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Current Reading Interests
I’m finishing up Richard Florida’s The Great Reset: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity, and it’s the first book I’ve read on my iPad using iBook. I think I’m getting into reading the electronic versions of books. Love the way iBook remembers where you left off, along with all your personal highlighting (with different colors!). I downloaded Kindle and bought a different book to experience their reader. Anyway, I’ve always appreciated the insights Richard Florida continues to bring forward around the idea of a new creative class emerging in this economy. His latest book provided more about this concept from a historical perspective and a quick look forward on what may occur soon.
Just ordered The New Polymath: Profiles in Compound-Technology Innovations by Vinnie Mirchandani, and it should arrive tomorrow.
I called the local Barnes & Noble and they said it was not available locally. Go figure. Another last sale. Said they could order it for me, and I said, well, no thanks, I can do it and it will be delivered to my doorstep. The other odd thing was The New Polymath is not available in an electronic version. That seems so strange considering the book is about things like cloud computing and new services becoming available online. But no electronic version is available on the Kindle or the iBook. I guess it’s just something the publisher is in control of, and they want to sell all the paper versions first. Who’s to know.
Regardless I’m looking forward to reading the book. Many of the topics discussed include technologies and new styles of innovation that I’ve been hearing about in the interviews I do at www.EnterpriseLeadership.org and the BMC Podcast show.
Tom
Thanks, as an author it is heartening – and bothersome – the effort you had to go through to get the book. First off, the Kindle version came out last Thursday. The iPad,ibookstore version will be available in a few days. Like you I would have thought the ebook versions would have come out before the hardback. Or that amazon and B&N.com would have allowed preorders of the digital version especially for a tech focused book.
As far as B&N not having it locally. the reality is less than 5% of books like mine get bought in a retail stores – and those in tech heavy markets like Silicon Valley. 80% of biz books like mine are bought in bulk by case studies in the book (as you will see many profiles of innovators) and for speaking engagements. They order in chunks of 10, 50, 200. Then come e-outlets like amazon which make up likely 15% of the volume (and over time more of the total volume).
That has been a revelation to me through this process. While we all want the social customer to become more prominent, the traditional channels are actually still dominant. Worse, they don’t get reflected in amazon rankings. of course, my publisher loves the revenue from the traditional channels – social customer, who’s that?
and once you finish reading the book, please take part in the book’s “wow” candidate contest
http://florence20.typepad.com/renaissance/2010/06/the-new-polymath-wow-candidate-contest.html
you could win more books from the Wiley catalog- and maybe we can convince them to deliver them in ebook format
hopefully yon can nominate an E2.0 savvy person or company like Avon or Starbucks in the book…thanks
Thank you Vinnie for taking the time to personally respond to my blog post. It’s rather delightful to have an author respond and It’s good to see you walk the talk with regards to the technology. I realize B&N and other retail only sell 5% of books like yours but I think I was ‘hopeful’ that in Boulder I’d find a copy quick. I just had a hankering to get started on your book. I am real curious about the internal process for Kindle and iPad. Sounds like it’s frustrating for you as an author in many ways. You’ve been me a lot of new insights too from your comments. Yea … I suspected publishers are still pretty focused on traditional channels. Oh well … hey we’re both just part of this large transition going on right now for the new economy. I think it’s always been like that for me since I was involved with an AI spinoff out of MIT in the 80′s.
Vinnie would you be interested in having me do a video interview of you for http://www.EnterpriseLeadership.org about your book and related topics? I would be honored.
Will do!