September 15, 2009 – 2:38 pm
When we launched Creative Byline early last year, one of the underpinnings of the value proposition was that writers (and really any creative type) are a smart lot. They don’t need to be talked down to about the business of writing and publishing. In fact, as the digitization of the written word continues, the need [...]
Over the last couple of months it has become much easier to find a particular person on the web. Facebook’s early June implementation of vanity URLs, as well as Twitter and LinkedIn indexing profile pages for search engines have made this easier than ever. However, if you are trying to find someone with very specific [...]
Raising money is just part of life for an Internet entrepreneur—and an opportunity for a lot of interesting questions from potential investors. The one that baffles me most is when they pore over our business plan and then ask a detailed question about the financials out in year five. Year five? It’s not that what’s [...]
As I suggested in the last post, publishers have played the role of gatekeeper in the book industry. They filter millions of potential books (in the form of manuscripts) down to ones that they stake their reputations (brands) on. There are other filters in the book publishing eco-system: agents, brick-and-mortar bookstores (they can’t stock all [...]
A local restaurant owner uses this tagline to promote his small chain of (of course) steak houses. This kitschy slogan made me think about traditional publishers and their value proposition: selecting manuscripts and turning them into books that people want to buy, and doing this consistently. In a way, they stake their reputations (brands) on [...]
One of the themes mentioned by just about every keynote speaker at the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing conference last month in New York was Digital Rights Management (or DRM). This is software that prohibits unauthorized copies of media (songs, e-books, etc.). Cory Doctorow of boingboing.net fame gave an impassioned keynote titled “Digital Distribution [...]
We at Creative Byline subscribe to many newsfeeds, blogs, and newsletters about publishing and writing. As a result, we come across many interesting perspectives and new insights about the business. Here are a few from the last week or so: On her blog, Gretchen McNeil featured an interview with agent Ginger Clark about the trends [...]
Here’s another theme from the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing conference last month in New York: E-readers. New versions were demoed and, the day before the conference, Amazon had announced they would start delivering the updated version of their popular Kindle Reader. There have also been many articles and blog posts declaring the “death [...]
February 20, 2009 – 10:16 am
I attended the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing conference last week in New York. It was well attended by an interesting mix of old-world publishing types and new-media technology types. There were a lot of predictions and pontifications, but some common themes emerged. I’ll share a few of them—at least as I saw them—over [...]
January 22, 2009 – 3:48 pm
There are advantages to working for a large corporation–nice conference and travel budgets (well, this used to be an advantage). Back in my corporate days I attended the TED Conference a number of times. The conference is an interesting mix of people all working at the intersection of three disciplines–Technology, Entertainment, and Design. One year [...]
