Ten years ago I co-wrote a book on kitchen design for a mid-size press (Taunton). They just released it as an ‘e-book’. Unfortunately they did not actually do an e-book, they created an enormous PDF file, belying their understanding, from a strategic POV, of what e-books mean. Then they used an ‘other rights’ clause in my pre-Internet contract to set royalties at a rate far below e-book standards. If the book wasn’t outdated I’d be more outraged- instead I can only shake my head at their stupidity and lack of vision. They have an incredible backlist that is perfectly suited to developing interactive books for tablet devices like iPad- home improvement and how-to books that are not outdated.

The point here is that I think that emerging new publishers have an amazing opportunity to out-distance the dinosaurs, if we stay out in front of the technology. Correct xhtml formatting, innovative direct to consumer marketing, flexible pricing, use of digital distribution systems that are highly trusted like Apple/Amazon/B&N, creative application of embedded links, media and interactivity- these things, when combined with vision give even a tiny start-up like ours enough lead time to establish a foothold.

While the dinosaurs fight for turf the tiny mammals take to the trees and start making spears.

Garages are out- we’re either experiencing winter cold (less so lately) or summer heat (hottest year on record this year) and in between it can be 40 one day and 75 the next. A lot of start-ups seem to be done by older white males working in office parks. I work in a company (day job) that is located in an ‘incubator’ space even though we’re far past the start-up stage. This is probably the least inspiring place for a start-up I can imagine: Cubes, bad coffee, a two mile drive to any amenity, sterile environment and a lot of white middle-aged guys with phones on their belts. To be fair, most of the companies in here are hard technology companies: materials, optics, energy, etc. A lot of them seem to be one guy in an office.

Comparing this to the Valley is patently unfair but I really think that our area needs to think differentlty about creating a true start-up environment, one that inspires young entrepreneurs with co-locations that are affordable and filled with other similar companies. My first company was in an old loft building downtown in 2001 and we saw and made friends in the hallways and at the nearby coffee shops and bars. We sent each other business and there was a community feel. Around that same time this ‘official’ incubator opened way out in the suburbs (I can see a tractor plowing from my window) and the start-up scene turned into something depressingly unappealing.

Since I have a virtual start-up (no employees, no office, no equipment, etc.) with 24PageBooks and I work in an established software company, I have been contemplating these two polar opposites. Frankly, I’d rather be in the garage with a fan and a space heater.

Part Two of this is going to deal with raising money Upstate- it’s practically impossible for the same reasons we have incubators in suburban office parks.

This is the core driving value of 24PageBooks: Our time is too valuable to waste with filler.

BTW, if you’re not familiar with HARO, check it out. He is reinventing the PR business. And watch for an upcoming 24 book called Fire Your PR Agency: Required Reading For PR Professionals.

Why don’t they tell us, in a clearly understandable manner, what all these goofily named companies actually do? And why can’t the companies themselves do the same?

I know why.

Most can’t do a good, compelling, simple description because they do something no one wants or cares about except a very few nerds in their niche interest area. And they’re so close to their subject that they can’t pull back and question what they’re doing, why anyone would care or how they can make money from it.

On top of this they pick a name that is impossible to remember or associate with what they do even if a reader thinks it has value. Here’s some random names from today’s stories: Okta, CloudCrowd, Nixty, Zendesk, Involver (I can sort of see this one), Reddit, We7 and on and on. Some of these are successful, some may become successful, most will or have raised a lot of money and most will not exist in a few years or even months.

Can you tell an average person on the street what your start-up does in a way that captures their interest?

No offices.

No tangible product or inventory.

No infrastructure.

No payment system.

No overhead.

Infinitely scalable.

Highly profitable.

Sounds like a fantasy doesn’t it? Well, it is our fantasy. You’ll note that it doesn’t say No Work. There is work but it is work for the founders and it can be done anywhere. The goods are virtual but the money is real. All of the infrastructure is handled by others for a share of the revenue.

No investment (besides the work of the founders).

This kind of business was unimaginable only a few years ago. Now there are many small and growing businesses that do this. Like App developers. Writers. Game developers for mobile. Drop ship marketers. And publishers…

In the olden days of yore (pre 2007), a small publisher with an unexpected hit title had a problem: too many orders and not enough resources to fill them. This problem has disappeared with digital goods.

One more (almost) No:

No carbon footprint. The (almost) is the energy needed to build and operate the tools we use to create our business and our products. This is going down as technology develops. One more:

No dead trees.

Have a great Fourth!

I don’t think so. Once you hire someone to hold the reins and keep everyone on mission you have just turned your passion into a job. Why would any self-respecting entrepreneur want to do that?

I’ve been musing about this since I took my current job,musing about the differences between ‘real’ jobs and unconventional jobs like freelancing or consulting. I am fortunate to be a creative, that is I write and make things. There is almost no reason to treat creatives, salespeople or other self-directed employees like traditional workers, parking us in a cube and keeping us there for 40 hours a week. It is not the best way to utilize this kind of worker. Instead of hours worked the operative metric should be jobs done well. Companies like Best Buy, at its corporate headquarters, have started down this route with there being almost no required hours, policies, etc. You simply do your job well and keep others aware of what you’re doing while keeping up with what they are doing. This helps turn a conventional job into a ‘passion job’. Their experience has been that there was no loss in productivity even though many employees only come into the office for the occasional meeting. And meetings are far more efficient.

Obviously this doesn’t work for jobs that are tied to a location like retail workers, construction, etc.. But many of those jobs are entry level or skilled labor and working remotely will increasingly be a perk of moving up the ladder.

This is all driven by the ability to communicate with anyone from any place and the ability to access information from anywhere.

I think the move from jobs, to passion jobs to passions is a major spark for innovation. The smartest, most competent and creative people are the ones who thrive in an unstructured situation and those are the kind of people who turn ideas into passions. That’s a pretty good description of innovation.

That being said I do have a beef with the iPad, one that is keeping me from the inevitable acquisition: Google Apps does not work on iPad. Given that I am a writer who hopes to use iPad as a productivity tool while on the road, my hopes were with Google Apps. I envisioned writing in the cloud and having instant access when I returned to my desk. I’m guessing (hoping) this will change. It is a web application after all.

Apple will unveil an entirely new electronic book format next week and will provide the development tools free of charge to any publisher. Called iBooks, the software enables publishers to create interactive titles incorporating video, audio, color images and more. Books created in the format will be published exclusively via the iMedia Store which incorporates the application formerly known as iTunes. Viewable on iPhone, iPod Touch and iTab, the books will be stored in the cloud, meaning you can store an unlimited amount of reading and access it via any computer or device that is iMedia compatible including iPhone OS, OS X and Windows.

Existing book files can be converted by simply dragging and dropping content into frames in the software, then resizing and relocating the frames to fit the page style. Frames can be customized for various forms of content. Apple estimates that a book designer can port a typical illustrated book into the format in a few hours, hit Publish and have the book available on iMedia instantly. Details of pricing and revenue share were not available.

(You heard it here first folks…)

Fast forward a few weeks to yesterday. I’m writing at full bore as my research is consolidating into a well-organized flow. I’m so into it I go 20 minutes without hitting the Save icon. You know what’s next. Abrupt crash, lost it all. Freakout.

So now I have a nervous twitch with both the cloud apps and the desktop apps. After 20 years of word processor development can’t we build-in safeguards against ever losing work? Photoshop saves multiple versions of huge files. Word can’t do the same? And Google…you guys need to get your act together if you want IT people to endorse your free cloud apps. They must be rock solid and save to multiple places for redundancy.

The Word crash, while unforgivable, is partially human error on my part- I should have been religiously hitting Save. However. sometimes in the heat of writing you don’t take a break for housekeeping. And don’t even mention Auto Save. That is a whole ‘nother source of pain…

Last night I went to our local social media club get-together. We had a good turnout and there were no gurus there. A few job seekers, the CMO and Brand Communications Directors for a major consumer brand company, some consultants (lots of those around these days) and various PR and marketing people. No pontificating, just real conversations about how people are actually using social media. It was refreshing after sifting through all the tweets and blog posts out there by the ‘experts’.

I’m going to state something unequivocally: You are not a social media expert unless you have done social media marketing for actual clients or brands with measurable results that go back at least a year. By measurable results I mean actual sales, turnaround of negative opinion, growth of markets, successful product launches that can be attributed to the use of social media communications, etc. I want to see the numbers in case study format.

If your company is hiring a social media marketing person, this should be your only criteria. Appearing at conferences, blogging of opinions without actual experience, having thousands of followers- these are not indicators of value for your company. They are indicators of someone whose primary interest is their own status as an ‘expert’.