The Future Of Publishing Blog by Thad McIlroy
March 15th, 2015
I’m thinking about complex industries. I’m thinking of… Pharmaceuticals (you might check out 23andMe, “a personalized DNA service”) The design and launch of high-tech products (the intriguing Apple Watch) Aerospace (think Airbus A350 XWB) Launching a new car company (think Tesla) Telecommunications (“rewiring” the Internet to reconfigure performance)
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).
March 12th, 2014
Everyone takes a shot at Amazon, and it’s not difficult to see why. Founder/CEO Jeff Bezos is blamed for just about every corporate crime imaginable, from pricing that destroys competition to suffocating warehouse employees on hot summer days (apparently no longer a problem). My criticism of Amazon is about an issue perhaps more subtle, but,…
October 23rd, 2013
Like most tech-dominated industries publishing is addicted to change. This addiction even has a scientific name: neophilia, in contrast with neophobia, a condition more traditionally associated with publishing (I chuckled when I read in the Wikipedia entry: “Neophobia is a common finding in aging animals…”).
September 2nd, 2012
Finn Harvor, a Canadian writer and artist living in South Korea, publishes a blog called Conversations in the Book Trade. He’s interviewed Rolf Maurer, publisher of New Star Books, noted journalist Ian Brown, Richard Nash from his Soft Skull days, provocateur Edward Champion and numerous others. Harvor asks each interviewee mostly the same questions and so I found…