What is the Future of “Social Bookselling”?

In Discussion by Edward Nawotka

Do you only buy the books your friends suggest? Perhaps not. By Edward Nawotka It has long been a maxim in book marketing that “word-of-mouth” is the best. The same can be said for “handselling” in bookstores. So what happens when both move online? Book oriented social networking, nee bookselling, sites are proliferating. Copia and Bookish, in the US, and …

What are the Best International Social Reading and Criticism Sites?

In Discussion by Edward Nawotka

By Edward Nawotka Today’s lead article discusses the launch of Sens Critique, a new social bookmarking, criticism and reading site. In the the United States we have Goodreads, Shelfari, LibraryThing and other similar sites. Do you have something similar where you live that you recommend to book lovers? What does the ideal social reading site look to you and why? Let …

Could Social Media Replace Some Books?

In Discussion by Edward Nawotka

By Edward Nawotka In today’s thoughtful editorial by Franz Wisner, he argues that the immediate, fragmentary nature of most writing on the Internet and social media needs to be complemented by full-length narrative — one constructed over time and after much reflection and deliberation. Do you think this is true? Could social media ultimately replace some books? (Newspapers, magazines? That’s …

How Neal Stephenson’s The Mongoliad is Revolutionizing Immersive Online Storytelling

In English Language by Guest Contributor

By Michael Bhaskar People constantly talk about social reading as the next business model for publishing. Well, it’s here, it’s The Mongoliad. In the febrile, occasionally paranoid, always news hungry world of digital publishing, it seems strange that something so important should have slipped by so unnoticed, yet The Mongoliad seems to have been largely overlooked by the publishing Establishment. …