Every so often one actually grabs my attention. Ironically, the latest one is called Earned Attention. I first watched the video embedded below and was curious to learn more about it. Here’s a quote from the video foreword that really resonated with me:

Attention is the ultimate currency. It is the ultimate scarce resource. It is the only commodity that matters.

How true. And even more so in the publishing world these days. We’re all talking about discovery and rising about all the noise. If you can truly earn the attention of your target audience you’re clearly doing something right, and “earn” is the key word here.

Here’s another quote from the end of the video below:

A book that you never actually finish.

I’ll bet that’s a turn-off to a lot of people. Most of us just want to read a book from start to finish and be done with it. Every so often though you want the book to be a part of an ongoing stream of information. That’s how I view Earned Attention. It’s one of those products that should continue feeding your brain with more insight, long after you read the last word of the printed book.

I’m looking forward to digging into this one. My only disappointment is that the accompanying apps are for iOS only. As an Android convert I’ve decided this is the worst six-word sentence I’ve ever read:

Available for iOS (Android coming soon)

I see that sentence far too frequently. I guess I’ll have to dig out that first-gen iPad of mine and see if I can use the app there.

This post originally appeared on Joe Wikert’s Publishing 2020 site. It’s republished with permission.

I’m drawn to LinkedIn now more than ever before. The rate of connection requests I’ve been receiving there has also been accelerating over the past few months. Maybe it’s due to all the uncertainty of the publishing industry but I think there’s more to it than anxious job seekers.

There are all sorts of terrific publishing groups on LinkedIn where opinions are shared and discussed. A good example is our TOC LinkedIn group; check out the stats here. We’re rapidly approaching 20K members. If you’re not a member you’re missing a great deal of terrific industry banter.

You may have heard of LinkedIn’s recent acquisition of Pulse. Although Pulse isn’t my favorite news platform it’s probably in my top five. It’s the combination of LinkedIn and Pulse that intrigues me though.

LinkedIn has always been a great place to network with others in your industry. Adding a dedicated content service like Pulse is smart and I believe it’s just the first step in LinkedIn’s goal of becoming a publisher. Well, I’m not sure they’d consider “publisher” as one of their future roles but that’s basically where they’re heading.

Lifelong learning is important today and it’s only going to be more important tomorrow. We’ve all had to adapt and grow professionally more than our parents had to. Our children will be asked to grow and adapt more than we’ve had to. As LinkedIn becomes the Google of job and career search you can bet they want users to spend as much time on the site as possible. What better way to do so than to offer a variety of self-improvement and professional development content for all those lifelong learners? Looking for an entry-level accounting job? Here’s content explaining the 10 most under-appreciated features of Excel. Want to become a better salesperson? Here’s a piece on how to close the deal. You get the idea.

Just as Google recently bought Frommer’s to feed travel content into their search engine I fully expect LinkedIn to sign more deals to acquire rights to job training, career development, professional certification, etc., content. Some of the material will be written exclusively for LinkedIn but a lot could be redeployed from books.

So although they won’t publish books, just like Google isn’t publishing Frommer’s books, look for LinkedIn to add more and more content to their service. And if you’re a publisher (or author) with a rich set of career and professional development content you should consider reaching out to LinkedIn to see if your content might be a good fit on their platform.

This post originally appeared on Joe Wikert’s Publishing 2020 site. It’s republished with permission.

I grabbed that image from the search results for “Windows 8″ on our website this morning. If you click on the English title you’ll see this screen:

You can either buy the English language version from here or click the Deutsch link in the bottom right corner and this edition is displayed:

We’re in the process of adding more German titles to our online catalog and you can expect to see other languages added in the future as well.

Why is this significant? As I’ve said before, I believe every publisher needs to build a direct channel so they aren’t overly dependent on other retailers. I’m not suggesting a direct channel replaces other retail channels but it’s a very important extension that helps publishers establish a relationship with their customers, learn from the data generated and create even better products in the future. By adding other languages to the assortment we’re making it easier for anyone around the globe to find the O’Reilly content they want on one site. And, of course, it’s all being delivered with the multi-format (EPUB, mobi & PDF), DRM-free approach pioneered by O’Reilly.

This post originally appeared on Joe Wikert’s Publishing 2020 site. It’s republished with permission.

I didn’t want to buy the ebook yesterday but I wanted to request the sample when it’s available. The ebook isn’t released for seven more days so the sample obviously won’t be available till then either. The chances of me remembering to check back next week and request the sample are close to zero.

So why not add a button that lets me pre-order the sample yesterday or even a week ago? You don’t have to send it to me now, but have it sent to me on April 30 when the ebook releases. How hard is that? More importantly, how many sales have been lost because this sample pre-order button doesn’t exist?

Lessons for all PR professionals:

1. Never send the email blast saying the book is available the day/week before it actually is available.
2. Tell your publisher to make sure the ebook is available the same day as the print book, not a week later.
3. Tell your publisher and/or retail partner to implement a sample pre-order button for all ebooks. Better yet, make the ebook sample available on your own website, in all formats (EPUB, mobi, PDF), before the book releases anywhere else. What do you care if it gets out in to the wild and everyone shares it? It’s called “establishing a direct channel with your customers”, and it’s a good thing to do.

P.S. — The reason I’m on Metaxas’ mailing list is because I read his amazing book Bonhoeffer a year or so ago. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. It’s one of the most inspiring books I’ve ever read.

This post originally appeared on Joe Wikert’s Publishing 2020 site. It’s republished with permission.

Paperight turns any business with any printer and an Internet connection into a print-on-demand bookstore.

This isn’t just about distributing content through copy shops though. Paperight helps make content available in the developing world. That’s why Paperight was named “Most Entrepreneurial Startup” from TOC’s Startup Showcase in February. They’re opening an entirely new channel and serving the needs of readers who might otherwise never have access to this content.

That’s also why O’Reilly recently signed an agreement with Paperight. We’re thrilled that Paperight is distributing our content and I want to encourage you to sign up with them as well. You can learn more about the Paperight/O’Reilly distribution deal here.

Please take the time to learn more about Paperight and get your rights team in contact with them.

This post originally appeared on Joe Wikert’s Publishing 2020 site. It’s republished with permission.

The room was filled throughout the day and we know there were countless others who wanted to be there but simply couldn’t make it. That’s why we recorded the entire event. You’ll find more than 5-1/2 hours of Author (R)evolution Day programming in this $19.99 video product. Cory will be pleased to know there’s no DRM or other irritating technology restrictions on this content. In true O’Reilly fashion, we trust you as our customer and want you to have the flexibility of either streaming or downloading all the video to your computer.

If you’re an author searching for marketplace success you’ll definitely want to purchase this video collection. Let us know what you think about the programming for our first Author (R)evolution Day and stay tuned here for more information on future events.

This post originally appeared on Joe Wikert’s Publishing 2020 site. It’s republished with permission.

Before I do that though, let me tell you how you can get my Publishing 2020 magazine. Since Flipboard isn’t available as a web-based app (which is a shame) I can’t just embed a link to the magazine. Here’s the link Flipboard provides, but it’s nothing more than a short note saying my magazine exists and to download the Flipboard app and search for “Joe Wikert” to find it. That’s not the best approach so let’s hope they make it easier to share magazines down the road.

Now let’s talk about “why.” I’ve said before that I’m accessing my RSS feeds less and less. I switched from Google Reader to Zite for awhile but that wasn’t always the best option either. I still love to see what others in the industry find interesting though, mostly by reading what they’re reading.

Twitter kind of addresses this but I find it very difficult to focus on one person’s point of view via tweets. It’s everyone’s stream of consciousness coming at you all at once. Even with the best filters in place it always feels like you’re drinking from the fire hose. And every tweet has a shelf life of seconds at best. The Flipboard interface encourages a deeper dive and even though it’s presenting much of the same information it doesn’t come across as having a short shelf life.

As fun as it can be to abbreviate and get creative, Twitter’s 140-character limit gets in the way at times, right? I see Flipboard magazines filling a nice, comfy space between Twitter and blogs. I read articles throughout the day and some of them are tweet-worthy. But the best deserve more commentary or context than I can squeeze into 140 characters. That’s where a Flipboard magazine comes in. The majority of the articles I’m adding to my Publishing 2020 Flipboard magazine also include my thoughts about the piece. Annotations are an important element of the Flipboard magazine model but, unfortunately, the Flipboard user interface makes them hard to see. That’s another item I hope Flipboard fixes in an app update.

My last point has to do with my addiction to the magazine called The Week. It’s one of the last magazines I still subscribe to in print (mostly because it’s not available as an Android app…yet). If you’re not familiar with it, The Week aggregates the best news stories and adds some commentary. It’s like reading the Cliffs Notes for all the major newspapers, magazines, and websites. I’d like to think that in some small way my Flipboard magazine is doing the same for the publishing industry.

My goal is to give the publishing community another resource for industry news and analysis, all delivered conveniently and elegantly via the Flipboard interface. I hope you’ll sign up and let me know what you think. Also, if you feel I’ve overlooked an important article, send me a link so I can read and add it to the magazine.

This post originally appeared on Joe Wikert’s Publishing 2020 site. It’s republished with permission.

Most of analysis on the TOC site is somewhat timeless but the blog format might not make it feel that way. That’s why we gathered the best of the best articles and assembled them for you in a handy, to-go version. It’s called Best of TOC: Analysis and Ideas about the Future of Publishing. More than 60 of the most thought-provoking articles from the TOC team and community are featured and it’s available in EPUB, mobi and PDF formats. Best of all, it’s completely free.

If you need to catch up on your TOC reading you no longer have an excuse. Download your copy today and tell us what you think.

One question that seems to keep popping up in the ebook publishing world is, “when will a Spotify for ebooks emerge?” You could argue that a few services already offer unlimited access to free ebook content. Those services are, of course, limited in their breadth. You won’t find any offering all the latest bestsellers, for example, but Spotify and other streaming music services let you listen to plenty of hits.

You could also say that Amazon already has something like this with their Kindle Owners’ Lending Library program (KOLL). This service lets Amazon Prime members borrow from hundreds of thousands of ebooks with no due dates. And it’s all included in the $79 annual Prime membership fee, so it’s almost like a free program, assuming you joined Prime for other reasons.

I’m not convinced KOLL is the answer though. It’s basically a throw-in, or an afterthought, to the Prime membership program. And while 300K+ titles is huge, I don’t believe the successful “Spotify for ebooks” will focus on breadth of content; I think it will be more about narrow focus and depth of content.

I don’t have much interest in an all-you-can-read ebook subscription model with a million titles, especially if it doesn’t have the depth I prefer. I’ll pay more for vertical subscriptions that offer me more depth. Sports and history are two of my favorite topics. Rather than paying $15/month for a broad catalog with limited depth in those two areas, I’d prefer to pay $10/month each, or $20/month total, for two separate vertical subscriptions with more titles that are likely to match my interests.

This is the type of discussion we’ll have at our free webcast on Friday, April 26 at 1PM ET. The webcast is called Why the Ebook Subscription Model Might Be Right for Your Content and features Safari CEO Andrew Savikas. Be sure to register now as slots are filling up quickly. Also, attendees will be able to ask questions during the webcast but if you’ve got any you’d like me to put on the top of the list for Andrew please email them to me.

Those are just a few of the questions Schilling is asking as they research their next industry white paper. If you missed their last one on author and publisher relations you can learn more about it and download it here.

Schilling is in the investigation stage for this next report on the education publishing market. They plan to publish this free report in time for TOC Frankfurt in October. If you’re in the education publishing space and would like to participate in this project you can learn more about it here and sign up for an interview here. You can also obtain more details about the report in this downloadable PDF document.

I took part in the interview process for the author/publisher relations report and if you’re in the education publishing space I encourage you to schedule an interview with Schilling for this project.