Friday 25 March 2011

Electronic Publishing Bingo - would Jeffrey Archer play?


See, I'm practising doing shorter posts for A - Z Challenge, so I thought after hearing Jeffrey Archer talk about e-Publishing this morning I'd trot this out. I think it's hilarious, tongue-in-cheek and lots of fun with a grain or two of truth. Found it at  John Scalzi's Whatever.

One of the commenters could place more in the squares. David Numez added:

“Focus on building a Platform.” (whatever that means)
“Apps are more [insert ANY adjective here] than ePub”
“Apple [will/won't] hold onto their lead for long! Better [ignore/be ready for] Android Tablets”
“Tech companies don’t get the publishing industry.” and “The publishing industry doesn’t get tech.”
“The only budgets for book apps is in the marketing department”
“[insert insulting development budget] should be more than enough to develop our [insert bloated book app here]”
“Offshore development, keep ‘creative’ local” (because, you know, developers aren’t ‘creative’)

These guys aren't dissing e-publishing, just saying that it's not all wine and roses. I totally get the humour. Do you? What do you think?

Oh BTW, Jeffrey Archer (Brit who has sold over a squillion books and just flew in and out of Oz and NZ to promote his new book Only Time Will Tell), says his publisher told him that 7% of his sales were digital. His publisher also said in a few years time to expect his digital sales to be 50%. We knew that already, didn't we? Mwhmwhmwhaaa!

24 comments:

Tony Benson said...

Hi Denise. I love the humour in the Bingo card, and the additional quotes.

I really think e-publishing is terribly immature as an industry and as a technology. Technology such as DRM is neanderthal and the industry as a whole just doesn't have the right feeling for making it work the way most people want it.

While there's definitely a place for e-publishing, (see J A Konrath), humour is the best approach at the moment. Thanks for a fun post.

Jules said...

LOL, love the Bingo card. What does he mean we don't get Tech? I had a Tech just the other day visit my home :)
Jules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow

Unknown said...

Love the shorter posts! The bingo chart is cool. I'm going to print it out.

Joanna St. James said...

we'll see what the future holds.

N. R. Williams said...

So funny. We need to be serious with humor sprinkled liberally in. Did you hear about Amanda Hocking. She signed a $2 million deal with a New York Publishing house. I watched her interview and she said she had no idea why she was so popular. She has nine books out.

In the mean time, I am laboring away on my short story and sequel.
Nancy
N. R. Williams, The Treasures of Carmelidrium.

Dawn Embers said...

I'm behind when it comes to the whole e-publishing network, and I have no problem admitting it. There are a number of books coming out only as e-books right now that I won't get to read at this point. And some of them I really wish I'd see in paperback *hugs paperback books*. I didn't even know about some of the people mentioned, so hard to keep up sometimes.

I should do a practice post, but the author interview got priority. Maybe I'll post a short one over the weekend. When is the first? *stares at calendar* April is fast approaching.

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

This gave me a giggle. I never thought I'd say this, but I think I prefer reading ebooks now. It's so comfy on a kindle! I also love the instant purchases.

Denise Covey said...

Tony: Interesting, thoughtful comments. Thanks and glad you got a laugh.

Jules: Ha ha, how did you manage that?

Clarissa: I tried. Yep, I think I will too.

Joanna: Ah, the future. I think it's in the ebook...

Nancy: Amanda HOcking, yes I know. She made it onto the Bingo Card. Seriously rich through ebooks. Yep, you need to laugh more, great for the soul.

Dawn: Check out Lynda's comment.

Lynda: I can't imagine that happening to me but I guess it might.

dolorah said...

paper-book stores and Starbucks - think they'll ever really go away?

Maybe one day, but for now, I buy both. And still love my paper books more :)

.......dhole

MorningAJ said...

As a very new convert to e-readers I have to say that I'm already hooked. I'm anti-Kindle because you can't read anything except Amazon files on them (becaus Amzon have fixed it that way) but I'm definitely in favour of e-reading.

Talei said...

Ha! Of course, we already knew that. ;-) Did you get to meet Mr Archer? I used to read alot of his books once upon a time but not lately.

Will see you on the A to Z challenge, am also aiming for short posts!

Have a lovely weekend D,

Tx

Denise Covey said...

Donna: I can imagine e-readers and coffee!

MorningAJ: I didn't know that! Sounds like Mr Gates and incompatibility.

Talei: I love his books. No I didn't get to meet him personally. Looking forward to your A - Z posts.

Denise<3

Tony Benson said...

Hi Denise. The fab goodies arrived today, and we're having fun going through them. Million thanks from both of us (we're both enjoying them).

Tiger85 said...

Very funny, like the bingo card. =)
http://tigeronmybookshelf.blogspot.com/

Deniz Bevan said...

That's really funny! Especially the fat cats :-) I don't quite get the "pulling up the ladder behind you" line though...

Michelle in a shell said...

Clever comic! Though it does remind me of the flailing future of print sadly. Reading a book on a computer isn't the same- you can't fold the pages or highlight anything. But! It does make for less "stuff" around the house.

I still haven't decided if I'm on any side of this fence (obviously)

Susan Fields said...

Good luck with the A-Z Challenge!I'm not doing it, but it seems like almost everyone else is!

Vicki Rocho said...

Love the bingo card. I'd seen one like this for corporate meetings. Phrases like "action item" and "reach out" and lots of other corporate-speak. The idea was to play surreptitiously during boring meetings to see how long it would take before you had a bingo. LOL

Will Burke said...

Awesome! I loved "something, something, fat cats..."

Amie Kaufman said...

I've been laughing and laughing over this since I first saw it. I think authors like Archer are especially likely to see sales go digital--they're not books you read repeatedly, so keeping them on your Kindle will be perfect. I also tend to read them when I travel, as they suck me in and pass the time on the plane, so that'll work as well!

Talli Roland said...

Haha! Love it. And it's true - despite the hype, there are still plenty of issues with e-publishing. As much as I love it and all!

Hope you enjoy my book. :) Thanks for reading.

Have a great weekend!

Anonymous said...

Yes indeed. Humorous. Interesting. So much change, so fast it seems sometimes.

Well, I like your longer posts too!

The Words Crafter said...

The bingo card is funny!

E-publishing may grow, but I think, I hope, it will be a long time before paper books go away. I love cuddling with them, the way they smell...oh, I just had a thought. Gotta go write it down!!!!

Have a great week :)

Nas said...

The e-publishing is coming in so fast, it's mind boggling! A while back, I didn't even know what ebooks were. Yet, now every second author is e-pubbed!

Your bingo card is hilarious!