Authors are always looking for an edge. In a world where thousands of new traditionally- and self-published books are released every month it’s hard to rise above all the noise. We’re launching Author (R)evolution Day at TOC NY in February is because we realize authors need better resources to understand marketing, publicity, discovery, and distrib…

Our TOC theme this month is “legal” and I thought it would be interesting to have a conversation with Bill Rosenblatt covering a variety of topics in the legal realm. Bill is a recognized authority on intellectual property in the online world. He’s also an author of the Copyright and Technology blog as well as the founder of GiantSteps Media Techno…

A couple of weeks ago I interviewed the IDPF’s Bill McCoy about the current state of EPUB. As I mentioned in that conversation, EPUB is the format used by pretty much every device not named “Kindle.” But since the Kindle format is the most popular I wanted to get an update on it as well, so I managed to grab a few minutes with industry expert Joshu…

Our TOC theme for August was platforms and we transition to the theme of formats in September. In a couple of earlier interviews we talked about the future of iOS and Android as publishing platforms. I also wrote a piece about how the ultimate winner isn’t actually a platform at all. It’s time to bring in an expert and tell us whether HTML5 really …

It’s “platforms” month here at TOC and we covered the current state as well as future predictions for iOS in an earlier article. Now it’s time to shift the focus to Android. It didn’t take too long for me to figure out who we need to talk with about Google’s OS. Brian Jepson is senior editor of Make books here at O’Reilly and he lives and breathes …

We’re focusing on platforms this month and Apple’s iOS is still the one to beat. Android has momentum but recent reports indicate it’s still not a serious threat to iOS, at least not on the tablet front. The much-rumored iPad Mini will only reinforce Apple’s position and potentially eliminate consumer interest in other tablets. Is the iPad Mini for…

As our industry shifts from print to ebooks we’re discovering a wealth of new data to study. Retailers hold most of the cards for this data, but a startup named Hiptype is looking to change that. In the interview below, Hiptype’s president and CEO James Levy (@jamtoday) talks about how their platform works and how it can lead to making smarter publ…

The agency model has played a key role in ebook pricing models, and the DOJ’s recent ruling has generated a large number of responses from the community. One of the more interesting ones was from Simon Lipskar, President of the Writers House literary agency. I invited Lipskar to participate in a TOC podcast interview so he could talk further about …

This post is part of the TOC podcast series. You can also subscribe to the free TOC podcast through iTunes. We’ve been talking about pricing in July, and how could the conversation be complete without coverage of the free content model? Wattpad is a fairly new company that’s built completely upon free content. In the following interview, I talk wit…

This post is part of the TOC podcast series. You can also subscribe to the free TOC podcast through iTunes. July’s TOC theme is “pricing,” but we didn’t want to limit the focus to ebook pricing. It’s also important to consider the pricing models of the tools we use to create those ebooks. And what better way to cover that topic than by looking at i…

This post is part of the TOC podcast series. You can also subscribe to the free TOC podcast through iTunes. June’s TOC theme was “retailing,” and we wrapped things up with a discussion about the biggest retailer of them all: Amazon. Clint Greenleaf (@clintgreenleaf), founder and CEO of Greenleaf Book Group, offers a unique perspective, as his compa…

This post is part of the TOC podcast series. You can also subscribe to the free TOC podcast through iTunes. We’re focusing on retailing topics this month at TOC, and when it comes to digital sales, one of a publisher’s highest priorities should be building a strong direct channel. The shift from print to digital means publishers can be less reliant…

This post is part of the TOC podcast series. You can also subscribe to the free TOC podcast through iTunes. Today’s ebook landscape is mostly filled with nothing more than quick-and-dirty conversions of print to digital. There’s not a lot of imagination, and we’re certainly not taking full advantage of all the capabilities of our digital devices. T…

This post is part of the TOC podcast series. You can also subscribe to the free TOC podcast through iTunes. Our June TOC theme is retailing, and there’s never been a more important time for publishers to build a direct sales channel for their customers. Far too many publishers still ignore this opportunity, claiming their existing retail partners a…

This post is part of the TOC podcast series. You can also subscribe to the free TOC podcast through iTunes. Social reading is gaining momentum. There are quite a few startups involved in this space, and most of them simply assume your Facebook friends share the same reading interests you do. ReadSocial is different. In this TOC interview, we hear f…

This post is part of the TOC podcast series. You can also subscribe to the free TOC podcast through iTunes. Transmedia publishing is a phrase that means different things to different people. In this interview with Verane Pick (@veranepick), co-founder and artistic director at Counter Intelligence Media, we get an up-close look at what’s involved in…

This post is part of the TOC podcast series. You can also subscribe to the free TOC podcast through iTunes. There are countless author and book production platforms to choose from these days. So why would you want to use a new one like PressBooks? In this TOC interview, I sat down with Hugh McGuire (@hughmcguire), co-author of “Book: A Futurist’s M…

This post is part of the TOC podcast series. You can also subscribe to the free TOC podcast through iTunes. I’ve never consulted an index in an ebook. From a digital content point of view, indexes seem to be an unnecessary relic of the print world. The problem with my logic is that I’m thinking of simply dropping a print index into an ebook, and th…

This post is part of the TOC podcast series. You can also subscribe to the free TOC podcast through iTunes. New content distribution platforms are springing up all around us. Most are from startups struggling to gain market visibility. When a long-term player like Yahoo enters the market, though, it’s important to give them thorough consideration. …

This post is part of the TOC podcast series. You can also subscribe to the free TOC podcast through iTunes. A quick look at the bestsellers on the iPad indicates that kids books are a hot area. PlayTales is one of the leaders in this space, and I recently got to speak with their marketing and PR manager, Anna Abraham. If you’re not familiar with Pl…