Can Physical Trump Digital? As digital technologies evolve, certain changes are not necessarily good or bad, just inevitable. Publishers are in the process of transitioning to digital for most trade books, but are there any publications that can sustain their object value in physical, printed form?
In a keynote address for the 2013 PubWest Conference last month, Knock Knock founder/owner Jen Bilik noted ways that independent publishers are facing the challenge to reinvent and redefine their organizations. “By embracing the new, and rethinking the old,” she told conference attendees, “innovative publishers can revolutionize the reading experience and help shape the future of the book.”
Jen Bilik started Venice, CA-based Knock Knock in 2002 with the mission of creating witty, design-driven gift products and books – along with anything else that might strike the Knock Knock fancy. She grew up handy in Berkeley, California, quilting with her mother and learning carpentry with her father. After college, Jen decamped to New York City and labored variously as a film development intern, apprentice film editor, architectural draftsperson, tutor, babysitter, and newspaper proofreader before accepting an actual salaried job in publishing.
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