Keeping Up with the Changing Digital World

by Dominique Raccah

Because the pace of change in the book business is fast enough to make our heads spin, it’s great to have resources that provide a continuing flow of information about digital developments. Here’s a list of my favorites.

1. Twitter/Twitter lists. Twitter is useful as a news stream. Lots of book people are active on Twitter (including booksellers, authors, agents, vendors, and publishers, along with reporters and analysts).

These Twitter lists can get you started:

• twitter.com/HuffPostBooks/publishing-analysis

• twitter.com/timoreilly/ebooks

• twitter.com/DigiBookWorld/dbw2010/members

You may also want to look at the 995 people I follow (Twitter: @draccah). And why not create your own news feed?

2. LinkedIn: Ebooks, Ebook Readers, Digital Books and Digital Content Publishing group (linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1515307&trk=anet_ug_hm). The largest e-book and digital publishing group on LinkedIn has 6,200-plus members talking/sharing about the evolving digital landscape of the book (just FYI, I run this group with 28 other managers). 

3. Publishers Lunch (publishersmarketplace.com/register). This daily newsletter from Publishers Marketplace (publishersmarketplace.com) is run by Michael Cader. Twitter: @PublishersLunch.

4. Digital Book World (digitalbookworld.com). Digital Book World is a site, a community, and also a conference. Twitter: @DigiBookWorld.

5. O’Reilly Media and Tools of Change (toc.oreilly.com). Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media, and Tools of Change have done and are doing great work in the digital arena. Follow them on Twitter, check out their blogs. You can learn a lot. They also have a community and a conference.

6. The Shatzkin Files (idealog.com/blog). Mike Shatzkin’s Idea Logical is a book-publishing futurist company, specializing in consulting for a wide breadth of aspects of the publishing industry. You can subscribe to his blog at Twitter: @MikeShatzkin.

7. Booksquare (booksquare.com). Kassia Krozser’s analysis of our industry is frequently a breath of fresh air. Twitter: @booksquare.

8. Mediabistro’s eBookNewser (mediabistro.com/ebooknewser). Twitter: @eBookNewser.

9. Teleread (teleread.com). Paul Biba runs the long-running English-language site focused on e-book news and views. Twitter: @Paulkbiba.

10. BISG, the Book Industry Study Group (bisg.org). BISG is the U.S. book business trade association that works on behalf of a diverse membership—publishers, retailers, manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, librarians, and others involved in both print and digital publishing. Check the site for information about educational webinars and conferences. Twitter: @bisg.

11. IDPF—The International Digital Publishing Forum (idpf.org). IDPF is a trade and standards organization dedicated to the development and promotion of electronic publishing. Twitter: @MikeIDPF.

12. Richard Curtis and E-Reads (ereads.com). Agent Richard Curtis founded E-Reads in 1999, at the dawn of the digital era. He’s an innovative leader in the modern book industry. Twitter: @ereads.

13. Nathan Bransford (blog.nathanbransford.com). Another great agent blog. Check out Nathan’s This Week in Publishing. Twitter: @NathanBransford.

14. Publishers Weekly (publishersweekly.com). You can find book publishing news here that often covers digital aspects of our business. Twitter: @PublishersWkly.

15. Shelf Awareness (shelf-awareness.com). John Mutter’s daily newsletter, which is largely about independent bookstores, covers digital developments. Twitter: @ShelfAwareness.

16. Wall Street Journal (wsj.com). Check out what Jeff Trachtenberg is writing.

Books are at the center of the digital transformation of media, so you’ll also find digital book news regularly in the New York Times, Wired, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, Huffington Post, Daily Beast, Mashable, and loads more. Have fun exploring!

Dominique Raccah is the publisher of Sourcebooks, which she founded in 1987 and which has now produced 14 New York Times bestsellers and more than 20 national bestsellers. She is also co-chair of the Book Industry Study Group. To contact her, use Dominique@sourcebooks.com, Twitter: @draccah, or LinkedIn Group: Ebooks, Ebook Readers, Digital Books and Digital Content Publishing.