Publishers and Social Media

With my background as a novelist, I’m curious to track the way the publishing industry is dealing with developments in internet and social media technology. The general trend seems to be slow. Book people seem to be still fondly attached to paper and hard copy texts.

A couple of years ago, a number of literary heavyweights loudly pooh-poohed blogs and sneered at how a teenager’s ramblings online could not possible be in the same league as great literature like Tolstoy’s works. (Unfortunately, I didn’t tag that article at the time I read it so I can’t link you to it here.)  Now, there are highly successful books derived from blogs eg The Julie/ Julia Project blog which became Julie and Julia, the book - and at least one publishing company, the Friday Project, that specifically seeks out blogs to turn into books. There is also the Blooker, an award - with a nod to the Booker - for books based on websites or blogs.

And traditional publishers are trying to catch up to new media, tentatively exploring e-books and other digital means to capture new audiences. A recent article on OhMyNews.com examines in-depth the issues facing publishers in the new media age and what some are doing to embrace the technology.

Interestingly, OhMyNews.com is a news site that draws its articles and news updates from citizen journalists - anyone who wants to submit an article can do so by signing up to be a citizen reporter. It was founded by Korean Oh Yeon-ho in 2000 as a Korean language site and has now expanded into an international English language site as well. The concept of citizen journalists is very empowering, in particular those who live in nations where the press is tightly controlled and also for anyone who would like to write and read “news” outside of the traditional avenues. Again, the evolution of new forms of news publishing online like this site must only challenge the traditional models and expectations of what publishing is all about. The site has a good FAQ section if you are interested in finding out how to become a citizen reporter.

In related news, New Media Age reports that major publishing company Random House and supermarket giant Asda are teaming up for an multi-media launch for celebrity Chantell Houghston’s autobiography, using mobile phones as the main platform for the interactive element.

Photo: thanks to James Cridland on flickr.com