Beyond Hardcovers & Paperbacks - Is Evolution Necessary? (All In! Young Writers Media Festival 2012)

With the opening of skoob, Singapore's 1st local eBook Store in November 2010, I, a self-professed book (print, digital and all) lover myself, have achieved my life-long ambition in opening a book store and entering the books business.  Awesome tick mark there!

It's also has been an honour for me to have been invited by the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS) for the 18 Feb opening keynote address for the All In! Young Writers Media Festival 2012, entitled "Beyond Hardcovers and Paperbacks - Is Evolution Necessary?" This event acts as a platform for young writers in Singapore from the ages of 16 (Secondary 4) to 25 (Junior College, ITE, Polytechnic, Tertiary institution), who are interested in writing and publishing (print, digital).

In my previous posts on the market trends on eBooks and digital publishing, I had started to put together about a number of related topics leading to my presentation:

• Consumer are buying time - time is a premium in today's time-starved marketplace
• How content consumption is going mobile - media consumption is changing as your mobile is near and personal
• 1-2-3 to the eBook market - where I introduced the eBooks growth trends, multi-screen consumption, opportunities as ancillary channels
• Why the Rise of eBooks (and opportunities to expand ancillary channels)? - where I discussed the promising market growth in eBook market regionally and in Singapore
• Introducing skoob, Singapore's 1st hyperlocal eBookstore - the launch of skoob
• Poll: Changing Reading Habits? - changing reading habits of American readers in today's e-reader age

Given the adoption of ebooks growing fast globally, the market landscape for content consumption has been transforming over the last couple of years with the advent of a myraid of mobile devices beyond the laptops and feature phones. In fact with today's "touch generation" and the increasing number of available options to access digital content (e.g. eBooks), today's on-the-go consumers are starting to go beyond printed books and consuming books via multiple screens and devices. As such, we start to see today's authors and content publishers starting to recognise the opportunities availed via mobile devices as ancillary channels to their target consumer segments - be where your audience will be.

(Extended version) Beyond hardcovers & paperbacks is evolution necessary? 1st Day Keynote at the All In! Young Writers Media Event 18 FEB 2012

View more PowerPoint from Nelson Wee

The 2 day event showcased a very engaging agenda, which included interesting topics from audience management with social media engagement to your content, new media creative writing experiences and techniques, to the final day closing panel around "Fate of the book stores - are death bells ringing for the brick and mortar book retailers".

I look forward to hear your comments on the eBook and e-reading market phenomena.


Talk soon,
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee