Interview With Shindig CEO Steve Gottlieb

Could Be Next New Thing For Publishing

What exactly is shindig? Shindig is a platform for large scale online events. On Shindig, an author can appear before an audience of hundreds or more. They can give a talk, be interviewed or share multimedia. They can share the stage to let audience members ask questions face to face. Meanwhile, audience members can video chat privately amongst themselves.

How did you come to develop this service? I watched my young children making friends online with people they would never really know and wondered if the Internet would ever enable real meaningful interaction between adults other than asynchronous semi anonymous text.

Where do you see book publishing heading? Publishers will need to find new ways to engage readers on behalf of their authors or see their traditional roles increasingly encroached upon by those willing to do so like Amazon, Goodreads, and others.

How is technology playing a role in how books are marketed? Online sales and distribution is different from online marketing. It is more than a website, a Facebook page or an email blast.  It seems that the industry leaves authors very much on their own to build their own online presence. There is certainly a big opportunity for one of the publishers to step out and show greater leadership in this area.

Will people spend more time socializing online talking about books rather than reading books? Discussing books has always been a key component of people’s enjoyment. It’s only natural that technologies that further enable that discussion are embraced. Failure to respond to people's increasing  expectation to have these discussions online is only to limit books’ cultural impact and audience.

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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This blog is copyrighted material by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2013