Time to Write

On the future of publishing...and being retro

Washington Post staff writer Bob Thompson reported on Book Expo America and cited the observations of  Mike Shatzkin of the Idea Logical Company about the future of publishing:

“Nobody knows what's going to happen to publishing, Shatzkin emphasized, except that it will change. But ‘you have to have a view of the future in order to know what to do in the present.’ His involves vertical specialization, ‘format-agnostic publishing’ and an extended period of frantic Darwinian experimentation during which ‘costs are going to go up and revenues are going to go down.’

As for that thing with printed pages and a binding:

‘If you read a book on paper, you're going to be definitely stamped as retro,’ Shatzkin said. ‘This is not going to be a fashionable thing to do.’”

^^^
I guess that makes me officially retro. Care to join me?

The Prime Minister Is an Author...Or Is He?

Gordon Brown’s name is prominent on the book, “Britain’s Everyday Heroes.” He says it is a product of a “personal journey…round Britain,” and in his author’s note he states, “I have written this book to acknowledge the work of these men and women, and millions like them, who do so much for our country.”

Interesting, then, that the Evening Standard found that the Prime Minister did not journey to most of the heroes or see their achievements for himself. He met most of them only at a big group meeting. Instead, the heroes were interviewed by researchers from the charity, “Community Links.” The charity admitted it did most of the work but said, “The introduction and the conclusions of the book are all Mr. Brown’s work.”

Maybe it’s not surprising that the Prime Minister was too busy to do his own research and writing, but a bit more honesty in attribution would have been good.