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May 1, 2011

The Future Of Publishing: What Really Matters

5 Comments

Radio Lito­pia has a TERRIFIC audio inter­view with my friend, Seth Godin, on the future of publishing,  and how his latest enter­prise, The Domino Pro­ject, is attemp­ting to embrace it.

Seth’s take on the future of publishing is simi­lar to what I’ve been saying for a while: “The book doesn’t mat­ter. The con­ver­sa­tion matters.”

A book, as an object, has no inhe­rent, objec­tive power. Which is why it’s so hard to pre­dict bes­tse­llers, why you can’t judge a book by its cover.

The REAL power of a book comes from lots of peo­ple rea­ding it and, MORE impor­tantly, peo­ple tal­king about it.

Or as Mark Earls would say, what makes any object REALLY  inte­res­ting (in this case, a book) is how it chan­ges the human inte­rac­tion around it, not the actual object itself.

Again, “The book doesn’t mat­ter. The con­ver­sa­tion matters.”

But this has always been the case.

A famous author has always been a glo­bal mic­ro­brand. A publisher’s power has always been in its abi­lity to pro­vide a plat­form for the author, not in its abi­lity to chop down trees and create prin­ted paper products.

And an author’s power has always been in her abi­lity to affect human inte­rac­tion through her wri­tings, not in some magi­cal, superhu­man quality.

And of course, all the Inter­net has done is make these truths even more self-evident than they already were.

“The book doesn’t mat­ter. The con­ver­sa­tion mat­ters.” That, my friends, is the future of publishing. The actual media– be it Kindle, iPad, hard­pack, paper­back, wha­te­ver– is irrelevant.

And if your publisher doesn’t really get that, then find another one. Seriously.

PS: Seth men­tions me about eight minu­tes into it as a case study of what he’s tal­king about (Thanks, Seth!).

[Check out my two books here etc.]

Tags: Audio Interview, Mark Earls, Seth Godin, The Domino Project, The Future Of Publishing

5 Responses to “The Future Of Publishing: What Really Matters”

1. Mars Dorian says:

   May 1, 2011 at 4:47 PM

   I luv your term the glo­bal mic­ro­brand, and now it’s more true than ever.
   I just recently bought Seth’s “Poke the box”, and it lit my butt on fire to really start my own.

   The Domino pro­ject is ama­zing, and I luv the setup he tries there (short, fast-published books that can be read within an hour).
   You both are doing a grrreat job of ins­pi­ring others to become their own, one (wo)man empires.

   Reply
2. News Update – Best of the Day says:

   May 2, 2011 at 5:04 AM

   […] lot of media com­pa­nies think about the future of publishing these days. Hugh Mac­leod cites Seth Godin and his theory that “The book doesn’t mat­ter. The conversation […]

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3. El potencial de un libro says:

   May 2, 2011 at 6:18 AM

   […] Gaping­void | “Hugh Mac­Leod” Car­toons drawn on the back of busi­ness cards. […]

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4. El verdadero potencial de un libro | Francesc Masana says:

   May 5, 2011 at 6:04 PM

   […] per­so­nas lo lean y, lo que es más impor­tante, de que la gente hable sobre él.- Seth Godin(Vía Hugh Mac­leod y […]

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5. El verdadero potencial de un libro | Linkeando: La Isla Buscada says:

   May 6, 2011 at 1:57 AM

   […] Seth Godin(Vía Hugh Mac­leod y […]

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