Examiner.com: Jeff Buick demonstrating leadership in the publishing industry
Leadership is about much more than a boss who gives his employees a great environment to work where they feel developed and valued. Leadership is a word that defines many forms of ‘taking the lead’.
Leadership is finding new ways to accomplish old tasks and reach goals, leadership is about taking risks. This is the day and age where the public hears how the publishing industry needs a re-vamp, few people have actually demonstrated how that re-vamp can be accomplished... until now.
Last
week was abuzz with articles and information about e-Book sales
outpacing traditional books as more and more people are being exposed to
recent data. According to the Association of American Publishers
“...E-book sale s grew 162.8 percent for the month ($29.3 million), year-to-date eBook sales are up 207.4 percent.”
With these stats, it isn’t hard to figure out significant attention is drawn to any product that shows an increase in sales of 207.4 percent. Futurist David Houle writes on August 4th in his blog, ‘A Futurist’s Forcast for e-Books’;
“I predict that the 4th quarter of 2011 will be the first holiday buying season when e-readers will become a significant part of gift giving. There are two primary reasons for this. First the price war for e-readers has begun. The price of the major e-readers is now below $150.
Another technical blog TechCrunch highlights the words of Nicholas Negroponte and his One Laptop Per Child Foundation as saying the physical book is dead. While many people will argue the point, (especially those who love to spend their summer at the beach with a really great hard-copy novel in hand sipping an iced tea), it is hard to dismiss his bold statement.
But e-Books are not enough for Calgary’s local bestselling author, Jeff Buick, he and his management team at EnThrill Entertainment have pulled together much more than another great thriller filled with twists, turns, and surprises. With Jeff’s new novel One Child they have created an experience, one that is about to shake up readers and the publishing community with an interactive journey filled with thrill.
Enter a journey with the characters as living entities, with Facebook and Linkedin Profiles, music specifically written to listen to while reading the story in e-reader form. Visit the websites of companies highlighted in the story, discuss chapters with other readers and listen to the local news from a radio station in New York. Add blogs and newscasts from the journalist on the scene and tie it all together with the story happening in real-time. Each series of chapters, released daily is written for that day, specific to the date you are living in. Know the weather, the connections, the news, the interaction and you have a novel that weaves real life and fiction together into a dramatic experience not yet seen in the publishing industry.
Traditional publishers fear the unknown, expressions of ‘what was’ and the ‘way we have always done it’ fail to provide the leadership needed to take a new risk, to lead where other publishers fear to tread. Those publishers who build strategy on fear of new media and technology, who see it as competition rather than embracing all it has to offer will be held back and wondering why they were left behind.
EnThrill Entertainment has recognized the opportunity which lay before them, they see the benefit of a broad reach, accessible to the reader, offering choice and availability, as much or as little interaction as the reader desires. They have put a picture and a face on the characters and locations like no other novel has.
Readers still have the opportunity to experience the wonderful writing style of Jeff Buick in hard-copy form, but the options for how this experience has been laid out before us are unique and worth paying attention to. And there is one sweet treat, upon registration readers have access to the first nine days of the story absolutely free – not unlike dipping into your local book store and reading the first few chapters to decide if you want to purchase the book.
Leadership is more than being a great boss, leadership involves taking risk and being willing to lead within your industry with a crazy idea that just might work, I’d say Jeff and his team have done just that.
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