As many have already stated 2009 was a year full of change and innovation in the book authoring, publishing and retailing world. Digital was/is the agent of change…eBooks, eReaders (of all kinds), digital workflows and networks (be they social or internet)…for the industry in 2009. It really seemed that many digital areas that had been bubbling under for the last while came to a head in 2009…all at once.
Monique Trottier 2009 in Review: Use Clay to Shape the Future of Publishing
Monique Trottier is the brains behind So Misguided and Boxcar Marketing. In some vaunted circles, Monique has been named the Macgyver of holiday tinsel.
Julie Wilson 2009 in Review: Conversation, Community, and Output
Guest blogger Julie Wilson aka The Book Madam aka Seen Reading’s Literary-Voyeur-in-Chief aka the co-founder of the Advent Book Blog may or may not have invented the word smitten. It’s a really, really good word.
Living News From Google, Times, & WaPo: What the Web Was Made For
Such a cool idea at Google Labs. Living Stories is RSS on steroids. The tool gathers together all stories on a breaking news topic, throws in timelines, filters and tags so you can see what kind of content it is and displays it all on one clean-looking webpage.
Feeling Hyper Yet?
Mark Bertils (@mdash) tweeted a slogan I liked a few days ago that went something like ‘hyper-local is the new global’ (okay, I just checked and Mark actually said “multi-local” but I’m sticking with hyper because “are you feeling multi yet?” just doesn’t do it for me). Perhaps that comes as a response to the release of foursquare.com’s Toronto edition, I’m not sure—but ever since using twitter and thinking about geolocation, rfid and narrowcasting I have believed the direction search is likely to go and where value can really be added is by enabling that hyper-local awareness. Well what about adding hyper-real time to that equation?
2D Barcodes
At this year’s BISG Annual Members Meeting Carolyn Pittis gave an excellent presentation on QR Codes [Wikipedia link] (2D barcodes that can repesent text) and how they are being used by Harper Collins to link books to mobile websites and extended content.
Online Marketing (for the Kids!): HarperCollins' Amanda Project
Wetoku and the Future of the Book Supply Chain
File this under shameless self-promotion…David Lee of Wetoku (a cool online interview site that’s currently in beta) interviewed me today. It’s a short and only mildly dorky (on my end, not David’s) chat about challenges and opportunities in the Canadian book market.
Case Study: D&M Does Free Right
In March 2009, the Greystone Books title Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent was the subject of an online publicity campaign led by the marketing staff at D&M. It’s a really inspiring example of how digital strategy can be used in three really important ways: first, getting the book out there in the hands (or RAMs) of readers, second, measuring how you did and thrid, creating a baseline to compare how any kinds of books do with the same treatment.
New Publishing Business Model #3: The Tor Store
Mike Shatzkin of Idealog has long been arguing that commerce in books needs to go ‘vertical’—that readers will gather at sites where their interests are served. Publisher branding doesn’t matter as much as putting the right combination of books together for a one-stop shopping experience.
Tor Books has effective done just that with their new online store.
