TOC-BEAT! (theBookishDilettante: The TOC Issue!)
Tuesday, February 17, 2009 at 5:44PM 
photos mostly courtesy of Duncan Davidson - who doth rock!
"Today's unwieldy conglomerates, motivated only by profit rather than the work itself and the joy of publishing and distributing books, will deconstruct or vanish." -- Jason Epstein, the man behind Anchor paperbacks, The New York Review of Books, and now the Espresso Book Machine.
So, all last week, I was all at TOC and stuff. And, it totally rocked! It was the best. Like a billion really cool kids from Twitter were there. And we like, hung out and stuff. And, like all kinds of stuff happened. I guess I could tell you about it, but how about I just let all the really cool kids from Twitter describe it in like, the standard 140 characters or less (except for Kathy Ishizuka and maybe Mike Hyatt since they are total rule-breaking hipsters, and stuff):
@mikecane: #TOC pissed off Mike Cane and made Cory Doctorow tweet a lot. The End.
@ljndawson: intensive!!!
@indieauthor: At TOC I learned indie authors are already doing the right things: community building and exploring alternative content models.
@debbiestier: One Sentence: Tribal, curation, DRM-Free, customizable, mobile, inspiring, Twittery, disclosive, self-perpetuating community. Invent it.
@glecharles: TOC: Great ideas; some old, some new. Underlying theme: no one has a clue.
@mdash: TOC = a master class in the details of digital, with a measure of inspiration and a smattering of awesome.
@michaelhyatt: I was sorry I didn’t have my senior people at the TOC conference. I was especially surprised that more heads of publishing houses didn’t attend. The book publishing industry is on a collision course with the future. The only way to be prepared for what coming is to engage it—now! TOC provides that opportunity.
@Stanza_Reader: TOC had an amazing energy that pervaded everything from the sessions, exhibit hall, hallway conversations, and the late night events.
@drmabuse: I think it was the concept of God presented as a benign magician and a marketing executive that did it for me.
@julietrelstad: XML=Gutenberg, eBooks arrived (but I'll wait to buy a reader), reading = community, Twitter is in
@kishizuka: TOC was invigorating. The stimulating discussion, also coming in the midst of the Kindle announcement and the latest round of publishing layoffs, this time at Harper, seemed to heighten the "transitional" tenor of these times. The overarching theme of experiencing the book in community only reinforced my own impressions of where things are going, but the necessary business model remains to be defined. While I have heard the new media folk like Jarvis before, I was glad to share their perspective with our staff and readers, most of whom get a notion of the book world primarily from mainstream, traditional publishers.
Maybe due in part to the lateness of the day, I don't know, but I found myself moved to tears by Jason Epstein's speech. His is a uniquely long view of publishing, given his remarkable career - it was also interesting to see that he's still very much in the game and looking ahead to what's next.
@chrisbrogan: It's the event for passionate people to learn what's next so they may struggle with how to turn the ship in that direction.
@booksquare: You can worry about the future of publishing or you can participate in the future of publishing. ToC is for the participants.
@sarahw: TOC brought home the powerful disconnect between those who design/create e-readers and those who read them, aka the consumer.
@jtallent: TOC was informative and engaging, with well-crafted sessions, but also somewhat frustrating with iPhone-centric and ePub-only mindsets.
@frontmatter: I would have slain a unicorn to go to TOC, but unicorns are scarce, and my employer wouldn't pay for it--but I did enjoy the afterparties.
@liza: Lots of convergence on big issues like DRM, reader engagement and the
viability of digital publishing, which hopefully will translate into
real innovation.
@markcoker: The move from p- to e- fundamentally changes the nature of the book, what makes a book, & how we share, write, sell and experience the book
And, I have more to say -- but what I have to say isn't so much about what happened at TOC, as what didn't happen at TOC. So, I'll leave you all to just delight in this fabulous mock-up TOC-BEAT magazine cover (courtesy @sitruc) and I'll be back (relatively) shortly with more serious matters.
~ Kat
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Reader Comments (9)
That is a BEAUTIFUL cover design! Can I get a print subscription to TOC Beat? I want to FONDLE THE GLOSS!
My fav Tweet: "@glecharles TOC: Great ideas; some old, some new. Underlying theme: no one has a clue."
It's oh so fun to speculate, though.
Oh, I <3 Neelan and Tim and Liza and....more, more, more. Can we have a pinup in the next issue?
omg
That's awesome Kat! Totally dig it. :)
very interesting.. I also listen to audiobooks, when I get to my pc will lookup onaudible.com. your page is very good, had no problem reading on my moto q smartphone :o)
This is now up on my office wall. Brilliant!
What Liza said! Like, totally looking forward to totally way awesome the "serious stuff" too!
You know you could probably make a living making insider tabloid covers! I think TOC this year summed up a lot about what we heard the future was going to be 10 years ago. Now it's almost here if we can get on board.
Aww, shucks! So happy everyone seems to have liked this post (kudos to my better half, @sitruc), and may I say we very much appreciate Duncan's generosity w/ his gorgeous pix! TOC was not only a blast, but a beacon of hope in the stormy seas of today's book world. I DO have more serious comments to make -- more or less echoes of what we've all already been talking about, but the most important thing to come from TOC is the conversation. Let's hope it continues and spurs some action. Tools don't create change, people do (someone at TOC said that!)