When I was Director of Stanford Publishing Courses, I often tried to arrange visits to IDEO–the brilliant, Palo Alto-based design firm that was spun off from the work of Stanford professor David Kelley. IDEO uses design thinking to innovate–and is surely one of the top creative firms in the country. Here IDEO takes on the future of books–three ideas worth a look: The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.
Book people need to use ideas and words–the tools they know best–to promote their books. A good author interview–which can be distributed as an audiofile or a podcast–is a better sales tool all around. Check it out for yourself: Book trailers vs. Author interviews
One simple way is through HARO — short for “Help A Reporter Out.” This ingeniously simple site connects journalists working on a story with people who can serve as experts for that story–all for free. Here’s an example: Let’s say you’ve written a book about indie films. If you’re a subscriber to the daily HARO newsletter, you would have recently seen this post from a reporter doing a story for a national entertainment/lifestyle magazine:
You respond via an anonymous email address directly to that reporter. If your credentials are good and your ideas solid, you might get a follow-up interview. Ideally, you become the expert quoted in the article. Nice!
But now Seth Godin has given the field of self-publishing a shot of adrenalin. In mediabistro today, he claims he’ll be self-publishing from now on. The way he sees it, today’s publishing industry is too cumbersome and, well, archaic:
Here’s the complete interview.
This decade–this year–will mark the point at which media tools become robust enough in the hands of writers, video producers, film makers, photographers and other artists to shift the power from publisher to creator. An author no longer needs the structure of the publishing industry to get his work noticed. He can create his book with online tools and use print-on-demand services to produce a small number of copies, mitigating the risk of financial failure. She can market his book through the 24/7 storefront that is a Website and distribute it through Amazon. And he can gather a significant audience for his ideas via powerful social networks such as Facebook or Twitter or Ning or Zazzle or LinkedIn or Plaxo. The only thing she cannot do is edit her own work, and for that there will spring up a phalanx of freelance editors to help her see what she cannot see himself. How will traditional publishers fare in this new economy? Not well. Change is the only way forward. | |
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