The BookSmarts Podcast, with Joshua Tallent

Joshua Tallent

Get smarter about your books! The BookSmarts podcast features discussions about the publishing industry and interviews with industry experts, deep thinkers, and doers, bringing you insights that will help you sell more books. Joshua Tallent is an acclaimed teacher and guide on the role of data in publishing, and a vocal advocate for high quality book metadata. In his spare time, Joshua enjoys playing complex board games, playing Minecraft, and fiddling with his 3D printer. read less
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Episodes

Episode 39: Kathi Inman Berens, Ph.D. & Rachel Noorda, Ph.D. on Gen Z and Millennial Survey
Jan 29 2024
Episode 39: Kathi Inman Berens, Ph.D. & Rachel Noorda, Ph.D. on Gen Z and Millennial Survey
According to a report released by the American Library Association, Gen Z and Millennials are visiting public libraries at higher rates than previous generations, and also prefer print books over other formats. Dr. Kathi Inman Berens and Dr. Rachel Noorda from Portland State University authored this annual survey to capture how these younger generations read and discover books. They joined the BookSmarts Podcast to discuss their findings in detail and talk about what some of the results mean for book publishers.  The survey is titled: Gen Z and Millennials: How They Use Public Libraries and Identify Through Media Use. Results from the survey include (but are not limited to):  How Gen Z and millennials prefer to discover books (i.e. recommendations from friends/talent/influencers, streaming media adaptations from books, etc.)Percentage of Gen Z and millennials that identify as readers, gamers, fans, and writers. How book advertising impacts Gen Z and millennialsChallenges that libraries and publishers face when it comes to these generationsRecommendations on how to reach and connect with Gen Z and millennial Dr. Kathi Inman Berens is a U.S. Fulbright Scholar of digital culture, former Annenberg Innovation Lab Fellow, prize-winning author, and Associate Professor of Book Publishing and Digital Humanities at Portland State University. Dr. Rachel Noorda is Director --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booksmarts/message
Episode 32: Thad McIlroy on Publishing Startups
Jan 10 2023
Episode 32: Thad McIlroy on Publishing Startups
Thad McIlroy, an electronic publishing analyst and author who writes about publishing technology at his site, The Future of Publishing, joins me to talk about publishing startups.  Thad has been working for many years on a database that provides interesting details on these companies, and the list has now been published by Publishers Weekly. Thad describes how he got started with the list, and how he defines what a startup is for the purposes of the list. The list includes key information about each startup, including a mission statement or description about what the startup does, and a description of how successful they have been. The list provides publicly available details on investments into these companies, as well as information about whether they have exited via acquisition, merger, etc. The list now includes about 1300 startups, around 10% of which have exited, and at least 37% have shut down. There a many vulnerabilities a new startup encounters, but one of the biggest is being "a solution in search of a problem." Thad says that the real metric for success is being able to innovate and having a clear definition of the problem the company is offering a solution for. Market research and solid marketing is key to the success of any startup endeavor. We also talked about trends in the startups that have started in the last few years, the lack of innovation in startups focused on helping publishers, and the potential opportunities available to publishers who are looking to innovate. Thad's article at Publishers Weekly provides a great overview of the startup database, and a link to the list itself. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/booksmarts/message