Janet Spavlik

Professionals from all walks of the media industry—book and magazine publishers, analysts, tech company representatives—gathered in Tribeca in New York City for the inaugural mediaIDEAS Cabaret Meetup. Held this past Tuesday evening at the Macao Trading Co., the free event—sponsored by media research company mediaIDEAS and media partners Book Business and Publishing Executive magazines—brought together approximately 168 individuals who networked and discussed the present and future of the publishing industry.

Hello, my name is Janet. And I am addicted to Twitter contests.

I swear I haven't always been this way. Sure, I'd entered a contest here and there if the prize was particularly enticing (I really wanted that all-expenses-paid trip to the Super Bowl that one year), but I always was the stereotypical “I never win anything” type. I equated entry forms with lost causes, and therefore, generally avoided them. Why waste my time?

DailyLit, the online service that sends readers book excerpts daily via email and RSS feed, announced this week that the service is now 100-percent free. "Starting now, any book, story or series featured on DailyLit is being made available for free," CEO Susan Danziger blogged on the DailyLit Web site.

At a time when consumers expect an instantaneous flow of information, and technological advances have facilitated expedited workflows, more and more book publishers are choosing to “crash” books—that is, produce a book from manuscript to final product on an abbreviated schedule, sometimes in just a matter of weeks. Yes, weeks. Many times, a crashed book is tied into a headline-grabbing event—think Michael Jackson’s untimely death, or Sarah Palin’s vice presidential nomination—where capitalizing on the momentum of that event in the public consciousness is critical to the title’s success.

At a New York City press gathering similar to one held just three months ago when the Kindle 2 was unveiled, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos once again addressed a crowded auditorium Wednesday morning to talk about his “Kindle vision”—to have every book ever written, in any language, all available in less than 60 seconds. Perhaps taking another step forward in achieving his ultimate goal, Bezos introduced the Kindle DX, which, at 9.7 inches, boasts a display screen that is two-and-a-half times the size of its slightly older sibling, the Kindle 2.

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