It’s almost here! My hometown writers conference. And since San Francisco is second only to New York in publishing prowess, it’s quite a town for a writers event.
Next Thursday through Sunday at the historic Mark Hopkins Hotel, writers, editors, agents and other pros will gather to network, learn, teach, mingle and share–and our founding partners will be there to offer our advice on where the publishing industry is headed.
2013 was a remarkable year for the publishing industry. Change continued unabated–not just in how many ebook bestsellers came out of nowhere, but in creative ideas that seemed to spring from everywhere. New small publishers were born, while at the same time a juggernaut was created (Penguin Random House…causing New York’s Big-Six to morph into the Big-One-Plus-Four). Hybrid authors started taking control of their writing careers and choosing which format fit best for each particular work–something unheard of if you weren’t a mega bestseller. Plus traditional New York publishing has begun to be excited about all the changes, embracing them instead of dreading them. When I visited New York in October I was amazed at all the digital initiatives and daring programs these publishers were exploring.
All this leads me to think that 2014 is going to be another stellar year for publishing. I see no slowdown or derailment of the digital publishing revolution that began in 2008. Heck, Smashwords was just named one of the Top 100 Most Promising Companies by Forbes magazine. Congratulations to one of the best people in publishing: Smashwords founder and guiding light Mark Coker!
Plus if you think about the advances in social media, both in metrics and features, I don’t see how we can fail to innovate even more rapidly in 2014.
If you’re going to the San Francisco Writers Conference, stop us in the hallways of the beautiful Mark Hopkins Hotel and share your thoughts on where publishing is headed. If you can’t be in balmy San Francisco next week, leave us a comment here. We’d love to hear your thoughts.
