Archive for the ‘Publishing Point’ Category

Off to the London Book Fair gearing up for “The Great Debate”

I’m off shortly to the London Book Fair.

In case you’re based in London or planning to go to the London Book Fair, I hope you’ll join me this Monday when I’ll be introducing “The Great Debate: Will Publishers Soon Be Irrelevant?”. It should be a lively event with a star-studded list of speakers debating the proposition, “All that matters are authors and readers: publishers will soon be irrelevant.” Speakers include: Richard Charkin, Executive Director of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC and former CEO of Macmillan; Cory Doctorow, award-winning author, editor of Boing Boing, publisher, blogger, and activist; James Bridle, publisher, editor, writer and technologist; and Andrew Franklin, Publisher and Managing Director of Profile Books, one of the UK’s leading independent publishers. Although the event itself is free, note that you need to register for The London Book Fair to attend the debate. You can find out more about it here.

This debate is part of The Publishing Point (a community of publishing professionals excited by industry transformations and sharing ideas about the future) and was organized in cooperation with Intelligence Squared (the global forum for live debate, dedicated to creating knowledge through contest). Many thanks to Bowker Identifier Services for sponsoring this event.

Hope to see you at the debate — and come say “hi!”

The Publishing Point Hits 1000 Members

Susan and I are thrilled to announce that The Publishing Point, DailyLit’s industry education group, has just reached a major milestone: we now have over 1000 members. It’s been amazing to watch this community grow over the past year, bringing together folks who are excited about publishing’s future. We’ve loved bringing you a diverse lineup of great speakers this year–from HarperCollins Editor-at-Large Debbie Stier and bestselling author Seth Godin to Macmillan CEO John Sargent and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey–and the conversations their talks have sparked have been inspiring.

Special thanks are due to all of our speakers; our friends at Random House, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, and HarperCollins for providing space for our events; our spring 2010 sponsor, Bowker’s Identifier Services Group; and, most of all, to you, our members, for attending our events, asking interesting questions, and constantly challenging what it means to be in publishing.

Here’s to the next year and the next 1000 members in The Publishing Point!

-Susan Danziger and Maggie Hilliard

The Publishing Point is a community of publishing professionals excited by industry transformations and committed to sharing ideas about the future. All publishing professionals are encouraged to join The Publishing Point (membership is free), and The Publishing Point can be followed on Twitter @publishingpoint and uses hashtag #pubpt. For more information about The Publishing Point, please contact Susan Danziger at sdanziger [at] dailylit [dot] com or Maggie Hilliard at mhilliard [at] dailylit [dot] com.

DailyLit Holding Webinar On “Get Your Books Found on the Web: SEO/SEM Strategies”

DailyLit’s industry organization, The Publishing Point, is hosting a free webinar next week that is designed to show authors and folks who work with books how to get their books discovered–and bought!–online. Since we know that there are quite a few writers and book folks among the DailyLit audience we thought we’d share the details of this event with you.

“Get Your Books Found On the Web: SEO/SEM Strategies”

We’re excited to announce The Publishing Point’s first webinar: “Get Your Books Found on the Web: SEO/SEM Strategies”. This free, one-hour webinar from 12:30-1:30pm EST on April 7, 2010 explores strategies for creating and capturing demand for your books online. We’ll discuss ways to participate in, and add to, the online discussion around your book’s theme―the best way to assure high rankings in “organic” search results (Search Engine Optimization or “SEO”). We’ll also discuss ways to build effective online marketing campaigns that drive sales and maximize profits (Search Engine Marketing or “SEM”). Finally, we’ll place SEO and SEM within the context of your overall marketing strategy and budget.

This webinar will be given by Hanny Hindi, an SEO/SEM expert and Clickable guru. Come armed with questions, which you’ll be able to submit directly for a live Q&A session.

RSVP here for this free webinar: http://publishingpoint.ning.com/events/getting-your-books-found-on

The Publishing Point thanks Bowker and its Identifier Services Group for sponsoring this event.  Bowker and its Identifier Services Group are committed to optimizing the discoverability of book titles and authors. For more information, visit www.myidentifiers.com or contact Andy Weissberg at andy.weissberg@bowker.com.

The Publishing Point is a community of publishing professionals excited by industry transformations and committed to sharing ideas about the future. Previous speakers have included John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan; bestselling author Seth Godin; and other media industry leaders found here: http://www.meetup.com/Publishing-Point/. All publishing professionals are encouraged to join The Publishing Point (membership is free), and The Publishing Point can be followed on Twitter @publishingpoint and uses hashtag #pubpt.

Announcing The Publishing Point

We are excited to announce the next stage in the evolution of the Digital Publishing Group. Since we launched it six months ago, the group has grown to 300 members from all over the publishing industry, and we’ve received great reviews from such talks by bestselling author Seth Godin; head of digital for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Gail Horwood; the CEO of Lexcycle/Stanza, Neelan Choksi; HarperStudio’s Debbie Stier; and the founder of Tumblr, David Karp. We think the time is now right to build on our success, expand our core mission, widen our range of programs, and build in community tools. Inspired by members’ ideas, we have big plans ahead, plans that we believe make it appropriate to change the name of the group. So say a fond farewell to The Digital Publishing Group and join us in giving a warm welcome to The Publishing Point.

We’d love all of you who’ve joined The Digital Publishing Group via MeetUp (and any of your colleagues/friends) to now become part of our expanded community on Ning. You’ll benefit from being able to communicate with fellow members and learn about all the cool stuff we’re launching. It’s easy to join, and best of all, it’s completely free. You can also follow us on Twitter—@publishingpoint—and tweet about us using the hashtag #pubpt.

So here’s our new and improved mission statement:

Publishing today is being transformed. Whether we’re authors, agents, publishers, or booksellers—everything about the way we create, publish, distribute, market, and sell is changing.

A transforming industry demands a new type of organization, an organization that supports, encourages and enables change. The Publishing Point is that organization.

What is The Publishing Point? The Publishing Point is a community excited about change, a community that empowers professionals and inspires innovation. The Publishing Point is a forum that recognizes that change comes from all directions—from the bottom, top, inside, and outside our industry. The Publishing Point is a conversation where we share and debate the issues that shape everything we do.

The Publishing Point is about information, education, training, and news; it’s about the ideas and resources for our changing industry. But it’s more than that. The Publishing Point is a movement. A movement for those passionate about change—the changing reader, the changing book, the changing opportunities, and the changing industry.

Be part of the transformation. Be part of the future. Be part of the movement. Be part of The Publishing Point.