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Future So Bright

Ebook pricing and new formats aren't the only reasons that TOC chair Joe Wikert sees a bright future in publishing. Direct sales and new toolsets provide fresh vistas as well.

"Direct channels provide outlets for products, and they also provide customer insights that are almost impossible to get anywhere else," Joe writes.

What do you think? Is the future of publishing positive? How can we successfully weather the disruption?

Join the conversation at our marvelous new TOC community site.


Kat Meyer Joe Wikert
Cheers,
Kat Meyer and Joe Wikert
Chairs, Tools of Change


TOC 2013

Be the Change

Do you feel like technology is pushing the publishing industry a little too quickly? Come to TOC to get a handle on the big picture. We promise you'll come away with inspiration, actionable insights, and valuable new connections.

New for 2013: Author (R)evolution Day, for those taking an alternate path to publishing.

You know you want to be there.

Register by November 8 for guaranteed best price.


Hot Type

Kat & Joe's Must-Reads

The Big Five
Penguin and House, Not TogetherPearson and Bertelsmann have signed an agreement to form a joint venture to combine Random House and Penguin. It will be called Penguin Random House company. We were hoping for Random Penguin. Oh well.

Ebooks and Acronyms
The W3C has partnered with IDPF and BISG to throw a workshop this coming February on the subjects of Electronic Books and the Open Web with an aim to helping ebook publishing realize its potential. By amazing coincidence, we're hosting it during our TOC New York conference. Surely you'll be there?

Common Sensical
Einstein at the BoardIn an open letter to ebook retailers, Teleread's Joanna Cabot suggests that retailers shouldn't treat their buying customers like renters. Right? Right!

DRM Be Damned
If stories about Kindle user libraries being wiped out freaks you totally, settle the heck down. Ars Technica's Cyrus Farivar shows you how to hang on to the virtual books you actually bought with your own actual money.

Amazonian Mortar
UK bookseller Waterstones is ponying up floor space for Amazon to establish a type of brick-and-mortar—you know, Father and Son Reading Partnerslike the kind they usually just put out of business. Managing director James Daunt promises that no, he's not a moron.

Digital Glow
Sure, we rhapsodize the smell of old glue and the tactile sensuality of our hard copy books. But this just in: Ereaders can spark adoration, too.


Free Live Webcast: Adding Value with Metadata

Open Up the Index

Friday, Nov. 9, at 10amPT

Pilar WymanIn this webcast presentation, we'll explore new paths for reusing content metadata for discovery and recommendations with Pilar Wyman, President of the American Society for Indexing.

Indexes are one of the most detailed metadata sets available for your content, and can be used to search, recommend, explore, and create buyers for your publications.

We'll talk about:

  • baseline metadata
  • semantic markup
  • whether you need controlled vocabularies across multiple publications
  • displaying mashups of multiple indexes
  • incorporating social input

Sign Up Today


The Final Bit

Our Weekly Nod to Unsolved Mysteries

Sure, That's a Gun in a Book AlrightyLast week, Our Friend the Portland Librarian helped a customer retrieve his wig from a storm drain. The other morning, she helped a father with two young children in tow catch his travel mug before all of the red wine in it had spilled out. But unlike her colleagues at Indiana's Porter County Public Library, she didn't handle a single firearm.

It seems that a donated copy of Robert Stone's 1998 tale of a copywriter and a boat race, Outerbridge Reach, arrived at the Valparaiso branch hollowed out with a surprise inside—a .31-caliber single-shot gun.

With the volume of donations received, there's no way for the library to identify who donated the book. According to police, the historic-looking gun hasn't been reported stolen.

Regardless of genre, that copy, at least, of Outerbridge Reach is a mystery.


Looking for more? Visit toc/oreilly.com.

In This Issue:

  • The Future's So Bright
  • TOC 2013: Be the Change
  • Random Penguins!
  • Free Live Webcast: Free Your Metadata
  • Unsolved Mysteries

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