Category: Blogging

Is Blogging Dead (To You)?

I’m beginning to think it is for me.

I know, just because I’m doing less of something doesn’t mean it’s dead. Not in the least. There are tens of thousands of blogs which are updated regularly and read by gobs of people. I’ve just been wondering about how much traditional blogging has been hit by services like Twitter and social media like Facebook? A couple of years ago, the term “micro-blogging” became a part of the online vernacular but is that really something most people are conscientiously doing when they tweet or update their status? And how many of those people would have started a blog if it weren’t for Pownce, FriendFeed, and the myriad of other sites that exist today.

As is evidenced by this blog, I’m definitely doing more of the “status updating” these days.

How about you? If you’re like me and you started a blog four or more years ago and now you tweet and do Facebook, does your blog still “do it for you” like it use to?

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Bloggers, Blogging, Social Media, Technology, Twitter, Facebook

Blogging Primer

I listened this afternoon to Joe Wikert, VP and Executive Publisher in the Professional/Trade division at Wiley. Joe talked about blogging and the value of publishers getting into the habit. It was a good talk. For those of us who already have blogs there wasn’t a lot that was new, but for the bulk of the audience, I’m sure the info he passed along was the first they’ve ever heard on the subject. Wikert through around words like ‘feeds’ and ‘RSS’ with ease, and I’m wondering how many people actually new what he was talking about. That’s the problem with people like us who live in the blogosphere – we think everyone knows what these things are.

I presented today on digital rights and the issues publishers face. I had a lot of information for the time allowed. And then the audience mixed in questions during the talk, and before I knew it, my time was up. Problem is, the subject itself can easily take up an entire two day seminar. Hopefully, my audience heard something they could take away and use.

Who Am I and What Am I Doing Here?

Welcome to Original Expression, a blog about the book publishing industry, ePublishing, and my 14 years of experience in each. As time goes on the format here will evolve. At the onset I expect to write about topics like copyright licensing, book sales and marketing, publishing models, industry transitions, etc. So, that’s where we’ll start, but expect diversions from time to time.

My name is Bill Nienhuis and (as stated previously), I’ve been working with book publishers for over 14 years. I’ve spent a great deal of time licensing content from them to place inside electronic products made by the company I work for. More than this though, I’ve helped publishers make technology decisions. This is no simple feat. I’ll get into that more as time goes on.

I’m going to have an open comments policy on this blog, for now. I ran another quite popular blog for the last 2 years and I know how comment sections can get out of hand quickly. I’m not to worried about this here though. If they work out, then great. If not, poof – they’ll go away.

I hope you’ll like what you read here and want to come back often.