Ebook strategy article for TheMediaBriefing

I’ve written a piece this week for TheMediaBriefing site about ebooks - “Why your news brand should take part in the ebook publishing revolution”

On Twitter Peter Kirwan summed it up as “Mini e-books = 7” singles & DIY tablet publishing = the new rock ‘n’ roll”

My point is that the new shortform ebook suddenly breathes new life into types of content that you might never have considered compiling into book form at all.

At the Guardian we’ve developed a series called Guardian Shorts - ebooks that are between 20,000 and 55,000 words long. They bring together previously published content from the Guardian and Observer, and turn them into a curated collection that can be consumed over a couple of commutes. There are over fifteen titles in the series now, which launched with an ebook about Phone Hacking back in August. I’ve edited two of the titles, “Who’s Who? The Resurrection of the Doctor” about my beloved Doctor Who, and “Facebook: The rise and rise of a social media giant”. I am currently working on a third title.

Of the other titles available, I’d particularly recommend Richard Nelsson’s “Jazz: From New Orleans to the new generation”. It is a fascinating insight into the coverage of the genre by the media during the 20th century - a style of music described in a 1927 article by former prime minister David Lloyd George as savage and animalistic, and dismissed in the 1910s by the Observer as essentially a bunch of n-words making noise.

You can read the full article - “Why your news brand should take part in the ebook publishing revolution” - on TheMediaBriefing site.