Showing Tag: "content" (Show all posts)

How About Letting Readers' Input Write Your Book?

Posted by John R. on Saturday, December 18, 2010, In : self-publishing 
An idea for lazy writers (although not new, damn it!): get your readers' feedback on an interesting subject and then formulate that input into a finished book and sell it on the internet!

Cool idea...and that's just what Andrew Sullivan, writer of the 10-year-old Daily Dish blog on the Atlantic web site, has done successfully for the second time...Hell, I have to admit it, I admire pure genius.

He first published a book on the Blurb.com "Make Your Own Book" site back in June, made up of photos ...

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Digital Magazines: Paid Content vs Advertising Dollars

Posted by John R. on Friday, October 15, 2010, In : Magazine Publishing 
Something is happening in the digital magazine world that many so-called publishing gurus said would never happen!...Mainly, that online revenues could and would come from consumers willing to pay for online content...AND that this paid content would exceed advertising dollars! 

In fact, this is happening now with the
Financial Times as explained below in a cutting edge interview by FOLIO magazine's Managing Editor, Matt Kinsman, with Financial Times' CEO, John Ridding:  

Game Changers 

Back i...


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Crazy E-book Prices? Maybe Not...

Posted by John R. on Friday, October 8, 2010, In : publishing 
Another chapter RE the so-called "agency model" (where publishers and not booksellers set the book prices) and what physical book and eBook prices should be.

Please refer to the 10/5/10 post "
E-Books are Selling for More than Hardcovers!" on the Writers Welcome Blog for an interesting background.

Apparently, the sole argument put forth as to why eBooks should be cheaper than their physical counterparts is the fact that you don't have the more expensive production costs (printing, paper, binding...

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Ingram Book Distributors and Macmillan Publishers Form New Partnership and Business Model

Posted by John R. on Wednesday, September 22, 2010, In : book distribution 
With the new digital format demand for books plus the print on demand (POD) requirements of many, logistical requirements for delivering mixed content to ever-increasing readers became a nightmare for publishers.

One giant global publisher, Macmillan, solved this nightmare problem by joining with one of the worlds largest book distributors, Ingram Content Group, to forge a new business model.

This report from PRWeb:

Ingram Content Group Inc. and Macmillan today announced a new distribution ser...


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Books Should Reflect Cultural Messages

Posted by John R. on Tuesday, August 31, 2010, In : writing 
Books from countries around the world should...besides detailing their native country's histories and thought processes that defined those histories...address current world challenges and the particular country's feelings, thoughts and possible solutions to those challenges.

Beijing's 17th annual International Book Fair, which begins on Monday in Beijing, and which attracts more and more foreign publishers and authors, is becoming a great venue for exchange of cultural messages and increasing ...

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Can Content Farms Actually Improve Quality?

Posted by John R. on Sunday, August 1, 2010, In : writing 

Many people believe that content farms, that perhaps deal in quantity over quality, leads to poor quality. Well, these sites give aspiring authors a podium for sharpening their skills and should trigger more accomplished writers to improve upon sub-par articles by writing new articles on similiar subjects...Either way, these sites, I believe, have a positive function.

Have you ever read a story or article that was punctuated perfectly and otherwise textually and technically perfect also...but ...


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Monetizing Real-time Online Content

Posted by John R. on Tuesday, July 6, 2010, In : digital publishing 
The best model, I think, for monetizing online content (especially newspapers in view of the decline in ad revenues) is one the cell phone companies have been using for years: give subscribers a Kindle or iPad free with a two year subscription! Right?

Janet Guyon  , Managing Editor at Bloomberg Businessweek, addresses this very topic in an excellent article for Businessweek:

Hal Varian, the chief economist at Google Inc., spends a lot of time talking about the economic state of the news busines...

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When Should You Write for Free?...And When Not!

Posted by John R. on Thursday, June 17, 2010, In : writing 
Give my writing away? Hell no!...I used to think. Then I learned, especially as a newbie wanting to establish a presence, that it was better to advertise some of your work for free to get known and accumulate a following...build a platform, so to speak, from which to launch your bigger works for sale...Look at it as writing your advertising.
Yuwanda Black (pictured) is an author and speaker who wrote a great article for Wordpreneur giving some excellent pointers on when your writing should b...

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Can iPad Resuscitate Magazines?

Posted by John R. on Sunday, June 6, 2010, In : digital publishing 

Maybe...The iPad offers a more personal experience than computers and more graphics and peripherals than eReaders...but, will readers pay for the mag content...much less invest in the expense of the iPad to begin with?

I feel they will...IF the content is relevent, interactive, well written and not available elsewhere. Afterall, content that people want is king!   

Benny Evangelista, who writes technology for the SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle), has this view:

For the magazine industry, App...


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About Me


John R. Austin Writer, Old-Warrior-Adventurer, Blogger... I was born in Key West, Florida. A rather famous hangout for some past famous writers: Hemingway and Tennessee Williams to name two. I just hope that I possess a glimmer of their talent. I have a bachelors degree in architecture/construction and a master's degree in industrial engineering. I have been writing for fifty plus years. Most of my writing has been in the technical, instructional and business areas. I am working on my first book: "Havana Harvest---When Cuba Was Naughty" which details my coming of age experiences in 1958 Havana, Cuba, at the age of 15. Please visit my other blog "Writers Welcome Blog" at http://alturl.com/4z88.

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