I have to confess I have fallen in love.
She is beautiful, has curves in all the right places and we do almost everything together.
We hang out at coffee shops, travel to mystical foreign lands, watch movies together, laugh over funny photos and share ideas about a whole range of topics.
She is happy to just hang around in the office or at home while I have meetings or go cycling for hours and she never complains…not once.
She is the perfect partner and her name is iPad 3.
The Rise of the “App”
As you know the age of mobile has seen the rise of the “app” and I have been downloading apps onto my iPad like a man drinks water after crossing a desert.
I have many apps on my phone and iPad but the one app that I have been spending a lot of time with is the Kindle “app”.
I have also discovered that I am an impulse buyer and with Amazon’s one click purchase, book titles are flying off the shelf and into my virtual library.
Who can’t resist books for less than $10 that are delivered in less than 30 seconds and no matter where you are in the world.
The Age of Social Reading
I discovered social media when I first joined Facebook. In 2012 I have stumbled onto social reading.
What is social reading?
I am in the middle of reading the book “On Writing” by Stephen King and in it he reveals his early years, his passion for writing and lessons on what makes for a good writer.
It is full of inspiration and insights and I do like to share them if someone is around but often I am reading in solitude….but I can share it.
I highlight the phrase I want to share with a simple finger touch.
Then I can send it to Twitter or Facebook with a description if I believe it needs one. It provides a sharing feature that provides me with a range of benefits.
This is Social Reading
How does it look once I have shared it?
Here is how it looks on my Facebook timeline. It has a description, a link to the highlighted quote and a link to the page you can buy it from.
The benefits are not only in the sharing but it places it directly into your Facebook “timeline” that you can refer to later and for your friends and family to see.
It also puts a link to the book in the Amazon store that makes it easy for others to buy with a few clicks from the Facebook page.
Now if you are an author this is rather exciting as this optimizes your “visibility” and that is a good thing. If you have a tribe of followers on Facebook and Twitter then you have a network that will buy and read your book.
The Democratisation of Publishing
On Amazon it is becoming increasingly easy to create an eBook and upload it.
We are seeing the evolution of the democratisation of publishing that sits next to the publishing tools and social media networks to market your content whether that is an ebook or an online course.
This quiet but relentless revolution sits comfortably alongside the changes that are happening in the music industry.
Content is becoming increasingly digital and disruption is the norm.
The question is to be asked.. do you need a traditional publisher?
I can now see the future of books and the age of the mass market printed book is passing.
It won’t happen tomorrow or next year but it will happen. I don’t know if I like it, but it does seem inevitable.
What About You?
Do you think printed books will disappear? Do you use your iPad for reading?
What is the potential for authors on a social web?
Will traditional publishers become extinct?
Look forward to hearing your opinions and comments.