Last week the ebook stork made a special delivery to ACP HQ in the form of a brand new Kobo reader, which we immediately adopted and named Michael. I happily took the first babysitting shift and brought the reader home for a test run over the weekend. Overall, I was quite impressed. Even the packaging highlights the ease of use of this device – the box opens up like a book and the signature four-language instructional encyclopedia that comes with most electronic toys is replaced with an invitation to simply plug in and start reading one of the 100 free books already loaded onto the reader. The menus are intuitive and the library is easy to navigate – albeit there’s not that much to find your way around – and I appreciated the display options. The online store is also easy to use (though a ‘search by publisher’ option would be cool) and, while the ‘books for dudes’ and ‘reads for gals’ sections made me a little queasy, the recommended reading categorization was actually pretty cool. I did find it a little surprising that Canadian books are not more easily searchable from the main menu, but I was willing to [...]
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Once again the masterminds at BookNet Canada kept it seriously real at their annual conference, BNC Tech Forum. Overall, the team really got it right this year; the event boasted great speakers, timely information, new, sustainable business models and a general rethinking of the shape of the book business. The theme of the day was ‘calculated risk,’ and the speakers covered both sides of that coin, candidly discussing both the failures and successes related to taking risks in publishing. The highlight of the day, for me at least, was imagining the simultaneous chest-heave of the publishers in the room when, after being asked whether community building was a marketing strategy or a publishing strategy, Richard Nash responded with “brand owners will use publishing as a marketing strategy.” I know it’s scary guys, but it will be ok. 1) Can this business be saved? Bob Miller, Workman Publishing Bob gave a general discussion about his experience working with HarperStudio, focusing on the risks the firm took to move publishing into a new, return-free direction. He made a lot of really interesting points, but I’m not sure how much independent publishers will be able to take home; I’m not sure how applicable HarperStudio’s profit-sharing [...] A couple of KIRBC alumni have decided to keep it even real-er with a new kind of online club. Sarah Labrie (@SarahLabrie) and Erin Balser (@booksin140) announced The Keepin’ it Real Cookin’ Club this afternoon, and it’s full of booky and foodie goodness. From the site: “we decided to create an online space where we use our bookish expertise and budding cookery skills to review cookbooks; we’ll pick a book, talk about why we love it, and give it a review based on a few sample recipes. Each post will include an account of our attempt to recreate a recipe, photos of the finished product (and, sometimes, of the mess along the way), and the occasional video for when we’ve mastered a new technique (what the hell are stiff peaks anyway?). What could be more fun than that? Only the assigning of each recipe with the perfect book to read while enjoying the finished product! That’s right – this is where cookbooks and novels come to fall in love.” Visit www.keepingitrealcookingclub.com for all the tasty details.  |
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