Digital Book World conference begins
The Digital Book World conference began quietly Monday morning with three long, focused sessions; the official opening ceremonies will begin at 5 p.m. But despite the stealthy start, Digital Book World 2011 is hardly quiet -- there are 1,250 registrants, more than double that of last year's 600.
Digital Book World, known as DBW, is the key conference in publishing for publishers about e-books. All of publishing's "big six" publishers are attending in volumes they never have before. Random House will have more than 40 people attending, while fewer than 20 came from the publisher in 2010.
Because publishers are here, vendors are here too. Who will be here and what exactly they're selling will become apparent when the exhibition floor opens at 1 p.m.
Monday's three morning sessions were on e-book design and production, online content strategy and iPhone/iPad strategies. It was the first, the most nuts-and-bolts, which was the best attended. Speaking directly to book designers and production managers, the popular session included discussions about programming languages and workflow -- indicating that publishers are serious about integrating e-books into their business.
The iPad/iPhone session, led by Rana June Sobhany, provided an overview of apps and Apple's app store. It was the kind of session that felt as if it had been presented to other audiences -- not publishing-specific, like the session on e-book design and production. The well-attended session, which is still underway as I'm writing, shows an interest from ppeople in publishing. How much they will have gotten out of it, well, maybe they'll tell me later.
Follow along with the DBW proceedings on Twitter with the hashtag #dbw11, and here on Jacket Copy, where the DBW blogging will continue through Wednesday.
-- Carolyn Kellogg
Photo: Digital Book World's Ebook Design and Production workshop on Monday. Credit: Carolyn Kellogg / Los Angeles Times
It sounds like a majority of the conversations at this conference are relating to the lending or lack of lending of books. Whatever the case, I'm glad that people are finally seeing that book reading is a social activity. So many great apps for these devices are springing up including Book Club Leader (http://www.bookclubleader.com) which is app aimed at a very narrow niche - leaders of discussion groups and book clubs. Apps like these prove that reading is meant to be discussed and shared amongst a group, much more so than watching television or movies.
Posted by: BCL | January 27, 2011 at 11:53 AM