Well, I’m home from O’Reilly’s Tools of Change for Publishing conference in NYC.
There was a lot to absorb. Heard a lot of things I already knew, learned a few new things, but most importantly? I met a lot of great people.
There’s a lot of hoopla surrounding ebooks, and the publishing industry is rightfully concerned. But digital books only make up 3% of the total book market. And there are plenty of other ways to market and sell books than just social media. Did we really an entire conference where most people only talked about these two things?
On the other hand, many of the traditional forms of book marketing are losing their effectiveness, and the ebook explosion is coming, and it’s a matter of maybe 10 years before ebooks will comprise 40% or more of all books sales.
Lots of excellent people had hugely relevant things to say, though. Among them were Chris Brogan (of course), Dominique Raccah, and Nilofer Merchant.
Overall it was a great trip, and the conference was well worth it. I hope next year there is more than “digital” and “social media”, though. 
