As things speed up to such an extent that there remains no time any more to muse, ponder, discuss, cogitate, and write things down, the old adage that the pen is mightier than the sword appears to be morphing into “the phone is mightier than the sword.” Witness the recent rise of live streaming as →
These days, with the ubiquity of mobile devices, it seems like we are living inside a kind of Memex. First envisioned by technology pioneer Vannevar Bush after World War II, a Memex is “a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications and which is mechanized so that it may be →
Earlier this month the Apple iBookstore launched Breakout Books, a new category of the online store which features self- and independently-published books. Although the iBookstore has always accepted self-published titles, Breakout Books highlights the increasing market share of the independent author and gives added support in terms of marketing and promotion. To give an idea of →
Faced with Amazonian Losses, Indie Publisher Sells Books out of Car Trunk An independent small publisher called recently, seeking to maintain control of, and expand market reach for his successful books on organic farming. His leading title, in its 9th edition, has sold over 18,000 copies. He wants to control business model, pricing, content, and →
Now that every client has become a server, every reader a potential publisher, and everyday people like tuna fishermen have become reality TV stars, it’s reassuring to see some privacy pushback. Not everyone wants to be a superstar 24X7. Recently, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler convinced the Hawaiian legislature to pass a law protecting celebrities from paparazzi in Hawaii: →
By Marina Evans Just how much do you trust WebMD or other online medical resources when you’ve got a health issue? More and more, people are checking their symptoms online prior to consulting with a doctor, despite the site’s clear stipulation that the content of its pages is “for informational purposes only.” But rising health care costs, →
Just in time for London Book Fair, OBS is celebrating the launch of our new e-distribution portal, ProtoBooks: Your one-stop shop for both print and ebooks. For publishers, ProtoBooks is a fast and secure way to get your books to the global market in a variety of formats: Subscription-based online access; Cloud-stored Flash-based ebooks; Downloads for offline →
Lulu, the premier self-publishing service on the internet, announced this week that they have formed a partnership with Barnes & Noble, the world’s largest bookseller. The new collaboration will allow Lulu’s members (called creators) to distribute their books through the Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader, what Lulu founder and CEO Bob Young calls: “another step →
Someone asked recently in a Book Industry Study Group (BISG) post: “Does anyone else out there, besides me, think that self-publishing should just go away and let ‘real’ publishing take over again?” Interesting question. But I don’t think that the clock will stop while we deliberate, folks. There is no turning back and we are →
Recently on LinkedIn, a publisher posed the question: What can we learn from Amazon’ s foray further into book publishing http://is.gd/Aawt and their attempt to allow bloggers to monetize their blogs by publishing them on Kindle http://is.gd/zOoF ? To which I responded: Amazon is in a great position to become a publisher now, situated as →