What's the Buzz: SXSW Wants You...to Vote on Possible Publishing Panels

By Hannah Johnson

The best of the blogosphere and social media…

Well, it looks like publishers are having another go at next year’s South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas next year. The festival is currently accepting panel suggestions for the Interactive conference, and the good news is that a number of panels have been suggested by people in the book industry. You can find a good list of those panels, from Richard Nash and Kassia Krozser, or browse the list on your own. Plus, you can vote on your favorites. Let’s hope the book publishing panels in 2010 go better than this year…

Floating around a couple of blogs (here and here) is the news that Sony is bringing a Digital Reader for comic books to its handheld gaming device, the PSP (Play Station Portable). Sony has partnered with several comic book publishers, including Marvel, to bring content to its gamer/comic-reading audience. Engadget serves up the original press release and a video about the new Digital Reader. Right now, there are no specific plans to bring books in the open epub format to the PSP, but publishers should keep their eyes on this, especially considering just how many kids you see glued to their PSPs…on NYC subways, in restaurants, pretty much anywhere.

Lastly, I heard about this free, new tool that converts PDFs into Word documents. How many times have you all wanted to do this?

About the Author

Hannah Johnson

Hannah Johnson is the publisher of international book industry magazine Publishing Perspectives, which provides daily information and news about book markets around the world. In addition to building partnerships with international cultural and trade organizations, she works with the Frankfurt Book Fair to organize and support a number of its overseas initiatives. Hannah has also worked as the managing editor for an online media company, The Hooch Life, focused on craft distillers and cocktail experts. Prior to that, she worked as a project manager for the Frankfurt Book Fair’s New York office, managing various business and marketing activities.