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 [...]
There are complex brand issues that emerge from the “author-as-brand” versus the “publisher as brand” evolution (assuming the publisher was ever really the true brand). To me the central question is: What’s the relationship between the author’s brand and the publisher’s brand? In what model might they coexist in the marketplace? Hold that thought.
At the [...]
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 in [...]
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 [...]
February 3, 2009 – 2:48 pm
Lately, it seems, not a day goes by without an article, blog post, or interview regarding changes the publishing industry is going through and likely will continue to go through for some time. These changes are affecting all forms of traditional publishing: Magazines are scaled-down versions of their once-robust selves. And have you noticed how [...]
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 [...]
January 14, 2009 – 1:27 pm
Most of the recent posts on Literary Magnet have been about the book publishing business and writing. But I ran across this article about entrepreneurs, and since Creative Byline is a start-up and I’m an entrepreneur, I thought I’d include it. I’m pretty sure that this isn’t the most flattering view of entrepreneurs, as Guy [...]
October 29, 2008 – 2:45 pm
With the radio news and the daily papers headlining the economy every day, it’s a little hard to put the subject out of your mind. That’s led me to think about the economics of the writing life.
It’s one thing to be hired to write an article or a brochure and to be paid immediately when [...]
