Kevin Vogelsang

I still don’t think anyone has really wrapped their mind around what a “book” really is.  This needs to change, particularly in this age of “New Media.”

There are two aspects of a book:

1) It is not a wad of text.   It is a cohesive package of communication.  It is a product.

Writers can use any form of media in their books now.  I’m hoping to see (or discover, if they already exist) publishers/authors that are writing a more full experience; they can use the medium that best suits what they are communicating.

Magazine publications seem to understand this best.  But, they’re still thinking of magazines in the same way–they’re just adding videos and interactive ads.

2) A “book” is a conversation.

“Books” are more alive than ever.  They can quickly be updated and adapted.  They are a conversation with the audience.  This conversation includes what is being communicated in the book itself, as well as the conversation surrounding the book.

When writing 10 Powerful Personas, I realized that the comments I got back from people on my manuscript were valuable content.  Why not leave these valuable comments and let people write themselves into the body of the text?

Graphic.ly–a digital comic book reader– allows you to put comments/thought bubbles anywhere on the comic.  You can also toggle whether or not you want to be able to see your comments and the comments of your friends. (Follow the previous link to see a video of it in action.

Once this perspective is internalized by the digital publishing ecosystem, we’ll have a much fuller and much more magical reading experience on hand.  And I can’t wait to see it.

-Kevin
5.6.2010

Back in July of 2009, I published my friend Luis Fernandez’s essays on the five most important lessons to learn in life on the blog.  I wrote an introduction and some notes to supplement the essays.

This body of writing has now been published as a physical book.

As Luis pointed out, there is something different, and special, about publishing in book format, as opposed to digitally.  It feels immortalized, written in stone.  It feels like a bigger step.

The prospects of digital publishing are very exciting to me.  But, something special still exists for books.  People have said, “The same thing that happened to records will happen to books.  People will stay attached to them  for a while, but they’ll quickly move on.”  I’m not so sure it’s quite the same.

The publishing industry has become a big focus of mine. This represents my first foray into physical publishing. Exciting things are happening.  Books can now be printed on-demand.  Self-publishing platforms have matured.

Of course, Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly Media, maintains that there is no such thing as “self-publishing.”  People that self-publish, that keep doing it, and are good at it, just become publishers.  “I was a self-publisher once,” Tim said in an interview.

There’s a whole new set of tools out there now that can be used to spread and distribute information, ideas, and insights.  This is incredible.  These tools have brought Luis’s essays to the world in a new medium.

You can purchase a copy of “The 5 Things to Learn in this Life” here from CreateSpace. As far as the Author’s margins are concerned (and consequently Luis’s daughter’s college fund), this is the best place to purchase right now.

For added convenience, you can also purchase the book on Amazon.

Luis’s book is currently only available in paperback.  As I learn my way around the publishing world, it’ll become available in digital formats (ex. on the Kindle) and hardback.

I’ll be sharing what I’ve learned about the publishing world as I go through this process.

-Kevin
3.2.2010

As the hardware for reading ebooks improves, eBooks will continue to be adopted. 

But, there’s one thing that eBooks don’t do: they don’t visibly sit on a shelf.

Books aren’t just for reading.  They express something about us.  A book on our shelf represents something we see (or want to see) in ourselves.

They’re also like trophies.  You can’t walk into my house and see all the eBooks I’ve conquered.  You can’t appreciate the grandeur of an eBook library.

eBooks are much more cost effective way of publishing and distributing content.  But, I still think people will continue to buy physical books for a long time.  But, they’ll likely become more of a luxury good.

Today, Apple announced it’s new tablet device–the iPad. They also announced iBooks, the iPad’s application/platform for ebooks.  Interestingly enough, Apple was smart enough to try and replicate the feeling of a book sitting on a shelf.  The idea of putting eBooks on a shelf is much more provocative than adding them to a list of text.

-Kevin
1.27.2009