Value Propositions

Increasingly restive that magazine-length ideas are given novel-length treatment, TOC chair Joe Wikert proposes a radical notion.

"Give me an ebook in summary format, written by the author, sell it at a slightly higher price, and I’ll buy it," he declares, asking: "How about you?"

We'd love for you to join the conversation over at our TOC community site.

That's also the place for you internationals to post your reflections of the Frankfurt Book Fair and TOC Frankfurt. We're quite interested in your impressions.

Watch and Learn: Free TOC Video

Consume/Communicate/Engage
October's theme is "The Law," prompting us to pull "What's New, Copyright?" from the vaults for your learning pleasure. (Rest assured that the individual who named this segment has been summarily dealt with.)

A workshop from TOC 2012 featuring Edward Colleran (Copyright Clearance Center) and Ned May (Outsell) takes a 10-year view at the future of publishing, using the meltdown of mainstream news as a cautionary tale.

You're going to want to watch this.

Hot Type

Kat & Joe's Must-Reads

Are You Shakesperienced?
Huzzah to Sourcebooks for its mulitdiscplinary approach to understanding Shakespeare. How bound in a nutshell we were, now counting ourselves kings of infinite space.

Har de Har Har
As he prepares a self-published book for publication, Baldur Bjarnason comes to one stubborn conclusion: ebook platforms are a joke.

Discover Me!
Finding discovery-services sites all falling flat, Brett Sandusky looks beyond the now and into the future possibilities. He argues that discovery needs a human touch and algorithms based more on user micro-data.

Lessons Learned
The glitch that rendered J.K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy unreadable on some Nook and Kindle devices should serve as a cautionary tale for publishers, says Erik J. Martin at EContent. He also suggests when mistakes are made, publishers should handle customers with silver-lined kid gloves, not in a let-them-eat-cake manner. As a PS, Joe reminds that eBooks Architect CEO Josh Tallent warned of this problems with auto-conversions long before the Rowling snafu.

HTML5 vs EPUB3
Bill McCoy of the IDPF and Sanders Kleinfeld of O'Reilly have been sparring on our TOC community site about the future of books and the roles of HTML5 and EPUB3. The final in their series of articles just published. Join the conversation.

Creative Coding? Software Art?

Welcome to a pan-disciplinary field so new that those working in it haven't yet settled on a name.

Practitioners are artists, designers, sculptors, computer scientists, vision researchers, hardware hackers—anyone who makes art through the creative application of technology.

LISA 2012: the Leaders in Software and Art conference is a new event for this fascinating crew.

TOC newsletter subscribers get a $100 discount to the event—just use code OREILLY at registration.

LISA 2012: the Leaders in Software and Art conference
Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2012
Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Ave., NYC

ALSO: Join us for a free salon the Sunday before the conference.

Come for talks from Dan Schiffman and Andrew Odewahn, then join us for the launch of Liber Amicorum, a collaborative, community-driven project to map the state of the art and create a useful resource for both new and experienced software artists (you'll get to play with O'Reilly's e-publishing platform, beta-named Atlas).

Pre-conference Salon
Sunday, Oct. 14th
4-7pm
ITP @ NYU
721 Broadway, 4th Fl, NYC
Register Today

Our Weekly Nod to the Five Stages of Publishing

Good Grief
If you're working on your first book, please accept our condolences.

What could we possibly mean? Well, are you sitting down?

With nary an apology to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, author Misha Angrist introduces you to the five stages of publishing grief that will accompany your precious manuscript's debut: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.

Eavesdrop on Angrist's version of the stages:

• Denial: "And those Nielsen BookScan sales numbers are clearly off by one decimal place. Maybe two."
• Anger: "What the hell does it look like, Holmes? I am BUILDING MY BRAND."
• Bargaining: "I would be happy to speak at your conference if you will buy 25 copies of my book."
• Depression: "Ha ha ha!"
• Acceptance: "Remaindered? You mean I can buy my own hardbacks for a buck twenty a piece? Oh. Hell. Yes."

Looking for more? Visit toc/oreilly.com.

In This Issue:

• When Shorter is Better
• What's New, Copyright? - New Free Video
• Are You Shakesperienced?
• LISA 2012: Special TOC Newsletter Discount
• Five Stages of Publishing: First is Denial

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New Books & Reports for Publishers:

	Shipping Greatness
	Enterprise Games
	The Connected Company
	OS X Mountain Lion: The Missing Manual
	Lean Analytics
	The Global eBook Market: Current Conditions & Future Projections

More Books & Reports »

We hope to see you at these events.

	Mini TOC Vancouver October 19-20, 2012 Vancouver, B.C.
	Mini TOC Charleston November 7, 2012 Charleston, SC
	TOC New York February 12-14, 2013 New York, NY

More Events »