The Book Broads

What a delight to talk about WordPress, social media, eBooks, and other online opportunities for editors with participants in the Editors’ Association of Canada [#EAC] workshop. This workshop was held on the SFU campus at Harbour Centre in Vancouver, and we had a large and friendly group that participated eagerly with questions and discussion. George Plumley (yeah, Kim’s hubby, and Author of WordPress 24-Hour Trainer, and another new WordPress-related book coming out shortly) joined us as an Honourary Broad to spearhead our day with one of his famous WordPress talks.

The job of Editors is changing rapidly these days. Much of our discussion revolved around how Editors can profit from new opportunities in the world of digital publishing, whether it be in blogging, eBooks, or in creating and conceiving social media messaging and content. Content is what drives the new digital economy, and Editors are needed more now than ever.

Participants were very generous with their comments after the session, and we were very flattered to hear things like; ”Best communicators I’ve sat in any class with”, “Overall a very interesting [workshop] from a bunch of personable, intelligent, witty folks.”, and ”Brain full. Very full. Thank you! I learned a lot and am really glad I came.” You are most welcome – we’d love to do more of these sessions! WE LOVE EDITORS!

Thanks to everyone who attended the workshop, and to the EAC for having us as presenters. Please keep in touch with us, as we’d love to know how you use the materials.

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Here The Book Broads weigh in on the use of self-publishing companies that we refer to as “puppy mills”, that is, self-publishing companies that really don’t care as much about your book as your wallet.
To hear the podcast, just click the arrow on the player below. The player will expand to play the entire podcast here in this window.

 

 Beware: Puppy Mill Publishers [10:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (182)

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This is just a short, fun little podcast where we talk about our favourite reads, and why they’re our faves.
To hear the podcast, just click the arrow on the player below. The player will expand to play the entire podcast here in this window.

 

 The Book Broads on Our Favourite Reads [5:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (136)

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Listen to this great podcast where all three of the Broads talk about the impact of online retailers, eBooks, and other forces on book retailers, both large and small.
To hear the podcast, just click the arrow on the player below. The player will expand to play the entire podcast here in this window.

 

 The Book Broads on The Future of the Bookstore [14:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (145)

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And a grand time was had by all. Here are Peggy’s top three reasons why she loved Northern Voice 2010.

Reason Number 1) The Incredible Job Done by Volunteers

Anybody who can wrangle a team of hardworking people like this deserves double applause. I met only a couple of the volunteers, including the friendly and clever Travis Smith, and the thoughtful and well-spoken Lauren Wood. This is still a shockingly small group for the amount of work that they all do to get this ball rolling. The conference was well-organized, and with only a couple of hiccups (need larger/more visible signage and bigger rooms and bigger shirt sizes), any disasters that may have happened behind the scenes were totally invisible to speakers and attendees. Venue worked pretty well, and parking was great. All sessions were recorded to view online later. Everyone appeared relaxed and the tone was really laid-back. Nice job.

Reason Number 2) Darren Barefoot

Darren, one of the organizers of the conference, and one of those hip next-gen marketing dudes, is *the best* panel moderator, EVAH. When’s he writing another book, huh? Huh? (When he does, he’s absolutely got to include his definition of a question - funny, clear, and it set the tone for all the sessions.)

Reason Number 3) Focus on Personal Blogging

All of the other conferences I go to are heavily focused on marketing, even Blog World Expo, where delegates are often business bloggers, or at least, very clear about wanting to make money from their blogs, which is pretty darn difficile. This conference’s focus on personal blogging was so refreshing. Being unashamed to focus on content, the very soul and driver of blogging in the first place, reminded me of what is really important. If you shift focus to think of blogging as a business, you run a serious risk of shooting yourself in the foot. Canadian content flourishes here, independent, true north strong and free. Breathe slowly.

Other great things about the conference;

Of the minor improvements that could be made, bigger rooms would have made the greatest difference. I felt bad for all the people squatting and sitting on floors to hear a great speaker. I was one of them at one point, and although it worked fine for me, I realize that this is not the case for all. The venue of the Life Sciences building was still very lovely, and the auditoriums didn’t seem to have a problem accommodating any of the sessions. However, being able to book sessions in advance might help plan for the use of larger rooms for higher-demand topics. This would be an uncommon approach, but I can’t see how else you could manage the numbers. Perhaps one of them could be large enough to accomodate the keynote, as the echo chamber / atriums were less than optimum for this purpose.

I’m really looking forward to returning next year. Thanks to all who attended our talk “Flog Your Blog” on Saturday afternoon, about turning your blog into a book. It’s impossible to teach someone how to create a book out of their blog in just 45 minutes, but I think we scratched an itch for a few people, judging by the emails I’ve received this week. We had such a great time!

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When iTunes first started offering eBooks in December of 2008, we all felt a little deflated when we realized that each book was a standalone app – not one book in a huge library. But there’s one publisher who is going to take advantage of that for the iPad: Penguin USA.

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