BTB #147: Journalism Doesn’t Pay

Jan 24, 2010 | Best of VOC, Podcasts

The self-supporting journalist, making a living from assignment to assignment, is an endangered species. James Rainey, who reports “On the Media” for the Los Angeles Times, has recently documented the decline of freelance writing. Payment in the low-two...

BTB #146: At Digital Book World, A is for ‘Audience’

Jan 17, 2010 | Podcasts

Next week, the two-day Digital Book World conference gets underway in New York City at a moment when – for better or for worse – the digital tide may become a tsunami for the book publishing world. Ahead of the first-time conference, Chris Kenneally spoke with...

Mythconceptions: Debunking the E-Book Hype with Danny O. Snow

Jan 14, 2010 | Announcements, Digital Transformation, Podcasts

The following is a preview of an upcoming interview with Danny O. Snow, founder of Unlimited Publishing, who promises to debunk several myths about e-publishing. The podcast will be released on Monday, February 8, 2010. In 2010, the long anticipated migration of...

BTB #145: Screen Culture: Covering The World In Words and Pictures

Jan 10, 2010 | Digital Transformation, Podcasts

In 1000 days – sometime in 2013 – 11 billion square feet of digital screen surface will exist on earth, enough to cover the planet’s surface almost 50 times. For Peter Kaufman of Intelligent Television, the potential exists in the emerging global “screen culture” to...

BTB #144: Aims & Aimlessness of ‘A Good Talk’

Jan 4, 2010 | Podcasts

Don’t expect A Good Talk: The Story & Skill of Conversation to improve your conversation skills, though it just may. For his new book, published today by Twelve Books, Daniel Menaker set out not to write a “how to” but a “what for” volume....

BTB #143: Attention Authors: The E-book Marketplace is Open

Jan 3, 2010 | Digital Transformation, Podcasts

Media coverage for the Kindle and iPhone make clear that the time for e-books has arrived. While many publishers are prepared for the opening of this new marketplace, authors are likely to wonder what’s in it for them. Authorlink CEO Doris Booth tells Chris Kenneally,...

BTB #142: Raccah: We Publish Authors Not Books

Dec 26, 2009 | Podcasts

In the future, predicts Sourcebooks CEO Dominique Raccah, “Publishers are going to take more risks and authors are going to take that risk with them.” As a follow-up to her PubWest conference keynote address, she spoke with Chris Kenneally about the...

BTB #141: Words of the Year from the Dictionary Man

Dec 23, 2009 | Best of VOC, Podcasts

At Merriam-Webster, the editors are always adding new words, of course, but now with online tracking technology, they can also tell what words we look up the most – something not possible before the Web. In 2009, this online vocabulary traffic took inspiration from...

BTB #140: For Book Sales, It’s Beyond the Bookstore

Dec 20, 2009 | Podcasts

“Sales outside the bookstore is a great route to go for independent publishers,” advises Scott Flora, who heads up the publishers trade association SPAN. “It could be corporate clients, it could be to educational clients, associations,...

BTB #139: Netflix for Books?

Dec 18, 2009 | Podcasts

That’s the pitch from BookSwim, which offers books for rent the way many of us rent DVDs. From “The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association,” a how-to for getting published professionally, to “Superfreakonimics,” bestsellers and perennial hits are...