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  • Digital Book World: The Super Bowl of Publishing

    Writers Boon

    21-Feb-2018

    Digital Book World

     

    Publishing conferences are many, yet few are worth your time and money. Out of those few, only a hand of them offer to both authors and publishing professionals a true opportunity to find and connect with like-minded people you aren’t likely to find elsewhere. One of these golden opportunities is Digital Book World, the most pre-eminent conference on digital content and digital publishing strategies.

    Today we speak with Bradley Metrock, the mastermind behind the ninth annual Digital Book World conference. Welcome to Writers Boon, Bradley.  

    Let’s start easy:

    Can you please tell our readers, where does the conference take place this year, who is it for and how many members of the industry and media you expect to join you?

    Digital Book World 2018 takes place this fall – October 2-4 in Nashville, Tennessee – and brings together the wide world of publishing. Not just the traditional publishing sector, which will certainly be represented and represented well – but non-traditional publishing such as educational publishing, corporate publishing, self-publishing, and the concepts that unify all of these disparate areas of content creation.

    As many as 1,000 decision-makers across the world, working within either publishing or technology or both, will be present. It’s going to be an amazing event!

     

    Being your first DBW conference to organize, I can imagine you must feel like a man on a mission. What is the mission of the conference this year?

    Way more than just me – we’re fortunate to have a great team working on putting together the best Digital Book World in the conference’s proud history. But yes, we’re on a mission!

    The mission is to make this an absolutely essential event for anyone in the nexus of publishing and technology. Are you producing content of any type? You need to be there.

    Are you part of an organization that’s publishing, either internally or externally? Digital Book World is a must. #DBW18

    The conference will have a strong Silicon Valley presence – the infusion of technology into publishing is critical. Publishers need to know the best tools, and the best ways to use those tools, in order to be successful.

    Companies small, mid-size, and large will all be present. You can’t have a conference like this that is intended to be the biggest event for publishing of the year and not have a broad mix of companies at every stage of growth, and that’s what we’ll have at Digital Book World 2018.

     

    What are the program’s highlights and what will the participants learn?

    Legendary tech journalist Walt Mossberg is the keynote – his career was literally built on the fusion of publishing and technology – while we’re fortunate to have Karen Wickre also speaking (corporate communications at Google for 10 years, followed by corporate comms at Twitter for 5).

    A fascinating company called Novel Effect, doing amazing things with Amazon’s Alexa ecosystem and publishing and which just received half a million dollars from ABC’s Shark Tank show, is speaking as well.

    Six breakout tracks – Education Book World, Data Book World, Marketing Book World, Legal Book World, Production Book World, and New Media Book World – provide opportunities to meet like-minded professionals across every type of publishing and every specific publishing need, and to share the best practices that will help each of these areas move forward.

    The Digital Book World Awards, for which nominations will open in the spring, are brand new and will punctuate the event. Every book produced over the last year, no matter in what country or for what purpose, can be nominated and we’ll have awards for every type of book imaginable, so we can recognize worldwide achievement in publishing.

    We’ll also tackle some of the hot-button issues of today – diversity in publishing, women’s issues (e.g. sexual harassment) in the publishing industry, and more as part of the program.

     

    In your opinion, what is the secret ingredient that will help authors succeed in today’s digital publishing world, a world that still feels brand new to some?

    Knowledge is half of it, and connections are the other half. You have to know the best ways to put your content together – the best approaches to each medium – and then you have to know the people who will help you move that content forward, help get it visibility and help it become successful.

    Digital Book World is a great place to make those things happen.

     

    With thousands of books published each year, one pressing questions is asked by everyone: are enough people reading books, digital or otherwise? What’s next for the book industry? Will it barely stay afloat or will thrive? Let’s put the optimistic hat on.

    Reading is very much alive and well. But it’s important to realize that even for people who don’t read that many books a year, the rise of audiobooks and podcasts, along with the rise of more interactive types of content, are just as valid of ways to consume and process information.

    The physical, printed book will always be with us. 

    Know how to mix your print strategy with an effective digital strategy for whatever type of content you’re producing. #DBW18

    That’s the challenge for everyone, and it is why Digital Book World exists.

     

    Thank you Bradley! I wish you the best of luck with everything you are doing for authors and the publishing world.

    Thank you. We'll see you in October in Nashville, TN.

    Don't miss an event that can move your career up a gear. #DBW18

    Remember, “social interaction isn’t downloadable and isn’t optional.” Amazing conferences like DBW provide not only an opportunity to mingle with others  and  share our enthusiasm for publishing but also a chance to learn how  to be successful in today’s digital publishing business environment.

    Register today and save 15% off  the regular ticket prices. Just enter the WRITERSBOON promotional code on the tickets page.

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