My Advice to Publishers at the OReilly Conference

February 12, 2009 · Comments

I spoke about how social software impacts publishing at the O’Reilly Tools of Change conference in New York City. The audience was diverse, engaged, skeptical (at times), and very attentive to my perspective. We had a great conversation, and you’ll note when you watch the video that I make my presentations these days VERY interactive when I can. The experience was very exciting for me, and I met a lot of people that had a lot of passion about publishing and the book business.

Here’s the video from the presentation. I moved around a lot, and the fact that I’m in the frame most of the time is practically magic. It’s also VERY long, so it’s broken into parts. Here’s part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Thanks to Mac Slocum and everybody at O’Reilly for letting me loose on your event.

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  • Very interesting - thanks for sharing. When will these 'leading edge' events break away from the old, old 'white tablecloth', sit-neatly-behind-a-table format? Stultifying...
  • @Ken - oh, hard to say. We do PodCamps in quite different visual configurations, but when I ran my New Marketing Summit, it was all lined up neatly.
  • Chris, thanks for posting this. I'm enjoying it now.

    I remember 300 baud modems (and data couplers) too (circa 1980) and when Hayes rocked with their Smart Modem (sigh). At 300 I could keep up with the reading (ok, I'm a slow reader). Hard to get a laugh with 300-baud jokes these days.

    Get more out of your blog than any other. I bought 'Self-Esteem' on your recommendation and am liking it.

    Tom @tomwgibson
  • Tom, I was just telling my dad about your comment. He says he remembers 110 and 150 baud modems!

    (Scary, huh?)
  • Great presentation Chris - I dig your confidence and attitude.
  • Thanks for sharing this. Lots of good stuff here to think about. Books still rule. OK?
  • If memory serves, in the early 80's there were no modems. I rushed to buy the Timex Sinclair 1000 computer, released in 1982 for $200,weighed a total 12 ounces or so.Peripherals you could buy included the mighty 16K RAM pack, a cassette recorder for data storage, and a thermal printer that looked more like an old adding machine. Never fear. It came with 2K Ram. That's 2K, not KB, guys. It ran the Basic language which was quite kick-ass back then.

    Soon bought the 83rd Tandy 1000 off the line. It had a modem and a new world was ushered in. I did not get a Commodore 64 which was a great machine in its own right. I loved the first Apple that was way more advanced than any other home computer of the day.

    I was a library trustee a few years ago. The Libertarian Party loved me because they like to publicize when one of their own gets an elected position. I, too, hung around libraries since I was about 9 years old.

    Watching your video now. Was this a tough crowd? ;)
  • Wow, I can't believe I listened to all of the videos. Very good info. I specially liked the part about creating a following before you try to publish or pimp the book. I also like the youtube videos instead of post cards for book promotion.
  • Chris,

    Awesome stuff here. It was hard to hear the audience, but I hope they were laughing. I found you very entertaining all 3.5 hours.

    I too changed a habit after 9/11 - I switched to almost exclusive listening to talk radio. I am curious. Why after 9/11 did you switch to almost exclusive non-fiction? Inquiring minds must know.
  • I remember you tossing the Flip Mino in the air as well as the bit on Brightkite. it almost made me want to go out and get an iphone.
  • Chris,

    I really loved these videos! I'm not even into the publishing thing. I do love books however. It kinda seemed like it was a tough crowd though! I was laughing at your jokes as well as writing things down frantically so I wouldn't forget the great ideas. I especially enjoyed you talking about your Comic book seller using Twitter to entice you! HAHA.
    take care,
    Andy Santamaria
    http://connectingmetoyou.com/
  • Thanks for posting your TOC workshop. Nice soup-to-nuts explanation of social media and publishing. I hope the crowd walked away aware of the quality of content that had just been shared with them. I hadn't seen the @garyvee/conan spot - I was cooking dinner and listening/ half-watching your preso - and there they were eating cigars...hilarious! Gary is the perfect example of someone making a buck via socmed being his passionate, dirt-eating self - emphasis on self.

    I'm wondering what the make up of the crowd was? Newbie online publishers? Offline traditionalist wondering what gives?... a mix of online/offline journalists????

    Also, when can you share the joke you decided not to tell during the preso?
  • Interesting and in depth discussion on social media and publishing - all done by a very fun guy - making it a fascinating and entertaining view. Thanks! I liked it and felt it was educational - an awesome way to spend some quality time.

    As always, you reconfirmed that any experience we participate in is not so much about the experience as it is touching another human being - this is your special gift to the world.
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