January 10th, 2015
Digital Book World asked me to prepare a white paper examining the most important developing trends in book publishing. The white paper was published in December and is available for download (PDF).
This white paper examines a dynamic industry in flux. There are still more questions than answers. Have ebook sales slowed or stalled? Will radical changes in price impact ebook sales and profitability? What will be the ongoing implications of the Amazon and Hachette dispute? Big data and analytics are an innovative solution, but what problems can they solve for publishers? With tablets, ereaders and smartphones everywhere, how can publishers maximize their reach through mobile? Also, content marketing is a new buzz phrase that seems to apply to publishing…but the application may not be clear.
The paper was designed initially to draw attention to the Digital Book World Conference + Expo held in New York from January 13-15, 2014. The conference was once again a powerful gathering. It’s the largest event worldwide dedicated solely to the business of digital publishing. (Next year’s event will be March 7-9 in New York.)
The conference is over, but the issues remain. Based on all of the great feedback I received at the conference I think that this white paper is on target.
I cover a range of issues that were featured at the conference. (There was a separate conference for children’s book publishers with a separate paper available from DBW.)
My topics include:
- Mastering Mobile
- Educational Publishing: “EdTech”
- International Markets
- Content Marketing
- Building Communities
- Partnering
- Innovators, Change Agents and Entrepreneurs
I’m proud of the whitepaper — I think it adds some new perspective to the discussion.