A Few (More or Less) Pointed (and semi-serious) Questions about the 2009 O'Reilly Tools of Change Conference:

I’ve been back in my sleepy desert town for a week now. I’ve had time to ponder, and make silly mock magazine covers, and get a cold, and try and figure out my next career move, and now I’ve finally put together a few more or less serious considerations about the TOC Conference. Bear in mind, I wasn't at every session, or tutorial - so likely I missed a lot, but these are my impressions. So here, goes:

1. Does What Happened at TOC, Stay at TOC?

TOC was chock full of great ideas. For instance, Scott Berkun’s session “How Progress Happens: Leading the Human Side of Change”was so inspiring (I’d have to say it was my favorite session of the whole conference, actually). He dispensed really relevant ideas like: “if you are in the business of change, don’t self-identify as a revolutionary (revolutionaries don’t have a great history of success). Instead — be a problem solver.” And: “Tools don’t change things – people/ideas do.”

But, where TOC was big on ideas and inspiration, it was a bit lacking in take-away plans of action. One notable exception was Success Stories and Failures in Digital Publishing where panelists offered up real case studies with facts and figures and examples of what some trail blazers are doing right and wrong in the real world of publishing. My advice – TOC should have more of this sort of session in future conferences.

2. Information Wants to be Free, But Informants Want to be Paid-So, what’s the answer?

If I had a nickel for every time I heard someone talk about “free” at the TOC conference, well – let’s just say I’d be dictating this to my cabana boy while sitting poolside at my own private island...

TOC had lots and lots of talk about “free” content – but not so much talk about generating revenue (or at least, not enough talk about HOW to generate revenue). Also – LOTS of talk about how to price (or if to price) ebooks, but little discussion about the value of ebooks -- or what could be done w/ ebooks to make them valuable.

Outside of TOC, there has been a lot of good conversation about this. At his PersonaNonData Blog, Michael Cairns offered up a very interesting possible future publishing model:

In the near future, publishers may decide not to print or ‘publish’ a finished product themselves. Aside from selected titles – maybe most front-list where (only as an example) volume may play a role - a publisher may not print any books. Rather, they will enable retailers to print their titles based on demand. Barnes & Noble prints all the titles they carry in their stores for example. They are effectively on-demand with very little, or no inventory carry. B&N has the ability to use the ‘content’ however they want in print form: From premium boxed and signed versions to mass market. In another example, Michael’s the crafts store, enables its customers to integrate ‘how to’ content from a publisher such as F&W into their scrap-book projects or print selected chapters from books at an in-store kiosk.

And, though it is most likely tongue in cheek, NIN's Josh Freese does a great job of illustrating possible models for tying digital goods to scarce goods with "value-added" & limited editions.

My money (well, if I had any) would be on (say it with me now) CURATION. People need to really start monetizing the value added benefits of all the publishing world’s players (you know - agents, editors, design & production & marketing & sales peeps, etc.) and making some smart decisions about finding and retaining readers. (Hint: start with the readers. As much fun as it can be to play guessing games about what readers want, it might be more financially gratifying to find out BEFORE you invest in a book. Oh, and keep the readers in the loop throughout the publication process. They might have some good ideas).

Peter Brantley said it best in his keynote address: "What's published will be less about the book and more about the people who read them."

And Colin Robinson’s article at LRB  also made some great points on the subject of curation and readers:

The future of much of the industry will be dominated by electronic distribution, internet marketing to niche audiences, and reading by print-on-demand or hand-held electronic devices. There is opportunity as well as challenge in this model. The roles of editor and publicist, people who can guide the potential reader through the cacophony of background noise to words they’ll want to read, will become ever more important.

And this Poets & Writers article “Agents and Editors” is so chock full of goodness about the beautiful and necessary things that agents and editors do for books and readers, that I’m just going to tell you to go over there and read it. Oh, well okay – I’ll include one excerpt, from the intro:

But difficult times don't have to be joyless times. As I listened to these four accomplished young book editors talk about what they do, I was reminded of a simple and enduring truth, trite as it may sound: We are all—writers, agents, publishers, booksellers, librarians, and readers—in this together. And there are concrete things we can do to connect with one another more effectively. These editors are full of insight about how to do just that.

3. Which brings me to:"The Elephants Not in the Room" What does it Mean When you throw a party about the future of books and don’t invite the booksellers or the Readers, for that matter?

Some advice for publishers and TOC organizers: If you want to create a working model for book publishing – consider including the end user as part of the conversation! Speakers and attendees talked about the mysterious entity know as "readers," but actual book-buying readers were nowhere to be found. Of the sessions that focused on readers, the one I've heard best represented those MIA readers was the “Smart Women Read E-Books” panel with Kassia Krozser, Angela James, and Sarah Wendell. Kudos to you gals!

That said, as poorly represented as readers were at TOC, they fared quite a bit better than did booksellers.

What is up with that? Sure – Amazon (if one uses the term “bookseller” quite loosely) got plenty of snarky mention, but I’m talking BOOKSELLERS – you know – those people who sell the books we all work so hard to create... Where were they at TOC? ‘Cuz, if it’s not my imagination, they were absent in droves. And, I don’t think anyone seemed to care.

And that worries me. Was this absence intentional? Does someone’s idea of “change” mean no more booksellers?

Seriously, folks -- the production/tools are going to be the least of our worries soon – in fact, the proliferation of technology is causing more problems for readers than it’s solving in some ways, and those people with talent for recognizing, nurturing, developing and getting out the word about the books that matter are going to be the most valuable asset any author, publisher, or consumer will have.

All this said, may I add that there were many wonderful highlights about my time in the big city? The Bookish TweetUp to end all Bookish TweetUps (thank you all for coming, and thank you so much Fran Toolan and the folks at Firebrand and BookSquare’s Kassia Krozser for making it possible); a lovely conversation with GalleyCat’s lovely Ron Hogan; a very intriguing meeting with BookOven’s Hugh McGuire and Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind’s Sarah Weinman about a very intriguing upcoming BookCampNYC; and a visit with the creative and also rather smart kids at HarperStudio – all of which give me great hope for the future of all things bookish.

So, let's keep the faith and FTW, shall we guys? And, see you all next year at TOC 2010.