—Categories: audio, books, myprojects, podcast

I’m on CBC Radio Ideas: “Opening the Book”

I was asked to contribute to a CBC Radio documentary done for the show Ideas, called: “Opening the Book.” The doc features James Bridle, Bob Stein, Kylie Mirmohamadi, Sue Martin, and me, and was produced by Dave Redel and Sean Prpick.

The book has stayed pretty much the same for over 500 years: a bunch of paper pages between covers. It’s been both finite and easily grasped. But our digitally-connected world is forcing us to re-imagine what books could be.

You can listen to the audio here [mp3], and visit the CBC page here.

—Categories: art, books, myprojects

Japanese Ad for Book: A Futurist’s Manfiesto

Voyager Japan has released Japanese version of our book, Book: a Futurist’s Manifesto. Here is their awesome ad:

Book: A Futurist's Manifesto - Japanese Ad
Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto – Japanese Ad
—Categories: misc

Aaron Swartz, 1986-2013

I posted my remembrance of Arron Swartz over at LibriVox …

—Categories: misc

PressBooks to Go Open Source

Some news from my professional life … we’re going to release PressBooks (our online ebook/printbook/webbook publishing tool) as an open source WordPress plugin:

PressBooks Going Open Source

PressBooks is going open source. We will be releasing PressBooks as a WordPress plugin (to be used on a stand-alone WordPress install), under the open source GPL license, target release date: end of January, 2013.

See below for more info, and some answers to questions you might have. And please get in touch if you’d like to know more.

What is PressBooks?

PressBooks is a simple online book publishing tool, built on WordPress. We help publishers and authors create ebooks, typeset/print-ready PDFs (to be turned into real books!), and webbooks (which can be public or private). For publishers, we can provide not just book production toolset, but also an online catalog and website (for examples, see: The Rogue Reader and AskMen Books). [more…]

—Categories: myprojects

CBC Spark and Contents Magazine – Talking about Books

Some stuff I’ve been doing lately:

Interview with me about books in Contents Magazine:

In the field of book futurism, Hugh McGuire is both maker and commentator. He runs PressBooks, which offers a digital workflow for ebook creation built on top of WordPress, and LibriVox, a massive collection of free, public domain audiobooks. We spoke with him about the book in the present and the very near future. [more…]

And:
More talking about books at CBC Radio: Spark, with Nora Young, specifically books and the internet. I’m batting clean-up, segment starts at 45mins. Listen here.

—Categories: misc

Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto – Available Now!

Book: A Futurist's Manifesto Cover

More than a year ago, I pitched a book idea first to Brian O’Leary (who became the co-editor), and then to Joe Wikert at O’Reilly Media. It was indeed a “book idea” in every sense of the word(s), and I am thrilled to announce that the “final” product is available today.

“Book: A Futurist’s Manfiesto” launches

Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto, is finished, and you can now find in print, ebook, and online … at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and of course at O’Reilly. (Coming soon: iBooks and Kobo and others).

Behind the Book

The “idea” of this book was to explore “the idea of a book.” We wanted to get away from the abstract or philosophical, and make a practical guide for the publishing world — for someone just starting a publishing enterprise today, for people in the business already, and for authors and self-publishers who want to think beyond “upload my book to Kindle.”

See the PressBooks blog for more info…

—Categories: books, buisness, myprojects

PressBooks August News

Some news from PressBooks land:

Happy August to you all. Here are some quick announcements from PressBooks Worldwide Headquarters, including the following:

1. New front page
2. New webbook / readview designs
3. Pricing announced
4. Distribution (to Kindle, Nook, iBooks etc)
5. Import from WordPress
6. Improved CSS
7. Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto Part 3 – unofficial launch

[more …]

—Categories: books, web, writing

The Bluring Lines Between Books and the Internet (TEDx Montreal)

Here is me talking about books & the internet at TEDx Montreal:

—Categories: misc

table

[table id=1 /]

 

—Categories: misc

Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto

I co-edited this book!

Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto

A new book about the future of publishing, built on the PressBooks platform, a new way to make books.

Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto: Essays from the bleeding edge of publishing (buy ebook / read free online), a handbook for publishers of the future, has been released by O’Reilly Media. It was built on the new, simple book production platform, PressBooks.com. Edited by PressBooks founder Hugh McGuire, and long-time publishing thinker and doer, Brian O’Leary, it contains essays from leading practitioners in the trenches of books & technology, including Liza Daly, Craig Mod, and Laura Dawson.

More info

We are pleased to announce the first published book produced using the PressBooks book production platform, suitably titled: “Book: A Furturist’s Manifesto (Part 1) … Essays from the bleeding edge of publishing.” The book is published by O’Reilly Media, and edited by PressBooks founder Hugh McGuire, and long-time publishing thinker and practitioner, Brian O’Leary.

Says the book’s co-editor, Brian O’Leary: “We wanted to bring together resources that would be immediately useful to publishers and future publishers as they make decisions in their everyday life about how to approach the making of books. It’s a kind of handbook you’d want to give someone who is starting a publishing house today.” Adds Hugh McGuire, “We really wanted to get beyond the abstract, and take a look at some things that are happening right now, some real technologies and real projects that are shaping publishing. It’s meant to be practical and applicable right now, as publishers prepare themselves for the digital future.”

This release is Part 1, with Parts 2 and 3 to be available in the coming months (those who buy now will get Parts 2 and 3 for free as they come out). Essays in the book are written by a collection of thought leaders and practitioners on the “bleeding edge of publishing,” including:

* Introduction (Hugh McGuire)

* Context, not Container (Brian O’Leary)

* Distribution Everywhere (Andrew Savikas)

* What We Can Do with Books (Liza Daly)

* What We Talk About When We Talk About Metadata (Laura Dawson)

* Analyzing the Business Case for DRM (Kirk Biglione)

* Tools of the Digital Workflow (Brian O’Leary)

* Designing Books in the Digital Age (Craig Mod)

The entire book production process — authoring, editorial, copyediting, and proofreading, as well as ebook production (and typesetting and print production to follow), took place on PressBooks.com, a new publishing workflow tool, built for anyone publishing books and other long-form structured documents.

Says Joe Wikert, Publisher of O’Reilly Media: “We were really excited about testing out a new, easy-to-use platform for making books. And the subject matter is perfect: We are practicing what we preach, writing about the future of publishing while experimenting with new ways of approaching production and customer interaction.”

* You can buy the book here.

* Or read it online (for free), at book.pressbooks.com.

* You can find out more about PressBooks here.

For more information, please contact Hugh McGuire:
hugh@pressbooks.com
+1.514.464.2047