The next few days I'll be blogging from the ruckus known as Book Expo America, or BEA. Yesterday I spend the day at APAC, the Audio Publishers Association Conference. And tonight is a gala for the Audies, the audio publishing awards. ChristianAudio is up for an Audie in the spirituality category thanks to the wonderful book by Dallas Willard, The Great Omission, read by the incredibly talented Grover Gardner. Looking over the rest of the field, I suspect we are a long shot. But if anyone can pull this off, it's Grover.
Technology continues to be the topic of the day. According to the consensus at APAC, everyone in the audiobook industry is tired of talking about DRM. There was some hints from a reliable source that we might "see more DRM-free services" in the near future. Looking forward to it. Also there was a tiny bit of Google bashing about their books project. Too much talk about and fear of technology.
Why Technology Is Good for Business 101
Technology turns into a really good thing for any industry when people stop talking about it or fearing it. As soon as technology gets into the background, things really start happening. As soon as technology is less a topic at APAC and BEA than discussions about capitalizing on technology, then the publishing industry will be forging some really interesting new ground. I should not talk in such sweeping generalities. There are plenty of people in publishing that are less worried about what technology is doing, and more concerned about what they will do with technology. But the atmosphere right now is one of technological concern. Here's a not so revolutionary prediction - the attitude of suspicion about technology in the publishing industry will go away in the next 1-2 years.
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