“Book publishing is a 16th century technology based on an 19th century business model trying to survive in the 21st century.”
Everyone loves this line. My friend Mark Bloomfield shared it with my several years ago as we discussed the institutional barriers that frustrated the both of us and kept the industry we loved from moving forward.
If you are reading this, you are probably frustrated too. You see the same broken business practices I do. You see same disruption I do. And what you see is the same opportunity I do.
A sense of entrepreneurship needs to be brought back to book publishing. We launch more products than any industry on the planet and somehow we can’t seem to learn anything from that.
I am working on a new project with O’Reilly called “Every Book Is A Startup.” The first release (and there will be several) is being published in a few weeks and I will share more about it when it releases.
The book looks very interesting. Can you share any tidbits about what we might find in the book?
Chris,
Great question.
The first two chapters are titled “Long Tails, Black Swans and Big Dreams” and “Help The Heroes.” The first is about the reality of publishing that millions of books are now getting published and only a few reach mainstream success. The second is about how startups/authors need to understand their customers when they create their books. Steven Blank calls it Customer Development; I felt it finding the felt need.
The rest of the book is going to be created over the next several months with the help of the audience.
Hope that helps.