Do you know the difference between flowable and fixed format books? What's the future of hardcover books and e-books? Do you think Amazon's dominance in the book field is inevitable or even a force for good or otherwise?

If you're a writer, publisher, editor, video or game developer, and the answer is "no," to the first question, "I don't know but I'd like to," to the second, or if you have strongly held opinions about Amazon's impact on publishing, it's time to get aboard the digital book publishing train.


 

Digital Book World Conference + Expo (DBW)

Brooklyn authors, wanna-be self-published authors and traditional publishing types may find the annual Digital Book World Conference + Expo (DBW) an eye-opener and a networking opportunity. Launched in 2008, it's an annual event that deals with the business side of digital publishing and content. It's hosted in Manhattan in January.

Among the 2015 headline speakers is best selling author, journalist and Aspen Institute CEO Walter Isaacson, whose latest book is right on-topic: The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution. 

Sessions will cover a maze of topics in this pioneering publishing field, including the latest from and about Amazon, metrics and data for audience development, mobile marketing, best practices and advice about ebook subscriptions, how e-books are changing the print marketplace, and more. An entire section of the conference is dedicated to video, which, as online content features more images and fewer words, is increasingly important.

As a conference spokesperson notes, "Find out what video can do that words and pictures cannot. "

A hundred speakers are expected for the 2015 event. They include executives from Amazon, The Aspen Institute, Content Marketing Institute, Fast Forward Labs, The New Yorker and The New York Times, among many others.

Find out about the Digital Book World Conference award finalists

 

Brooklyn,  Writing and Publishing

Against all odds, Brooklyn's indie publishing pulse is alive and well. Local authors and publishers comprise a robust swath of the booths and programs at the annual Brooklyn Book Festival. DUMBO and other neighborhoods boast more than their fair share of e-publishing outfits, too.

The publishing industry might have once been declared an anachronism waiting to happen, but the shift to online publishing has changed the landscape for fiction, non-fiction, juvenile authors, not to mention poets and publishers of all levels of accomplishment, in Brooklyn as elsewhere.