Archive for Trends
The soon-to-be lost art of book cover design
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It never occurred to me that with the growing popularity of ebooks, book cover design might go the way of my favorite album covers of the 70s and earlier. Had it occurred to you?
As this recent article points out, if book jackets disappear, something in the total experience of reading a book will be lost. I’ve often picked up a book based on the cover, not so much the topic.
CDs are okay, but I miss buying album covers and spending time reading lyrics that are actually legible instead of point 6 size. It was all part of the “experience” of buying music. I hardly look at CD covers now – they’ve definitely lost something in the translation to a smaller footprint. And as we have more and more ebooks, we may lose the art of intriguing book cover design.
I have a collection of Zane Grey books that belonged to my father. Most have the original dust jackets on them. If you’re not familiar with Grey, he lived in Payson, Arizona for a time, and wrote beautifully of the “Rim Country.” The dust jackets speak to an era in book design that was so rich in complexity.
I don’t know if current book design does it for me. I can’t get excited over the Twilight series covers, for example. But maybe to the target teenage audience, covers don’t matter as much.
How do you think book cover design will change in the next 5 years? I think more emphasis will be on distribution channels and less and less on the artistic component. Pity.
The future of book publishing and ebooks
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Economic Futurist Joan Foltz
Those of us who attended Joan Foltz’ presentation at the Arizona Book Publishing Association luncheon yesterday left the meeting somewhat more encouraged than when we arrived, as the hot button in publishing today is what effect ebooks will have on our beloved traditional, physical book. Her talk was entitled, “What’s Up/Down with the Publishing Industry.” She was the perfect speaker for this topic, as she has a master’s degree in futures studies, is an “economic futurist,” and is in the process herself of putting out two books. She looks at industries and analyzes their cycles and what is changing the behavior and structures of those systems. You can find out more about her background and newsletter at www.edgyeconomics.com.
What’s our pulse now?
We are now in a state of “disequilibrium,” according to Joan, where we are trying to determine which is fad, and which is permanent change. Destruction is scary, she said, and some people will be knocked out, but it also represents new opportunity. Read More→
First newspapers, now the U.S. post office
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Whenever there is a revolution, something is often left in its wake, and that apparently is the U.S. postal service.
In the words of the US Postmaster General, Jack Potter, there has been a macro change in society and all posts around the world are challenged by the diversion of hard copy to electronic medium. Unlike other postal services in other parts of the world, the USPS is constrained by regulations and cannot expand into other areas. Facing a huge mountain of debt, they are proposing that delivery on Saturdays be eliminated. Another likely possibility is a significant hike in postal prices after 2010.
While the speed and convenience of electronic delivery are well understood, nothing quite captures the thrill and quaintness of receiving a handwritten letter. Perhaps the USPS will eventually privatize somehow. I would hate to see this element of American society disappear, but as I watch teens and twentysomethings with their individual smart phones, I don’t doubt that 30 years from now when my generation has gone, our modes of communication will be housed in museums as curious oddities.
The benefits of a digital age on press releases
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I was contacted by www.prmoment.com, which analyzes UK coverage of the world’s leading brands, to offer my perspective on the effects and impact of the digital age on press releases.
I believe that its impact has been mostly positive. Press releases in particular are now shorter, full of interesting multimedia components, and much easier to disseminate to segmented audiences. My prediction is that press releases will evolve in the next five years and will be called something else, and the traditional format we love to hate will finally dissolve. The combined brevity and complexity of such social media tools as twitter will continue to force PR professionals to craft more highly condensed pieces of information in an ever-widening array of formats to please individual audiences.
You can read the full article here, and find out what other highly regarded pundits are predicting.
Many social media books are just re-hashing Alvin Toffler’s 1970 theme, and that’s good
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Does this sound familiar? “…a time phenomenon, a product of the greatly accelerated rate of change in society. It arises from the superimposition of a new culture on an old one. It is culture shock in one’s own society. But its impact is far worse.”
This is the theme of many new social media books on the market now – the disruption of society, the inability to adapt, the loss of the industrial age as replaced by the information age as replaced by an even faster information age.
Yet, Alvin Toffler wrote these words as long ago as 1970, when his groundbreaking work “Future Shock” was published. He points out that “for most Peace Corps men (a bit dated gender reference there!), in fact most travelers, have the comforting knowledge that the culture they left behind will be there to return to. The victim of future shock does not.” Read More→
Apple iPad and a look back at the first ebooks, 1983
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Master's thesis, Boston University, 1984
Steve Jobs demoed the Apple iPad today, which although not available for several months, promises to take us closer to e-book reality.
Master’s Thesis
I first researched e-books in 1983-84 as part of my master’s thesis at Boston University’s College of Communication. The project analyzed what was then an emerging communications technology, driven through the videotext channels at the time. Videotext is a two-way interactive system which transmits information on telephone or cable lines to a specially adapted television set or home computer. Book publishing stood to be affected by videotext because it offered an important alternative to the familiar physical book that we all know. Read More→
The revolution is right under your nose
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Credit: zoonabar
In the last week, I have attended several conferences and seminars in Phoenix. My big take away? There is a serious changing of the guard in business, and if you happen to belong to the over 40 crowd, you need to sit up and pay attention.
The old rules of business went out the window long ago. That was the world where you waited patiently and put in your time at your job, and gradually acquired the incremental, tangible signs of your advancement in your career. Maybe it was the bigger cubicle. Maybe it was the office window and covered parking. Maybe it was the bigger salary.
At these conferences, the speakers are not wizened old businessmen and women in starched suits. They are young, vibrant entrepreneurs in their 20s and 30s. They didn’t wait for their turn in line. They went for the brass ring and held on tight. They are leveraging social media to exponentially grow their businesses.
The revolution is right under your nose. Do you see it?
