Tools of Change for Publishing Newsletter: November 23, 2011

Tools of Change for Publishing Newsletter: November 23, 2011

Kindle Fire, common ground between books and music, and why your book is a startup.

by Joe Wikert | @jwikert | +Joe Wikert | Comment | 23 November 2011

Kindle Welcome to the juicy goodness that is this week's TOC newsletter. We are currently somewhat obsessed with e-reading devices, libraries, self-publishing, the Big Six, the five mill, LeVar Burton, and, of course, Star Wars miniatures. In fact, there is so much must-read content bubbling away below that we're just going to step out of the way and let you at it.

We welcome your suggestions and feedback. Please email us at toc-newsletter@oreilly.com.

Cheers,
Kat Meyer and Joe Wikert
Chairs, Tools of Change

LeVar Burton, Eric Ries, and Baratunde Thurston to keynote at TOC New York

We're gathering some of the brightest minds in publishing and are excited to add LeVar Buron, Eric Ries, and Baratunde Thurston to the TOC New York 2012 keynote lineup. Make sure to join us Feb. 13-15, 2012, in New York as practitioners and executives from publishing and tech come together to navigate publishing's ongoing transformation. Register by Dec. 20 to save up to $200.

Hot Type
Kat & Joe's Must Reads

Yes, the Kindle Fire shipped a day early, as did Barnes & Noble's Nook tablet, Kobo came out with a $99 ad-supported Touch, PaidContent ran a great comparison of all the contenders, and Amazon admitted that it fully expects customers to root the Kindle Fire device—but other stuff has recently happened, too.

Reading About Writing
"What is it that we do now?" asks an editor in Mandy Brown's terrific inaugural piece, "Babies and the Bathwater," for Contents. A razor-sharp and extremely cogent look at the modern publishing industry, this TypeKit writer's essay leads off what is sure to be an indispensable new mag. Contents states that it is a "digital magazine devoted to content strategy, online publishing, and new—school editorial work. . . . Each issue explores a central theme; each piece offers a different angle." Based on the premier release, it's a safe bet that each issue is also going to be plain old awesome.

Palimpsest
What do books and music have in common? (Please don't use the phrase "failing industries.") A joint series of blog posts by Timo Boezeman and Niels Aalberts overlays examination of the two industries like onion skin pages of an old illuminated manuscript as they look at how digitization has altered each. Not striving to come to a conclusion or raise solutions, this fascinating four-part series comes to us care of FUTUReBOOK.

Too Sexy for Your Nook?
Also on FUTUReBook, Dan Franklin takes issue with the "digitization should be about data" meme in a lovely post that verges gently toward the rant. The beauty quote: "Sexy and unsexy digital publishing co-exist and should reinforce each other. . . . I don't get out of bed in the morning because of metadata. I appreciate that it's the secret spice of life, as is SEO, but like all really great forces for good or evil it remains the silent machinery in the background, and can be hugely powerful at that."

Dewily Digitized Decimals

What are the pros and cons for libraries when it comes to ebook purchase? American Libraries Magazine offers a terrific primer.
Does your local library boast a Fab Lab? It may someday soon, as libraries—at least one library—shift a bit toward being "tech shops" replete with 3-D printers and a MAKE mindset. Mindshift's Audrey Watters tracks the move.
"For the first time, I really do feel that there is a growing synergy among library efforts to reclaim space in the digital age," writes Peter Brantley on the Publishers Weekly blog. It's high time, he asserts, "for libraries to reclaim the debate on 'e-lending' (digital book lending) and access to networked information."
Meanwhile, in a surprise move, Penguin (more on them below) has notified digital ebook distributor OverDrive that it no longer has permission to disseminate Penguin titles. In a recent update, OverDrive's Brianne Carlon reports that Penguin is "reviewing terms for library lending of their eBooks," adding that "OverDrive was instructed to suspend availability of new Penguin eBook titles from our library catalog and disable 'Get for Kindle' functionality for all Penguin eBooks." Harper Collins restricted ebook check-outs from OverDrive last February.

Big One (of Six)
Penguin is the first of the "big six" publishers to add self-publishing tools to its offerings. The 4,000 or so souls who gather on the brand's "Book Country" site for workshopping and critique can now follow their own bliss straight to publishing. By absolutely no surprise, Penguin commands a 30%–70% share of sales on the ensuing titles,prompting some self-publishers to call the move overpriced, royalty-grabbing and "truly awful."

Reposition Statement
If, as John Battelle recently declared, all brands are publishers, then what of publishers that are publishers—and also brands? Brian O'Leary rethinks what publishers are really all about.

Look/See
Americans buy five million books a day and other oddities. For us, it's all about the infographic.

Publisher's Corner
Actual News from Our Man in the Midwest

As we hope you know, poking fun at O'Reilly publisher and general manager Joe Wikert is something of a part time job. It's so fun, it's so easy. But this week, we pull our stare away from his collection of hand-carved Star Wars miniatures to treat him with a skosh of the respect he deserves.

To wit: We're thrilled, stoked, delighted, and more than a little bit pleased to announce that Publishers Weekly has become an event partner with our Tools of Change for Publishing conference.

"By bringing together the highly respected Publishers Weekly and Tools of Change [TOC] brands we're able to provide more content and events for the publishing community than either organization could do on their own," says Wikert. "Throughout 2011, TOC has ramped up to become much more than simply a once or twice a year in-person event. We offer content in a variety of formats including ebooks, video podcasts, and webcasts. Publishers Weekly will now be an integral part of each of those initiatives, enabling TOC to reach even more publishing professionals. Publishers Weekly's team of professionals will also play an important role in helping shape the editorial calendar and content for TOC events going forward. The impact of this relationship will be felt globally through our rapidly growing list of in-person and virtual events."

And, in a nice bit of kismet, turns out Publishers Weekly is pleased too.

Did we mention that Joe's miniatures are hand-carved? Indiana winters can be hard on a man.

Exceptional Excerpts
Tantalizers from new and upcoming books

Perhaps delusionally, this week author Todd Sattersten kindly allows us to reprint a short excerpt from the first chapter of his work-in-progress, Every Book Is a Startup:

Entrepreneurs are delusional. Consider the definition from the New Oxford American Dictionary: Delusion (noun) An idiosyncratic belief or impression that is firmly maintained despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality or rational argument.

Anyone in search of a new business model or launching his latest product needs some amount of delusion. You can be taken advantage of in that state of mind, but delusion also gives you room to create wonderful things that most people thought were impossible. I wonder if, at some point, we'll accept delusion as necessary rather than mistaken.

Probably not. Look at the thesaurus alternatives: misapprehension, misconception, misunderstanding, mistake, error, misinterpretation, misconstruction, misbelief; fallacy, illusion, fantasy.

It's funny because, based on these alternative meanings, delusion is a word you apply after the fact. "That was clearly a mistake; he must have been delusional." The result leads to the label. Genius if you succeed; fool if you fail.

Publishing is based at some level on delusion. The rational argument is that only a small number of books will reach any sort of commercial success. If we accepted reality, no one would waste the time, the effort, or the money.

We all have to embrace our delusions.

Audible Knowledge
The Latest from our TOC Podcast Series
You can also subscribe to the free TOC podcast through iTunes. Not an iTunes fan? No worries. All podcasts live safely here.

Big 'n' Broad
Remember the old days, say, five years ago? Friend, you're not alone. Back then, publishers handled content management themselves. Today, not so much. Their shoulders, as it were, have grown. In a recent video podcast, Joe sat down with Firebrand Technologies founder Fran Toolan to discuss just how broad those shoulders now need to be.

Kickstarter for Books
Jesse Potash of Pubslush Press discusses altruism, zero pay, and straddling the line between self-publishing and traditional publishing.

Dept. of Take a Look,
It's in a Book
You've known him as Kunta Kinte and Geordi La Forge, but we just like to call him LeVar, particularly when we're singing along to Jimmy Fallon's Jim Morrison "Reading Rainbow" parody. Phew.

In this Issue: