to Richard Nash
