Kate was invited to speak at the Book Industry Study Group 2010 (BISG10) conference in New York about what a publisher is for in these digital days. It was a daunting prospect, as the audience was full of people who knew their HTML5 from their elbows and were able to chat about metadata over breakfast.
But it was alright on the night, and there were some nice comments on Twitter (#bisg10), of which Kate’s favourite was Brett Sandusky’s, “Right now: @nosycrow. Very interesting. And funny. Which is odd because she’s, you know, British.”
At a conference like BISG10, you are very aware that you are part of an industry that is in a profound state of change – change that’s both exciting and scary as it’s full of opportunities as well as threats.
It made Kate pleased not to be part of a big publishing machine, though, that was trying to change an existing business model: there’s a real freedom in being a start-up and being able to decide what to focus on and where to spend your time and money.
On Saturday, she went to the High Line, the really lovely park that opened last year on a disused elevated section of railway track, where she met a woman called Joy, relaxing with her Kindle (pictured) – a really nice emblem of the kind of digital change that the BISG10 conference was all about.
